– A sixth-grade classmate of
Kingston’s and a fellow Chinese-American girl who will not speak. Kingston bullies her into talking by calling her a “sissy-girl” and pinching her cheek. The girl has the ability to speak—Kingston claims to have heard her speaking, yelling even, in Chinese and English at her home, and the girl sometimes reads aloud in class—but she refuses social interaction. Her timidity and neatness annoy Kingston. The girl recalls Kingston’s own fears about being unable to speak, as well as her exasperation with all of the silences and secrets within her family.