Austin smiled at Clementine and asked, “What would I do without you?”
Chapter 34
It Must Be Love
Tuesday, April 17, 1906, 9:43 a.m.
One day before the earthquake and firestorm
“May I work with you again?” asked Ting Ting. Little Sunflower was in tow, silent as usual. “There’s no school today, and I’m going to need to be able to help your father and Grand Ma Maw after you marry your Mr. St. Clair!” She smiled impishly, waiting for a response from Blossom.
“What did you just say?”
“You heard me, and you know it’s true,” said Ting Ting with a snicker. She began to crank her ever-present music box as a distraction.
Blossom realized how obvious her feelings must be if a child could sense them.
“Why do you think I’m going to marry him?” she asked in a hushed tone to keep their conversation as private as possible.
“You’re different now. You’re sparkly most of the time. But now, you seem kind of sad. That must be love, right?”
If only Ting Ting knew everything that I’m feeling with Brock and the mother I just found out about and the lie I’ve been living with Ba Ba and Grand Ma Maw, thought Blossom.
“Hey, are you going to help me learn to make fortune cookies or not?” asked the little girl, bringing Blossom back to the reality of the bakery.
“Yes, my little one, I will teach you—both of you—more about cookie making. How many lessons have you already had?”
Ting Ting interrupted, “Can you teach us about Mr. St. Clair too?”
They all grinned. Blossom hugged Ting Ting, ruffled Little Sunflower’s hair and pulled two extra stools next to her work station.
“First things first. Slip off your shoes, but be tricky about it. Grand Ma Maw will bang her walking stick on the floor really hard if she sees that your shoes are off.”
To make the dough, Blossom beat egg whites, oil and vanilla extract. “Our family secret is to add almond extract too for taste and a sweeter smell. You must never give our secret away,” cautioned Blossom. Ting Ting replied with a crisp, “Never!” Little Sunflower turned her head to the right and left and pursed her lips.
Blossom instructed the girls to mix flour, sugar and salt in another bowl. The contents of the two bowls were mixed and enough water was added to create a runny batter.
A spoonful of batter was placed in the hot iron’s circular indentation. “Watch it now. When the edges turn brown, it’s done. If we wait too long, the cookie gets too hard.”
Blossom selected a slip of paper. “This is when we get to become fortunetellers, picking out the future for whoever opens the cookie,” she said dramatically as she put the paper in. “If the paper goes in too soon, it will sink into the dough that hasn’t cooled enough.”
She folded the circle of dough in half and quickly pulled the two ends of the straight edge to create the unique crescent shape.
“Now we put each one of them into its own little cradle to rest and cool off,” instructed Blossom as she placed the newly formed cookie into one compartment of what looked like a massive muffin tin. “We must not disturb them while they nap!”
Ting Ting giggled. “It’s like they’re little babies in a nursery.”
“Yes, I guess so!”
Before long, the topic of discussion shifted in a not-so-masked way from cookies to men. Blossom answered Ting Ting’s questions much like Monique answered hers.
“Why him? He’s not like you.”
Blossom cleared her throat. “That’s a big question for a little girl. But I’ll do my best to answer it.”
Blossom made sure that her voice was hushed. “I like Brock because he’s different. He’s not like the men here in Chinatown. And I’ve always thought that I’m not really like the women in Chinatown.”
In fact, I now know that I’m not like the Chinese women in more ways than I could have imagined.
“When I see him, I feel alive. I feel different, in a wonderful way. When we’re together, we can’t stop talking about anything and everything. I don’t think those feelings will ever change.”
Ting Ting winced as she burned her finger on the cookie iron.
“Oh, please pay attention to what you’re doing.”
“But he’s a rich white man. You’re Chinese.”
Blossom replied, “Yes, we’re not alike when you see us with your eyes. But inside, in our hearts, we’re the same.”
Ting Ting cocked her head to the side while maintaining eye contact, not quite understanding what Blossom just said.
“So is he your prince, the man of your dreams?” Ting Ting sweetly asked with the innocence and hopefulness of a child. Little Sunflower looked at Blossom and grinned.
“Prince?”
“Yes, is Mr. St. Clair going to take you away from all of this and make your dreams come true?”
“Like Yeh-Shen?” Little Sunflower broke her silence.
“Yes, like Yeh-Shen. I was reading it to her the other day. I really think she likes the pictures more than the words! I told her that learned in school that there are Cinderella stories all over the world, like in France, Germany and Russia.”
“Can you tell me the story Blossom, please?” asked Little Sunflower.
“Only a short version, though, we have work to do!”
Blossom went on to tell the tale of Yeh-Shen, whose father had two wives. “The father died. And so did one wife, the one who was Yeh-Shen’s mother. Her stepmother raised her, but favored her own selfish and lazy daughter. Even though she had to do the worst chores, Yeh-Shen remained kind and gentle. And she was pretty. She only had one friend. It was a fish with golden scales and big…golden…eyes!” Blossom put her open palms next to her ears and waved them like gills.
“Yeh-Shen got very little food. She was always so, so hungry. However, she loved her fishy friend and shared what little food she got each day with him.”
“I don’t like this next part,” Little Sunflower whispered to Ting Ting.
“One day, the stepmother followed Yeh-Shen to the water’s edge and watched. Later, the stepmother captured the fish and cooked him for dinner.”
Little Sunflower frowned. “I’ve never liked eating fish.”
“Me either,” added Blossom. “Well, Yeh-Shen cried and cried and cried because she felt so bad about her friend. But out of nowhere, an old man appeared and told her to save the fish’s bones. He told her to speak to the bones and ask them for help if she was ever in trouble.”
“I get in so much trouble that I would be talking to those fish bones every day!” Ting Ting laughed and held her belly.
“It was time for a festival that only happened once a year, where young women dressed in their finest clothes to meet young men who might become future husbands. Oh, and how Yeh-Shen wanted to go. And do you know what happened?”
Little Sunflower perked up. “Her stepmother wouldn’t let her go, right?”
“That’s correct. She didn’t want Yeh-Shen, even in her dirty clothes, to spoil her own daughter’s chances of making a good match. So, Yeh-Shen spoke to the fish’s bones and pleaded for new clothes to wear to the festival. Before she could end her pleas, she was wearing a gown of sea-green silk, a cloak of kingfisher feathers and the most, most, most beautiful golden slippers.”
Ting Ting looked down at her stocking feet and wiggled her toes.
“The fish’s bones made Yeh-Shen promise not to lose the slippers. Against her stepmother’s wishes, Yeh-Shen walked to the festival. Along the way, people stare at her because she looks like royalty. She has a wonderful time until she sees her stepmother and stepsister. She thinks they recognized her. Yeh-Shen runs away so fast that she steps right out of one of her golden slippers.”
Little Sunflower raises her stocking feet and joins in the toe wiggling.
“Yeh-Shen is devastated. She knew that she was not to lose her slippers, even one of them. She speaks to the fish’s bones, but they remain silen
t. Then a man finds the shoe and gives it to the king. The king is mesmerized by the small slipper. He figures that such a beautiful shoe must belong to a beautiful woman, and he must find her. The king announces that he’ll marry the girl whose small feet fit the shoe. He has a pavilion put up along the roadside to display the slipper and so that all the women who pass may try it on. The line is long outside the pavilion, but every woman’s foot was much too big to fit into the dainty slipper. Yeh-Shen hears about the slipper in the pavilion, but not the marry-the-king-part of the story. So, when all of her chores are done, she sneaks out of the house to go get her other slipper.”
“Now it gets good!” chimed in Ting Ting.
“The king’s men capture Yeh-Shen, thinking she’s a thief, and they take her to the king. He’s very angry that a peasant girl would have the nerve to steal the precious golden slipper. She tells the king about how she lost her mother, her father, her fishy friend and now her slipper. As she tells her story, he notices how small and dainty her feet are. And he notices how kind and gentle she is. The king and Yeh-Shen go to her house to get the other slipper. She puts them both on—”
Little Sunflower couldn’t contain herself. She added, “Then her gown appears and the king falls in love with her. And he wants to marry her! She marries him and brings the fish’s bones with her to the palace, leaving behind her stepmother and stepsister who die when the sky rains down fiery stones on them.”
“Oh, let’s not end the story like that. Let’s make it happier. Let’s finish with, she marries the king and becomes a loving and generous queen!”
Ting Ting added, “And all her dreams came true. That’s my wish. That’s what I want to have happen.”
“If I’ve learned anything lately it’s that you have to make your own dreams come true, and it takes more than wishes. As someone wise told me, it takes ‘pluck and luck.’ A prince would be nice, though, I have to admit. For now, I’ll let you dream of your prince coming to save you from Chinatown. Or maybe you and your prince will live right here in Chinatown. Now let’s focus on our work.”
“Okay,” said Ting Ting. “At least with fortune-cookie making, we might help someone discover a dream with just a few words on a little piece of paper.”
“Yes, there’s some magic in what we do,” replied Blossom, “even if it involves spoons and bowls and not golden slippers!”
“We gotta go now,” Ting Ting said as she pushed her stool away from the work table and grabbed Little Sunflower’s hand.
Chang entered the room, looking over his shoulder to see if the coast was clear. Grand Ma Maw was not in plain sight. He handed each girl a piece of hard candy. “A sweet for my sweets,” he said softly.
Looking at Blossom, he added, “Don’t tell Grand Ma Maw what I did.”
“Yes, Ba Ba,” replied Blossom. She—and it was likely that Grand Ma Maw—was fully aware of this candy-dispensing habit.
“Ting Ting, you no tell either,” said Chang as he left the room. “That go for you too, Little Sunflower.”
Ting Ting smiled and groaned a sound that resembled an “uh-ha” from her full mouth.
Blossom thought, that’s the only secret he and I shared. But, after last night and what Grand Ma Maw revealed, he and I are going to be sharing a whole lot more secrets. She refocused her attention on the girls.
“Come by later and I’ll draw pictures of you in my book. If you have any more questions about you know who, you’ll come to me, right?”
“Right.”
Blossom added, “This must remain our secret.”
“Just you, Little Sunflower, me…and Mr. St. Clair,” said Ting Ting. She pronounced Brock’s last name in a silly school-girlish way.
Just then Chang re-entered the room to survey what was going on.
“We were just leaving,” said Ting Ting as the girls scampered away.
Chang turned and left the room as well.
Blossom was alone with her thoughts, a handful of cookie dough and a pile of paper prophecies.
She picked one up and read it aloud. “Sometime fortune smile. Sometime frown. Today fortune do both.”
She put the slip of paper down and whispered, “So which one is going to come first?”
Chapter 35
Being Held With Hungry Arms
Tuesday, April 17, 1906, 10:02 a.m.
One day before the earthquake and firestorm
Blossom perfected the art of making fortune cookies with machine-like precision years ago. She mindlessly deployed that precision as her thoughts painted elaborate scenes of her mother coming back and apologizing for abandoning her.
Her father returned to the workroom. Blossom noticed how he hovered more than usual. He kept staring at the brooch she was wearing. Blossom broke her rhythm and put her hands on her lap. “Will you stop staring and start talking? Please.”
Chang pulled up a stool next to Blossom, sat down and started to talk. “I know Grand Ma Maw told you about your mother last night. I so…so very sorry I not tell you before. Last time I see that brooch was last time I see your mother. She was the most, most, MOST beautiful woman I ever met, until I see you and your iris eyes a-smiling.”
Blossom interrupted, “Before we go any further, we have to talk about that song. I cannot believe that every time I heard you sing that awful song and I corrected you about it being ‘Irish’ not ‘iris,’ you were singing about my mother. You were actually saying her name, leaving me in the dark the entire time!”
“I not sing it to be cruel. It comfort me to talk your mother’s name around you. Seeing your lavender eyes help me feel your mother not far away.”
He handed Blossom a photo of her mother that she assumed was the one Grand Ma Maw described as being in the picture frame on Chang’s dresser.
“See, she beautiful like you, yes?” he said with wounded pride.
“Yes, she’s beautiful,” replied Blossom as she gazed at the face of the woman who brought her into this world and then abandoned her.
“This for you. You keep now,” commanded Chang. Blossom tucked the photo in her pocket. “It not one from the picture frame. This I keep somewheres special for you.”
“Thank you,” said Blossom quietly.
“You look like your mother. I miss her, but she always with us…in sketchbook…in your face. She here in bits and pieces, around you your entire life. You just not aware,” admitted Chang. “We try hard not to have love for each other. But not try hard enough. Our love like swirlpool in river. It powerful and take control.”
Blossom fought the urge to correct her father’s use of the made-up word.
“I wish that I could say that I miss her too, but I’ve never met…” Chang’s raised fingers touched Blossom’s lips and cut off the stream of words.
“I know. I sorry. Now you learn truth. Perhaps she here for you in brooch,” said Chang as his fingers lowered to touch the brooch as Blossom lifted her hand to touch it. Their fingers tips collided and they smiled, each pulling their hands away and then looking downward to the floor.
Blossom couldn’t help herself from looking up and asking, “Grand Ma Maw said my mother visited once. What happened?”
“Another time I tell you. Hurt too much. For now, know she held you with very hungry arms. She love you,” said Chang tenderly.
“Did she still love you?”
“I believe so. I know so. But she leave to give you best chance at happiness.”
“But it cost you your happiness.”
Chang nodded slowly and lifted his shoulders as if to signal that there was no other good choice to make.
“How could you go on day after day, year after year, living such an enormous lie? Didn’t you think I’d eventually find out?”
Chang put his hand on Blossom’s. “Once I tell lie, it easier to tell again and again. Soon, I almost believe it. Can you forgive me?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure I can, at least not right now. But there may come a time when I need to ask for your for
giveness, and I hope you’ll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Chapter 36
Meant For Each Other
Tuesday, April 17, 1906, 10:07 a.m.
One day before the earthquake and firestorm
Clarissa’s daily routine was in full swing, but her mind was not engaged with the tasks at hand. She rested on the edge of the master suite’s bed and closely watched her mother pick and poke at the tightly woven swirl of hair that Zelda just created. Zelda had many duties, and she was skilled at hair dressing. Clarissa noticed that some hair rebelliously escaped the elegant coiffure.
“No matter how well she styles my hair, it always requires a few more touches. I should just do it myself from start to finish. But your father won’t hear of it. He doesn’t want me to lift a finger these days.” She cleared her throat and began speaking mockingly in a deep manly voice. “Mother, you’ve worked hard enough in your life. By the sweat of our brows and the grace of God Almighty, we’ve hit our Mother Lode and you should live like royalty now and forever!”
She broke her act and began to laugh as she saw in her vanity’s mirror how Clarissa was moving around the room with an all-too-familiar swagger while she peered in the mirror too. Between the voice and the walk, it was almost like having him in the room, Clarissa thought.
Zelda knocked at the door she’d closed behind her moments ago. “Anything else I can help with, ma’am?”
“No, that will be all for now. Thank you.”
Zelda stood outside the door and continued to listen as discreetly as possible, her morning duties nearly complete.
“When did you know you loved Daddy?” Clarissa sat back down on the edge of the bed.
“Well, where did that question come from?” She looked closely at her daughter. “I don’t know that it was like I didn’t love him one minute and then loved him the next. It was gradual. But when I knew it, I knew it.”
She gazed at the vanity’s mirror again. Clarissa thought it looked as if her mother was almost looking through it like a window to her past. She waited for what seemed like an eternity. “So, when was it? How did it feel?”
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