My instinct had been right; Mei Lin was fascinated. The howls turned into quiet whimpers, and finally they just stopped. I took a video of the two of us, then I played it back. Mei Lin’s eyes opened wide, and she reached for the camera.
“No, you can’t have it, silly,” I told her. “Someday, when you get bigger, you can be a photographer just like me.”
Mei Lin took her hand away from the camera and reached for my hair instead.
“No, Mei Lin!” I said with a giggle as I unwrapped her hand from my thick braid. “Katherine worked very hard on that. Let’s make another video, okay?”
“Good thinking, Emily,” Dad said with a grin, and Mom patted my knee and smiled. I kept taking pictures and videos, and it worked like magic. It made Mei Lin forget about the trip to the orphanage, and it seemed to make Mom and Dad forget, too.
“I think I’m catching whatever Mei Lin has,” Mom said a little while later when she sneezed for about the hundredth time.
“Come to think of it,” Dad said, “My throat’s feeling a little sore.”
“I hope I’m not getting sick, too,” I said, sniffling just to be sure.
“You’ll be fine,” Dad said. “We’ll all feel better with a little rest.”
By the time we pulled up in front of the hotel, Mei Lin’s eyes were starting to close. Mom gave her some medicine as soon as we got to our room and put her right to bed. Then Mom took some medicine and went to bed, too.
Dad yawned and said, “Guess I better join them. Mei Lin had us up half the night.”
I didn’t protest, like I usually did. Part of me wished my parents would say something about what we’d just seen, and the other part of me wanted to try to forget about it altogether. The trip had worn everyone out, including me. I pulled out my book, trying to stop thinking about the way Mei Lin had sobbed when she had to leave her nanny.
The words danced around on the page and all I could see was the look of heartbreak in Mei Lin’s eyes.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I dropped my book on the table and jumped up to answer it.
Katherine stood in the hallway, grinning at me. “Hey, do you want to go to the gift shops downstairs? Mom and Dad said we could go if it’s all right with your parents. And look!” She held up a cell phone. “If there’s an emergency I can reach my parents any time.”
I peeked back into the room. There was no movement on any of the beds.
“Why don’t you leave a note for them?” Katherine whispered. “I’m sure it will be fine.” Katherine didn’t have to ask more than once. I’m getting pretty good at this, I thought, as I tore out a piece of paper and scribbled:
Mom and Dad,
I’m at Katherine’s. Here’s their cell phone number if you need me.
Love, Emily
I grabbed my backpack and closed the door quietly behind me. “Just practicing for when we get to Guangzhou,” I told her.
“Awesome!” Katherine said, giving me a high five. “So, I’ve been thinking, the perfect day to post the letter is next Monday.”
I counted quickly. Today was Wednesday, which meant we were going to carry out our plan in FIVE days. “But will we have enough time to figure everything out?”
“Sure,” Katherine said with confidence. “We fly to Guangzhou Saturday morning. It’s only a ninety-minute flight, so we’ll have half the day on Saturday and all of Sunday to explore Guangzhou with our families. Monday morning we go to the embassy, but we’ll have the afternoon to ourselves. That’s when we sneak out and put up the notes. We’re here until Saturday so that gives my birthmom the rest of the week to get in touch with me. What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “But how are we going to get to your finding spot? And what if it’s really far from the hotel?”
“I’ve already figured that out. It’s only 2.7 miles away. We could walk to the bus station and catch the Number 9 bus that will stop close by. Or, we can take a taxi. Mom and Dad gave me some spending money, and it shouldn’t cost too much.”
“Wow,” I said as I followed her into a gift shop. “Where is your finding spot, anyway?”
“It’s in a park.”
“Really? She just left you in the middle of a park?” As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth I wanted to take them back.
“It’s a finding spot,” Katherine said sharply. “It’s one of the places where the orphanage picks up babies. It’s better than an old movie theater, anyway.”
My mouth dropped open and I clapped it shut. Moms were leaving babies at abandoned movie theaters? “So,” I said, trying to change the subject, “what did you think of the orphanage?”
Katherine paused as she ran her fingers over a tea set. “I don’t really feel like talking about it, Emily.”
I swallowed. If I had purposely picked the wrong question to ask, I couldn’t have done a better job. If the trip had bothered me, I couldn’t imagine how it must have made Katherine feel.
For the next few minutes we wandered around the shop in silence.
“That’s pretty,” I finally said when Katherine fingered a turquoise dress made of embroidered fabric. There were stacks of them on a table in plastic bags.
“I think I’ll try it on. Mom said I could pick one out for myself and one for Madison. She turned to me. “You could buy a qipao, too, for the red sofa photos.”
When I gave her a puzzled look, she said, “In Guangzhou there’s this red sofa at The White Swan. That’s where everyone always takes pictures of the babies and their families. We have a picture of me and my adoption group on the red sofa when I was eleven months old.”
The lady who worked in the shop walked over to us and smiled. She was young, with blonde streaks woven into wavy hair that hung to her shoulders. She wore jeans, very high heels, long dangling earrings, and lots of gold bracelets. “Can I help you? Need try on?”
“Do you have a turquoise one, in my size?” Katherine asked.
“You like the dress or pants?”
“Dress.”
“No problem. How about you?” she asked me, but I shook my head.
“Green would look good on you,” Katherine said. “You should try one on.”
I shook my head again, so the lady handed a qipao to Katherine and she disappeared into the dressing room.
A couple of minutes later, Katherine stepped out in her turquoise outfit. “You look beautiful,” I told her, reaching for Nana’s camera.
“Thanks. Hey,” she said her eyes lighting up. “Am I one of the Unexpected Beauties for the contest?”
“Could be,” I said with a grin, happy that things were back to normal between us. As she stood there admiring herself in the mirror, her cell phone rang. “If it’s my parents, tell them we’ll be back in a second!” I said quickly.
Katherine reached for the phone. “Hello? Oh, hello, Mr. Saunders. Yes, she’s right here,” she said, handing it to me before disappearing back into the changing room.
“Hi, Emily,” Dad said. “You scared us for a minute there. Sure am glad you left a note.”
“You were sleeping,” I said. “I didn’t want to wake you up.”
There was a pause, like Dad was trying to figure out if he should give me a lecture about leaving when he was asleep. But then he said, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Well, we’re getting ready to take your sister to the playroom. We’ll meet you at the Bresners’, okay?”
“Um, they’re still resting,” I said quickly. “We’ll meet you at the playroom, all right, Dad?”
“Sure,” Dad said.
“See you in a few. Bye!” I said, hanging up before Dad changed his mind. “Come on,” I said when Katherine came out of the dressing room, breaking into a run. “We better take the steps. And don’t say a word about the shops—”
“Being sneaky is so much fun!” Katherine said. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHINA, DAY 5, 4/7/14
Dea
r Diary,
The orphanage was hard. Hard for me, hard for Mei Lin, and hard for Katherine. It’s one of those things I’d never thought about before. I knew Mei Lin was in an orphanage because she didn’t have parents to take care of her, but I never thought about what it meant until I saw it with my own eyes.
Now I wish we had never gone.
Luckily Mei Lin has forgotten all about it—she’s only eighteen months old, after all! And luckily, her fever didn’t come back, and no more puking either. She still has a stuffy nose which looks a little gross, but all the babies here have colds. Mom says it’s because they’re being introduced to new germs. So, I guess that means she’ll catch everything that comes along for a while. Fun, fun!
Also, there’s been something on my mind for a while that I haven’t shared with you. The good news is I have the perfect topic for the photojournalist contest. Hooray! Here’s the short title: Adopted Girl Finds Birthmom in China.
The bad news is I’ve agreed to help Katherine, who’s the subject of my project entry. That means a lot of lying and a lot of sneaking around. And while I’m excited about the adventure, I’ve never kept something big like this from my parents before.
And then there’s that other lie, the one that’s wearing a hole in the pit of my stomach. I haven’t told Katherine the truth about the contest. Yet. I mean, I plan to tell her about it before I send in the photos, and I’m sure she won’t care because by then I would have helped her find her birthmom and that’s all that will matter . . . but still. Something about what I’m doing feels very wrong.
We’re heading to the Pearl Market today, which sounds a lot better than some old brick building!
Love,
Emily (whose sister likes cameras a lot too!)
Over the next couple of days, Lisa Wu kept us busy with lots of shopping. We went to all kinds of gift shops with more art, clothes, furnishings, and tea sets. My favorite place was the Pearl Market, a two-story mall full of bead shops. You could find any kind of bead you wanted, in every shape and in a rainbow of colors, but everyone was most interested in the pearl necklaces. That’s because pearls are really expensive everywhere but China.
“Aren’t you getting one for Mei Lin?” Katherine asked as I sat beside her while she strung a necklace for Madison. “Mom made a pearl necklace and bracelet for me when I was a baby. Only I’ll have to wait until I’m eighteen—it’s the tradition.”
I shrugged. “I don’t think she’s planning on it. Eighteen’s a long time to wait for a gift.”
Katherine wrinkled up her nose. “I know. But you should do it. Mei Lin would really like it.”
I looked over at Mei Lin in her stroller, reaching for a necklace. I giggled. “You’re probably right. I’ll go talk to Mom.”
A few hours later, we walked out of the shops with a pearl necklace for Mei Lin and a bracelet for me with blue beads the color of the ocean. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait until I was eighteen to wear mine.
On Friday, our last day in Changsha, Lisa said we were going to spend some time exploring the city. We visited a park along the river that had tons of old statues and big trees with thick branches covered with moss. It didn’t look so different from a park you might see in the United States, except for the people.
A bride in a floofy white dress and big sunhat was getting her picture taken. I spotted a few couples who were ballroom dancing in the middle of the square, a jambox booming out old-fashioned music. Then we passed a large group gathered to exercise together, but they were doing it without making a sound. They stood with their arms and legs in different positions, like balancing on one foot with their hands on their hips.
“It’s called Tai-ji,” Lisa explained as we watched the group move in slow motion to another position, raising a hand above their heads and sticking one leg straight out in front of them. “It’s a form of meditation.”
It was sort of like yoga, but a lot more interesting. Plus, no one was giving commands like “Downward Facing Dog!” or “Sun Salutation, now breathe . . .”
The people looked a lot like the stone statues in the park, except they were alive. I reached for my camera and started snapping pictures.
We watched the Tai Chi people for a long time, and then we walked on the paved trail circling the lake. Mom pushed Mei Lin in the stroller while Katherine and I ran ahead. This time I was able to pull out Nana’s camera to take some great photos of Katherine as she stood on the bridge overlooking the lake. I about jumped right out of my skin when someone tapped me on my shoulder. Had my parents suddenly picked up speed on their stroll, and caught me in the act?
An older gentleman held up his camera and smiled at me.
I quickly slipped Nana’s camera back in the bag.
Katherine’s mouth dropped open. “He wants to take your photo! He thinks you’re someone famous!” she squealed.
“It’s the hair,” I said, twisting a curl around one finger. Katherine just giggled and leaned in close to me as he snapped the photo.
“Two for the price of one,” she joked. The old man nodded his thanks and walked away. “Come on!” I grabbed Katherine’s hand and took off down the trail before anyone else got the same idea.
After the park, Lisa Wu took us on a tour of Changsha. We drove through the downtown, where big skyscrapers stood next to little shops selling meat on a stick. I bet they sold fried bugs, too, but I decided to keep that to myself.
A man stood in the middle of the street on a little platform. He was holding an umbrella, even though it wasn’t raining, directing traffic. Horns honked and lots of cars swerved in and out of lanes and it was all very exciting.
“Okay. Now it is time to see the finding spots for your babies,” Lisa Wu said after we’d been driving around for a while. That’s when it got really quiet in the van. Katherine turned around in her seat and gave me a knowing look.
“It’s where the moms left their babies,” Dad explained to me since he had no idea I already knew all about it. “They picked places where they knew people from the orphanage would be looking for them.”
“Why didn’t they just bring her to the orphanage?” I asked.
Dad shook his head. “It’s the way things are done. Shhh, listen,” he said as the van pulled up in front of a social welfare building and Lisa started calling out names.
The building was old with moss growing over it. It reminded me of one of those creepy orphanages you see in movies, even though it wasn’t an orphanage at all. I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t say Mei Lin’s name.
Luckily, she didn’t, and a few minutes later we pulled up in front of another park with big shady trees. “This is the finding spot for Mei Lin and Sylvie,” Lisa announced.
I clamped a hand over my mouth.
I stared out at the park, trying to imagine it. She’d been just a tiny baby, only a few days old. What if it had started to rain? Goosebumps raised up on my arms. I ran my hands over them, as if suddenly it was the middle of winter instead of a warm muggy day. She might have only been a few days old, but she had to know she was being left behind.
How long did Mei Lin cry as she waited for someone to find her?
“How old was she?” I whispered to Mom.
“They think she was five days old.”
“So, they don’t know for sure? They don’t know when her real birthday is?”
“They estimated. It’s probably close enough”—”
“But how could her mother just leave her there?”
Mom put her arm around me. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy . . . but she couldn’t keep her baby.”
“Did someone tell her to leave her at the park? How did she know what to do?”
Mom looked over at me, her eyes shining. “The mothers in China know about the orphanages and how they work,” she said quietly. “They don’t feel like they have a choice, Em. But they know the babies will find good homes.”
In just a few days, I’d help Katherine put up a note at her finding spot. Sta
ring out at a tree with thick mossy branches, I thought about the mom who had to leave her baby behind. I hoped with all my heart that Katherine’s birthmom would have a chance to see that her baby had turned out just fine, and to learn that Katherine loved her birthmom even though she’d given her up.
My eyes flickered to Mei Lin, asleep in my mom’s lap. The van started moving again, driving toward the places the other babies had been left. Tears filled my eyes. I reached out to hold Mei Lin’s hand. Mei Lin’s fingers curled on top of mine, holding on tight.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
GUANGZHOU, CHINA, Day 7, 4/9/14
Dear Diary,
Today we flew to Guangzhou on a teeny tiny plane. Our hotel is called the White Swan, and it is fantastic!
There have been a lot of changes in a week. I’ve become a world traveler, a big sister, and I’ve made a new friend.
I stopped and twirled my hair around my finger. All these things were great, but my heart was weighed down with worries, new ones to replace the ones I’d written down before leaving for our trip.
I’ve been doing a lot of lying lately, and I don’t feel too good about that.
I checked off the list in my head: Lying to my parents about Nana’s camera, lying to my parents when I’d been sneaking out of the hotel room while they were sleeping, not telling Katherine the truth about what I was planning for my contest entry, not telling my parents that I was going to help Katherine find her birthmom.
I thought about all the things I’d done and what I was about to do on Monday. I’d collected a lot of secrets lately, but maybe I hadn’t really told out-and-out lies:
1) Nana’s camera—I didn’t lie exactly. I just didn’t tell my parents I was bringing it, so that’s a big difference. Besides, I had to bring it to take special enough photos to win the contest.
2) Sneaking out of the hotel room when my parents are sleeping -They haven’t found out about it, and finding adventure is one of my goals, so this one’s okay, isn’t?
I chewed on a strand of hair. This next one was really bothering me, but maybe if I wrote it down it wouldn’t sound so awful.
Emily Out of Focus Page 9
