China Doll by Talia Carner

Author:Talia Carner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adoption singer music china abandonment orphanage love story motherdaughter rescue music sisters human rights politics media
Publisher: Talia Carner

CHAPTER 22

The pay phone was a bright orange box mounted on the side of a newspaper kiosk, where tabloids featuring scantily clad Asian women hung from lines like laundry. A large tree, bent with age, stood behind, its saucer-sized, waxy leaves a protective enclave. Nola eyed the phone. A bulky receiver rested on top, and on the post behind it, a plastic panel depicted dialing instructions.

Through the kiosk’s open side, Nola glimpsed the display on the inside wall. There was her own oversized promotion album. Two teenagers with identical shiny black braids asked to see it and flipped through the glossy pages. For a wild instant she considered stepping forward and asking for their help. She watched them pay. Giggling, they departed with the book, never aware how close they had been to having it autographed.

She fished for her American coins. Lifting the receiver, she dropped in a penny. It tumbled somewhere with a clicking sound. The echo told her it accomplished nothing. She tried a dime, but it, too, made a series of metallic jiggles before coming to a stop in the belly of the box. The quarter was too big for the slot. She dipped her hand into her side pocket and found two more coins, one of them a nickel. She dropped it in the slot. A shrill dial tone almost pierced her eardrums. She brushed away the tiny stab of concern that she had just committed a crime, pulled out the business card she had kept in her pocket since early afternoon, and dialed the number scribbled on the back.

The ring was more like a series of bleats, but after five of them, her call was answered. She heard static and background chatter and clanging dishes.

“Dr. Liang? This is Nola Sands.” The words shaped themselves into triangles with sharp edges. “I need your help.”

“What is it? The baby all right?”

“I— I—” Nola felt embarrassed and humiliated. “I— I—” she said again. Finally she blurted out her predicament.

“Where are you?”

“I can’t read the street signs—wait. There was a plaza and a rose garden two blocks away.” She scanned the street. “There’s a department store diagonally across the street from me. I am next to a newspaper kiosk. This place looks like Chicago. There’s a computer store with a big neon sign for Microsoft—and Kentucky Fried Chicken!” How she would have loved to bite into a piece of chicken. The sign alone already made her feel like she was home. She couldn’t help smiling as she added, “But they made the Colonel Chinese.”

“Gi’me ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Dr. Liang.”

“Ming-Ji. I come only if you call me Ming-Ji.”

“Thank you, Ming-Ji.” But the phone was already dead.

She surveyed the crowd for Ming-Ji’s diminutive figure, for the quick steps of a no-nonsense woman in a white coat whose child’s face was hidden behind large, dark-framed glasses and therefore failed to notice the black Mercedes that sidled up next to her until it came to a stop. Nola’s breath caught at the sight of the diplomatic license plates.

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