The Year of the Dog

Melody and Pacy quickly become best friends. One day, Melody comes over to help make red eggs, a symbol of good luck, so that Pacy’s family can bring them to her newborn cousin, Albert. As the girls dye the eggs by dipping red envelopes in water, Pacy wishes that she could do this as a job because she enjoys it. When Lissy tells them that Pacy did not have a Red Egg party because she was sick as a baby, Ki-Ki claims it was because she had “ammonia.” Confused, Melody and Pacy look at the cleaners in the house, and seeing one labelled ammonia, they assume that Pacy is allergic to it. When Lissy laughs and threatens to spray Pacy with it, Pacy’s mom interjects, clarifying that Pacy had pneumonia as a baby, not ammonia.

When Melody goes home, Pacy and her family prepare for the long trip to visit Albert. They get dressed in formal Chinese clothes and pack the car. When the family arrives after dark, all their relatives are waiting for them and ask, “Ja-ba bei?” (40). This greeting, which inquires if they have eaten, is meant literally and also as a welcome.