Prairie Lotus

Neither Hanna nor Bess wants to cut the lovely fabric for fear of ruining and wasting it. Hanna asks Bess to baste, or sew with temporary stitches, the fabric to the pattern pieces to keep them secure as she cuts. Hanna cuts the pieces successfully and they chat about work and the future of the dress shop. Bess points out that Hanna will need a dressing room and a mirror. Hanna changes the subject to avoid mirror discussion, as she was unable to get Papa to buy one. She brings up the topic of a sewing machine and she and Bess discuss the idea along with buttonholes, which they both hate doing. They talk and laugh over Bess’s anticipation of becoming a schoolteacher. Hanna serves Bess soup for lunch and explains the dried mushroom and timpsina in it. They talk easily about how people of many cultures braid their produce for storage.

Mrs. Harris arrives at the shop after lunch, explaining to Papa that she wants to see where Bess is working. Bess greets her with a smile and praises the nice workshop. Hanna decides that though Mrs. Harris would probably prefer that she remain in the background, she will rise, greet her, and make tea. Hanna adds a few cookies already baked for the party. She purposefully gets a third chair and joins Bess and Mrs. Harris after pouring their tea. Mrs. Harris allows that the workspace is pleasant and that she is happy to see how clean it is. Hanna begins to feel dread and comments that Mrs. Harris seems surprised. Mrs. Harris freely brings up the “terrible things” one hears about how “Chinamen simply don’t have the same standards of cleanliness as we do” (187).

Hanna becomes angry, but less than she expects, and instead focuses on staying calm and responding to Mrs. Harris’s remarks. She states that when the rail lines from east and west met at the Golden Spike, Mr. Strobridge, the supervisor on the project, said “the Chinese worker camps were cleaner by far than the white man’s camps” (188). Mrs. Harris claims she did not intend to offend and leaves. Hanna is worried Bess will be angry or upset, but Bess goes on working without mentioning the incident, and Hanna follows that lead.

Bess and Hanna soon talk easily again. They decide to take turns on the stays and buttonholes in the dress, as they both dread those jobs. When Bess wraps things up for the day, she recalls that her father asked for Hanna to come talk to him at the church site. Hanna is nervous as to why Mr. Harris would need to speak with her. When she arrives, Mr. Harris reassures her that she is not in trouble. He asks about the Indigenous women she saw on Monday. Hanna is shocked and dismayed that Papa told on the women to Mr. Harris. Hanna considers keeping the information to herself, but Mr. Harris gently tells Hanna she must tell or he might have to arrest her. She explains regretfully where she saw the women and their harvest work. Luckily, Mr. Harris decides from Hanna’s description that the women pose no threat and that he will not report them.

Hanna is grateful that nothing will come of her encounter with Wichapiwin but is still angry with Papa for telling Mr. Harris. At home, she brings it up. Papa is immediately angry and frazzled. His face growing red, he asks, “You think you know better than I do? You were asking me to break the law” (199). Hanna mentions the fact that he and Mama broke the law to get married, going the whole way from Los Angeles to Arizona Territory to find a justice of the peace willing to marry a white man and a Chinese woman. She recalls Papa telling her the tale when Mama was still alive. Miss Lorna, the Christian missionary who helped their family, knew they were breaking the law in marrying but never told. Papa says the two situations are different and that the government should stay out of a man’s personal business. Hanna is upset that Papa cannot see where true justice should fall in the case of Wichapiwin: “It’s like you’re saying that things are only unfair when they happen to you” (202). Papa is furious then, especially when he hears that nothing will befall the Indigenous women, as that means Hanna is arguing just to argue. He leaves in a huff, and Hanna is exhausted.

The next day Hanna discovers that she made a beginner’s mistake on the bodice of the new dress, resulting in a fit that is far too tight. Bess helps to calm her, offering to work on the hem so that Hanna can fix the error with newly cut pieces. She encourages Hanna, saying, “It’ll go faster this time because you’ve already done it once” (204).