Curt, a college professor, lives with his lover of several years, a pediatrician of Chinese descent named Lee. Eager to write, he receives a grant to take the summer off and work on a novel. Then Lee's mother calls -- she wants to visit. Curt is eager to meet her but Lee isn't so sure ... she's of a different generation, a different culture even, and doesn’t speak much English. Still, Curt insists.<br><br>But when Mrs. Gui arrives, Curt finds himself struggling with writer’s block. He feels like an outsider in his own home when Lee and his mother converse in Cantonese, leaving him out of the conversation, and even his sex life suffers with her in the bedroom next to theirs. Can Curt and Mrs. Gui move past their cultural differences to see that they both love Lee and have his best interests at heart?

Just What the Doctor Ordered

It was a pretty thought, one that didn’t include his mother. 


She sat in the living room all afternoon, glued to the TV. 


The dramatic music from her soap operas drifted up through the floor boards to haunt me in the study. I couldn’t think with the noise, could barely concentrate on my story, but I didn’t want to leave the computer for fear of her calling Lee again. So I got a blanket and pillow from the bedroom and stretched out on the floor, making sure the door was locked to keep her out. 


I stared at the patterns the sun made on the ceiling; long slices of light slanting in between the blinds, and told myself I should be writing. “I need to write,” I said out loud, but the words had a useless, hollow ring to them. Instead of working on my story, I watched tiny motes of dust dance in the air above my nose with each breath I took.


Chapter 21