by Anne R. Tan
So a trip to the big box retail store wasn’t exactly “shopping,” but it was more convenient than traipsing through the mom-and-pop stores in downtown Gold Springs or driving to Sacramento. Either option would have taken up her entire afternoon. It wasn't like Fanny would know any different. Or at least Raina hoped she didn’t.
“Excuse me,” said a thickly accented voice from behind her.
Raina turned. “Yes?”
The pixie-faced Chinese woman bit her lower lip. Her eyes darted nervously over Raina’s shoulder. The baby cradled in her arms slept as only an infant could with all the noise in the store.
Raina glanced over her shoulder, but couldn’t tell what the young mom was looking at. She squinted at the Chinese woman exiting the store. Did the woman have pink highlights? “Fanny!” She waved an arm. “Hey, Fanny! Over here!” The woman didn't turn around. Maybe the woman wasn't Fanny after all.
Something soft and warm pressed against her other arm. She whipped her head around to stare at the stranger who held out her baby with both hands.
“Can you hold baby for me? I need use potty. No place put baby inside.”
Raina took a step back, her arms held out automatically to ward off the intrusion into her personal space. “Ah, have we met?”
This was the strangest proposition she’d gotten in a while. Didn’t this woman know she shouldn’t trust a stranger with her child?
The woman pointed at the short hall next to them. “Potty.” She shook her head and made a buckling motion as if putting on a seat belt. “No place for baby.”
Raina assumed she meant there wasn’t a working baby changing station in a restroom stall. Cassie had often complained how difficult it was to pee while juggling a baby in a public restroom the few times she ran out the house for quick trips without her stroller.
The woman’s tailored clothes and Coach purse suggested she should have money to buy a stroller. Even the baby was clad in an expensive blue one-piece bodysuit. Of course, they could be knock-offs, not that Raina could tell the difference.
“I trust you with most precious gift, my son.” Her eyes widened as if she just had an important thought. “My name is Sui Yuk Liang. What your name, please?” She dropped the huge diaper bag next to Raina’s feet.
The conversation was beginning to have a surreal quality to it. “Raina Sun.” She glanced at the automatic sliding glass doors at the front of the store. Still no Fanny.
Sui Yuk nodded as if the exchange of their names solidified her trust. “You Chinese like me. You take care baby.” She thrust the baby into Raina’s arms and released her hold.
If Raina hadn’t grabbed the child, he would have hit the floor. Before she could utter a word, Sui Yuk disappeared into the hallway toward the women’s restroom. Raina sighed as she tucked the infant on her shoulder, cradling his head. How did she get herself into these situations? First Fanny and now this.
She should be more gracious and welcoming towards the foreign exchange student, but the two times she’d spent in Fanny’s company hadn’t left her with warm fuzzy feelings. But this was for her friend Brenda, who was too busy dealing with the Christmas orders for pies and cakes at the Venus Cafe. As the host family, Brenda or her husband Joe should be the ones helping Fanny with her shopping. But when Brenda asked if Raina could help out since she was close in age to Fanny, she had to say yes. She couldn’t jeopardize her special status as friends of the owners. The food was that good. And so was the discount.
Maybe ten o'clock meant something different in China. Not that Raina would know. The bus ride to Bullseye was straightforward and only took twenty minutes. She wouldn’t have agreed to meet Fanny at the store otherwise. If Fanny didn’t show up soon, Raina would have to spend her lunch trying to track down the foreign exchange student. What was that Chinese proverb? Duty was heavier than a mountain.
She glanced at the hall. Five more minutes and then she’d pop her head in the restroom. Did Sui Yuk have a diarrhea attack? She didn’t want to embarrass the young mom, but this would explain her desperate willingness to trust a stranger to watch her baby while she did the dirty deed.
“I was here first,” said an irritated male voice.
Raina glanced at the mile long line at the Starbucks.
A middle-aged man with a receding hairline glared at the barista behind the counter. “I have been waiting for the last fifteen minutes.” He pointed a tapered finger at the young woman stirring sugar into her cup. “She was behind me. Why did she get her coffee before me?”
Raina rolled her eyes. The holidays brought out everyone's best behavior.
The baby grunted and wiggled. Time to look for the baby's mama.
She hooked the diaper bag on one shoulder and made her way into the women's restroom. The diaper bag was heavier than Altas’ burden and just as bulky. Her left shoulder already ached from carrying it. Deck the Halls echoed between the stalls. She sidestepped around the two women waiting in line and ignored their frowns.
“Sui Yuk,” Raina whispered into the first stall. “Are you almost done? The baby is waking up.”
No answer.
She repeated her performance at the next stall.
“Go away.”
“Merry Christmas to you, too,” Raina muttered.
The woman in the next stall answered with a curt “Not here.”
Raina knocked on the last stall. Sweat beaded on the small of her back as an uneasy feeling twisted in her gut. “Sui Yuk, are you in here? The baby is waking up.”
“Wrong stall, hon,” the woman called out.
Raina must have crossed paths with Sui Yuk somehow. She hustled back to the front of the store. Her eyes scanned the area, but she didn’t see the mother anywhere. The baby started to root at her shoulder, making small ah-ah grunts. She patted his small back and prayed he would go back to sleep.
She trotted over to Guest Services and asked him to page Sui Yuk.
The sleepy eyed teenage guy shrugged. “Okay, madam.” He made the announcement over the P.A. system and turned to help another customer.
The baby pumped his fists as he opened his mouth and wailed. A loud squawk as if he knew a stranger held him. Other customers were now staring openly as they walked by.
Food. The baby must need food. Raina dropped the diaper bag on the floor and dug around for a bottle. No milk. Her armpits dampened as a hot flash of anxiety ran through her. What mother would leave home without a bottle? Geez, even if Sui Yuk was nursing, she should come back before her baby needed to eat.
Raina fumbled to unzip a small side pocket and pulled out a sheet of wrinkled notebook paper. Her eyes widened at the words.
PLEASE CALL 758-1889 IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO SUI YUK LIANG.
What a strange note, she thought. Jiggling the baby, she dialed the number, but it went straight to voicemail with a generic message to leave a callback number. Her message came out in a rush about Sui Yuk’s failure to reappear after using the restroom. She left her name and both her home and cell phone numbers, wincing at the panic in her voice.
She clutched her phone and stared at the display. Please call back.
The baby’s shriek pierced the area as if Raina held him over a boiling cauldron. She cradled his body and stuck her pinkie in his mouth. He sucked eagerly, but his tiny face crumbled as he realized her pinkie held no sustenance.
Maybe he didn't need food. Raina pulled the child closer and sniffed his diaper. Powder fresh. Her breath came out in a rush, grateful for the small favor.
Raina scanned the crowd again. No Sui Yuk appeared to claim her baby. Surely, a mother wouldn't just abandon her baby with a stranger.
She pressed her cell phone between her ear and shoulder as she bounced the child on her other shoulder. “Matthew, I’m holding a wailing baby, and I seem to have lost his mother.” She ignored the pointed looks from the other shoppers and explained the situation.
Matthew Louie was a homicide detective, but she didn’t know who else to call. And wit
h a police force of only fourteen people, including the chief, it really didn’t matter who she called. This would eventually make its way to the officer in charge of child abandonment cases.
The baby wiggled, and her phone slipped from her shoulder. It smashed onto the floor, and the back cover popped off. The battery slid across the white tiled floor and under the rows of shopping carts in front of her.
“Great!” she said to no one in particular.
She tucked the crying baby firmly into her arm and dropped to her knees. Patting the space underneath the shopping carts, she was self-conscious of her butt-in-the-air pose.
“Rainy, why aren’t you wearing the new underwear I got you? Your old ones leave too many panty lines,” a familiar voice said from behind her.
Someone snickered.
Raina straightened and shifted the baby to her other shoulder to even out the ringing in her ears. “Ha ha, grandma.”
Po Po glanced at the wailing infant. She smiled at the child, her face becoming a roadmap of laugh lines in a cloud of silver hair. The baby’s eyes widened for half a second, and his mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“You do know a baby is not like a cute dog. He’s not going to be a conversation starter with men,” her grandma said.
“I could use a hand here.”
As soon as he heard Raina’s voice, the baby started his crying again. Her body tensed, and heat rushed to her face.
“Let me have the little one.” Her grandma held the infant against one shoulder, shushing and swaying her body from side to side. The child relaxed and a finger found its way to his mouth.
Raina's eyes widened at the sight, but she didn’t waste an extra second to stare at the contrast between the pink-faced baby and the white haired elderly woman. She shoved the shopping carts aside to rescue her elusive battery.
The screen on her phone had a large crack across one corner. Her heart sank at the damage. She'd replaced her phone only a few months ago. Assembling the phone was a breeze, but the screen remained stubbornly black when she powered it on.
“Here. Use my smarty pants phone,” said Po Po.
Raina called Matthew again, but got his voice mail this time. She left a brief message with her location and handed the phone back to her grandma.
“Keep it for now in case he calls back,” said Po Po.
“What are you doing here? Miss spending your Saturday mornings with your favorite granddaughter?”
“My grandkids are like my toes. It’s kind of hard to pick one to chop off.” Po Po shifted the baby to her other shoulder. “So where is the famous foreign-exchange student? I figured you’ll bring her here. You’re not going to drive all the way to Sacramento when Bullseye basically has everything. I thought we could still have lunch after you’re done.” Po Po glanced at the baby. “But I didn’t realize you would acquire a baby. Rainy, you’re supposed to look for a husband first. The baby comes later.”
“She’s a no-show. Right now, I have more important things to worry about like finding out what happened to the baby’s mother.” Raina told her grandma what happened with Sui Yuk Liang.
“Why did you accept the baby? He’s cute and all, but if you had said no then you won’t be in this predicament.”
Raina sighed. “Because he reminds me of Lila. I would hope if Cassie was ever in a similar situation, someone would help her like I helped Sui Yuk Liang. What would you have done?”
“Exactly what you did. Come on, Rainy. Let me buy you a drink.”
The knot in Raina’s stomach loosened and the tension drained from her body. “Think I can have some alcohol in it?”
“Sure. I have a flask of vodka in my purse.”
Raina gave her grandma a peck on the cheek. “Love you.”
Po Po handed her a ten. “Why don’t I go by some formula and a bottle while you wait in the Starbucks line with the baby? I’d take the baby with me, except”—she lowered her voice into a whisper—“it’s dangerous where I’m going.”
“Um, sure.” The baby had fallen asleep by this time.
A few minutes later, Raina sipped an iced caramel macchiato at a small table. The baby still slept blissfully in her arm. The Saturday morning shoppers barely spared a glance at the two. Anonymity was a wonderful thing.
She tried the number in the diaper bag again, leaving another message and her grandma’s cell number.
“Let’s go. We need to get out of here. Now!” Po Po said when she came back. “We’ll call Matthew to come get the baby at your place once we’re on the road.”
“Matthew might be on his way already. He’s going to be pissed if we send him on a wild goose chase. And it’s raining like crazy. We should take the baby outside.”
Po Po glanced behind her. Her knuckles whitened around the handle of the plastic bags.
Raina followed her grandma’s gaze. Two men shouted at each other further down the store. A store associate tried to calm the men down. The taller man pointed at Po Po and spoke animatedly. The three of them started walking toward the Starbucks.
“Yo! The old Chinese woman. Where’s my Jiggle Me doll?” the taller man shouted.
“It’s the only one left in the area,” said the shorter man. “And it’s mine. I called the store to have them put it on hold for me.”
A woman stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at Po Po. “How much do you want for the Jiggle Me doll?” She whipped out a fifty dollar bill from her purse. “I must have it for my daughter.”
The cell phone in Raina’s hands vibrated. She glanced at the new text message.
MEET ME OUTSIDE OLD BOOKSTORE. PARKING AT BULLSEYE A NIGHTMARE. HAVE INFO ON SUI YUK.
Raina stood, swinging the diaper bag on her shoulder. The men looked ready to wrestle her grandma. “Let’s go.”
The taller man broke away and ran toward Po Po. “Stop.”
“It’s mine!” The shorter man grabbed the back of the taller man’s jacket and yanked him up short. They grappled and the two fell to the ground.
The woman pulled out another fifty. She shoved the money in Po Po’s face with one hand and grabbed the shopping bags with the other. “Here. Let me have the doll.”
Po Po slapped the other woman’s hand. Raina and her grandma rushed out the store to the sound of pounding footsteps and strains of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne R. Tan is an avid reader. She fell in love with storytelling in elementary school, but decided to study engineering so she could get a “real job.” Her day job is her vacation from home and she moonlights as a writer to keep the voices inside her head under control.
After years of suppressing her creativity, she wrote Raining Men and Corpses, her debut cozy mystery featuring Raina Sun, a Chinese American amateur sleuth, on the cusp of change in her life. Not only is she dealing with finding love and overcoming family betrayals, she is also solving murders.
For those of you who had read any of her work, Tan would love to hear from you at [email protected], and she would really appreciate it if you could leave her a review on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com
If you are interested in learning more about Tan and her writing process, please visit her website at http://annertan.com.
