The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,16

signed the contract.

“Take this, daughter,” her mother said in a trembling voice as she passed over the wedding dress. “May you never live another day hungry, and may your stomach always be too full to swallow down any sorrow. Always remember, you are my beautiful lotus. Any man would be proud to have you as his wife. Please your husband and have healthy babies.”

The words were like a weight on Mei Lien’s heart. Her mother had lost two sons in infancy, brothers she never knew because Mei Lien was born last. Her mother had always complained that the god of creation had closed up her womb after Mei Lien was born. She took the dress from her mother, the smooth fabric like water in her hands. Then she folded the dress and placed it carefully in her small wooden trunk.

“It is time.” Her mother’s dark-as-night eyes filled with tears. She quickly brushed at them with her field-callused fingers, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Not typically an emotional woman, she prided herself, Mei Lien knew, in being stoic at all times.

Mei Lien knew also that she was blessed, despite not having a father or a brother. Her mother had been loving and kind. And now, she was willing to sacrifice her only living child in order to provide a better life for Mei Lien.

“Thank you, Ah Ma,” Mei Lien said, reverence in her voice.

Her mother’s face crumpled with emotion, and the two embraced, one woman at the sunset of her life, the other not yet sixteen, with a horizon of opportunity stretching before her.

Mei Lien drew away, leaving part of her heart with her mother.

Tears dripped down both of their faces, and her mother said, “Now, go, my lotus. Don’t look back. The goddesses will take care of me, and I will burn incense every week for your soul.”

It wasn’t an idle promise—that Mei Lien knew.

Her mother moved past her, and, in her last act of service, she latched the trunk, then handed it to Mei Lien.

“It is time,” her mother repeated, her tears starting again. “Good-bye, my beautiful lotus.”

Mei Lien dabbed at her own tears and moved toward the curtain that separated the tiny bedroom from the rest of the house, which amounted to only one other room. She gazed a final time at her mother, seeing the petite woman’s work-worn hands, callused from long days harvesting. The deep circles beneath her eyes, which contrasted with the love and warmth emanating from her. The threadbare dress, which had once been a deep green, now faded white. The bare feet that had walked many miles and would carry her body for many more.

“Good-bye, Ah Ma,” Mei Lien said softly.

Then, with her throat feeling like she’d swallowed a burning rock, she shifted aside the drape and stepped into the dim interior of the main room. On the bamboo table, the remnants of a steamed sponge cake remained, to be cleared later by her mother. Nuwa stood expectantly, her long, elegant fingers clasped in front of her. The eagerness in Nuwa’s eyes only made Mei Lien want to return to her mother, poverty or not. They would survive together. They had so far.

Nuwa then pulled out the contract from a square satchel, along with the money promised to Mei Lien’s mother. Seeing them on the bamboo table next to the chipped porcelain plate, Mei Lien knew she couldn’t back out of her commitment. Her life was no longer here, and in leaving Hong Kong, Mei Lien would be providing for her mother for many years to come.

Mei Lien forbade any more tears from forming. She didn’t want Nuwa to think she wasn’t grateful, and she didn’t want her mother to hear her crying. It was time to shed her childhood and become the new Mei Lien. No longer the poor girl living in an even poorer village. She was to be married to a wealthy man. She would have sons and daughters, and she would manage a beautiful home. Perhaps one day her husband would send for her mother.

Mei Lien stepped forward, bent, and signed the contract with an X to represent her name.

There was no turning back now.

Following Nuwa out of the house of her youth, Mei Lien noticed details that she had always taken for granted. The flower bed her mother took immense pride in. The neat pen she’d repaired only a few days ago. Their three chickens. Mei Lien expected the chickens to dash toward the far end of the

readonlinefreenovel.com Copyright 2016 - 2024