“Years passed. Pockface had children of her own and her family became prosperous. Then she began to dream of her fish, who begged to be returned to the water so it could go to heaven. Plagued by these nightmares, she finally took the slippers to the river. She tossed one into the water, but she couldn’t bear to let go of the other.One should appease the fish,she thought. She returned home and asked her husband to turn the remaining slipper into a charm for her bracelet. After that, she thought no more of it.
“A month later, her husband was lost to sea, and that winter took away Pockface’s two oldest sons. Heartbroken, she fell gravely ill. Before she died, she called for her daughter, who had an exceptional memory, and instructed her to return the bracelet to the river. But Pockface was too ashamed to tell the story of her broken promise, so the girl remained ignorant of the bracelet’s true origins. When it came time, she couldn’t bear to throw away her mother’s most prized possession. She kept it for herself, thinking she was honoring her.”
Marigold returned the bracelet to me. “And so began our family’s curse.”
I draped the golden chain over my hand, studying its forked links as they rested on the lines of my palm. They did look like fish bones.
And the charm? For so long, I’d thought it was a lucky peanut. Now I couldn’t unsee that the tiny freckles on the gold were fish scales, the oblong shape clearly a slipper. Chinese people never gave shoes as gifts—it meant to wish someone a rough and unlucky life.
“A fishbone Cinderella.” I couldn’t help laughing; the irony was too much. “To think, my mother gave me this bracelet believing it might protect me from our curse.”
“She didn’t know,” replied Marigold. “But now we do. We can fulfill the promise that our ancestors never did.”
“I was wondering why you wanted to come to the harbor.” I beheld my daughter in quiet wonderment. “Can it be as easy as that?”
“Sometimes the hardest things are the easiest.”
It had stopped drizzling, and as the clouds began their exodus, Marigold closed the distance between us with one step. She blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Ready?”
I drew back a step. “Wait.”
“What’s the matter?”
I didn’t know how to broach it, so I started with something else first. “I was thinking of the first time I heard the story of Yeh Shen. I’d just lost this charm.” I touched the dangling slipper, my mouth bittersweet with the taste of fate. “A friend found it. Somehow he got to telling me the story.”
“Was your friend Tommy Yeung, the chairman of Peaksoy?”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that she knew. “He was a boy when I met him.”
“You were in love with him.”
“Yes,” I said. “Until he married someone else.”
I tried to hide it, but still came the quiet crack in my voice. Even after so many years, I couldn’t think about Tommy without bitterness.
“He divorced her after two years,” Marigold revealed. “The reason he spearheaded that big campaign looking for you was because...”
“Because he still loved me?” I said. I held in a sigh. “Even if I’d known, I wouldn’t have changed anything. I was married. I had a child. I wouldn’t leave for someone who’d broken my heart before.”
Wind from the sea tousled Marigold’s hair. This daughter of mine was no stranger to heartbreak. I was to blame for that, yet still she tried to comfort me.
She said, seriously, “Do you ever wonder what might have been?”
I gave myself away by flinching. “Sometimes.”
“You could see him. We’re in Hong Kong—”
To that, I gave a vigorous shake of my head. “Your father and I might not have had the happiest of marriages, but I don’t regret marrying him.” I was holding the bracelet in my fist, and I uncurled my fingers for one last look. “Because of you. You and your sisters.”
Marigold was moved. She leaned her head on my shoulder, whispering, “I’m glad you’re back, Mama.”
“Me too.” I stroked her hair. For so long, I’d been afraid I would lose her. Never would I have guessed that she would be the one to save me. I owed her more than I could repay. But I could start.
“Do you ever think about Kenji?”
It was Marigold’s turn to flinch. From the way her entire body tensed, shoulders going straighter than the horizon, I knew she’d never stopped loving the boy.
She looked to the sea, watching a gull dive, skimming the waves with its wing. “A friend told me he moved to Japan for a job.”
