Chapter 1
Chanda tried to stay vigilant throughout the rituals, but really she just wanted to go home. Her father’s body was now enveloped in flames and she was all alone in the world. She didn’t want to spend any more time around her distant family, either. She just wanted to melt into her bed and cry.
“Are you having his seventh day funeral?” her cousin asked her earnestly.
Chanda nodded. “Of course.”
“That is good. He is in a better place, Chanda. His suffering is gone from his body.”
“I know.” She sniffled, but did not shed a tear. Some people thought that she was a hard person, but her family knew that she was simply trying to be strong.
“Should I go home with you? Mother said she would make us dinner,” Yun insisted.
“I just want to be alone for a while. I have work tomorrow at the factory.”
“You can’t do this anymore, Chanda. You can’t stay alone. There are sites –“
Chanda put up in her hand. “I know about the sites.”
“So what’s wrong with them? Imagine, a rich American man, making your dreams come true. You would never have to work again!”
“I don’t mind working.” Chanda shrugged. “I have since I was fifteen.”
“And aren’t you tired?” Yun seized Chanda’s hands and showed her where the dye had stained her skin black around her nails. “Your hands look like a corpse’s!”
Chanda jerked her hands away and shoved them into the pockets of her dress. “The foreman is good to us. He said I can get a raise if I stay another year.”
“Another year? You want to stay here another year?” Yun gasped and rolled her eyes. “I think we should join the site together. At least then you can talk to men. You need a man in your life, Chanda, you’re almost twenty-five!”
“Be respectful!” hissed an old aunt.
Chanda and Yun nodded to her apologetically. “Think about it,” Yun whispered as she turned her attention back to the priest, who was reading Buddhist scripture for Chanda’s father’s spirit as he journeyed into the next life.
Finally in the safety of her single room near the garment factory where she worked, Chanda began to sob. At last, reality hit her. She had at least had the company of her father’s body with her for the past seven days, since he drew his last breath. There was some solace to not sleeping alone. But now the apartment was completely empty, with every last scrap of her father’s life gone. All of his things had been cremated with him to accompany him into the afterlife. The room was now so bare.
For a while, she prayed. But there was no sign that her father heard her. “Why am I so selfish? You are busy meeting with our ancestors,” she whispered into the dark, dank air. That made her cry harder and she retried to the bed, where she sobbed herself to sleep.
Watching her father die slowly of cancer was extremely hard. She had had to keep strong face and work to support them both. But being unmarried and all alone was even harder. How was she supposed to cope? Should she consider the site that her cousin spoke of? It seemed wrong, but the idea of a husband who would give her a better life did appeal to her.
“How are you?” one of her co-workers asked her sympathetically at work.
“I am all right,” she sighed. “How are you?”
“I must offer my regrets about your father.” Then the girl grinned. “I am wonderful! I am moving to America.”
“What?” Chanda narrowed her eyes. “Was it one of those sites?”
“Yes, I met a nice man! He says he is coming here to take me away.”
Chanda forced a wan smile. “Are you sure that he is a nice man? I have heard scary stories –“
The girl cut her off brusquely. “Of course he is nice. He has even chatted with me over video. He drives a truck. He makes a fortune.” She beamed down at the fabric that she was working.
Chanda shrugged haphazardly. “All right then.”
“Have you thought about the sites, Chanda? You should. You can become lucky, like me. Leave this place.” She waved her hand disdainfully around the damp, filthy plant where the air reeked of sweat. All of the women looked serious and tired, with their hair pulled back and perspiration lining their brows staining their armpits. Their hands looked raw and swollen, stained with dye.
“So you need a sexy profile picture,” Yun said excitedly. “Do you have any lingerie?”
“No!” Chanda cried. “Why would I have lingerie? I’ve never even been with a man!”
“Oh, come on. You have to look sexy to get clicks. See? My picture is sexy and I get hundreds of clicks every day.” Yun proudly showed Chanda her profile picture on her phone. “I am talking to fifty-four men right now. I only had to block one. He was asking me to do stuff with donkeys.”
“Donkeys?”
“Some men are weird. But most of them are very nice. They’re all so very lonely and they worship Asian women. You’ll have such good luck.”
“But I have no sexy pictures,” Chanda said sadly. “I don’t even know how to take one.”
“I’ll take one for you. I’ll even lend you one of my pieces.”
“Let’s just take one in what I’m wearing,” Chanda sighed. “I’m tired of men treating us like sex objects. I want a husband who is more respectful.”
Yun sighed. “They won’t click on your profile if you aren’t sexy.”
“Aren’t I sexy?” Chanda mock pouted, slipping the strap of her pink sun dress off her shoulder.
Yun giggled. “Fine. Hold still. Do you have a sexy model look?”
“Like this?” Chanda pursed her lips like the girls she saw on Instagram.
Yun giggled again. “That is a good picture.” She showed it to Chanda.
Chanda shrugged. “That is OK.”
“It would be better in lingerie.” Yun sent Chanda the picture so that she could upload it to her new account.
Chanda sighed dishearteningly as she went over her profile. “You really don’t think I’ll get any clicks?” She hesitated over her picture, wishing that her dimples weren’t so deep and her braid wasn’t so kinky. In reality, Chanda was an extremely pretty woman, with high cheekbones and thick black hair that swept richly over her shoulders. But she had dedicated so many years to caring for her father and working that she had not let any men into her life. She wasn’t used to male attention. Nor did she look in the mirror often.
“Not as many without lingerie.” Yun noticed the hopeless look on Chanda’s face, and stooped to give her a peck on the cheek. “You will find a man, sweetheart. Keep your hope. You always were the tough one of the family.”
Chanda half-laughed. “I would always start fights with boys and yell at them when they would pinch us. That doesn’t mean I was the strong one.”
“But you stayed there for uncle, even after aunty died. You were always there. You are strong and you will make a great wife.”
Chanda anxiously checked her email several times throughout the day. By evening, men started taking notice of her profile. She was overwhelmed by how many men suddenly started emailing her. They all said that she was gorgeous and that they wanted to chat. Some even sent her wink faces or blew her kisses. One man sent her pictures of him pantless and asked her for some in exchange; she promptly blocked him.
“How do I pick one?” she asked Yun.
“Talk to them all until you find the best one,” Yun texted back.
But Chanda was completely overwhelmed. There was no way to answer every man. She tried to keep up, but could not. Finally, after two days, she turned her email notifications off. It was time to focus on work and earning her raise. This mail order bride site was silly, she thought.
After two days, though, she woke up in the middle of the night. It felt as if someone had shaken her. “Check your profile,” an inner voice told her. She got a tingling feeling in her gut and she wondered if her father was here, trying to tell her something important. Urgently, she seized her phone and checked her email. As she sifted through the countless emails from different men with unfamiliar names, she found a few that seemed promising. So she replied to them.
Immediately she received a reply from a man named Chris Stryker. In his picture, his blue eyes and shock of blond hair stunned her. “Hi ☺” he replied.
“How are you?” she typed. “I am sorry if my English is not good. I only learned in school so I am trying.”
“Your English seems perfect. Your school taught you well. I am OK. How are you?”
“I am well.” She decided not to tell him how she was lonely and how her father had recently passed. It seemed too heavy of a topic to bring about around someone new; she wanted him to be charmed and tempted by her, not depressed.
“Why is someone pretty like yourself on here? It seems that you would be married already,” Chris commented. “Sorry if that seemed creepy but most of the girls on here seem like amateur porn stars. You, on the other hand, seem like a lovely regular girl who would make a great wife.”
“I am unmarried,” she replied after several minutes of trying to think of the best thing to say. Maybe it was a good thing that Yun hadn’t taken a sexy photo of her in lingerie! Men seemed to click on her profile plenty without that sexy photo.
“That’s good then. I am too. I am new to this site.”
“Why are you unmarried?” Peering at his pictures, she couldn’t believe that he didn’t have a wife. He looked perfect. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw his pictures with horses. “Wealthy Texas landowner seeking true love” was his byline. Horses were one of her biggest fantasies; she had always wanted to try riding them.
“It is a long story. But I am a good man and I am looking for a wife,” he replied. “I own a ranch in Texas and I’m a hardworking guy. I’m also a very lonely guy.”
Chanda breathed in sharply. “I want to know more about you,” she replied urgently.