“You have to take her to the hospital,” Gu Ma said.
“You think I don’t want to?” cried Sai Ma. “But we have no car, and even if we did, the roads are flooded. At this point, she’s better off dead.”
I looked outside. Though it was day, the storms had charred the sky black. The roads were empty, and I couldn’t even see what lay a meter ahead. What doctor would make a call in weather like this? The fact that Lily had made it to the house was a miracle.
“I’ll go,” I heard myself saying. “I’ll get the doctor.”
The storm hunted me. The trees were wailing, their boughs waving in surrender as the winds uprooted those unfit to resist. I ran, ducking flying branches as the rain pounded down, submerging me with its might. At some point I lost my shoes and no longer felt my feet hit the ground. I was wading across the streets, gasping because there was more water than air. Still I kept going.
Gu Ma had given me a list of addresses. First was Tung Wah Hospital, which wasn’t far from where Lily had been staying with the Tsangs, except I didn’t know whether the hospital was even open. Dr. Wong was closer. He lived only two kilometers from Harbourage Road, and he’d always been kind. Even if he wanted nothing to do with my family, I would beg and beg until he changed his mind. Lily was innocent. He had to save her.
My flashlight gave out right before I reached Dr. Wong’s house. The fence had toppled, and the stairs to the door had become a roaring waterfall. I fought my way up and seized thebronze knocker on the door. I pounded as hard as I could. “Dr. Wong! Dr. Wong!”
No one came. I tried to turn invisible and go through the door, but there was too much rain. I couldn’t hold my breath.
“Dr. Wong!” I cried again. I was being washed away, my fingers clinging to the knocker as though it were a lifeline.
It felt like an eternity that I hung there, my consciousness ebbing into the bleak dark of the storm. In my delirium I saw the window glowing, like the paper panes in my old house in Tunglam when the moon was full and bright. A woman appeared at the door. She looked like my mother until I realized she wasn’t.
“Mrs. Wong,” I croaked. “Lily—”
That was all I could manage before I collapsed into her arms.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The typhoon lasted three days.
Lily lasted four.
She’d contracted pneumonia, Dr. Wong determined. I held her hand while he administered penicillin, a miracle drug that he said had saved millions during the war. Her skin was hot, and when I entwined our fingers there was the softest smile on her young, freckled face. Everything should have been fine.
Except Lily was allergic to penicillin.
We couldn’t have known.
That last day, Lily spent every hour with her mother. She sat on her lap and let her braid her hair. Sai Ma even fed her with her own chopsticks.
I’d never seen Lily smile wider or laugh harder, even when she had been with me.
In the evening, after dinner and Dr. Wong’s visit to administer another dose of penicillin, I crept into my sister’s room. She’d been waiting for me.
“Are you hurt?” I asked right away. She was clutching her side.
“Cramps. It happens after a new dose, it’ll go away.” She patted the empty space next to her on the bed. Once I sat, she leaned on my shoulder. “Did you know the Tsangs have the most enormous book in their library? It’s an unabridged English dictionary, which means it has every word ever to exist. It’s only to look impressive, like their piano. But I was so bored that I read all the way up toh. Do you know whatharboragemeans?”
“Harborage, like the road we live on?”
“I only learned it last week,” she said. “It means a place where ships seek shelter. Isn’t that funny? Gu Ma’s house is all the way up in the hills. How could any ships seek shelter here?”
I didn’t share her musing. I was more worried about how flushed she looked, and the way she clutched her stomach, wincing. “You ought to rest, Lily. Once you get better, we’re running away. Remember?”
“I’ve been thinking...” Lily coughed, a strained wheezing sound. “Maybe there’s no need to run away. Mama’s been nice.”
Only because she thought you were going to die,I thought. Her words were slurring. I checked her temples for fever, but she was cool.
“Get better, and we can talk about it—”
“Do you think she’s changed?”
