International Relations from Walla Walla

I'd spent the night, or part of it, sleeping in the cab of a pickup truck, in a place where the highway is cut deep into the soil, resulting in a wind break.

Shortly after daylight, I headed out, arriving at Walla Walla around 6:30. A breakfast place was easy to find. I sat down at the counter, ordered coffee & breakfast.

"You know down in San Francisco, they used to have a problem with stray dogs and cats..."

I looked over, was this guy talking to me? From two stools over, he apparently was, since there wasn't anyone else plausible.

I'd head this introduction before, of course, but, up for entertainment, I looked over to acknowledge him.

"...but then the Chinese came in. And you know, within a year there were no more stray cats or dogs, and people's pets started disappearing. It turned out that the Chinese were setting up traps and eating the cats and dogs they captured."

"When did this happen?", I asked in amusement.

"The Chinese started arriving in San Francisco during the gold rush of 1849. They believed it was the location of a fabled gold mountain, and came in by the shipload to take the gold back to China."

"Really" I replied, waiting to see where this would end up.

"Yes. Did you know that they believed China to be the center kingdom, the center of the whole fuckin' universe?"

"Where did you learn so much about the Chinese?" I asked.

"Chinese civilization is 8000 years old, much older than European
civilization".

Breakfast had arrived. I carefully spread a half tub of mixed
fruit jelly onto a diagonally sliced piece of toast.