Chapter Summaries: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

Ying-Ying then gives birth to a stillborn and she tells Lena that she had an abortion back in China, and she feels that the stillborn knows. Ying-Ying becomes depressed by this and does nothing more than lying around in the house. One night, Teresa (the abused girl) rings their doorbell, and invites herself in. She then tells Lena of how her mother kicked her out, and how she will climb through the fire escape back into her bedroom. She climbs through the fire escape, as planned, and Lena listens as she hears Teresa and her mother rejoice that Teresa is safe. She then realizes how she must show Ying-Ying that life gets better after this horrible passing time. She realizes that she must pull her mother through the wall, and join the other world.
             Half and Half.
             "Half and Half" is about Rose Hsu Jordan and her mother, An-Mei Hsu. It tells about Rose and how she and her husband are filing for divorce. Rose is dreading telling An-Mei this because she knows what An-Mei will say: "Then you must save it." (p.123) Rose tells of how she and her husband, Ted fell in love. She tells of when she met Mrs. Jordan. Mrs. Jordan tells her that the profession that Ted is entering would not look fondly upon him having a Vietnamese wife. Clearly, Mrs. Jordan could not tell one Oriental race from the other, and this offends Rose. Rose tells Ted this and they decide to cling to each other as if something was keeping them from being together. They get married, and they begin living together. When they are living together, Rose starts letting Ted make all the decisions. And later, as time progresses, when Ted asks of her opinion, she replies with, "Ted, you decide." After a while, Ted just makes the decisions, without question. Ted begins to see her as dull, and shows her the big separation between them, and he leaves for a business trip in Los Angeles. He then calls from Los Angeles to tell Rose that he is filing for divorce.