Front Desk

The next day as school, Mia is still depressed by the episode with the drunk as well as Yao’s rejection of her suggestions, so she wanders off to be alone. Entering the empty school auditorium, she sits down to play “Für Elise” on the piano and recalls asking her music teacher, “‘Why put a scary part in the middle of a beautiful piece?’ […] ‘Because life is scary sometimes, little one,’ he had said” (64). Mia becomes vaguely aware that someone has been listening to her performance. It’s Jason, and he’s amazed that she knows how to play so well. Mia rebukes him for his assumption that only rich people can afford lessons for their children. Then, she leaves in a huff.

Back at home, Mia’s parents suggest the front desk job might be too dangerous for a child. Mia points out that her parents need to use all their available time to clean the guest rooms. She proposes to put up a sign reading “Security Camera Installed,” even though there is no camera. Billy Bob, one of the weeklies, shows her his car, which has a security sticker as well, even though he doesn’t have a security system either. That evening, one of Ming’s friends stops by to ask for shelter for the night. His name is Uncle Li. He’s very grateful for the meal the Tangs provide and tells them about some of the abuses he’s suffered in various jobs. In one restaurant where he worked, the owner only fed his employees two slices of white bread with mayonnaise for lunch. Mia starts keeping a journal of bad bosses in order to steer future immigrant visitors away. She writes, “Restaurant in Carlsbad, Ray’s Burgers. Boss only feeds workers white on white on white” (71).

Li stays for three nights before going back on the road. At the grocery store, Mia and her mother discuss the problem of letting Chinese migrants stay for free. Mia notes that, despite the risk, the visits make her parents happy, so they’ll need to find a way to continue the practice without alerting Yao. On Sunday, Mia and her dad take crushed aluminum cans to the recycling center. They convert the money they receive into pennies and sort through the coins looking for something rare that might be worth a fortune. Her father explains that rare coins are usually the result of a mistake and that mistakes are sometimes unrecognized opportunities—just like the family’s relocation to America was.

When Mia and her father return, they learn that the motel’s cable isn’t working. Yao immediately sends over his repairman, who is accompanied by his daughter. Mia is shocked to learn that the repairman’s daughter is her friend from school. Lupe had always claimed to come from a wealthy family, but Mia now realizes they’ve both told fibs about their backgrounds. She thinks to herself, “The best part about Lupe and I coming clean was that she knew all about Mr. Yao and how horrible he was” (79). Mia confides to Lupe that she hopes the motel cable breaks down every day so they can spend more time together.

Lupe shares some stories about the awful things Yao has done to cheat her father. The two girls speculate about wealth in America, and Lupe explains that there are two roller coasters: one for poor people and one for the rich. On the “poor” roller coaster, people can’t afford to send their children to good schools, the kids can’t get good jobs, and they pass that poverty on to their own children. The “rich” roller coaster is just the opposite. After hearing this, Mia concludes, “We weren’t successful in this country. Not yet anyway. We had to get off the bad roller coaster and onto the good one” (83). 

Mia ponders what it will take to achieve prosperity. In math class, she gets the idea of calculating how much profit Yao makes in a month. The sum is mind-boggling, so Mia goes to the library to research motel ownership. The librarian tells her it would take 1 million dollars to acquire a single motel, but an elderly couple in Vermont is offering to give one away to the right person. The owners are holding an essay contest that has a $300 entry fee. Mia starts working on a plan to write the essay and raise the necessary fee.  

When Mia returns from school with a library book under her arm, her mother discourages her from focusing on becoming a writer. English isn’t Mia’s native language, and her mother wants her to study math instead. To avoid interference, Mia decides not to tell her mother anything about the essay contest. Just then, Yao shows up with Jason. He wants his son to learn every aspect of the motel business, which includes running the front desk. After Jason makes multiple math mistakes, his father ridicules him. Mia offers him her sympathy: “I knew exactly what he was feeling because I had felt it just a couple of hours ago when my mom yelled at me” (93).

The Tang family is awakened at dawn by an irate guest whose car has been stolen from the motel lot. Yao is called and he arrives shortly afterward with the police. Mia tries to help the investigation by pulling together a list of six guests who checked out during the night. Yao is shocked when he discovers one of them is black, and he blames Mia: “‘I thought I told you not to rent to bad people!’ My throat went dry. I could hear the sound of my breathing, hard and fast. ‘You said bad people, not black people.’ ‘Any idiot knows—black people are dangerous,’ Mr. Yao said” (96). The police target Hank as a suspect because he’s black. Mia protests that this isn’t fair, but Hank is resigned to the harassment. He says this sort of thing happens to him all the time.

In class the next day, Jason asks Mia to meet him in the auditorium. Much to her surprise, he confesses that he likes her. She says she can’t stand him and that his father is a racist. Mia’s rejection causes Jason to flee in embarrassment. Afterward, Lupe points out that maybe Yao will be nicer to the Tangs because his son likes Mia. Mia feels nothing but foreboding about the consequences of her refusal. She thinks, “The way I shot him down, there was no going nice after that. There was only going nuclear” (103). 

When Mia arrives home, she finds Hank already back at the motel. After the police interrogated his boss, Hank was fired for no reason. The Chinese security guard from the nearby Topaz Inn appears at the motel and wants to circulate a list of known troublemakers so that all the motels in the area can deny them service. When she finds that his list consists entirely of black people, Mia angrily sends him away.

Mia and Lupe conspire to solve the car theft. Mia compiles an address list for the five early check-outs on the night the car was stolen. She calls the policeman in charge of the investigation, suggesting that he check the addresses in case the stolen car is at one of these locations. The cop brushes Mia’s suggestion off with contempt, saying she should leave the matter to the police and that they already have a prime suspect—Hank.

Another immigrant named Aunt Ling shows up at the motel. She’s a manicurist fleeing an exploitative job in Irvine, California. Ling is so appreciative of the food and temporary lodging that she gives Mia’s mother a manicure to repair her cracked and yellowed nails, which were caused by the harsh cleaning products she uses every day. Before Ling leave, she suggests the motel should create a secret signal to alert immigrants when Yao is gone, and it’s safe to approach. Mia strikes on the idea of displaying an old Yankees baseball cap on the front desk whenever Yao is on the premises.

Ling leaves the following morning and promises to spread the word among the immigrants about the baseball cap signal. That afternoon, Hank asks Mia to place a call for him to Yao. He wants a job as the motel’s handyman. Yao rejects the request simply because Hank is black. He tells Mia in Chinese that Hank is trouble.