As soon as the idea was put to her, Val decided to apply. They might not accept her, but if they did, she would prove herself by working harder than any other student. It felt incredible that she might have a chance to use her brain for the first time since school days. She might not be capable of a degree, but there was only one way to find out.

She was bursting to tell her mom about her decision, and wrote as soon as she got home. I can feel a whole new direction stretching in front of me, she wrote, and it’s exciting but daunting at the same time. I wish you lived in Sydney. It would be great to share all this with you.

As yet, there had been no reply to her letters, but she wasn’t concerned because she knew the mail from China was very slow.

And then, a few days later, she found a letter with a Chinese postmark in her mailbox. The writing on the outside of the envelope was not in her mother’s hand, and when Val opened it, she saw that the letter inside was written in Chinese characters. She turned it over but could not even make out the signature at the end. What did it mean?

In her lunch hour, she took the letter to the Department of Chinese Studies at the university and asked a lecturer to translate. His face grew concerned as he read, and he covered his mouth with his hand.

Once he reached the foot of the page, he said, “I’m terribly sorry. It says your mother has died. Her aunt Li Suran writes that the end was peaceful and that her last words were how happy she was to see you again.”

The news hit Val like a body blow. The inheritance money would be too late. Her mom was gone. It was too cruel to find her and then lose her again.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She took the letter, then turned and walked downstairs to her post at the telephone exchange, feeling an immense heaviness weighing on her. Although she had been warned that her mom’s illness was terminal, she had never accepted it. In her head she’d had visions of them all being together again.

That evening, she explained to Nicole that her grandma had gone to be with the angels.

“It’s just as well we visited China,” Nicole said in a practical tone, “because now we will recognize each other when we go to the angels too.”

* * *

Over the summer months, Val’s new attorney tried repeatedly to get Tony to agree to a legal separation and a financial settlement, but he refused point-blank. He didn’t even get a lawyer of his own, but sent back all her letters with obscenities scrawled on them.

“Don’t worry,” the attorney told Val. “He’s playing into our hands.”