Top Story (Front Desk #5) by Kelly Yang

Author:Kelly Yang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Emma met me outside the inn the next afternoon. With just an hour until the banquet, we hurried along Grant Street toward Popo’s building. Emma was wearing a baby-blue silk shirt and white silk pants. Her shirt looked like a traditional Chinese tang blouse.

“Nice outfit,” I said, feeling a little underdressed in my teal cotton dress.

“Thanks. Auntie Lam made the shirt for me, after I helped her clean up her store,” Emma said. She stopped at a traffic light, and added, “You should have seen how many mothballs she had in those underwear drawers.”

I laughed. “My parents used to sleep with this giant suitcase underneath their bed. From China.” I held out my arms to show Emma how big it was. “It was packed with mothballs and every kind of tea, socks, even Band-Aids! Like they seriously thought they wouldn’t have Band-Aids in America!”

Emma laughed as we crossed the street. “I can believe it! My mom still uses a glass mercury thermometer from China! She doesn’t trust the electric kind!”

“Mine either,” I said. “Did your mom move to Chinatown straight from China?”

“No. She went to Wisconsin first. She was a student, studying to be a pharmacologist … but then I came along.” Emma chewed her lip, then stopped in front of the flower shop. She hollered to Mr. Huang, “I’ll stop by after the banquet to snip the stems! Don’t worry, I’ll close up after!”

“All right, Emma!” Mr. Huang called back.

“After the banquet?” I asked. “Dang, that’s dedication.”

She shrugged. “It’ll take two seconds. If I don’t do it, my mom has to. And I want her to have a good time tonight. She works so hard.”

I nodded. It was why I always changed the vending machines at the Calivista. Emma and I had more in common than I’d realized.

We paused at the bakery to sniff the lemon custard cake. It reminded me of the egg tarts Ms. Flemings mentioned. “You know what this editor at my office said? She said we should work hard and play hard.”

“That’s why I like living in Chinatown! It honestly doesn’t feel like work because everyone helps everyone here!” Emma smiled. “So what’s it like having editors?”

“They can be …” I searched for the right adjective. “Stubborn.”

“I can believe it. I’ve been trying to get Mr. Wu to let me write fortunes for years so he can get back in the game!”

“What do you mean?”

“We used to distribute our cookies to restaurants all around the country,” she said. “But other companies have machines to make fortune cookies. They don’t need people like my mom. It’s faster and cheaper. And we can’t compete with their prices. So now we only sell to a handful of restaurants, and to tourists.”

Emma sighed.

“But I know we can beat them again. Not with huge machines, but with our creativity. How amazing would it be if Popo got a fortune that said, Family isn’t about blood. It’s about the people in your life who want to hold your hand?”

“That’s the sweetest!” I said.

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