Mei Ling is walking home from school and is confronted by three bullies. Each of them has a mean dog by his side. One, a tall blond boy, is with a Doberman pinscher and is walking toward her from the north. The second, a stocky brown boy with a big pit bull, is walking toward her from the east. The last, a short boy, naturally, has a little yappy Chihuahua running after him like a girly-girl. They all hate Mei Ling for no reason at all, as you can tell. Perhaps they hate Chinese people. Perhaps they hate her because she gets straight As. Perhaps it was because one of them called her “wetback-gook,” and she yelled back “trailer-trash loser.” Perhaps she said, “Your Mama.” Perhaps she flipped them twin birds from a hilltop and stuck her tongue out at them. Perhaps it wasn’t she who perpetuated these things, but her nasty twin, Moonie. And because the boys are afraid of Moonie’s mean fists, they’re getting back at Mei Ling instead. She doesn’t know why they hate her, but they do!
So she runs south as fast as her little legs can manage. And she runs and runs. Finally, she stops at a ritzy five-story apartment building and climbs up a lattice of plush green ivy which reaches all the way up to the rooftop. Halfway up, she realizes that the lattice is broken and now she is climbing only ivy. Her little hands and feet are sustained only by the raw knots of the vines. The boy with the Doberman and the boy with the pit bull are closing in on either side.
Having ridden the elevator up, the boy and the Chihuahua are already on the roof. They are looking down at her now. The Chihuahua, with a little white and black coat, is now gnawing on the vine. Mei Ling is hanging on a taut piece of vine near a fourth-story window. She will plunge to the ground any minute now. The two boys and the big dogs are at the bottom, waiting for her to fall, to tear her into pieces.
ENDING NO. 1
Mei Ling reaches to her backpack and into a secret compartment. With her right arm gripping the vine, she pulls out a mini-mooncake with her left. It is from the last batch her grandmother made before she died. First, she nibbles around the outside brown crust until it’s all gone, then she stuffs the entire naked cakie into her mouth. She sucks on the gooey lotus paste to get to the yummy egg yolk. She looks over her shoulder—the sky is pale blue and translucent. She is calm and contented, and her heart holds no regrets. Nothing more wonderful than the sweetness of this moment. How sweet, how sweet it is.
ENDING NO. 2
Mei Ling reaches to her backpack and into the secret compartment. She pulls out three mini-mooncakes. She throws one up to the Chihuahua on the rooftop. The Chihuahua catches it in one leap and loves the sticky sweetness, then barks and wags its tail for more. She throws two down to the boys. They both catch them and stuff them into their mouths. She shouts, “Hey, I also have pork buns for the big dogs, and soft red and purple licorice sticks from Zack’s.” Her grandmother had always said, “Sweeten your mouth, sweeten your words, and all will be peaceful under heaven.” Mei Ling climbs down the ivy. They all sit down under a giant coral tree and share Mei Ling’s sweet goodies. Finally, after months of fighting, they resolve their differences.
ENDING NO. 3
Mei Ling reaches to her backpack and pulls out two mini-mooncakes. They are really deathstars dipped in blowfish poison and disguised as mooncakes. They are the last secret weapons that her grandmother gave her before she died. Her grandmother said to keep them with her always, but use them only in the most dire of situations. She throws one at the Doberman, hits him between the eyes, and he falls. The poison makes him convulse on the ground. She throws another at the pit bull and pierces his ribcage. He spins around and around frothing in the mouth. The boy on the rooftop grabs his yapping Chihuahua and runs into the building. The other two boys leave their dying dogs and run for their lives. One shouts, “I’ll kill you tomorrow at nine, you slant-eyed bitch.”
Mei Ling climbs up to the rooftop and discovers that some rich white lady had built a paradise roof-garden (actually, it wasn’t she who built it, but her arbor guy, Jesús, who planted the trees and her gardener, Truong, who seeded the veggies and flowers). There are terra-cotta pots of palmettos and dwarf maples all around. Bright red tomatoes and ripened strawberries fill giant wooden planters. All the excitement has sent chills to Mei Ling’s bladder, so she pulls down her jeans and pees into the tomatoes. Then she stuffs five of the fattest strawberries into her pockets and one into her mouth, sweetening all the way home.