“What made you return from America?” Nola asked.

Ming-Ji shook her head sadly. “My mother, she sick. Very sick and alone. No one take care of her, and government don’t let me bring her to Johns Hopkins. So I come back.” Suddenly remembering her glasses, she retrieved them from her pants pocket.

“What a remarkable person you are,” Nola said. At twelve, she would have given anything to have her mother back. But at this age she wouldn’t have sacrificed her freedom for the dysfunctional mother of her childhood. “I envy the love you and you mother must share,” Nola added.

“In China, we honor our parents. Confucius said, if we honor parents, we honor other parents, and all older people, and then our country.” Ming-Ji paused. “Also the babies here. I also come back for sick ones. Government not want to make them better, just let them die.”

Using his key, Daniel opened the door and walked in, carrying a set of baskets that nested one on top of the other and were held together by a bamboo handle. “Room service,” he announced. “Dim sum.”

It was the birdcage in his other hand that caught Nola's attention. She sent him a questioning look.

“My canary.” He put the food basket down on the low table, then held the birdcage up for Nola's examination. “Meet Harry Wu. Harry Wu, meet Miss Nola Sands.”

“Harry Wu? Like the dissident?”

Daniel wiggled his finger between the cage bars. “Proud to be a troublemaker. A thrice-over jailbird.” He tickled the bird’s neck. “He’ll keep you company tonight. It’s past his bedtime, but in the morning you’ll appreciate the way he carries a tune.”

The man in the room was so unlike the Daniel she had known, she was amused. “Together our singing can bring down the house.”

“I wish I had taken you to visit the bird market.”

“You were busy showing me other places.” She thought of the old men she had seen in the garden enjoying their birds’ singing, more beautiful than boom boxes.

Ming-Ji was at the door. “I leave for rounds at hospital.”

“I’m sorry to say good-bye before we’ve had a chance to get to know each other better,” Nola said. No words could describe her crocus-budding-in-the-snow feeling that she was no longer alone in this city.

“I’m honor that you called me,” Ming-Ji said.

“Tell me what you need for your hospital—or for your cause. I’ll see to it that you get it once I’m back home.”

Ming-Ji nodded. “Maybe we meet again. Soon.”

After she left, Nola said, “All too often, on my travels, people enter my life only to leave much too soon. One day, I’ll settle down and have time for lasting friendships.” She caught herself and glanced at Daniel.