Chapter 24: Two Names on One Card

The stairs to the roof terrace were still narrow and lit by one bare bulb.

Anqi went up first, with a thermos of tea in one hand and the big cream card in the other.

Mengyao followed with a black pen behind her ear and a bag of pomelos, because she said she owed the night a pomelo.

At the top the door stuck, as it had before, and gave way with a bump.

The night opened wide.

The river lay below in strings of gold, and the apartment towers stood up against a sky going deep blue.

The moon hung over the water, a thick bright half-circle, not yet full.

Someone had left the two folding chairs by the water tank.

The paper lanterns still hung there, a little faded, swaying in the cool wind.

Mengyao stopped on the last step and put her hand to her chest.

"Same place," she said.

"Same chairs."

"I cried into my hands, right there."

"You said you'd thought you would throw a pomelo."

Mengyao set the bag down and laughed.

They did not sit in the two chairs.

They dragged them together until the arms touched, and sat in one long seat for two, with the thermos between their feet.

For a while they only watched the moon.

Far below, on the twenty-first floor, they could hear dishes clinking in Anning's kitchen, and the grandmother's voice demanding a second dessert.

"Show me the card," Mengyao said.

Anqi gave it over.

It was thick cream stock with a gold edge, the one she had bought at the stationery shop on the way.

On the front, in thick black brush pen, in her own careful hand, were two names on a single line.

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