Great Call of China (S.A.S.S.) (21 page)

“Can we
please
stop talking about it?”

“All right,” Kallyn said. “Have it your way.” She turned her attention to the TV and hit play on the remote control.

Cece didn’t like arguing with Kallyn about Beijing. But the more her friends pressed her about it, the more she doubted she was making the right move.

The next morning, as Cece left her dorm to go to class, she spotted Will sitting on a bench nearby as if he’d been waiting for her.

“Hey, Cece. I want to talk to you.”

“Don’t tell me,” Cece said as she went up to him. “Peter’s gotten to you, too.”

“Peter?” Will said. “Gotten to me about what?”

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Cece said.

Will stood up. “Let me walk you to class. I’d like to ask you something.”

“Okay,” Cece said.

They started in the direction to the academic building.

“So,” Will began, “a confidential source tells me your birthday is coming up next Wednesday.”

Cece rolled her eyes. “By confidential, do you mean Kallyn?” Cece had mentioned it to her last week in passing.

“Maybe. I was thinking since next week will be crazy with finals, we could celebrate this weekend instead. Are you free?”

Cece thought about her last chance to go to Beijing. “Yeah, I’m free.”

“Great. I was thinking we could bike around the City Walls? Mark said it’s supposed to look awesome from up there at dusk.”

“That sounds terrific. I’ll ask Peter and Kallyn.”

“Actually, I was hoping it could be just the two of us.”

Cece stared at him. “You mean ... um ... like a date?”

“Yeah.” Will looked away. “But if you don’t want to—”

“No,” Cece blurted, “I’d love to go.” She could forget about Beijing and bike the City Walls with Will. Perfect.

“Really?” Will said.

“Yeah,” Cece replied. “I can’t imagine anything better.” And she meant it.

 

Later that day, as Professor Hu wrapped up culture class, Cece gazed off into space, her mind preoccupied with the idea of an evening out with Will.

“So ...” Professor Hu said as she walked around the room. “I take time to look at your drafts”—she handed back papers—“I am very, very pleased with progress. Except for one or two of you.”

She dropped Cece’s paper onto her desk, snapping Cece out of her daze.

Cece glanced down.

It looked like Professor Hu had bled all over her essay. A note in the corner read,
See me after class.

“Everyone, consider comments before you write final draft.” The professor returned to the front of the room. “Class over.”

Everyone got up, except for Cece.

“Come on,” Kallyn said.

Cece shook her head. “Don’t wait for me.”

“You sure?”

She held up her paper for Kallyn to see.

Kallyn winced. “Right. We’ll talk later.”

Once everyone left the room, Cece grabbed her backpack and went up to Professor Hu.

“So, you didn’t like my paper,” Cece said.

Professor Hu frowned. “Topic I like. What’s in paper, I not so like.”

“Why not?” Cece said. “Everything in there is the truth.”

“Really?” She took the paper from Cece and read from it.
“The government’s idiocy in instituting a one-child policy is a hallmark of its fascist politics.”
She looked up. “This is truth?”

“Well, isn’t it?”

“You tell me, Cece.” Professor Hu stared intently at her.

“Okay, okay,” Cece admitted. “So I was a little angry when I wrote it.”

“That is what I am thinking, too. What I say about anthropology? Tell me.”

“I must be objective.”

“And is this
objective
?”

Cece took the paper back. “No.”

“You try again. Show me what truth is. Then we talk.”

“All right,” Cece said, defeat in her voice. She put the paper into her bag, even though what she really wanted to do was toss it in the trash.

 

When Cece got back to her room, Jessica was there, hanging up something in her closet.

Jess turned around. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

“Me, too,” Cece replied, thinking of the talk she needed to have with her roommate. But before she could say anything, Jess said, “Here, try this on.” She pulled out a costume from the closet.

Wow.
Cece studied the outfit. It was the one for the role of the emperor’s adviser—a mandarin-collared, longsleeved top in royal blue, an embroidered gold sash that went around the neck, and matching pants with an intri cate pattern sewn into the cuffs.

“Jess, this is incredible.”

“Come on, Cece, I want to see how it fits.”

Cece quickly changed into the costume and noticed that even the inside was lined with satin. Then Jess had her stand in front of the mirror.

The clothing fit perfectly.

“Yes!” Jess smiled. “I was worried I hadn’t set in the sleeves right. I hope the stuff for the rest of the team fits this well.”

Cece began to relax. It was clear Jessica had no intentions of ditching the team. “Jess, I have to apologize.”

“For what?”

“I was worried you were going to flake out on us. Now that these are done, we can start filming. Have you memorized your lines yet?”

The expression on Jess’s face changed. “Actually ... I won’t be part of the film.”

“What? Why not?”

Jess pulled the concubine outfit from the closet. “I’m not finishing the program.” She laid the dress on her bed.

Cece stared at her. “Excuse me?”

“Come on, Cece. Don’t be surprised. You know I failed my midterms. There’s no way I’ll pass now.”

“But I don’t understand. ...” Cece looked at her costume, then the dress on the bed. “Why did you make these if you knew you weren’t completing the program?”

“Cece,” Jess said, “would you give me some credit? You’d think I’d let you guys film in street clothes? Or worse, in some nasty used thing from the theater?”

“Well ...”

“Okay, don’t answer that.” Jess smoothed out the wrinkles in the concubine dress. “There
is
a little bit more to this.”

“What do you mean?”

“These outfits will be excellent additions for my portfolio.”

“Portfolio?”

“Yeah, for design school. They’ll show off my range.”

“I thought you had to apply to an Ivy League.”

“Ha!” Jess said. “Like I could even get in.”

Cece was confused. “So your dad is okay with you going into fashion now?”

“Are you kidding me?” Jess said. “He has no idea about those plans, but he’ll find out soon enough.”

She took out a pair of gold shoes from the closet. “It’s time I faced him. Once and for all.” She set the shoes on the floor. “I can’t be the daughter he wants.”

“Jess ...”

Jessica closed the door to her wardrobe and leaned against it. “I’m tired of fighting so hard to get a tiny glimmer of approval from my parents, you know? All I hear is how I don’t live up to their standards. How I disgrace my whole family.”

“But you know that’s not true.”

“Tell my father that.” Jess sighed. “You’re so lucky, Cece. Your parents—they don’t care about all that. They’re just glad they have you, right? And they’ve probably loved you unconditionally since they got you.”

Cece didn’t know what to say.

Jess took in a deep breath. “This is so dumb. I can’t believe I’m letting myself get worked up over this.” She yanked a tissue out of a box on her desk. “I just wish ... my father understood
me
, you know?”

Cece nodded.

“Anyway ...” Jess straightened. “What matters most is that I know who I am and what I want.” She swiped at her eyes with the tissue. “If I can remember that, then no one can hurt me. Including him.”

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then finally, Cece said, “Jess, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and forced a smile. “A new pair of shoes and I’ll be fine.”

Cece smiled.

Jess pulled the concubine dress off her bed. “You can play my part, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Then try this on. I only have tonight to make adjustments. I leave tomorrow.”

“
Tomorrow?
So soon?”

“Cece, I held out as long as I could. My father wanted me home when I failed midterms.”

“So how did you get him to let you stay?”

“I told him I had to finish what I was doing for you guys, and of course, he couldn’t let
his daughter
screw up things for other people. He gave me two weeks, and that ends tomorrow.” Jess held up the dress. “Now come on.”

Cece got up, then looked right into Jess’s eyes. Her roommate looked more determined than ever. Cece took the costume. “Jess?”

“What is it, C?”

“I just wanted to say ...” Cece bit her lip, thinking about her situation. How hesitant she was to confront her own problems. How afraid. “Well, I just wanted to say... I wish I had your courage.”

Jess smiled. “Thanks, Cece.”

 

Early the next morning, Jessica set her bags by the door, and they said their good-byes.

“E-mail me, okay?” Cece said.

“I will.” Jessica hung her purse over her shoulder. “Oh, and before I go... I wanted to wish you luck with Will.”

Cece tensed. She wasn’t sure if Jess was being sarcastic or serious. “Um ... what?” Though it was no secret that she and Will had been hanging out, she didn’t think Jess had been around enough to notice.

“Cece, you must think I’m brain-dead,” Jess said. “Ever since I saw you two chatting it up at the club, I knew you liked him, though I didn’t want to admit it.”

“Really?”

“Who
doesn’t
think he’s hot, C? And the guy is crazy about you, too. Has been since the beginning. Whenever I was with him, all he did was ask where you were, when you were going to come out with us. ... It drove me nuts.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. And I guess it would have been nice if I had mentioned that to you, but you know ...” She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“I understand.” Though Cece wasn’t exactly thrilled that Jess had held out on her, she was glad she had told her. It was reaffirming to know her earlier suspicions about Will had been right.

“Anyway, I had to get that off my chest. Confession time is now up! I better go if I want to get to the airport early. I’m dying to buy some duty-free stuff.” She gave Cece a hug.

Someone knocked. “That’s gotta be Chris,” Jess said. “He’s helping me take my things down.” She grabbed the handle to one of her suitcases. “I’ll keep in touch, Cece. Bye!”

After Jess left, Cece leaned against the door. She was sad to see her roommate go. But as Cece moved away from the door, she smiled.

Jess was going after what she wanted now.

And that was something to be happy about.

That Thursday, Cece was sitting at her desk in her half-empty room. Without Jess’s things around, the place looked about as bleak as her culture paper. All she had written was a giant tirade about how Chinese people didn’t value girls, with little evidence to back it up. “Show me facts,” Professor Hu had written in the margins. “Must have facts.”

Cece tried searching for data online. How many girls were abandoned in China prior to the enactment of the one-child policy? How many were abandoned after? She couldn’t find hard numbers about female population in Chinese orphanages. She found only a figure for both boys and girls combined. According to China World News, only twenty thousand children were in state care in 2002.
Out of 1.2 billion people?
The number seemed way too low. It didn’t make sense.

She tried to see if anyone had done studies on China’s orphanages that might support her theory. She came across one report by the Human Rights Watch from 1996. It stated, “The vast majority of children in orphanages are, and consistently have been during the past decade, healthy infant girls; that is, children without serious disabilities who are abandoned because of traditional attitudes that value boy children more highly.” But the source of that information was from “anecdotal and journalistic reporting.” So was that fact? She didn’t think so.

Cece decided to go at the information from another angle. She wanted to see if there were data that might show a disparity between how women were treated in this country versus men—something that might indicate that girls were indeed less valued than boys. Did women have unequal access to higher education? She looked at enrollment figures for universities and found that almost half of the student population in China was female.
Hmm
... that didn’t help. She expected the difference to be enormous. She then looked at labor force statistics. Again, nothing that would suggest women did not have equal opportunities at work.