Front Desk

Hank informs the Tangs that he was able to capture the two thieves. In the process, he got arrested himself for hitting one of the men with a rock. Now nobody will hire him, and Yao can legally evict him because he was away from the motel for one night while he was in jail. The family decides they need to do something to help Hank.  

The Tangs make a plan to hide Hank by moving his belongings out of his old room and shifting him around to various spots in the hotel that Yao won’t check. Hank is grateful for the housing but tells Mia he’ll never find a job now that he has an arrest record. Getting a reference letter from his last employer is out of the question. Mia asks what she can do to help Hank find a job, but he says it’s complicated, and there are things she would never understand. Mia thinks, “As Hank looked into my eyes, I realized there were reference letters and mean girls. And then there were other things on a whole other level of ‘you don’t understand’” (187).

Once news gets around the neighborhood about the robbery at the motel, the security guard from the Topaz returns and says it would never have happened if they’d had a guard like him. Mia and Hank mock him, saying that he would only have gotten arrested. The guard retorts that an arrest is a badge of honor in his profession. He hands Mia his card and leaves. The card gives Hank an idea, and he decides to apply for work as a security guard himself. After writing several application letters, Hank gives them to Mia to post for him. Because one of the envelopes is still unsealed, Mia writes a letter of recommendation to include with Hank’s job application. Mia boldly states in her letter that Hank has been a security guard at the Calivista Motel and did a fantastic job. Then she crosses her fingers and mails Hank’s letters.

One day in autumn, Mia is surprised to see a young girl arrive at the motel. The Calivista doesn’t usually book parties of guests that include children. When Mia tries to be friendly, the girl brushes her off. The next day when she checks out with her mother, the girl leaves behind a pair of blue jeans. Mia’s mother says these might be a perfect fit and launders them for Mia. The next day, Mia goes to school wearing her first pair of American jeans. Everyone in class notices. She thinks, “I tried to play it cool, of course. I tried to walk normally, one foot in front of the other, but inside me, fireworks were going off” (195).

The day before Thanksgiving, Hank announces that he’s been offered the security guard job at the mall. Mia’s letter of reference did the trick. To celebrate, the Tangs invite all the weeklies to share Thanksgiving dinner with them, where everyone expresses their thanks at having such good friends. 

Now that Hank can afford a room again, Yao doesn’t object to him as a paying guest. When Mia goes to work at the front desk that day, she finds four messages waiting from all the Chinese immigrants she asked to look up the car theft suspects. They all report than none of the people they checked has the missing car. The only remaining suspect is the black woman that Yao first suspected. Mia prays she doesn’t have the car. Just then, an old friend of her mother’s arrives. Xiao Zhang used to work with Mrs. Tang as an engineer in China. In America, he’s been reduced to working in a restaurant where the owner confiscated all the immigrants’ documentation. Zhang says everyone was treated like slaves. After the Immigration Department raided the place, Zhang fled with the other employees through a secret tunnel system. Zhang says he will have to go back because the owner still has his passport and ID.

Late that night, Mia thinks there is something she can do to help Zhang. She gets out her dictionary and thesaurus and composes a letter to Zhang’s employer, demanding the return of his paperwork. Signing the letter in the guise of Zhang’s legal counsel, she threatens the employer with a lawsuit if he doesn’t comply. When she gives Zhang the letter the following morning, he is very grateful and intends to show it to his boss.

The next day, Mia gets a call from one of the Chinese immigrants verifying that the final suspect doesn’t have the stolen car. Later that afternoon, Mia and Lupe go to the car owner’s house to give him the good news. Much to their surprise, they see another man drive up in the supposedly stolen vehicle. The owner threatens the girls if they don’t keep quiet about what they’ve seen. He tells Mia, “‘Breathe a word about this to anyone and I will come and find you.’ The threat grabbed me and smothered me as I ran all the way home” (208). 

Back at the hotel, Mia immediately informs Hank about what happened. He explains that the owner is guilty of insurance fraud and suggests that Mia should call the police. The cop who investigated the original robbery appears later to confirm that the car’s owner was arrested. Mia urges him to apologize to Hank for his suspicions. The officer isn’t happy about it but does as she requests. Later, Mia’s mother explains that the policeman’s gesture is what makes America free. People are innocent until proven guilty. Then, Mia’s parents tell her about police abuses during the Cultural Revolution and why they fled China in the first place. Mia thinks she finally understands what they meant by freedom.

Feeling vindicated by the car owner’s arrest, Mia goes to the Topaz to confront the security guard about his blacklist. When he refuses to tear it up, Mia writes a letter to all the other neighborhood business owners urging them to destroy their copies of the list that the Topaz guard gave them. On the strength of Mia’s letter, all the owners agree. The owner of the Topaz fires the security guard for circulating the list in the first place. The security guard, who is Chinese, later confronts Mia and says that the Chinese should look out for each other. She retorts, “Not if you’re being racist” (216).

A few days later, Mia receives an excited call from Zhang. His employer was so frightened by the tone of Mia’s letter that he returned all the immigrants’ documentation. Zhang is no longer a slave. This victory gives Mia the confidence to believe she can change other people’s lives through the power of her words. She starts thinking about the essay contest again. At school, Mrs. Douglas gives the class a writing assignment. They are to write an essay about a small moment in their lives that meant everything to them. Mia’s brain is immediately flooded with all the immigrant stories she’s heard over the past months. She thinks, “Panic seized me. The words were so open and exposed. My story looked like a belly button. I immediately wanted to cover it” (220). Mia realizes that she needs to get past her fear of standing out if she wants her life to change. When Mrs. Douglas asks which of her students is done writing, Mia raises her hand.

The moment Mia hands her essay in is also the moment she realizes that she needs to enter the Vermont essay contest. Because her tip jar earnings are depleted, she asks Hank to sell her father’s lucky pennies. The coins bring in $312, which will just cover the contest entrance fee. Mia gets busy drafting her contest letter. When she has Hank read the draft afterward, he’s says it’s perfect. Though Mia is nervous, Hank reminds her that she needs to play to win. The next morning, she mails in her entry.