The Girls of Good Fortune

The narrator defines the Chinese word pingshu as “the art of storytelling” (1). The narrator, who is a mother and grandmother, reflects on the idea of identity. She is preparing to drive to a cemetery to deliver knowledge that would have changed many lives if it had come to light years ago. She reflects on which events make it into the history books and which do not. The story of her family belongs to the latter group.

Celia wakes up to find herself face-down on the ground. She is in a dim, enclosed place that smells like a back alley. She calls for help through the closed door. She doesn’t understand why she is dressed like a man, with false hair attached to her face, but she realizes that she is trapped in the tunnels.

Celia feels that she is being watched and judged as she walks through Portland’s North End to look for Abigail, the daughter of the Bettencourts, her employers. Celia wonders if Abigail has gone to a vaudeville show at the Silver Dollar Saloon, but the girl is not there. Suddenly, Celia overhears a white man pushing a Chinese-appearing man out the saloon door.