“Celebrate with me, then.” I said it too fast, before I had thought it through. It felt right all the same.

“Nothing would make me happier,” she said without missing a beat. “I’d even drive to come see you.”

“Fly.”

“Well, that’s a bit expensive—”

“To Shanghai. I’ll meet you there.”

I heard her rearrange herself. Maybe she was on a bed, or a chair, her long legs folded beneath her, her phone switching hands, pressing against a cooler cheek.

“You’ll be in Shanghai?”

I filled her in on grandmother’s pencil, my father’s offer.

“But until now, until I thought I might see you there, too, I wasn’t really looking forward to it.”

She laughed, a soft one, followed by a sniff.

“That’s incredible.” Her voice was warm with a trembling joy. “I will see you in Shanghai then.”

Grandfather promised he could handle a week by himself. The nurse, to our relief, has been great with grandmother, and will stick around for a while longer. I stocked the fridge and freezer and thoroughly cleaned the entire house. I let our neighbors know too—it was weird to share this vulnerability, that my elderly grandparents would be alone for a week—and yet they were so kind about it, promised to check in on them, even admitted that they had been looking for a way to help us out after the many times I had cat-sat for them. Their cat rubbed fondly against my leg.

I said goodbye to my grandparents on the porch. Grandfather made me take grandmother’s senior card, of course, since she can’t really take public transportation anymore. Grandmother smiled blankly when I bent down to hug her.

My first day in Shanghai, my father picked me up from the airport. He was taller than I remembered, until I realized I also felt taller here. Not as wary of standing up straight, not here in this place where I can blend right in. We took the fancy maglev train out of the airport.

My father lives in a nice apartment, though it is far from the city center. He had the day off, and after dropping off my stuff at his place and calling grandfather to let him know I made it safely, he took me to the site where the Phoenix Pencil Company once stood. It’s now a flashy convenience store, fluorescent lighting showing off all the bright packaging. I bought a notebook and wasabi-flavored chips I knew grandfather would find amusing.