Leen twisted out of the older woman’s grasp.
“What’s wrong with her?” Dolly asked.
“She wants to leave,” Miss Culbertson said. “She’s addicted to opium, and she needs another dose.”
Sing Leen continued to twist away until Ah Cheng wrapped an arm about her shoulders.
“I will take her upstairs,” Ah Cheng broke in. “She’ll stay with me tonight. I don’t trust her on her own. Help me, Miss Cameron.”
Dolly followed, walking behind the pair as Ah Cheng kept a firm hold on Sing Leen, who had begun to wail in Chinese.
“Hush!” Ah Cheng said over and over, but the woman continued to wail, oblivious to anyone who might be sleeping in the home.
They made it to Ah Cheng’s bedroom, where Sing Leen immediately went to the window and opened it. There was no escape though, not through the secure grate.
“Can I do something?” Dolly didn’t think she should leave Ah Cheng alone with the upset woman. “Should I stay too?”
“No,” Ah Cheng was quick to say. “There’s no reason for us both to miss a night’s sleep. You have your classes in the morning. I’ll sleep when Sing Leen does.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone with—”
“It is better this way.” Ah Cheng practically pushed Dolly out of the bedroom. “I speak her language, and I’ll get her to calm down. Having you here will only put her more on edge.”
“All right.” Dolly was still hesitant, but she trusted Ah Cheng’s logic. Dolly left the women. Regardless, she spent the rest of the night listening to Sing Leen’s wails and Ah Cheng’s replies, soothing words alternating with reprimands.
Perhaps she slept; perhaps she didn’t. The night became a haze of passing time. When the approaching dawn finally shifted the purple twilight outside Dolly’s bedroom window to a warm yellow, she heard footsteps pounding down the staircase.
On instinct, Dolly flew out of her room to see what the commotion was. Ah Cheng was following after Sing Leen.
“Help me stop her!” Ah Cheng cried out when she saw Dolly. “She wants to return to the cribs where the opium is.”
Miss Culbertson and Anna stood at the front door waiting, as if they had known Sing Leen would try to flee the mission home.
Dolly reached the bottom of the stairs as the women faced off, Sing Leen’s flushed face streaked with tears, her breathing coming in gasps. Ah Cheng’s face was equally flushed, her gaze desperate.
When Ah Cheng latched onto Sing Leen’s arm with a tight grip, Miss Culbertson moved toward the pair. “We cannot force her to remain or to change,” she said in a calm, firm voice.
“She’s going through withdrawals,” Ah Cheng protested, keeping her grip on the Chinese woman. “Once they pass, she will feel better.”
But Miss Culbertson continued in a perfectly calm tone, “Let her go, Ah Cheng. This must be her decision.”
Dolly stared as Miss Culbertson opened the front door. It was as if a barrier had burst. Sing Leen wrenched from Ah Cheng’s failing grasp and bolted out the double doors. She nearly tripped going down the porch steps, then ran, fleeing down the hill into the early morning light.
No one spoke. Dolly’s eyes pricked with heat. There was no doubt that each person watching Sing Leen’s departure knew what she had in store for her if she returned to the cribs. She would return to her depraved life, going back to where she would live out what few months or years she had left as a slave to the darkness that had become her one and only mistress.
“SEC. 11. That any person who shall knowingly bring into or cause to be brought into the United States by land, or who shall knowingly aid or abet the same, or aid or abet the landing in the United States from any vessel of any Chinese person not lawfully entitled to enter the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. . . .
“SEC. 14. That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.”
—Chinese Exclusion Act, approved May 6, 1882, US Congress
1903
Mei Lien stood with the other travelers on the steamship’s deck as the shores of San Francisco grew closer. She hadn’t been above deck in the daylight since leaving Hong Kong. Uncle and Auntie had allowed her only short visits when it was dark—in order to protect her from others, they had claimed.
The first thing that Mei Lien noticed about her spotting of