Aaron shrugs. “Jasper helped me out. The store manager’s brother owed him a favor or something.”
Or something. I don’t want to know the details. And as much as I love the shoes, I hope this doesn’t mean that now Aaron owes Jasper a favor.
“Jasper?” asks my mom. “Isn’t he that boy who got into some trouble a few years ago?”
I’m surprised she remembers.
“Yeah, but he’s an all right guy. I’ve known him my whole life,” Aaron says with another shrug. “Plus, we are sort of related.”
He’s not an all right guy, I want to say, but then I remember that Jasper’s never killed anyone. And Marcus has. So I’m not in any place to judge.
“Do you like the shoes?” Aaron’s looking at me now. “If you don’t, you can probably come in and exchange them.”
“I love them.” My voice is thick and sounds like it does when I have a cold. “They’re perfect.” I hug the shoes tightly to my chest. “Perfect.”
CHAPTER 32
It’s the new year, but LaoLao doesn’t recognize that. “It is still Year of the Pig,” she says. “Chinese New Year, that’s when the new year will begin.”
Right now she’s sitting by herself in the living room, rubbing her left foot with an audible moan. Her eyes are closed, and she looks older than she usually does. The TV is on low, some soap opera. LaoLao loves her soap operas.
“LaoLao? Are you all right?”
She drops her foot and looks up at me. “My bones are too old,” she says, shaking her head. “Too old.”
I go over to her and sit cross-legged on the floor beneath her. “Did you have a long day?”
“So long. Too long. I forgot how when you are on your feet all day, the hours, they never end.” The fatigue in her voice is matched only by the exhaustion in her eyes. “I never thought I would be back in a kitchen. Working, working all day. I am too old for this. Working is for the young.”
“Do you want me to rub your feet?” I remember LaoLao rubbing my mom’s feet when my mom would get home from work. It feels like a long time since I’ve done something nice for LaoLao.
“What’s this? Wing acting like a proper granddaughter? Respecting her LaoLao?”
She’s grinning at me like the Cheshire cat as she sticks out her foot in its polka-dot sock. I pull off her sock. The foot beneath it is as fleshy and plump as the rest of her. I massage the arch, and she settles farther back in her chair, content for once.
Until she wags her other foot at me. “This one too, and more pressure.”
I roll my eyes but take her foot.
“LaoLao?” I say slowly, quietly.
“Mmm?” she says without opening her eyes.
“Do you think Marcus is going to wake up?”
She stills and is quiet for several long moments.
“I hope so,” she says, sounding unsure and young. Then her eyes fly open and she pins me with her gaze. “But even if he does not…”
I almost drop her foot. No one has ever admitted there is a chance he might not wake up.
“We will be OK. You will be OK. It will be hard.” She takes a long, quavering breath. “So hard. But we will be OK. It is … life. Life … is hard.”
I nod. I know.
She shakes her head as if shaking the conversation away and settles back into her chair.
“Other foot now,” she says, and I massage my grandmother’s feet in silence. I wonder if Marcus’s shattered leg hurts, if his body hurts. Can he feel anything in his deep slumber?
“Wing.” LaoLao’s voice startles me from my thoughts.
“Other foot?” I ask, reaching for it.
Instead, she draws her feet in and leans toward me. “I do not like working,” she says, slowly, “but for Marcus, it is nothing. For you too.” She watches me carefully. “I would work. And it would be nothing.”
I take her foot in my hands again, squeezing gently. I don’t want her to have to work anymore. I want her to stay home and rest her old, tired bones. She might say it’s nothing, but I know it’s everything.
CHAPTER 33
The phone ringing is like an alarm in our house. We all jump, stare at one another, each of us scared to pick it up in case it’s bad news. Bad news about Marcus. Bad news about the bank. Been a long time since anyone called our house with good news.
Which is why I’m so surprised when my mom tells me there’s someone on the phone for me. It’s Eliza.
“You got plans tonight?”
“Um, no. Why, do you want to go on a run or something?”
“Wing! Is running all you think about? Come on, girl.”
No, I also think about Marcus. And Aaron. And running. But I don’t tell Eliza that.
“We can hang out and not run, you know,” she goes on. “I’m good for other stuff too. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty hilarious. And you haven’t seen it yet, but I’m a hell of a dancer. And I play the piano.”
“I can’t play the piano,” I say apologetically. “And I’m not a very good dancer.”
“Well, we’ll see about that. I’m coming to get you and you’re coming over.”