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My face burns. Why do older people feel like they can say
anything and tell you what to do? Even the girls from the fac-
tory with their prodding questions don’t talk to me like this.
This man is even worse than the doctor at the clinic. I don’t
have to believe him.
He speaks gently again. “Get away from him before it’s too
late. Go home.”
Go home. If he only knew Yong’s home is the only one
I have.
Still, I step off the doorsill and duck past him and head
toward the street. I just want to get away.
“If you see him, don’t tell him that I’m looking for him,”
he calls out to me.
I don’t turn around. I stuff his card deep into my pocket.
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CHAPTER 7
Luli
After Yun storms out of the restaurant, I hastily pay for the
food, but by the time I get out to the street, she’s nowhere in
sight. I rush back to the factory. I try her old room, thinking
her roommates might’ve sneaked her in and let her stay over-
night. Her things are gone, and the other girls haven’t seen
her. We try calling her from their mobiles, but she doesn’t
answer. Yun’s always chiding me because I still don’t have
a phone. “Who would want to call me?” I say. She always
answers that she would, that it would be easier for us to keep
in touch, but I still haven’t gotten one. I finally go to bed,
wishing I’d listened to her.
At breakfast, I tell Ming about my fight with Yun—leaving
out the part about the baby, of course. Nobody talks about that
kind of thing. “I need to find her,” I say to him. “Can you think
of anywhere she might be?”
Ming doesn’t meet my eyes. “She’s probably just angry that
my dad fired her. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll hear from her
once she’s calmed down.”
I shake my head. I can’t just leave it at that. I have to make
sure she’s all right. And I have to apologize for what I said to her.
I shouldn’t have repeated a rumor, stuck my nose in something
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