The Leavers

Ten years have passed since Deming’s mother vanished. Deming, now going by Daniel Wilkinson, is playing a show and feeling as if he doesn’t fit with the New York crowd, despite having spent part of his childhood in the city: “If he only had the right clothes, knew the right references, he would finally become the person he was meant to be” (16). Daniel is playing the show with his hometown friend, Roland Fuentes, even though Psychic Hearts, their band, doesn’t play “the kind of music Daniel would choose to play” (17). However, Roland had asked him to move to the city to play with him, and Daniel hadn’t seen Roland for over a year, so he feels obligated to his friend.

At the show, Daniel drinks too much before the set and plays badly, leaving the stage mid-song. As he walks home, Daniel meditates on how strange he feels in Chinatown, now that he’s no longer used to being around other Asians. He remembers a Chinese woman he’d encountered in his small suburban hometown of Ridgeborough who’d spoken to him in Mandarin asking for directions. Daniel had pretended not to understand her and felt guilty afterwards. During his walk home, Daniel rereads an email he received months ago from a Michael Chen, Vivian’s son, which mentions new information about Polly, asking for Daniel to get in touch with him. Daniel decides not to answer it.

The next day, Daniel meets with his adoptive parents, Peter and Kay. Both college professors, they disapprove of Daniel’s expulsion from SUNY Potsdam and his life in New York. They want him to attend the college where they work and urge Daniel to return an application to it at a party they will attend for Jim and Elaine Hennings, family friends. Daniel thinks back to the Hennings’ adoptive Chinese daughter, Angel, a friend of Daniel’s with whom he’s had a falling out. He wants to tell her about Michael’s email and feels guilty about disappointing everyone around him.

Later, when he talks to Roland, his friend doesn’t seem angry and shows him how he wants the band to sound to get signed. Daniel feels the changes make the music inauthentic but goes with Roland. He tells Roland about Michael’s email, and Roland thinks he shouldn’t answer. Daniel feels torn between studying as his parents want or playing with Roland as Roland wants.

Daniel remembers his mother telling him she’d never leave him when he was 6 years old. Deming had just moved back from Minjiang, China, where he had been cared for by Yi Gong, his grandfather. A child, Deming is confused by his new setting after arriving in New York. While at first he sees Polly as a stranger, they slowly grow closer. One day they ride the subway until they end at Queens, and Polly makes it a game of finding a mother-son couple that looks like them. Deming thinks of them “like a best friend but better, like a brother, a cleaved self” (34). Deming and Polly find one such mother-son couple and follow them until Deming can’t help but approach them with a greeting. The boy greets Deming back, but they leave, and the incident frightens Deming, prompting him to ask his mother if she will leave again. She assures him she won’t but breaks the promise.

It is summer of the year when Polly disappeared, and Deming has been offered the chance to continue to sixth grade if he completes summer school. Deming has lost interest in school and his friends. Since his mother left, “nothing, no one was certain anymore” (36). Deming is grieving for her as he spends time with Michael, wondering if she’s still alive. Leon and Vivian have trouble making ends meet without Polly. They are taking care of both Deming and Michael, as well as paying Polly’s debts; the strain bleeds over into sharpness with each other and with Deming.

One night, Deming decides to go to Florida. He, along with Michael, pack their bags, but since they don’t have any money, they return. They hear that something happened at the nail salon where Polly worked, but don’t know the details. There is no record of Polly. Deming takes comfort in Leon, but the struggle for money intensifies when Leon’s hours are decreased. Leon leaves for China unable to cope with the economic situation. Three weeks later, Vivian tells Michael she will take Deming clothes shopping and takes him to a case worker. The case worker takes Deming to a foster family’s house where, feeling unwanted, he spends his days alone sleeping and watching television. One morning, Peter and Kay arrive, and Deming comments how he’d never been so close to white people before outside of the subway. He is told they are his new parents. They take him with them to Ridgeborough