"He would always be stuffing his face at the world meetings," mother would say while washing the dishes. "Hamburgers. You couldn't look at another hamburger after seeing how many he stuffed down his throat."

She would stop and laugh at this. "Do you know how bright his face would light up at the golden arches?'

I would roll my eyes. "Let me guess… like salvation was packaged between fluffy buns of delight."

"Yes. Yes. His face lit up like New York City whenever somebody arrived with fast food." She would pause here, letting it sink in. "But he never could get another representative to get it, and the meetings lasted too long. That is where I came in."

I would laugh, swiping another dish. It always came to this.

"It was part of my assistant job at the UN; I went to the McDonalds two blocks down and ordered as many burgers as the money they gave me allowed. Do you know how many bags I had to carry? They had a special bag size just for him"

Here she would place the plate she had been working on the table for me to pick up. She would look up before returning to work on the plates.

"When I finally arrived at the room, everyone complained. One man screamed the loudest. He had eyebrows the size of Texas and a scowl even larger. When the two bickered, and oh how they bickered, you could hear his thick British accent."

I would cut in here. "What would dad say about all this… boy talk? Wouldn't he, I mean, get a little jealous?"

I would nudge her and smile while she cricked her head to the side, running the sink water over a particularly sticky piece of food. "You know I met your father at the UN. He wouldn't mind me telling you about these people."

"Sure," I would always reply. Mom would always catch on.

"He knew those people. He could tell you these stories himself if he wasn't, how did they put it? Disassembled." She would slam the water off or hit the plate against the table just softly enough so it wouldn't break. Afterwards, she would stare out the window with a hand against the counter. "Listen, Elizabeth. Your father and those men held important jobs. I don't know what, but you could just tell."

After a moment of silence, I would ask a question. "Did you ever ask? About the jobs, I mean."

"There was a time when I thought they weren't even human. I could have sworn your father kept up with my car that time. I had just accused him of being the UN of all things, and I was trying to make my getaway."

"Mom, what is this Twilight? And what do you mean the UN?" I would be, am, confused by this. It never quite fit.

"What do mean twilight? I ran errands for him too, and I guess I was infected by their immaturity."

"Wait. Wait. Immaturity?" I would have stopped drying the dishes by now and started gesturing wildly through the air. "I thought they were representatives, delegates chosen to represent their country. I mean, what you describe isn't the height of politeness, but come on, mom. And that hasn't even cleared up the UN part of it."

Mom would wait, but all the while she built up a glare. At the end of my rant she would slowly respond, "Calm down, Lizzie. That part got me too. That, and they seemed so young.

"Now, for the UN portion. I simply thought at the time they were embodiments of the countries or groups."

By then forever would have passed and all I could get out would be a stifled oh. I would finish up the dish in silence, trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then, when I would leave, she would add in a final clarification, "I also believed in magic then."

~Author's Note~

This is a short dialouge I wrote while watching The Joy Luck Club movie in English class. I hope you liked it.