Chinese character flash sheet in black ink

The ink stone you sent came with the money, and I have been grinding it every evening since the Lotus Hall closed its doors at two. Mr Fan says a girl who writes characters well earns more on the card, so I practise the ones you taught me on the back of the ticket stubs. Orchid first, because it was always your favourite and I never liked it. Then moon, then sun, which I keep getting backwards, so the strokes look like a man who has lost his way.

You will laugh that I am writing to you about patience. The band plays the same foxtrot from seven until midnight, and the men line up with their hats in their hands as if the floor were a bank counter. Last Tuesday a clerk from the customs office asked me to dance three times and then told me I was too pale for a proper wife. I told him I was not interested in being a wife, and he laughed and bought me a lemon soda anyway. I drank it slowly, the way Father drank rice wine, and the bubbles made my eyes water so that he thought I was crying over him. I let him think it.

Mother's letter came with a photograph of the new baby. I looked at it for a long time under the blue lamp. You have her chin, which is a pity, and his eyebrows, which is a blessing. Write back and tell me the baby sleeps through the night. I will keep the ink stone on the windowsill until you do, so that when the morning comes the light catches it first, and I can see that someone in this city is still awake and still counting the strokes.

Your sister, Lan