Preparation For The Next Life

While she is in prison, Zou Lei reflects on her childhood in a part of Afghanistan that was under Chinese control. Zou Lei’s mother was one of the Uighur women paid by Chinese officials to marry and have a child with one of their soldiers. As such, Zou Lei identifies as Chinese-Muslim. Zou Lei loved her father, and when he was home, the pair would practice training their bodies by running and doing other forms of exercise. Zou Lei’s father was eventually called to serve in a second war and was killed in action. From then on, Zou Lei and her mother migrated further into China in search of work. They found jobs at a factory in Shenzhen, and Zou Lei grew frustrated with her life. In the present, Zou Lei is released from prison and travels to Port Authority.

As Zou Lei travels to Port Authority, Skinner—a newly discharged Iraq War veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—hires a taxi to drive him from Virginia to New York. The trip is awkward as the driver refuses to stop to allow Skinner to buy food and use the restroom. Eventually, Skinner takes a nap. Skinner is dropped off at a gas station close enough to the city to see the New York skyline in the background. He describes the skyline—paying close attention to the lack of the Twin Towers within it—and he purchases an energy drink and some cigarettes from the gas station. Skinner begins to wander the city, visiting many bars and spending his money carelessly. He makes his way toward 11th Avenue, stopping in a restaurant to ask if there are any cheap hotels around. Skinner begins to harass one of the women who works there, continuously asking her on a date and refusing to respect her refusal.

Eventually, Skinner makes his way to a McDonald’s, where he purchases fries and a coffee. Skinner goes to the bathroom and begins to change out of the clothes that he arrived back in the US wearing. He tries to clean himself in the sink, noticing the scars and tattoos that adorn his upper arms and torso. A security guard forces Skinner to leave the restroom, and he and some other unhoused people who were resting in the McDonald's are forced to leave as the store closes. Skinner finds another McDonald's a few blocks away, where an employee allows him to rest in the closed section of the store upstairs.

The novel returns to Zou Lei, who is on the subway. She gets off at the Chinatown stop and begins to look for a job. Zou Lei tries to learn more English by reading newspapers. She goes from restaurant to restaurant asking for a job with no luck. Eventually, she goes into a pizza restaurant far from where she’d begun walking and learns of an apartment building in Queens where other undocumented immigrants pay reduced rent. The unsanitary apartment is divided into smaller “sheds” to allow more people to sleep in the small space. Zou Lei decides to live in the apartment and finds a job in a basement food court, where she works daily and earns a meal. After work, she runs through the neighborhood, contemplating its diversity. Seeing unhoused people sleeping on the streets, she thinks about how many people stigmatize undocumented immigrants like herself just as they stigmatize the unhoused.

At the McDonald’s, Skinner dreams about his time in the army. He relives the brutal deaths of several of his peers before reliving his own near-death experience, which resulted in his discharge from the military. Skinner and two of his close friends had been ordered to go on patrol, but the sergeant that they went with led them into an area that they had been told was too dangerous to enter. They ended up cornered and under heavy fire from Iraqi soldiers that they couldn’t see. Skinner and his close friend Jake were hit with some kind of explosive; Skinner received severe damage to his back and shoulder, and Jake lost his legs in the explosion.

After Skinner jolts awake, he continues to have severe flashbacks to the aftermath of the explosion. He and Jake were discharged back to the US, and Jake later died from complications of his injuries. Skinner became isolated from his family after he physically attacked his brother one day. Skinner served three tours in Afghanistan even though he was no longer mentally stable after the first. He explains that he was a victim of a “stop-loss” as the US military, running short of personnel as the war dragged on, began to involuntarily extend soldiers’ service. In the morning, Skinner leaves the McDonald’s and finds a hostel near Port Authority. It quickly becomes apparent that Skinner is experiencing suicidal ideation and wishes to find something to live for. The other people staying in the hostel complain that Skinner makes noise in his sleep.

A few days after arriving in New York, Skinner aimlessly rides the subway to the last stop on its route. He finds himself on a crowded street with many signs written in Chinese. He wanders around for a while and eventually stumbles upon the basement food court where Zou Lei works. He finds Zou Lei sitting on the fire escape, and they begin to speak about their similarly rigorous training regimens. The next morning, Zou Lei receives a call from Skinner asking if she wants to do something together later. Zou Lei agrees.

Zou Lei and Skinner walk around Chinatown while laughing and exchanging stories. The pair enter a bar and drink together, both becoming heavily intoxicated as they try to out-drink each other. After leaving the bar, they continue to walk around Chinatown, and a young man tries to rob Skinner. Despite being threatened with violence, Skinner does not move or say anything to the robber. Zou Lei pulls Skinner away from the man, while another man pulls the robber down the stairs. The pair decide to go to McDonald’s. As they eat, Skinner begins to make sexual advances toward Zou Lei, but she tells him to stop, saying that she is testing him; she will agree to be his girlfriend if he “passes” the test.

Skinner walks Zou Lei back to her apartment. He asks to go in with her, hinting that he wants to have sex with her, but she refuses. He grasps her forearm gently, wanting to touch her in some way, and Zou Lei allows this. However, she sends him home after a few seconds.

Later, Zou Lei washes her clothes at a nearby laundromat. Simultaneously, Skinner exercises in a nearby gym. When Skinner comes to Zou Lei’s apartment later, he continuously makes sexual advances toward Zou Lei. She tells him to stop, and after he touches her breasts, she hits him. The pair agree to stop “fighting.” Zou Lei grabs her bag and walks out of her apartment, and Skinner chases after her asking if she is still mad. She tells him that he is “out of control” and the pair walk along the street looking at the various goods being sold by vendors (96).

Zou Lei leads Skinner to a cart selling various Chinese skewers. She orders two spicy lamb skewers and gives one to Skinner. The vendor of the cart inquires why Zou Lei is paying instead of Skinner because he is an American male, and Skinner tells him that’s not his business. The pair eat, and Zou Lei tells Skinner about the food her mother used to make and about her own Chinese-Muslim identity. Skinner is surprised but states that he “knew something was different” about her (99). They go to KFC, and Skinner intimately touches Zou Lei under the table. They agree to go back to Zou Lei’s apartment and have sex. After, Zou Lei asks Skinner about his scars as she rubs them gently with her palm.

Skinner finds a room to stay in near Chinatown on Craigslist. When he arrives to look at the room, a woman he instantly dislikes opens the door and leads him to her mother, who owns the house. The conversation begins awkwardly, but once Skinner mentions that he is a veteran, the owner seems to soften and thanks him for his service. He goes downstairs to look at the room—a furnished basement with a bathroom, a refrigerator, and a portable stove—and he agrees to take it. The owner tells him that she doesn’t care who he brings home or what he does, but there are limits to the behavior that she will tolerate. Skinner states his acceptance of the rules.