Luca nodded, attention completely on Clementine as she spoke. It was easy to listen to her spoke, her voice soft and soothing in a way that most of Luca’s friends didn’t possess. He liked to think of them all as the Loud Crowd, constantly yelling or screaming about something good or bad in their lives and inviting Luca in to do the same. So this was nice, connecting with someone who didn’t share that aspect. “So I’m - Generation Zero then?” Luca said, making a logical guess from the information she had given him.
“I’ve heard Mandarin has thousands of separate characters, though.” he replied, laughing. Luca reached out for a moment, straightening up a picture of him with a horrible 90′s middle part that had fallen over. The table was seriously getting over crowded, but yet his mother persisted on adding more and never packing away any old pictures that lay there. “Russian is extremely easy compared to English. English has all these articles and sentence fillers.” He chewed on his bottom lip as he thought up an example. “So, if I were to say Clementine is very beautiful. I would say Клементина очень красивая. Which is translated literally to ‘Clementine very beautiful’. If I needed someone to pass me the salt at the table, I wouldn’t say ‘Can you pass me the salt please?’, I would say ‘pass salt please’.”
Luca laughed, his cheeks growing red as Clem focused on one of his younger pictures. Of course, she would find the pictures of his chubby years, the years where he looked like he was hiding food in his cheeks, giving his mother an ample amount of them to grab and pinch for a while. “Well, I guess this is what happens when I’m all my mother has. If my dad hadn’t moved back to Russia, I’m sure we’d have more than just the picture of him over the fireplace. But -” Luca gave a shrug, one that he hoped would show that he wasn’t upset about his father, that it wasn’t information that he was giving her that she should feel awkward or pity him over.
Luca turned around and leaned gently against the table, his expression amused because Clementine wasn’t the first of his friends to ask what the food his mother would cook was. “Salted herring is just fish. It’s called salted herring because, well, herring spoils very fast and easily and you have to salt it to keep it fresh. I promise it’s delicious.”
Luca’s use of the term ‘generation zero’ upset Clementine beyond defending, and she shook her head quickly, curls coming loose from where they’d been tucked behind her ears. She supposed maybe it was the idea of equating him to a zero, in any regard, that did her in, even if it was harmless. “No, no, no. You were born in Russia, so it doesn’t apply, you know? Just like my Mom was generation - I don’t even know - back home. You’re generation something over there.” Clementine spun her cup around in circles, watching the liquids swirl and spin in her own little whirlpool. “Do you go back ever?”
“Chinese has the most people fluent in it of any language, though, so there’s got to be something a little easy about it, you know?” Her cheeks flushed as much as her dark skin would show at his compliment - though it wasn’t actually a compliment, not really, just an example of his mother tongue. Clementine hadn’t ever really heard Russian, not in the manner Luca was speaking it, and her heart beat faster for a few moments. He was trying to talk down his own language, while talking hers up, but all she could think of was that she wanted to hear more. She decided, following his lesson in Russian, that she ought to show off her Mandarin, as opportunities for the language were few and far between. “卢卡是太美了，我要天天给他花。.” Clementine grinned, happy to put the language to use. She wasn’t nearly as comfortable with it as she was with English, but missed it, would sometimes call her mother just to make sure she didn’t forget how to speak it. “Or, alternatively, in Maori, hiahia kawea mai e ahau a koutou puawai rã.” Clementine was just trying to show off now, hoping to impress him a little. She was an average person in all respects, and had never stood out anywhere but Cape Cod, and missed it.
His Dad had moved back to Russia? Clementine didn’t understand, and tried to ensure she’d heard him correctly. Why? Who would leave? Who would’ve left this family, who wouldn’t have stayed? Clementine had been curious about the absence of his father, but hadn’t allowed herself to pry just yet, knowing that her and Luca were acquaintances, and not friends, but he’d offered her the information. “Why did he leave?” Oh, she was awful at holding her tongue. Clementine clamped a hand over her mouth, and shook her head, a sigh escaping through her fingers. She released herself, and apologized immediately. “I shouldn’t have asked, I’m being nosey. We didn’t really not ask questions in my house. I’m just curious, and, well, you know. I’m sorry.”
Salted herring, as Luca explained it, didn’t sound nearly as questionable as she’d been assuming. No more so than the strange food her mother had forced on all the children for years, at least. “Okay,” she said slowly, “I can do that.” Clementine grinned, moving her cup to a seat at the table. “Is that okay there?” She spun on her heel, and went back to looking at his childhood photos. "Is there anything I can help your Mama with, do you think?”
