Land of Milk and Honey

It is May. The narrator starts crying multiple times a day after running out of her stash of cigarettes and other drugs. Aida notices the difference in the narrator’s eyes. The following day, a doctor calls and directs the narrator to take various readings, like blood pressure and weight. The doctor says that she is underweight.

The narrator’s birthday is in May; her generation is called “Generation Mayfly” because of a report that determined that their life spans would be shorter than those of previous generations (48).

When the report came out, the staff of the family restaurant where the narrator worked started getting into fights. However, the report didn’t upset the narrator: Her mother already considered her a disappointment. The narrator’s mother, who grew up impoverished in China, had won a scholarship to study medicine in China and then a visa to America. In the US, she married a Korean American man. However, this man became physically abusive and left the family. Meanwhile, the narrator’s mother’s Chinese medical credentials only got her an entry-level position in a nursing home. The narrator’s mother saved up enough money to move from Pasaje, California, to Los Angeles when the narrator got into the University of California, Los Angeles. The narrator hated their apartment and dropped out of school to become a chef. When they fought about this, the narrator cooked dinner as a peace offering. Her mother didn’t eat it, instead pulling the discarded parts of the fish, including the bones, out of the sink—the implication is that these should not be wasted. The narrator packed her things and took the cat. Her mother called her selfish but didn’t look at her.

This memory leads the narrator to think about the many ways she and her mother disagreed about food. Her mother would bring home recently expired, cheap food from the nursing home and hated expensive French food. She accused her daughter of trying to kill her with food and claimed that she wanted to kill her. This reminds the narrator of the Korean swear word that Aida knows.

In the present, the narrator cooks the kind of meal that the doctor recommended. However, she can’t eat more than a few bites and throws the plate to the ground. The cat sniffs it and also refuses to eat it. The narrator puts him back in the storeroom. Aida arrives: Her father has given the narrator permission to leave the kitchen. Aida takes the narrator for a drive. With them are two dogs that take a liking to the narrator, which surprises Aida. Aida talks about breeding them and others. The narrator laughs and admits that she doesn’t know as much about biology as Aida, who is working on her postdoctoral degree at the University of Milan.

Aida shows the narrator a secret elevator hidden in the mountain. As they travel underground, they change clothes. When the narrator sees Aida’s damaged feet, Aida explains that they are like this because she was a dancer. In protective clothing, they enter the labs inside the mountain. With Aida’s access card, the narrator sees a wide variety of animals, including a golden chimp, birds, small mammals, and big cats. She is especially intrigued by the lions, recalling a Ukrainian chef saying that being in the kitchen is like being a lion feeder.

Driving back, they talk about bringing animals back from extinction. The narrator, who will probably not get approval to return to the United States, says that she would choose to stay on the mountain if she had the choice. Aida is angry at the lack of choices. At the foot of the mountain, Aida lets her dogs run in an open field. Describing apex predators, Aida circles the narrator in the tall grass and pounces on her in an “antihuman” way (60). The narrator wonders if she should be frightened, but Aida lies beside her and says that she is safe. Aida points out that the grass smells like honey; it is genetically engineered to be healthier for animals. The smell was designed for Aida’s mother, a Korean woman who believed in the Catholic promised land of milk and honey.

As the sun sets, Aida warms the narrator’s hands under her shirt for a moment. Then, they work on training her dogs to retrieve without harming. Aida uses physical force in training, claiming that she could tell if she was truly hurting the dogs. After a training drill with inanimate lures, Aida releases a bird that she brought from the lab for the dogs. Suddenly, the narrator notices someone setting the edge of the field on fire. Aida is frozen in fear. The narrator remembers dreaming of her mother’s apartment and the restaurant burning; she runs to put out the flames with her coat. The dogs run with her.

The mountain community’s security personnel apprehend the arsonist. When he is questioned, he rails against Aida in Italian. His rage reminds the narrator of the attitude of the Italian immigration agents. He spits at Aida, who just stares back. The narrator leads Aida to the car. Slumping into the passenger seat, Aida tells the narrator to drive. As she retrieves the keys from Aida’s pocket, the narrator tells Aida that she watched hundreds of videos of fires after her mother’s apartment burned down—that’s how she was able to spot the fire so quickly. While working in a Parisian restaurant, the narrator had missed the call from the hospital on the night her mother died.

Aida curses the arsonist and refuses to translate most of what he said for the narrator, who doesn’t speak Italian. All Aida says is that he demanded “Italy for Italians” (65), and she assures the narrator that her actions in putting out the fire have earned her employer’s trust. Aida admits that there have been other attacks by those who want the non-Italian members of the mountain community gone. Her father has tried giving the government money and food, but their demands only increased. Aida worked in one of the labs that produced the mung-bean flour. They laugh about the terrible quality of it.

Aida is passionate about biodiversity and promises to talk to her father about giving the narrator a permanent position in the community. To persuade investors to buy in, the labs are creating megafauna. The narrator asks if the dogs are functional, which upsets Aida. She argues that her dogs could provide security. The narrator says that it would be normal to create dogs because you love them, but Aida argues that she can’t get sentimental.

When they part ways, the narrator gets the cat to eat some food and is able to eat some food herself. Her employer calls and offers to transition her into a permanent role. However, after getting the doctor’s report, her employer insists that the narrator eat more to improve her health and live a long life. The narrator thinks this is sentimental.