“But that doesn’t give you the right to treat us the way you have,” I said quietly. I felt compassion for Aunt Paula too, but a calm anger had grown in me the entire time she was speaking and pitying herself.
Ma gasped, but I was no longer under her control. I was still drawn along in the wake of emotion of having been accepted by Yale. I had found a new apartment and all of the paperwork had been finalized, except for the character reference for Ma. I knew we could break our ties with Aunt Paula now, and that knowledge allowed me to speak the truth.
Aunt Paula wiped her face with her sleeve, smearing her eyeliner. “Your teeth are sharp and your mouth is keen.”
“Fake kindness, fake etiquette is all you’ve shown us.”
“How dare you give me so little face?”
I stared at her. “Face or no face doesn’t matter in America. What matters is who you really are.”
“America! If I hadn’t brought you here, you’d still be in Hong Kong. I even gave you another address so you could go to a better school.”
“You did that because it’s illegal for us to be living where we are.”
Aunt Paula clenched her jaw. She hadn’t realized how much I now knew about the way things worked.
Ma tried to intervene. “Older sister, you’ve helped us a great deal, but maybe it’s time we stopped depending on you so much.”
I continued as if Ma hadn’t spoken. “Just like it’s illegal for you to pay us by the piece here at the factory.”
“After everything I’ve done for you, you speak to me like this. You treat the human heart like a dog’s lung.” But her manner was more regretful than angry, which meant she was getting scared.
I rose to my full height. I wasn’t quite as tall as Aunt Paula but I was much taller than Ma by then. “You should be ashamed of yourself for putting us in that apartment all these years. And for making us work here, under these conditions. After we fell down a well, you dropped a boulder on top of us.”
Ma had kept her eyes down, but now she looked up and slowly nodded in agreement. “Older sister, I cannot understand why you have treated us like this.”
Aunt Paula was sputtering. “I gave you work and shelter! And this is how you repay my human currency.” The currency of humanity is kindness. “I brought you here! That is a life debt, one you can never repay.”
“You should think about your own life debt, to the gods,” I retorted.
Aunt Paula had had enough and she pulled out her final card. “I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you. If you think I’ve treated you badly, you can leave. Leave the factory and move out of the apartment.” She said the words with gravity, then waited for us to beg her to reconsider.
Ma’s hands were trembling but she managed to smile. “In fact, ah-Kim has found us an apartment, in Queens.”
Aunt Paula’s eyes popped.
“We’ve already repaid our debts to you,” Ma said. When I heard her words, I knew we were freed of Aunt Paula forever. I met Ma’s eyes, and saw she was ready to leave.
I spoke to Aunt Paula. “If you do anything to hinder us in any way, I will report you to the authorities.”
And we walked out of there, leaving Aunt Paula gaping in her little office at the factory.
I had a blurred impression of the other workers staring at our departure as we got our things from the finishing area and then started for the exit. Matt caught my arm as I passed by and I paused for a moment to whisper, “It’s all right, come find me later,” and then Ma and I were out of the factory and on the street, hurrying toward the subway. A cool breeze blew against my hair.
“Are you all right, Ma?” I had been ready for this step long before. This was what I’d been working toward. I just didn’t know how Ma felt about losing her only family except for me.
She sighed. “Yes. I am afraid but I feel light too. Even if Aunt Paula bathed in grapefruit water, she wouldn’t be able to wash the guilt off. It is time for us to make our own way.”
I squeezed her arm. “Mother and cub.”
As soon as we got back to the apartment, I phoned Mrs. Avery and told her we’d had a disagreement with my aunt after I’d been accepted to Yale with a full financial aid package, and we therefore needed to move out of our current apartment as soon as possible.
There was a silence. Then Mrs. Avery spoke. “First of all, a huge congratulations to you, Kimberly! I am sure that the owners will have no problems accepting a tenant who has such a bright future, and I will give you both the character recommendation myself.”
Now our greatest worry was how we would manage to earn the rice until I graduated and had more free time to work for us. If we couldn’t find a new source of income quickly, we would lose the apartment.
Later that day, the doorbell rang.
“Who could that be?” Ma asked as I flew downstairs to open the door.
When I walked into our apartment with Matt, Ma’s mouth went from a surprised “O” to a calm smile of acceptance.
Matt could look around our apartment more carefully this time. There was no pity on his face, just understanding. He put his arm around me and said, “I could help you put some new glass into the window frames here.”
I leaned against him. “We may be leaving soon, but I’ll tell you the story later.”
He chatted with Ma over a cup of tea. Aside from keeping as far as possible from any places insects could crawl on him, he seemed perfectly at home. I felt I had to be dreaming to have Matt here in our apartment, lighting up the bare kitchen with his beauty.
After chatting for a few minutes with Ma, he asked, “Would it be all right if I took Kimberly to Chinatown for a bowl of a wonton soup? I promise I’ll take care of her.”
I opened my mouth to protest that I didn’t need anyone’s care but Ma was already smiling.
“You two go out and get a moon tan,” she said teasingly, meaning a stroll under the moonlight.
“Ma,” I said, not daring to look at Matt.
“I trust the two of you not to do anything stupid. Don’t come back too late.”
I couldn’t believe I was actually on a date with Matt and that I hadn’t had to lie to Ma about it. The moment we got outside, Matt kissed me. Some of the guys on the street hooted.
When Matt pulled back, his eyes were dark. “You have such an effect on me, I’m riding the dizzying waves.”
I sighed and laid my cheek against his shoulder.
On the way to Chinatown, I filled him in on most of what had happened with Aunt Paula and the new apartment. I deliberately avoided telling him about Yale, deciding to wait until we were seated somewhere quieter.
The café was packed. Everyone there was Chinese. In those days, the cafés with the best food hadn’t been discovered by tourists yet, and if a white person did somehow venture in, the waiter called “Red beard, blue eyes” along with the order so that the cook could adapt the dish for Western tastes.
We stood in a long line of people waiting to be served. A counter ran along the length of the wall beside us, crowded with people who wanted to place take-out orders. Several waitresses behind the counter were packing food in plastic cartons into bags.
“Ah-Matt, what are you doing, hiding here?” A short balding waiter was at Matt’s elbow, beaming at us. “Get out of there, follow me.”
Despite the glares of the other patrons, we were pulled out of line and led to a small table at the end of the restaurant. Another waiter greeted Matt by name, then hurried over to clear off the dishes from our table.
Matt grinned and said, “Thanks, ah-Ho. Hey, ah-Gong, don’t break any plates now.”
Our waiter glanced at me, recognizing that I wasn’t Vivian, but was too polite to say anything. Our bowls of wonton soup were large and filled with homemade noodles and tender pastry wrapped around meat.
I used my spoon to skim off a few scallions floating on top and poured them into my mouth. “It has been so long since I’ve had this.”