“Shoes,” I replied.
“Not just shoes. We makerubber-soledshoes—and boots! Our shoes are sent across the world, as far as California and Australia. A few months ago, we started making house slippers.”
The jade beads on Gu Ma’s bracelets pushed against my skin. “Your mother must have taught you how to sew—why don’t you come to the factory? It’ll be good for you to see what your family does.”
I balked. “I’d like to, but Baba promised to send me to school.”
“School?” repeated Gu Ma. “Look at me, I didn’t go to school and I have a driver and a brand-new DeSoto from America, and a factory with over forty workers.”
You wouldn’t have been able to get all those things without a husband,I thought, but I wisely kept silent.
“An educated woman is a worthless woman,” said Gu Ma, quoting Confucius. “These days, school is for ugly girls who will wear glasses and become a man’s secretary. Do you want that future?”
“But—”
“Then what’s a girl like you need school for?” Gu Ma pressed. “You’ll learn more in the factory than from books, and you’ll make two a day.” She spoke as if two Hong Kong dollars was a fortune, when now—since the war had ended—it was barely enough to buy a pineapple bun and sugarcane juice. “Your grandmother sent you here to help the family. I’m family.”
My heart sank. I looked to Sai Ma, who reached for my fingers to squeeze them. Gu Ma held the power in the house. She could do nothing to save me.
I looked to Baba, but, caught between his wife and his sister, he merely sank into his cigarette. Behind him, Susu lifted theneedle from the record, and the song gave a whimper before the last note trailed off.
It was the sound of all my dreams whining down into the rubbish.
Chapter Nine
I started work the next morning. It was a misty day, with lacy strands of fog coiling about the trees. Gu Ma was sitting in the back of her beloved DeSoto eating a pear while her driver cleaned a splat of bird droppings from the windshield. When she saw me she locked the door.
“Good morning, Gu Ma, I thought I would ride with you.”
She rolled up the window halfway. “It wouldn’t do for you to come with me—my workers would think I was playing favorites. Don’t look upset, I told your brother the same thing: It’s a privilege to work from the bottom to the top.” She reached into her purse, taking out a round leather wallet. “Besides, I have an important job for you.”
She beckoned me close and said, “I need you to be my ears in the factory.”
“What do you mean?”
“A powerful woman like me has enemies. My rivals are jealous my factory has done well, and they’ve been trying to poach my best workers, and... well, just listen to the girls talk. Most of it will be gossip, but if you hear any nasty rumors, tell me.”
“You mean, be a spy?”
“I knew you were a smart girl.” Gu Ma handed me twenty cents for bus fare. “A treat for your first day.”
A treat? Did that mean I would be walking from now on?
“Mrs. Dang knows to expect you,” she continued, “but I haven’t told her you’re my niece. It’ll be better that way.”
Gu Ma fluttered her fingers, and the driver handed me a folded orange cloth.
“This is your uniform.”
It was an apron, bright pumpkin, and poorly sewn with fraying threads. Ironic, since it was for the seamstresses to wear. When I put it on, it hung past my knees.
“Don’t forget we are family,” Gu Ma said, cranking the window closed. “Family suffers together and rises together. Most of all, family stays together.”
The car drove away, leaving me to inhale the exhaust.
I’d never taken the bus before and went the wrong direction, not noticing until I was well along the route. How was I going to make a good impression on Gu Ma if I was late on my first day?
Make yourself useful to her,Sai Ma had advised,and I’m sure she’ll change her mind.
