The Joy Luck Club Page #8

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- No, not really.

- Yeah, I could've sworn.

After all these years,

she was still so sneaky.

Hey, June,

how your business go?

Your mother tell me

you busy, busy, busy.

It's going pretty good.

Although one of my clients

seems to think...

that freelance means free,

just because we're friends.

Listen, June, I don't know

how to tell you this.

But that stuff you wrote--

Well, the firm decided

it was unacceptable.

You're lying. You-- You said--

You said it was terrific.

- I didn't want to hurt your feelings.

- You said that--

I was trying to see

if I could fix it somehow...

- but it just won't work.

- Look, all copy needs fine-tuning.

Rewrites are free, of course.

I'm just as concerned about

making it perfect as you are.

-June, I really don't think--

-Just tell me what they

want to have changed.

I'll give you a call next week, okay?

We'll go over it line by line.

June, I can't.

It's just not...

well, sophisticated.

- I'm sure what you do

for your other clients is wonderful.

- You girls.

Ma!

And we are a big firm.

And we need somebody

who understands that.

- Who understands our style.

- What does style have to do with it?

Oh, god. I mean, really, June.

"Three benefits. Three needs.

Three reasons to buy.

Satisfaction guaranteed.

- For today's and tomorrow's tax needs."

- That's just part of it.

Yeah, the bad part.

True.

Cannot teach style.

June not like Waverly.

Must be born this way.

I was so humiliated.

Outsmarted by Waverly

and betrayed by my own mother.

I see you didn't

touch your crab.

Like I said at dinner,

not hungry.

What?

Still mad at Waverly?

How could I be mad at someone

with all that style?

It's just a shame that

I wasn't born that way.

- So it's me you're mad at?

- No.

I'm just sorry that

you got stuck with such a loser...

that I've always been

so disappointing.

What you mean, disappoint?

- Piano?

- Everything.

My grades, my job.

Not getting married.

- Everything you expected of me.

- Not expect anything!

Never expect!

Only hope.

Only hoping best for you.

It's not wrong to hope.

No?

Well, it hurts.

Because every time you hoped

for something I couldn't deliver, it hurt.

It hurt me, Mommy.

And no matter

what you hope for...

I'll never be more

than what I am.

And you never see that!

What I really am.

- Uh-huh.

-June...

since your baby time...

I wear this

next to my heart.

Now you wear next to yours.

It will help you know.

I see you.

I see you.

That bad crab,

only you tried to take it.

Everybody else

want best quality.

You, your thinking different.

Waverly took best-quality crab.

You took worst.

Because you have

best-quality heart.

You have style.

No one can teach.

Must be born this way.

I see you.

Hey!

All right.

Oh, my god.

- Oh!

- Oh!

- To June.

- To June.

- Yeah.

Oh, no.

- Oh, god.

- Thank you.

Well, take all of this love

with you to China tonight.

- Oh.

- Speech, speech.

- Oh, no, no, no, no.

- Yeah, speech, speech.

- I'm not a speaker.

- Louder, louder.

- Louder, louder.

- Stop it.

- Hurry up.

Yeah.

Well, she spilled on my hair.

Not on me.

I've known all of you

for so long--

Rose, Lena, Waverly--

since we were babies

and kids fighting over dolls.

It's amazing, isn't it?

Auntie Lindo,

Auntie Ying Ying...

Auntie An Mei...

long-time friends

of my mother...

you are like

second mothers to me...

in so many ways.

Truly.

I mean, you gave her back to me

by finding my sisters.

You've given me something

I can still do for her.

Here, I thought it was too late.

Well, it isn't.

All right. Well, good night, TC.

Good night, Daisy.

- Thank you. Bye-bye.

- Uh-huh, okay. Good-bye.

Auntie Lindo?

I have something

I must tell you.

One little thing

I forget tell you.

You know I write letter

to your sisters...

telling them how happy

you are to find them...

how happy you are

you go to China to see them--

Yes, Auntie Lindo,

you've already told me this.

And then I signed it...

from your mother.

What? You signed the letter

in my mother's name?

I try write different letter

telling them...

"So sad, too late.

Mother gone, dead."

But how can I write

such letter? No.

This is my thinking:

Better hear from own sister.

Important news.

- You, only one who can--

- You--

You mean, they think

that she's still alive?

Oh, my God.

My God.

My God.

You have to write back.

Tell them that she's dead.

I can't tell them that.

Auntie Lindo, you have to write

another letter!

Too late.

No way to do this.

You leaving tonight.

You must go. You tell them.

Anyway, this is best way.

That my thinking.

You know,

ever since Mommy died...

it's like a mystery

where everything is.

She hides everything:

jewelry, even the fake stuff.

For three years

she tried to tell me...

where she hide everything

in case she die.

I guess I wasn't listening.

I, I picked some things for them.

You tell me if they're okay.

This one is from me.

Old photos of Mom in China.

I don't need old photos

for memory. I have lots.

You have lots.

Now they should have her.

Am I right?

Yeah.

Maybe when they see

picture of Mom...

so young, so beautiful...

they can still remember her.

Not like the way she look

when she left them.

The way she looked?

Oh, yes.

Very bad dysentery.

Back then,

no medicine, no doctors.

She almost died, you know.

She never told you?

Oh.

She thought...

"Better not die

next to my babies.

Nobody saves babies

with such bad luck.

Who wants two babies

with ghost mother following them?

Very bad luck. Very."

You know, everything she had

she left with those babies.

Everything worth anything.

She left a note

with all her gold...

promising more if babies brought

to their father in Chungking.

Ah, so much bad luck.

Then, she thought,

even worser luck:

Someone save her

after she left them.

Put her in a truck.

She woke up in the hospital,

screaming, wanting to die.

Come, sit.

One more thing.

I found this

in Mommy's jewelry box.

I know she was

saving it for you.

Someday she was going

to give to you. I think now.

Go ahead, open.

It's good luck for China.

See?

It's a swan feather.

Swan feather?

She decided...

she couldn't give

that feather to you, not yet.

She didn't think

you would understand.

Well, I guess I was never

very good at listening to her.

No! No, no, no.

She thought...

she wasn't worthy enough

mother to give it to you.

Worthy enough for me?

Because she gave up hope

about her other daughters.

How can she show you

how to hope big...

when she had lost hope?

A mother, mother can never give up

her hope for her own children.

- Never.

- Never.

But she never did.

On the day you're born...

she transfer all her hope to you...

all hope from those babies.

She transferred

all her hopes to me?

Mine too.

Oh, I love you, Daddy.

I will tell them this feather

may look worthless...

but it comes from afar...

and carries with it

all my good intentions.

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