Maizy Chen's Last Chance

Three years later, Maizy is now 12 years old. She and her mother take a trip to Last Chance because Opa is sick. Maizy does not want to leave home or her best friend, Ginger. Oma greets Maizy and Charlotte at the Golden Palace and brings them inside, past a large bear sculpture that makes Maizy nervous.

Maizy enters the Golden Palace and sees that the restaurant is empty except for an older woman, who stares at them. Maizy greets her grandfather, who sits in a wheelchair by the kitchen.

Oma makes food for Maizy and Charlotte. Maizy has trouble using chopsticks, so Oma gives her a fork. Oma and Charlotte argue, Oma complaining that Charlotte and Maizy never visit them. After she eats, Maizy goes into the restaurant office and looks at the photographs of Chinese men on the wall.

At her grandparents’ house, Maizy’s mother explains that they may have to stay in Last Chance for the whole summer because of Opa’s sickness.

Maizy explores Last Chance. She passes a German restaurant called Werner’s Wieners and goes into the soda fountain shop, where a woman named Eva serves her. Eva asks her where she is from, and Maizy tells her: California. When Eva persists in asking where she is from, Maizy realizes she wants to know her race, so she tells Eva she is Chinese. Maizy crosses the street to investigate a well, which she accidentally drops her phone into.

A boy named Logan comes up to Maizy. Maizy asks him to call her phone to see if it still works. He writes her phone number on a piece of paper and asks her name and where she is from. She tells him her name and that her ancestors came from China. Logan looks confused and asks what city she is from. Relieved, Maizy tells him she is from Los Angeles. Logan looks impressed and then rides away on his bicycle, telling Maizy he will call her from his house.

Maizy never recovers her phone. She passes the bear sculpture, which everyone calls Bud the Bear, that guards the Golden Palace. Inside, she sees the older lady from the day before. Oma tells her that the woman’s name is Lady Beth and that she is the richest lady in town. Charlotte tells Maizy that her nickname for Lady Beth is Lady Macbeth. In the kitchen, Maizy meets a woman named Daisy who works for Maizy’s grandparents. Later, Charlotte introduces Principal Holmes, a friend of hers from high school, to Maizy.

Maizy finds Oma in the office. She asks Oma about the men in the photographs, but Oma does not answer her and changes the subject.

Maizy asks Opa to teach her to play poker. She asks him if he has ever been to San Francisco, but he tells her that he and Oma rarely traveled because they could not leave the restaurant. Oma and Maizy’s mother arrive home, and Oma comments that Charlotte could not wait to leave Last Chance to make fake food in Los Angeles, upsetting Charlotte.

Maizy goes to Eva’s soda fountain shop. She notices three girls her age sitting in the shop and realizes they are talking about her. One of the girls, Riley, does not engage with the other two girls, but Maizy notices them pulling their eyelids back and laughing in a mockery of her Chinese features. Maizy rushes out of the soda fountain shop as the two girls laugh at her.

Maizy’s mother returns from seeing Opa’s doctor and tells Maizy that Opa should stay home rather than going to the restaurant every day. Maizy offers to bring Opa food and sit with him.

At lunch, Maizy watches Opa’s favorite television show with Giancarlo “Carlos!” Franco. Carlos! travels around the country to different restaurants. Maizy tells Opa that the next day she will bring him food from Werner’s Wieners, but Opa tells her that they do not speak about Werner in his house. Maizy asks Opa about how their family came to Last Chance in the first place. Opa agrees to tell her the story of their family’s history.

Opa’s story begins in a small village in China in 1853. A little boy is born in the village, and his sister names him Lucky. Lucky grows up working in the fields with his family. Lucky hears stories about America, where there are mountains of gold and “no one ever went hungry” (38). He learns that many boys travel to America and send money back to their families in China, and he decides to do the same to help his family.

Opa tells Maizy that he will relay Lucky’s story slowly because “good stories, like a good meal, should never be rushed” (39). Maizy’s mother takes Opa to the doctor again, and they learn that he has heart disease. At the Golden Palace, Maizy sees her mother talking with Principal Holmes again.

Maizy sees Logan ride by the Golden Palace. Logan tells Maizy that his family owns the bait store in town. Logan greets a boy named Finn, who is holding a bucket of worms. Maizy asks Logan if he wants to hang out with her, and he excitedly agrees.

Maizy and Opa play poker together. Maizy asks Opa to tell another story about Lucky and he agrees.

After several years, Lucky and his family have saved enough money for him to travel to America. On the ship to California, Lucky meets a boy named Li Wei. In San Francisco, Lucky learns that since the Gold Rush ended, Chinese immigrants have lived in poverty but without the money to return to China. They do not have rights in America, so their wages are lower than white people’s. Lucky and Li Wei get jobs doing dangerous work on the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Oma and Maizy’s mother argue almost every day. At the restaurant, Maizy sees Oma sneaking extra money into Daisy’s tip jar.

Logan tells Maizy that Werner and Opa used to be best friends. Maizy offers Werner a bag of Chinese food for two of his hotdogs. Werner agrees and asks her about Opa. At home, Opa tells Maizy that he taught Werner English when they were young. Maizy asks more about Werner, but instead Opa tells her another story about Lucky.

Lucky becomes the cook at the railroad camp. Li Wei dies in a dynamite explosion. A few months later, Lucky applies for a job at the Phillips Mansion in San Francisco.

The next day, Werner tells Maizy that he worked hard so that his daughter would not have to work in a restaurant. Maizy wonders why Oma does not have the same perspective about Charlotte. After lunch, Opa complains that the fortunes inside fortune cookies are always bad, which gives Maizy an idea.

Maizy types on her mother’s old typewriter in her childhood bedroom. She manages to slip a fortune out of one of the cookies and slip a new fortune inside. She hands the cookie to Opa, and he laughs when the fortune says, “You should tell your granddaughter a Lucky story” (61).

At the Phillips Mansion, a man answers the door. He looks at Lucky’s long braid and tells him to leave. However, the cook sees that he is an applicant and brings him inside. Lucky feels nervous, but the cook, Mrs. Birney, does not talk down to him. Mrs. Birney hires him on the spot.

On the phone, Maizy tells her best friend, Ginger, that some customers compliment her English, which makes her feel bad. Ginger tells her that a stranger once called her “a dirty Mexican” (65), which shocks Maizy. Afterward, Maizy stops two bullies from hurting Logan. Principal Holmes intercedes and tells the boys that he will contact their parents about their behavior.