Glen was excited for Allison. Now she was even having rehearsals with Ned Ashton and his back-up musicians.
They had rehearsed in the boathouse to the Quartermaine Mansion. Allison promised Ned she'd observe all she could. Glen was a real estate agent, and he was always curious about the upper end properties and how much they might be worth, even if they weren't for sale at the moment.
"This is great, going to London Underground to hear you," Glen said. He almost added "instead of Yvonne," but decided that it was better to avoid that direct comparison. He could appreciate the musical talents of both women with equal enthusiasm and get into no trouble.
Jin-ho Nu, who was known as Jimmy Nu, had a job driving a truck and making deliveries. It got him around Port Charles and Buffalo. He had experience in this field in Maine, along with truck and auto repair. Now that Joe Quinn was helping him with his mother, Jimmy thought it right that he move down to Port Charles again. He knew his way around, remembering from when he'd been a teenager and Joe had been his stepfather. Those had been the best years of his life. He'd always had Joe to go around with. He'd had trouble making friends, because of his English.
Even now, after so many years, he had trouble with the language. He could understand it. He could speak it too, and say whatever he wanted to say. It was just so hard to make it come out right. Americans had a hard time understanding him. So he said only what he absolutely needed to.
Now that he was down here in Port Charles there were the Connors, who had always encouraged him with his English. Kathleen was a teacher, and she'd spent time with him before. He'd always be grateful to her.
Now her son-in-law wanted to be a teacher and was big on helping people learn English, with his family from Russia coming over. Jimmy explained to Zander, the son-in-law, that he knew the language but that his tongue and his lips were the problem. It sounded all right in his head, but it came out too heavily accented. The fact he knew it caused him to think he could speak faster. He just had to remember to slow down.
Still, Zander said he would work on finding out what speech exercises might help. When he didn't find much, he tried to get Jimmy to tell him about the Korean language, and what sounds a Korean didn't have in his native speech. He had Jimmy read him pages of books to stop and concentrate on just what sounds weren't coming out right.
Jimmy smiled at the way Zander worked with his relatives, sitting in for a while. Zander's eleven-year-old cousin Irina soaked up English like a sponge. Kids always had an advantage when it came to that. Jimmy had been young when he came, but not that young, and apparently just old enough to be a little hardened. The adult mind seemed to freeze at a certain point, and Zander's poor grandparents had such a hard time, but they tried for their grandson's enthusiasm just made it impossible to resist. They made little, but steady progress.
Then there was Zander's uncle, Mikhail, Irina's father, who was in between young and old, but whose determination to learn English went a long way.
Jimmy also could see that Zander's relatives had some advantage in being Russian. It was easier to go from Russian to English than Korean to English. The Russians spoke English with an accent, but Jimmy could understand them. They couldn't understand Jimmy except in the most basic sentences.
But they understood what he was struggling with a lot. They were always friendly. Even the old people, who could barely say more than "hi," to Jimmy, always said it when they saw him and had a look of empathy when they said it.
On the job, Jimmy made a delivery of office supplies to Deception Company.
Laraine Breyer came out to sign for them and supervise where they were going.
"You want this on that table?" he asked her.
"What did you say?" the girl asked.
He said the same thing again, slower.
"Oh, that table. Yes," she said.
She smiled and he thought she was nice about it. Many people weren't. "Sorry," he said. "My English."
He went back and forth, following her directions, bringing in computers and computer desks and chairs and printers and a couple of modems. Then there was quite a bit of paper and printing supplies. She was rather considerate, and brought him a bottle of water when he'd been at it awhile.
"Take a break, you look hot," she said.
"It is getting very warm," he said. He saw that she didn't understand him, so he repeated it against, more slowly. She smiled again and nodded.
Laraine had a moment of embarrassment; she'd told him he looked hot. He might think she was flirting with him.
But as she looked at him, she could see he didn't. To him, "hot" was just high ambient temperature.
It was a relief.
"I've been thinking," Laraine said to Gia, later, talking by the copy machine, "I met this Asian guy. He was delivering our supplies."
"Oh great," Gia rolled her eyes, "your exotic guy."
"I don't know," Laraine said. "He could be married. But he was sweet and you know, he didn't speak English well. And would you believe it makes for better communication? Words aren't so loaded. You only say what you need to say."
"Oh, this is going to be interesting," said Gia.
"It's like he can't mess with your head because of it, so he doesn't, so it brings out the genuine sweet side," Laraine explained.
"I could see that, but then it could be a drag not to be able to get things across."
"That could be."
"But you don't know for sure, and it's worth checking out," Gia suggested.
"I suppose it is worth checking out," Laraine said, as if "checking out" had quotes around it. "Why not? It would be more interesting than the same old, same old."
Gia smiled and shook her head. "I can't wait to see what you get yourself into," she laughed.
"How is it that we have the old car and Dad has the new one?' Taryn asked Patti one morning.
"It's part of the compromise that allows us to stay in the house," Patti said.
"Why should we have had to move out of the house because Dad wants to have an affair?"
"Because two households are more expensive to keep running than one," Patti said. "And my earnings don't allow for me to pay for a house like this on my own. Even without child support. Which we lose, for you, when you graduate."
"Geez, I never thought about that, Mom," Taryn said. "I should get a job."
"We can manage you going to college," Patti said. "And we will. Your father wants you to go. And you'll just be going to PCU, and the tuition there isn't too expensive. Your future is not going to suffer because your father wanted to have an affair."
"OK, but still, a part time job wouldn't get in the way that much," Taryn said. "And I could work over the summer. Then maybe we could get a newer car."
Patti went over and hugged her daughter. "This is so much responsibility on you right now, and you're being a real trooper about it," she said.
"It's not bad, Mom," Taryn said. "It feels sort of good. Something to do, so I quit thinking about my hopeless love life. I had two guys and now I have none."
"Toby's not getting over it?"
"Nothing works so far. And I thought I'd decide who was taking me to the prom, Toby or Clay, and now I have no one."
"Fortunately, you can go stag these days," Patti said. "Get together with a couple of girls and you just all go together."
"That's sounding actually like more fun that I thought it might have," Taryn said. "Back in the days when I was thinking of course I'd be going with Jeremy, I'd have died to think I'd be stuck going stag with a few girls. But now, it really sounds more fun that way."
"I'm glad," Patti said. "And it's no big deal. Just have fun."
"Be free of guy problems for a while."
"Watch out, Taryn, don't let your father-"
"I know," Taryn said. "Don't let Dad's affair get me bitter about men. I'll try."
"You deserve the best," Patti said. "He's out there."
"So do you. Though I know you don't want to hear it. How was that date to the wedding?"
"OK, I guess," Patti said. "I talked to quite a few people there, actually."
"Who was the guy who brought your car home? He was cute."
"The guy I met at London Underground, who I fixed up with V. for the wedding," Patti said. "Matt Delaney."
"Did V. like him all right?"
"I think so."
"I know she's a little older than he, but she's pretty cool," Taryn said. "For a cop."
Patti just smiled. "We'll see how it works out," was all she said.