Thousand Pieces of Gold

As Lalu stands on the auction block the next day, she feels someone put gold coins in her hand. She realizes she has not been purchased as a wife. A woman takes her to a ship to take her to a Chinese man in Portland. Jim is a packer who works for Hong King, a saloon owner who paid him to go fetch an enslaved person. Jim is nice to Lalu, but she rarely responds to him.

After nine days, they arrive in Lewiston. Jim explains how the town is similar to Warrens. He tells her about Hong King’s saloon and explains that Hong King bought her to bring in more customers since there are no Chinese women in the town. Lalu is disgusted by the saloons she sees and worries that she will be expected to dress provocatively like the women she sees working in the saloons. Suddenly, Lalu kicks her mule and runs off, but realizes she has nowhere to go. Ashamed, she waits for Jim to catch up with her. She thinks about how scary the “demons” around her are, realizing she has no protection from them.

Jim eventually catches up with her, and the two stop to eat dinner. Jim apologizes for scaring her with information about the saloons but explains that he wants her to be able to confront her future. Jim tells her that he was once enslaved, but he bought his life back and that she will soon do that, too.

As Jim and Lalu make their way to Warrens, he teaches her English words that will help her work in Hong King’s saloon. Additionally, they exchange stories about their childhoods in China. Lalu is angry that she has been bought by Hong King, but Jim assures her that Hong King will not hurt her because he needs her for business. Lalu wishes Jim could buy her from Hong King but realizes he doesn’t have enough money to at the moment.

When the two arrive in Warrens, Jim points out Hong King’s saloon, and Lalu is surprised he won’t take her directly there. He promises that he will come to the saloon that night to see her. Before he leaves her, he reminds her that she always has a friend in him.

When Lalu arrives at Hong King’s saloon, she is pulled off her horse by a white man who calls her “Polly.” She tries to fight back and explain that her name is Lalu, but Hong King appears and tells her that her new name is Polly. Hong King tells the hungry crowd of white men to come see Polly that night at the saloon, but that he intends to have sex with her before them. He then sexually assaults Polly for the first time.

Hong King pays one of the women who works in his saloon to dress Lalu for her first night working. The woman tries to give her a gun, which the “hurdy gurdy” girls use to protect themselves from having to have sex with the customers. When the woman leaves, Lalu changes her shoes and takes off her makeup.

When Lalu goes into the saloon, she is immediately swarmed by customers who grope at her and call her names. She demands they leave her alone, but Hong Kong forces her to interact with them. She sees Jim in the crowd and looks away embarrassed. The male customers continue to pick her up until a man named Charlie comes in and tells them to stop. Charlie offers to buy everyone drinks and takes Lalu to the back room while everyone is distracted. Jim is waiting for her there.

Charlie leaves to go to his saloon, which is next door. Before he leaves, he tells Jim to tell her that if the male customers ever treat her like they did that night again, she can always come next door to get him. Jim explains that, because he is Chinese, he couldn’t defend Lalu like Charlie did, which is why he went to go get his friend. He encourages Lalu to trust Charlie, even though he is white.

Five months into living in Warrens, Lalu sweeps up at the end of the night. She finds a small nugget of gold and hides it away, hoping to use it to eventually buy her freedom. Jim arrives, and Lalu tells him about how she takes the gold she sees and views it as “mining” Hong King. She doesn’t feel bad about this because Hong King has significantly more business now that she works in the saloon. Jim asks if Lalu plans to return home when she buys her freedom and then reminds her that her family will be different and older when she gets back to them. He tells her that he knows family is important to her, but she is “dead” to them. It is then revealed that Lalu has sent her family letters, but they have never responded. She believes the letters are lost and is unable to accept that her father chose to sell her instead of being forced to do it. Jim becomes angry at her resistance to see her family’s betrayal.

Jim announces that because of the upcoming winter, he will not be able to visit for several months, but that Charlie will look after her. Not wanting to end their visit on a sour note, Lalu admits that she knows her family will never write back.

Soon, Lalu learns that Jim has died after falling off a steep hill. As she mourns him at his grave, Charlie comes to play music, causing Lalu to cry. Charlie hugs her, and Lalu mourns both Jim and herself.

A picture of a mining town precedes this chapter.

Polly cleans the saloon in the middle of the night because she is upset that a Black man revealed to her that she is not an enslaved person because of emancipation. She is furious that she learns this information from a stranger instead of Charlie. Charlie soon comes looking for her, and she confronts him. He explains that she doesn’t have the same rights as Black people and that there are laws that forbid having enslaved people, but those laws ultimately just raised the price of having an enslaved person. Charlie admits to not understanding how those laws work. He explains that Polly can’t go to the court system because she may get deported. Polly considers returning to China but realizes she doesn’t want to because she would have to get married.

Charlie then explains that Black people had terrible lives when they were enslaved, and Polly’s life is much better than theirs was. She is furious that he would say something like that and tells him that she deserves to be free, too. Charlie tells her that freedom isn’t possible for her, since both he and Jim tried to buy her from Hong King, and Hong King refused to sell her. Polly wonders why Jim never told her, and Charlie says that he wanted her to still have hope that her situation could improve.

Polly and Charlie spend most of the night talking, but little has changed. Polly thinks back on Hong King’s life and history of gambling. She realizes that his biggest gamble has been on her, and she has made him very rich. As a result, he doesn’t want to give her up or grant her freedom. Realizing she will never be truly free from Hong King, she takes Charlie’s Winchester out into the woods while he sleeps.

Polly does not know how to shoot, so she must teach herself how to use the Winchester. She decides she will practice on a fool hen, which does not get scared and flies away from danger. She finds a fool hen and tries to shoot it, but misses. In the process, she realizes that Hong King is not a bird but instead an old man who will die sooner than later, granting her freedom. However, she then remembers that Hong King is not only an old man, but her enslaver. She raises her rifle again and kills the fool hen and swears that Hong King will die next.

Polly decides to kill Hong King at night when he comes to collect the night’s earnings because no one will be around to see it. However, when she enters the saloon that night, she sees men crowded around the gambling table. Charlie and Hong King are playing against each other.

Polly is upset that Hong King is already at the saloon and tries to signal to Charlie that he needs to leave so she can carry out her plan to kill Hong King. She tries to distract the men by ordering drinks, but everyone ignores her to focus on the card game. As the game continues, Hong King bets more and more. He asks Polly to bring him the night’s earnings and then offers to give Charlie the saloon’s lease. Charlie says he already has a saloon and tells him to bet Polly. Hong King agrees, the men flip over their cards, and Charlie wins the game.

Polly returns with Charlie to his cabin, and he is surprised that she is not thanking him for freeing her. She is angry that he took away her ability to free herself, and he believes that he was doing something kind for her. Polly explains that she wanted to kill Hong King, but Charlie says that Hong King will have to leave town, making him practically dead. He tells Polly that she is free.

As Polly looks around the cabin, she notices the kind ways Charlie has altered his home to make it better for her. She realizes he is extremely thoughtful and tells him she wants to be her own person and have her own boarding house. He tells her that she can’t own property because she is Chinese. Charlie offers to buy her a house and let her pay for it and for the first time, Polly feels free.