Maizy Chen's Last Chance

The next day, Werner visits Opa. Opa refuses to speak to him, so the men sit in silence. Later, Maizy asks her mother if Opa and Oma are upset that Charlotte never married, but Charlotte tells Maizy that they are disappointed with Charlotte for other reasons.

Opa watches the news, which reports on protests in cities against immigrants and refugees. Opa tells Maizy that people think that putting others down will make them feel better about themselves.

One day, Lucky is walking to the Phillips Mansion with food when a police officer stops him. Even though Lucky works at the Phillips Mansion, the police officer allows a group of white men to attack Lucky and cut off his queue. When Lucky arrives at work, Mrs. Phillips cares for him and tells Jenkins to get the food for Lucky. However, when Mrs. Phillips leaves them alone, Jenkins refuses to take orders from Lucky.

Maizy tells Opa that she does not like Jenkins because of his phoniness. Opa agrees that the “racists who act friendly are the most dangerous” (80). On her way to the library, Maizy sees Riley, one of the girls from the soda fountain. Maizy asks Riley to tell her friends to stop being mean to people. Riley agrees and lets Maizy know that she can tell people to stop making fun of her too. At the library, Maizy realizes that the Black children on the cover of the book she checks out are the only people of color she has seen in Last Chance.

Werner tells Maizy about growing up with Opa, and she knows Werner misses him. Over lunch, Opa tells another Lucky story.

When the Phillips are out of town, police officers accuse Lucky of stealing from the Phillips. Lucky denies it, but the officers tell him they found jewelry in his room. Lucky manages to escape to the train station. Lucky boards a train, hoping to get as far away from the police officers as possible.

Maizy takes Opa to the Golden Palace after the doctor tells him he can go out for a few hours a day. Maizy leaves Opa at the restaurant while she helps Logan gather worms for his parents’ store.

Maizy asks Opa about the men in the restaurant photographs, and he tells her that they are “paper sons.” Before Maizy can ask anything else, Opa launches into another Lucky story.

In 1876, the James-Younger gang robs a bank in Minnesota, but the hostages inside the bank fight back. When Lucky arrives in Last Chance, he sees a sign in the window of the Golden Grille requesting that cooks apply inside.

Opa explains to Maizy that paper sons were Chinese immigrants who pretended to be relatives of US citizens so they could stay in America under the restrictive immigration laws. He tells Maizy that Lucky already lived in America when the US banned Chinese immigrants, so he allowed paper sons to claim they were related to him. They stayed with Lucky and he gave them jobs and food.

At the restaurant, Oma tells Maizy that the family lost track of the paper sons after they left the Golden Palace. Maizy asks if what they did for the paper sons is illegal, but Oma tells her that there is no crime in helping people in need.

Maizy sees an article about a graduate student named Emmy Tsai doing research on Chinese immigrants in Minnesota. Maizy wonders if Emmy knows about the Golden Palace and if she can help her find information on the paper sons who stayed there.

On Saturday night, a teenager named Erik comes to the restaurant with a date. During the meal, Erik makes a derogatory comment about Chinese people. Later, Maizy gives Erik’s date a fortune that reads, “You can do better than him” (103). Erik glares at Maizy as he leaves the restaurant.

Maizy brings Opa bratwurst from Werner and asks if Lucky took over the Golden Grille. Opa continues the story.

In Last Chance, everyone talks about how the Golden Grille has a new cook. Happy, the owner of the restaurant, loves Lucky’s cooking. The first time Lucky walks into the dining area of the Golden Grille, everyone stares at him. Happy tells the customers to stop staring and suddenly everyone starts thanking Lucky and he feels welcomed into the town.

The next day, someone steals Bud the wooden bear. Maizy finds a note tucked into the restaurant door that says that if they want Bud back, they will need to pay 1,000 yen; otherwise, they should “go home to China” (109). Maizy shows it to Mayor Whitlock, who tells her that the note is a hate crime.

Maizy goes back to the house and tells Opa about Bud. Opa reads the note and tells Maizy about how Bud came to the Golden Palace.

In the 1880s, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, which bans Chinese immigrants from coming to America. Lucky buys the Golden Grille from Happy, making him the first Chinese businessperson in Minnesota. As a gift, Happy buys a large black bear wooden sculpture for Lucky’s restaurant. Lucky names the sculpture Budai the Bear after Budai the monk, a Chinese statue that brings good luck. Lucky starts adding Chinese dishes to the menu, which the townspeople love. One day, some travelers come to the restaurant and call Lucky the c-word racial slur.

Maizy asks Opa about the c-word slur. Opa tells Maizy that it is the worst word to say to a Chinese person. Maizy can tell that the seriousness of the story and Bud’s disappearance weighs on Opa, so she leaves him alone. Maizy decides to write to Carlos! and ask his television show to visit Opa.

Maizy rereads Bud’s ransom note. She knows that yen is Japanese money and she wonders how she could “go home” to a place she has never visited. The sheriff tells them that it is probably just children pulling a prank, but Maizy does not think that makes it any better. Mayor Whitlock asks to interview Maizy for an article about Bud, and she agrees.

At night, the travelers drag Lucky into the street. They threaten to lynch him, but Lucky fights back. One of the men points a gun at Lucky, but the sheriff arrives and tells the man to leave Lucky alone. The drunk man shoots the gun in the air, and everyone realizes he shot someone.

Opa decides to finish the story later, but Maizy insists he must tell her what happened next. Opa laughs and continues the story.

The bullets lodge in Bud the wooden bear’s body, but no one gets hurt. The next morning, Lucky realizes the Golden Grille is on fire. Suddenly, the church bells ring and the townspeople rush out of their homes to help Lucky. Together, the town puts out the fire and helps Lucky repair the restaurant. However, a few weeks later, Lucky disappears.

Maizy circles the Golden Palace to look at the burn marks from the fire. When Maizy checks her email at the school library, she finds an email from Emmy, offering to answer questions about Chinese immigration in Minnesota.

During her interview, the mayor asks Maizy what she would tell the person who took Bud, and she says she would ask them, “My family’s ancestors helped build America, so why do you try to tear us down?” (128). Mayor Whitlock tells her the article will not run for another month because he must submit the article two weeks in advance for publishing.

When Maizy walks home, she sees the girls who bullied her. One of the girls makes a derogatory comment about Chinese food. Maizy tells her that her comment is offensive, which stuns the bullies into silence.

Through her investigation online, Maizy finds one of the paper sons’ descendants, a woman named Lynn Fong in New Jersey. Lynn emails her and explains that the woman’s grandfather lived at the Golden Palace in the 1930s. Maizy emails Emmy again and asks about racism against Chinese people.

Lucky returns to San Francisco by train. After a few days, Lucky goes back to the Phillips Mansion to clear his name. A young Chinese woman answers the door and lets him inside.

Maizy sits with Daisy, who tells her that she is saving to get her master recycler/composter certificate. Daisy explains how she wants to bring recycling to Last Chance.