Free Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold

position.
    The person we spoke to said, "We're still verifying their qualifications. All the names will be on the city's website when it's updated tomorrow."
    ***
    Fran was looking over page proofs when we got back to the newsroom. Seeing us, she asked, "Find out anything?"
    "Nothing specific," Harrison answered. "But things are unsettled enough out there that I'd like to do a little more checking around."
    Fran asked me, "And how'd you do?"
    "Great!" I said. "I listened, and I learned that you don't always ask outright what you want to know."
    "Nope. Not when you don't know what you're looking for. Or when you're looking for something folks might want to hide." She turned back to Harrison. "So...?"
    "Give me one more day. And if Maggie wants to keep helping, that would be great."
    "Sure," I said. "More cover?"
    "No way," Harrison answered. "Tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and get to work." He raised his eyebrows as though asking if I'd really meant that
sure.
"It'll be toiling at the computer. Not nearly as much fun as slinging around coffee grounds."
    "That was not fun," I said. "And today was. Today—"
    I broke off, knowing I'd feel ridiculous telling him I felt as if my world had opened wider. But I did.
    Sure I'd been in government buildings before, usually with Mom, but this time I hadn't been a bystander. This time I'd had a job to do, even if it was only to provide Harrison with an excuse so he could do his. And that had kept the city hall from being just another building filled with people I didn't notice. It had made it a particular, individual piece of the world, and for a short time I'd been part of it.
    Finally I just said, "Today was more what I hoped for."
    FAI-YI LI, 1933

    Li Dewei comes and goes, making arrangements to bring his wife and son over, and he grows more excited as the time for their sailing draws near.
    And indeed, it does seem that he will be ready for us to be gone. They will need the space Sucheng and I take up, and since the policemen have not returned, the danger that they will come back threatens less and less.
    Meanwhile, my learning continues, so that this time when we go out on our own, I will be prepared.
    At night, when I am free to leave the laundry, I go to where chop suey restaurants—such American food!—bring people from other parts of the city. They wear bright clothes and talk and laugh loudly and walk as
though they have a right to more space than their bodies have need for. They do not notice me step into the street to make way.
    They do not see me listening, either—-following sometimes, to hear them talk For I need to learn not just the words of my new language but also the sounds, which are difficult to form and must be spoken in unfamiliar rhythms.
    During the day, I practice the sounds and patterns in my head. And because my speaking is improving, when a customer comes in, I try out the new things I know. "Two dimes," I say, without drawing any picture.
    Li Dewei, on his way out one afternoon, stops to watch and listen. The customer gives me a quarter, which I know, too, and I give him a five-cent piece back.
    When the customer leaves, Li Dewei hands me paper money. "Do you know how much this is?" he asks.
    "
One dollar.
"
    "
Do you know how many dimes make one dollar?
"
    "
Ten.
"
    "
Then take this dollar to the herbalist whose shop is on the corner two blocks over. Tell him it is for something to ease the ache in my knees.
"
    I have not left my work during the daytime before, and my feet fly in the freedom of the sunshine.
    ***
    The two blocks take me to a more prosperous area, with buildings where families have private living quarters above stores much bigger than Li Dewei's laundry. I have walked through it at night but never before gone inside any place.
    The herbalist's shop is fitted well, with fine cabinets of many small drawers. A call bell stands on the counter, but I hesitate to ring it in case it is for important customers only.
    I hear footsteps