Red Skies (The Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters) (27 page)

“It’s going to be a big day,” Mari said. She led Max to the end of the hall and they went into the stairwell. She sat down on the top stair and patted for him to join her.

“Huge,” Max agreed.

“I just wanted to talk to you about what’s happening after we leave Mei and An Ni. My parents have talked me into going home with them for a while, just to get my head together.”

Max nodded. Mari couldn’t tell whether he was sad to hear she was leaving or not.

“You think An Ni will agree to stay with Mei?” Max asked.

“I hope so. It’s her only chance at having a family again.”

The quiet felt so loud between them that Mari was uncomfortable. She felt they both had more to say, but neither wanted to speak the words.

“I’ll be headed back to the States, too,” he said, breaking the silence.

Mari hesitated. She needed to stop being so culturally correct. There were some things that didn’t need to be left unsaid. At least she could get out part of it. “Max, I want to thank you.”

He looked confused. “Thank me? For what?”

“For being my friend.”

He smiled at her. “You don’t need to thank me for that, Mari. It goes both ways. Because of you, I’ve learned so much about myself. But what will you do now? Are you sure you want to leave Beijing?”

“Just for a short time. Then I’ll be back. I need time to mourn my husband, but then I’ll be on my own. I need to learn to live without him. I need to learn to live without anyone. I don’t really remember much of my life before my baba found me, so basically I went from being loved and sheltered by him and mama, to being supported by Bolin.”

“So you’ve never been on your own?”

She shook her head. It was embarrassing, but it was true. “No, I haven’t. But it’s time I learn how to stand on my own two feet.”

“It looks to me, with your husband’s troubles and even the loss of your business, that you were the one shouldering the responsibilities—and doing a fine job of it, if you ask me.”

Mari shrugged. He didn’t know how close she’d come to total ruin. “Maybe. But I always felt Bolin was there if I needed him. Until he wasn’t. And I never want to feel so hopeless again. That means I need to figure this thing called life out and decide where I want it to lead.”

Max took her hand and looked at her, his stare intense. “Me, too. Hopefully I’ll see you again and I’ll have become half the man I used to be. But for now, let’s get these girls started on the right track again. What do you say?”

Mari would’ve liked to ask him more about what he meant, but he was right. They needed to get on the road. Mei’s family was likely pacing the floor, waiting to be reunited with their spunky girl.

She stood. “
Hao le
, I’m ready.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

A
s the van bumped along, Mari adjusted one of the ribbons she’d tied to Mei’s braids. She knew she was being fidgety and nervous, but she couldn’t help it. What if somehow they were wrong? Or what if Mei didn’t want to stay? And what would they say about An Ni? So many questions swirled in her mind as the driver Max had hired weaved in and out of traffic. She sat between the girls, and she couldn’t stop touching them—squeezing their hands, playing with their hair, anything to get one last memory in before they were gone.

But she could barely look at An Ni. The pain she got in her heart from just thinking about saying good-bye to her was overwhelming. Mei was going back to her family, but An Ni—she was simply being transferred to yet another place. Mari prayed it would be a good one. She suddenly wished it was a much longer ride to the Liulichang market.

“Don’t forget your crickets,” Mari said, looking at the two small cages sitting on the console between the driver and Max.

“But where are we going?” Mei asked for the third time. An Ni hadn’t asked at all, and Mari felt guilty again that she hadn’t prepared An Ni for what was about to take place.

“Somewhere special,” her mama said from the backseat, where she sat with Mari’s baba.

Mari had taken the girls down the street for a short walk while Max had loaded all their clothes and things into suitcases and then into the back of the van. Now Mari was second-guessing the entire surprise plan, wishing she’d sat them down and discussed what was about to take place, like her baba had recommended. But Mari had stood her ground. Now she knew he was right.
Why do I always screw everything up?

“Mei, I have something to tell you,” she said.

Max turned in his seat and gave her a questioning look. “Mari?”

They’d determined together that Mei’s reaction was important in knowing if they were right in leaving her with the family who would claim to be hers. But maybe Mari hadn’t thought it through well enough. What if Mei got scared? What if there was a reason she’d been separated from them that they didn’t know about?

Mari took a deep breath. “If we found your family, would you want to go home?”

First surprise, then a flash of joy replaced by wariness crossed Mei’s face. “Why? Have you found them?”

Mari bit her lip, hesitating.

“Just tell us, Mari,” An Ni said, her eyebrows coming together in a scowl.

Mei looked outside the windows. They were now on the main street near the antique market, literally blocks from the clock shop. All around them, people bustled back and forth, shopping or walking arm in arm. “This looks familiar,” she said.

Mari felt a burst of hope that they were in the right place and doing the right thing. The driver turned down the side road, and then it was too late to say more—they were within sight. It would all unfold now. For good or not, they’d know Mei’s fate in minutes.

As instructed, the driver pulled up to the curb a half block in front of the shop and turned off the motor. Mei stared out the window, and Mari watched her face carefully. She saw the exact second that Mei’s face transformed with recognition and she bolted up from her seat.

“This is it—my Ye Ye’s street!”

Max hopped out of the van and came to open the side door for them. Mari got a glimpse of An Ni’s face and knew immediately that she was skeptical, despite the guarded expression that she’d perfected.

Mei climbed out of the van and stood looking up and down the street, holding her cricket cage close to her body. Mari could tell she knew the shop was close, but she wasn’t sure in which direction. Mari stood aside as her mama and baba climbed out and stood with her. An Ni still sat in the van, looking around.

“An Ni, are you coming?” Mari asked.

An Ni shook her head. She looked afraid.

Mei suddenly pointed across the street to a giant teapot perched atop the building.

“Look An Ni, the teapot!” She exclaimed.

An Ni didn’t respond, but she lowered her head enough to see the teapot out the window.

Max gently nudged Mari aside and climbed into the van. He sat beside An Ni and spoke so quietly to her that Mari didn’t catch what he said. But when he was finished, An Ni nodded and climbed out, with him following behind her.

“You forgot your cricket, An Ni.” Mari pointed at the cage that still sat on the seat.

An Ni ignored her. Instead she nodded at Mei to come along, and the two of them made their way down the sidewalk. They went slow, Mei taking care not to hurry An Ni because of the clumsiness of her cast and crutches. But An Ni had learned to maneuver well with the inconvenience, and with just a few looks back at Max to see that she was headed in the right direction, they continued on.

Mari and Max followed behind them, with her parents taking up the rear of the procession. Mari felt as though her heart was in her throat, and she concentrated on breathing in and out, hiding her anxiety.

“What did you tell An Ni?” Mari asked Max.

He leaned in and whispered, “I told her about Mei’s grandfather and asked her if she wanted to be the one to lead Mei home. She said yes, because she promised the girl weeks ago when it was just the two of them that she’d help her get there someday.”

Mari wished she’d thought of that. What an amazing gesture for Max to do for An Ni. He never ceased to surprise her. “Did you tell her about the family possibly taking her in?”

He shook his head. “No, because if they decide against it, I don’t want her to be disappointed or feel any shame.”

Hurrying their pace, they caught up to An Ni and Mei.

“Turn here, girls,” Mari said when they came to the corner.

They continued down the narrow side street until the store came into view, mostly recognizable from the crowd gathering on the walkway in front of it. Mari could see Lao Feng Ji sitting on a short stool. What had to be his son and daughter-in-law were on either side of him, with at least a dozen other people behind them, all looking around. When finally the old man’s eyes alighted on An Ni and Mei, he slowly rose and shielded the sun from his eyes with his hand, squinting to get a better look.

The girls drew closer, and the woman beside Feng Ji shrieked and broke from the crowd. It was obvious that she was Mei’s mother. She carried herself in the same way and possessed the same stocky body and short but strong-looking legs. Even her rounded cheeks looked like Mei’s—bright rosy splotches, looking like two ripe apples. “Maelyn!”

An Ni and Mei stopped in their tracks as the young woman ran toward them. Just before she reached them, Mei dropped hands with An Ni and met the woman in the middle. The woman threw her arms open wide, and Mei hesitated.

Mari watched closely as Mei studied the woman’s face, searching. “Mama?”

The young woman nodded. “It is you—my Maelyn!”

That was all it took for Mei to accept that it was for was real. She set her cricket cage down on the sidewalk, then threw herself into the open arms and sobbed against her mother. As everyone watched, the two held each other and rocked back and forth. After an instant, a man joined them, and judging from his emotion and the way he threw his arms around both Mei and her mother, it was the father.

Mari felt her eyes well up. Max put his arm around her and squeezed. She knew what that silent gesture meant—they’d done it. There were millions more out there lost, but at least they’d reunited one child with her family. And it felt good. Then she noticed that An Ni still hadn’t moved. She stood in the middle of the sidewalk, leaning on her crutches as she watched the scene around her. Mari moved up until she was beside her, then looked down and saw a smile playing across An Ni’s face. She felt a sense of relief.

An Ni turned to Mari. “But how?”

“Max recognized the picture she drew, and we came and just started asking,” Mari said.

An Ni shook her head. “They were this close all the time? It just can’t be.”

Max joined them. “It can and it is, An Ni.”

Mari was proud that he’d caught their words and processed them, then answered so eloquently in Mandarin. His weeks of immersion with her family were paying off, and his vocabulary was soaring because of it.

“
Guo lai; guo lai
,” Lao Feng Ji called out to them, and Mari felt her baba’s hand on her back, urging her on.

“Let’s go meet them,
nuer
,” he said.

Mari took An Ni’s hand and then began walking, bringing her to Mei’s family and what would hopefully be hers too.

Max watched Mari and the girls from across the room. The three of them huddled together, Mei pointing out her favorite clocks and some family photos hung around the walls. Mei’s mother and father sat together and watched their daughter, never taking their eyes from her as she chattered to An Ni and Mari.