Chapter 13

Aunt Paula calls Kim and Ma into her office when a letter from Yale arrives. She is furious that Kim applied with asking her permission. She is even more furious when she sees that Kim got in and got a full scholarship. They argue for a minute before Aunt Paula says she is going to kick them out of the apartment. Ma says that is fine because Kim already found them an apartment in Queens.

Matt comes over later that night and asks Ma if he can take Kim to Chinatown for wonton soup. Ma says it is fine, and Kim is overjoyed that she is going out with Matt and doesn’t have to lie about it. Matt is happy to hear about Kim getting into Yale, but he confesses that he’s afraid she is going to leave him.

In the next week, Ma and Kim moved to the new apartment and Ma got a job stringing jewelry. Matt showed Kim around Chinatown and he seemed to know everyone. Kim wanted Annette to meet him, so she finally comes to Chinatown for tea.

Matt tries to talk Kim out of going to Yale. He says that they can build a life in Chinatown together, and he can make enough money for them to get by. Kim says that he should move nearby Yale, but he insists that he wants to take care of her, not the other way around.

Soon after this, Kim realizes she’s pregnant. Curt is the first one she tells. He’s sympathetic and offers to give her money to help. She says that she couldn’t take his money. Then she tells Annette. Annette says that she has to tell Matt, but Kim doesn’t want to force him to stay with her. Kim then tells Ma. Ma is understanding, and says that they will manage to get by with the baby, just as they have always managed before.

Epilogue

12 years later Kim is a surgeon. She runs into a Chinese man who once knew Matt, so she asks him to pass along a message. Matt comes by the office to see her. He tells her that he is married to Vivian now and has a second child on the way, but that he always loved her and knew that she had been pregnant.

Kim goes home and her son greets her. She had planned on having an abortion, but changed her mind at the last minute. That meant she put off going to Yale for a year, but now she raised her son, Jason, with Ma.