Lily bristled. “Why did you want to me to come out with you today? Did you just want to pick on me?”
“Pick on you!” Shirley humphed and finished her hot chocolate, swallowing her own grainy dregs with a grimace. “I just wanted to get away for a few hours, that’s all. Look, I’m sorry. I’ve been a lousy friend, I know it. I’m sorry. Forgive me?”
The sudden turnabout took Lily aback. She wasn’t sure whether or not to believe her.
“Come on, let’s go walk around. There’s a whole museum in here, isn’t there? Let’s go.” Shirley got up and reached for Lily’s reluctant arm to drag her to her feet. “Come on. Be my friend today, okay? I need a friend.”
Beneath Shirley’s joking tone was something urgent, even a little desperate. Lily saw her friend’s eyes gleam for an instant as if she were forcing back tears. Abruptly she dropped Lily’s arm, picked up Lily’s empty cup, and went to toss it along with her own into the trash can nearby. When she returned she had a contrite expression on her face, and Lily had to give in because she had known Shirley her entire life, and this was the first time Shirley had asked for her forgiveness.
27
Sutro’s Museum was full of what some people would call junk: a lineup of horse-drawn buggies straight out of the Old West; a collection of Egyptian mummies in their ancient carved coffins; dioramas of ghost towns that would come to mechanized life with the drop of a few pennies. In one room there was a life-size mannequin of a Japanese woman called Mrs. Ito. She looked subhuman, crouching on the ground with one half-bared arm pointing to the side, her head balding and faintly apelike.
Lily and Shirley approached her dubiously. She had been carved out of wood and painted, and Lily wondered if she had been based on a real woman, and if so, what woman would have consented to have this mockery made of her.
Several Caucasian children were peering at the statue while their mothers stood behind them talking to each other. One of the little boys pointed at Shirley and Lily and announced, “Mommy, they’re like Mrs. Ito!”
One mother had the grace to look embarrassed, but another said, “How wonderful! Excuse me, girls, are you Japanese? Would you talk to my boys?”
Lily froze.
Shirley grabbed her hand to pull her away, calling over her shoulder in a false accent, “No speak Engrish, sorry!”
Once they were outside the room they fled, running through the Dolls of the World display—Lily was sure there were some terrible Chinese dolls there—and back up to the gallery overlooking the skating rink as if they were being chased. The running made the whole thing funny rather than awful, and when they reached the Marine Deck, where a long line of windows overlooked the ocean, Shirley said snidely, “鬼佬，”* and Lily laughed, even though it wasn’t really funny.
Telescopes were mounted every few feet in front of the windows to enable visitors to zoom in on the Seal Rocks out in the ocean. The marine layer had finally lifted, and the rocks were now visible offshore. Shirley went to one of the telescopes and peered through, then glanced over her shoulder at Lily. “Come look—you can see the seals.”
Lily put her eye to the viewer and squinted, twisting the scope until the rocks came into focus. She saw a few seals lying on the rocks, their glossy brown bodies displayed on the steep-sided island. One of them raised its head, and Lily saw its catlike whiskers as it swung around before diving sleekly back into the water. Beyond the Seal Rocks, the Pacific stretched out wide and gray, flecked with whitecaps, until it disappeared into the cloudy horizon. It felt as if they had come to the edge of the world—or at least as far from Chinatown as possible without leaving San Francisco—and those lounging seals were entirely unconcerned with petty human dramas.
A family came clattering loudly onto the Marine Deck, and Lily glimpsed the boys out of the corner of her eye. She thought they might be the same ones from the Mrs. Ito display. Beside her, Shirley was slinging her lunch bag over her shoulder and buttoning up her coat. “I’m hungry. Do you want to go eat lunch?”
“All right.” Lily stepped away from the telescope and the two of them left the Marine Deck, purposely ignoring the family. Lily felt their eyes on her back all the way to the exit.
* * *
—
They decided to take their lunch up to Sutro Heights Park, which overlooked the ocean. Lily bought two bottles of Coke from a vendor on the way. At the top of Point Lobos Avenue, the main gate to the park was flanked by two giant stone lions; inside, the road was lined with palm trees that waved their fronds in the wind.