Ming-Ji passed Nola's money to the husband-and-wife team. For only a few dollars, they bought tickets, baskets of food, and, at Nola's request, two candles. They paid the female conductor for boiled water, a fresh supply of linens, and for clearing a compartment of its occupants with their straw baskets heaped with produce and live chickens. After Nola was seated with Ming-Ji, they assured her that the conductor would make sure she would not be observed for the next day and a half. Whenever she needed to use the toilet, the woman would carry her chamber pot away.

“Custom. No one allowed to see bride on way to groom’s village,” Ming-Ji said, and hugged Lulu. “People think she my baby.”

Nola thanked the couple with exaggerated head nods. She couldn’t help but think about Wade, stretched out in comfort in their private jet. By now, he was no doubt in New York, while she was venturing deeper and deeper into China.

CHAPTER 32 (1995-1996)

Nola met Eddie Silver at a SoHo party. After talking all evening, the two of them walked the seventy blocks uptown. By the time they said good-bye at Nola's building lobby, the sun was almost up, and she had fallen in love with the bespectacled accountant who had a boyish face, ran marathons, and played the piano.

The next evening, she accompanied him to the opera, and the following Sunday, she drove up with him to visit his parents’ in Westchester County. His Jewish family, and its host of aunts, uncles and cousins who gathered on weekends and holidays, was the kind she had spent a lifetime pressing her nose against the window to watch. A cousin’s birthday was celebrated that afternoon with a table laden with food and drink—and more important, with storytelling and practical jokes. As she and Eddie shared the piano bench to everyone’s delight, she dreamed of becoming a part of that inner circle.

The following week, Nola took Eddie to meet Jenna at the group home, but Jenna refused to come out. When, a few days later, Wade sent a limousine to pick Jenna up for Nola's new album release party, she refused to come.

The party took place at a terraced loft overlooking the Hudson River, from where the guests could watch the fireworks’ display. Phonomania enticed their other performers to pay tribute to their rising star. Each guest left with a small potted plant and instructions on how to “plant your own garden,” Nola's theme for the album.