She patted my shoulder and said she was proud of him. While Paul wandered the shelves with a basket, adding items on a list his grandmother had given him, I told Mai I was Korean and selected individually packaged baked goods on a shelf by the counter. They might tempt Channing and me to eat. She nodded approvingly at my choices and slipped free samples of coconut candy and black sesame cookies into my basket.
“My cousin came here a couple of weeks ago to buy ginseng tea,” I said.
“Usually, I recommend this one,” she replied, and handed me a gold-colored box. “Drinking because she likes the taste or for a problem?”
“She had cramps, from her period,” I explained.
“Then yes, this one, and who am I kidding, no one likes the taste.” She laughed.
“My cousin does. She said your store used to be in town.”
Mai smiled even broader. “So many years ago, right in town. A small, small shop that was next door to the lawyer’s office,” she said.
“Which lawyer?” I asked.
“Next to the newspaper,” she said. On the shelf next to the register, there were four stacks of newspapers: theBoston Globe,theBoston Herald,theProvidence Journal,and theEast End Courier. She tapped the last one.
Paul nodded, “Right, that’s where the Bike and Basket is now.” He turned to me. “Where we had that supreme croissant and scones.”
“I was downstairs and the lawyer was upstairs,” she said. “She owned the building; very good landlady.”
“That used to be Mrs. Shin’s office,” Paul said. “Channing’s mother. That’s Dahee’s aunt.” He pointed to me. I knew my aunt had been a lawyer, but I had never visited her office.
Mai gave me a long hug and then said as she released me, “Your aunt? Why didn’t you say so when you came in?” She beamed. “Maggie was a big help to me.” She reached into the pocket of a shirt she was wearing and put a piece of mango candy in my hand and one in Paul’s. She took a tissue from a box on the shelf and wiped her nose. “If only she hadn’t gotten sick. I’m so sorry. So much would have been different for so many people, including me. I would still have my store there. Maybe even have expanded.”
I agreed that everything would have been different and that I was sorry she didn’t have her store in East End. “So many more Asian families in East End now,” I said. And then something she said struck me as curious.
“What did my aunt’s death have to do with your ability to stay?” I asked.
“You see, my mother was Vietnamese and my father Japanese. I wanted to open a food hall, for all kinds of Asian food. I’d invite other people to join me: Filipino and Thai, South Asian, Taiwanese and others. Big variety. Maggie and I had plans. Can you imagine?”
I’d never heard of such a place near East End. It would have drawn people from all over the area. “What happened? Why did you have to leave?” I asked, leaning in.
“A company from Boston was going to build a big hotel on the water, and people were very excited about it. It was good for the whole town, anda group of Korean families—like your aunt’s—were going to invest with them. If it went through, there would be more business in town, and East End would be a big tourist destination. Maggie told me she was going to buy the building on the other side. Together, both buildings would have been enough space.” She paused and sniffed. Her voice wavered. Even now, after all these years, the disappointment seeped through her voice.
“That’s a restaurant and a pub now,” Paul explained.
Mai shook her head and looked up with sadness in her eyes as if she were reliving it. I squeezed her arm.
“And then it was over. No more news of expansion, no nothing. Maggie got sick and then she died; it was over. I didn’t understand why the building had to be sold, why no one explained. It was a sad time. People said Maggie’s husband had to sell the building because he stole money from the investors, but then why didn’t he have money to keep the building? Where did the money go?”
Over the years my parents had spoken in hushed tones of my uncle’s financial problems. I knew he had worked as a banker of some sort. “My uncle wouldn’t steal money. He was destroyed when my aunt died. He couldn’t function, I’m sure he just wasn’t able to follow through on the project, I’m sorry that happened to you,” I said.
“It was in the news, about the stolen money. I knew if Maggie was alive, she would have been so disappointed at the way people gossiped.” She raised her palms open to the ceiling. “When the building was sold, I moved out here.” She motioned to the store we were in. “It’s far from town. Hardly anyone comes. Some days I have no customers.”
I put a few more items into my basket. Paul threw in some, too. Mai tsked and made sounds as if she was scolding us. “Don’t feel sorry for me,” she said.
I told her I wasn’t. “There are a lot of people to feed at the Yuns’ house,” I said. Paul agreed. “The people of East End lost out. A food hall in town would be so great. They’d love it.”
“I know, I would love it, too.” She took a breath and started to ring up our purchases. “We have to keep going. Never give up. Sometimes out of sadness comes happiness.” She clucked her tongue as she punched in the register. Her prices were lower than I expected. “I hired someone to help me paint and do the work here, and then he had a friend who’s an electrician and now we’re married, me and the electrician,” she continued. “I would have never met him if I hadn’t lost my store in town.”
She laughed and wiped her cheeks. “Okay—I want a big grocery and food court and Roger, too. I got only part of it but if I had to choose, I would choose him.” I squeezed her arm again, and she smiled through her tears at me. “Remember, keep going.” She looked straight into my eyes. She reminded me of my aunt just then, though they hardly resembled each other.
“I will,” I found myself promising her.
She nodded, then ducked below the counter and pulled out a crumpled issue of theEast End Courier. “Now, they’re growing the business district and allowing development on the water. Did you hear about it?” She showed us the article. I saw Ames’s byline.
It read almost like a political ad. I was surprised that Ames had written it.
