Three days before Christmas I can’t wait. Dad will come home from his business trip. Last year he bough me a wooden horse from Spain. He’s in China this year, and I’m hoping he’ll buy me a beautiful silk dress.
I hear my mother yelling at him on her phone in the other room. They’ve been fighting a lot lately. I decide to bring my six year old sister, Lily, upstairs so she won’t hear them fighting again.
“Where’s Daddy?” she asks.
“China.”
“Where’s that?” she wonders.
I snatch the globe off the shelf and put her hand in mine. I trace our finger around the world.
“This is us.” I start at Maryland. “And here’s Daddy.” I trace our fingers to China.
My mother has to leave, so show Lily how to say “hello” in Chinese with our Chinese phrase book.
“Knee-how!” she yells.
The phone rings just as Mom gets home, carrying a bag.
“No!”
She’s crying.He’s been murdered!
My mother goes to sleep, and through my tears I peer into the bags she’s brought home. I gasp to see two embroidered silk dresses soaked in blood.