Tangled Vines (2 page)

Old Town Wuxi, China

L
innea exhaled a big breath to move the sweaty strands of hair off her forehead while she rummaged in the deep recesses of her bag to find her keys. Too many commuters and the lack of space had made her morning bus ride hot and miserable. Now she could relax because she was here. At her store. She still couldn’t get used to the words! Feeling a burst of impatience, she dug beneath the old packs of chewing gum, a few folded love notes from Jet, and a half-empty bottle of water until she finally touched metal.

She pulled the key ring out and took a step back to look up at the sign over the door.
VINTAGE MUSE
. Jet had hung it the day before and Linnea had stepped outside at least a dozen times to look at it. She’d painted it herself and loved the elaborate characters and the buds of pink Linnea flowers, the symbol of her own name, etched around the border. It was a little piece of her up there, and she couldn’t be more proud.

It was hard to believe, but she was finally getting her chance to rise above the low expectations that society had set for her as an orphan. More importantly, if she succeeded, she would make her Nai Nai and Ye Ye proud—the only parents she’d ever known—and show them the years of love and care they’d given her after finding her abandoned on the street were all worth it. She felt a lump rise in her throat as she realized she’d no longer have to bow down to obnoxious boss men, or work in the streets in the freezing winter or the scorching summers. She’d done it! Or at least she’d almost done it—time would tell whether she’d be a success or have to go back to slinging tires or hawking wares from the sidewalk.

She quickly looked around at the other shops and could see by their still-dark store windows that she was the first one on the block to arrive. It had been hard to get up so early, but today was the most important day of her life thus far. If she didn’t get going, her
grand opening
wasn’t going to be so
grand
.

She looked through her large, empty picture window and sighed. Yet another huge project to throw together this morning. Now she wished she’d asked some of her sisters for help but in her usual stubborn way, she hadn’t wanted to burden anyone else. Now she had a long list of tasks befitting at least a dozen workers to accomplish on her own, all in only a few hours. Overwhelming, but it would be a while before she could actually afford to hire employees, so she’d just have to make do with her own two hands.

Ready to tackle the day, she unlocked the door and walked through.

She stood in the middle of the room and put her hands on her hips. There was so much to do! She approached a box, opened the flaps, and began to pull out shirts and stack them on the shelves next to it, trying to sort by size. The shirts were her signature item—and the money earned from their sales had helped pay back the original business loan to Jet.

She held up one of her favorite shirts. Printed across the front was a graphic she had sketched of what used to be called a tiger kitchen range
. In the old days, the Wuxi people would line up at local shops to buy hot water to shower with. On the shirt, the huge pipe—what they called the fuel mouth—that brought in the water looked like the head of a tiger; the two big pots it poured into resembled the body, and the chimney mimicked a swishing tail. From afar it was simply a tiger but close up the detail on the shirt was amazing. Now there were only eight such kitchens remaining
in all of Wuxi. Linnea didn’t want those pieces of history to disappear
—and given the sudden success of her shirts, obviously neither did the Wuxi residents who had bought from her.

Other shirts sported graphics of old street signs, subway tickets, and other Old China memorabilia. Her shirts had been categorized as urban vintage—and Linnea was still astounded at their popularity. Somehow, without any real advertising, she had sold out repeatedly until she’d finally found a supplier to help her keep up.

But now that she had a real store with walls and a door, and no longer relied on selling from a small cart on the street, she could sell other vintage pieces in addition to her signature shirts. Many of the things she’d already collected were strategically scattered around the room, waiting to be displayed to entice buyers. Linnea wiped the sweat from her brow and picked up the pace. She had left too much undone the day before. She’d never finish in time.

An hour later Linnea looked up when the bell hanging over her door jangled. Backup had arrived; leading her sisters in the charge was her feisty Nai Nai, pushing a wheelchair through the narrow entrance with such energy that the gray bun on top of her head jiggled back and forth. Over her plump middle she wore her blue gingham going-out apron, but Linnea noticed by the bulges that she’d still packed her pockets full of odds and ends.

“We’ve got to talk to the city about the buses being inadequate to get wheelchairs in and out. You should have seen what we just went through.” She fussed as she pushed the chair farther into the store, then broke into a wide smile crinkling her face into a thousand tiny lines.

Linnea’s sister Maggi waved from her wheelchair as Nai Nai pushed it over the doorjamb. On Maggi’s lap, Poppy, their youngest addition, sat wide-eyed and curious, just happy to be out for a ride.

“Linnea! Nai Nai brought us to help you. What can I do?” Maggi asked, her pigtails swinging back and forth as she looked around the store, taking it all in. At nine years old, she acted like she was big enough to tackle any task.

Linnea laughed. “You mean you’re going to stop knitting long enough to do something else with those talented little hands?”

She was relieved that despite her stubbornness in not asking for help, they’d come anyway. She should’ve known they would. And her army of sisters was just what she needed to help her out of the time crunch she had created. She was speechless with gratitude.

“Linnea,” her Nai Nai began, her face set in determination, “we’ll whip this place into shape in no time. You just give the orders. Where’s Jet?”

“Oh, he was going to be here but this is the day he already promised to help his father with some special project. He’ll be here tomorrow. He was so upset to miss this.” At least, that was what he’d said when he broke the news to her last night. Sometimes Linnea got so frustrated with his busy schedule but then he’d flash those twinkling eyes at her and make her forget why she was even irritated. And he always went out of his way to make it up to her—she felt her cheeks warm as she thought of some of the ways he went about it.

Linnea dropped the T-shirt she was folding and jumped up. She ran to the old woman and, skirting around the chair, hugged her tightly. “Nai Nai. Thanks for coming. I thought I was going to have to do this alone!”

Nai Nai shooed her away and pulled a wrapped steamed roll from her apron pocket. “
Bah.
Of course I was coming. Do you think I’d miss your grand opening? This is a big moment for the Zheng family. You’re going to be a business owner—and at only eighteen.

Aiya!
We’re so proud of you, Linnea. And here, eat your breakfast and don’t be sneaking out on an empty stomach again. Ivy, hand me that playpen for Poppy.”

Behind her, Ivy deposited the playpen against the wall as she and the other girls bickered about who would get to do what. Lily, Ivy’s twin, kept her hand on Ivy’s arm as the girl guided her around the unfamiliar territory. Lily swung her new walking cane to find her way, but she wasn’t quite used to it yet and still depended on her sister to help her around unfamiliar areas.

Linnea still recalled when the girls had been brought to them at only five years old. Officers had brought them by after their mother had been taken away by the police. The girls were meant to be transferred to the orphanage in the next city over but knowing their Ye Ye like they did, the officers asked if he’d take them in. The girls had huddled behind the officer, bedraggled and reeking of smoke. Nai Nai had shuffled them through their door and tried to comfort them. Even then Ivy had protected Lily and refused to allow anyone else to touch her. She’d helped her sister eat, bathe, dress—everything until she’d finally felt like they were in a safe place.

Now they were fifteen and Ivy was the loudest. Her voice carried over everyone else as she walked to the front window display box.

“I wanna work in the window!”

Lily followed along. She never complained about being blind, probably because she’d always had Ivy to depend on. The two were so connected that many times Lily didn’t even need to hold on; she could just feel where her sister was leading.

“But what about their lessons?” Linnea asked Nai Nai.

Nai Nai shook her head. “The only lesson they’ll learn today is how to follow their hearts and keep at their dreams until they come true. And Peony is thrilled to skip school. You can probably get her to do anything you want.”

Linnea scanned the room and saw Peony busy on the other side of the store, already scoping out the new items and probably trying to figure out how she could swipe some things for herself. Of all her sisters, Linnea thought ten-year-old Peony the most beautiful with her mixed blood that gave her golden eyes and fair coloring. Even the natural auburn highlights in her hair added to her exotic look, and Linnea knew that when Peony grew older, she would be even prettier. But the most amazing thing was that her little sister didn’t have a clue of her own beauty. She was tomboyish and into everything. She usually went to the local elementary school, but she didn’t like it and wanted to stay home and be tutored.

It was unfair, but whether they’d get school registration or not usually depended on how they were abandoned or where they were found. It’d be much easier if they all were allowed public education—or at least easier for Nai Nai to set rules about it then.

Linnea stopped looking at her so intently before Peony noticed.

“Where’s Ye Ye?” she asked Nai Nai.

“He’s coming. Jasmine pulled him over to watch those old buzzards on the lane playing mahjong. Now that he’s feeling better I can’t get him to stop all his
socializing
.” She waved her hand dismissively in the air. “You’d think he was a celebrity or something the way everyone wants to have time with him.”

Linnea smiled at her Nai Nai’s words, which she knew hid a deep affection for Ye Ye. She had never seen two people more in love. Even after all their years together they were still totally devoted to each other. And she should have guessed her little sister, Jasmine, would have gotten Ye Ye sidetracked. Even though she’d never spoken a single word, the six-year-old
had Ye Ye wrapped around her little finger. And her grandfather
was
a celebrity of sorts—but then so was her Nai Nai. They’d both been recognized a year ago for their contribution to the community for taking in abandoned girls and raising them as their own over the last few decades. Linnea was one of those orphaned girls—but she couldn’t love the two old folks more if they were blood related.
In her mind, she wasn’t an orphan because she had Nai Nai and Ye Ye, as well as her sisters, and they were a family.