Last Night at the Telegraph Club

As Lily gets ready to go to the Telegraph Club, she thinks of how differently Shirley would prepare, that she’d know what to wear. Putting her anxiety aside, she feels recklessness take over as she finishes getting dressed.

She moves through Chinatown at night, never having been out this late before. When she arrives at their meeting place, she doesn’t see Kath and immediately realizes the danger of staying out alone, but as she rounds the block again, she sees Kath. Lily feels confident again, and they leave for the nightclub.

They arrive at the Telegraph Club, and Lily follows Kath inside. They watch the stage, waiting for Tommy Andrews. When the performer appears, Lily feels self-conscious for trying to imagine the woman’s body under the men’s clothes.

When Tommy begins singing, Lily is enthralled, amazed at the performance’s physicality and masculine movements given that Tommy isn’t a man. She notices the audience, which includes a smattering of husbands and wives together but is mostly women. As she continues to watch Tommy perform, Lily thinks about how Tommy is somehow not what she expected. Tommy was an icon to her before—and it scares Lily that, in fact, Tommy is a real person.

After Tommy’s performance ends, Lily and Kath find a table. Lily feels self-conscious when Kath asks her opinion, but she says that she doesn’t want to leave. She also notices that Kath’s top button is undone.

Kath gets them a couple of beers, and they talking with two other women, Paula and Claire. Claire notes that they don’t see many Asian people and asks Lily if she speaks English, to which she responds, “Of course I do,” shocked at the assumption (151).

As Lily drinks her beer, she feels more comfortable but still amazed to be at the Telegraph Club given her life so far. When she excuses herself to go to the bathroom, Claire joins her. While they wait in line, Claire explains that she’s from San Mateo and that arriving at the Telegraph Club felt like getting to “the promised land” (154).

Tommy Andrews comes through the hall and stops near Claire and Lily, who have been joined by another woman, Lana. Lana introduces Claire to Tommy. Tommy notices Lily and comments about her being Chinese, asking if she speaks English. Claire introduces her to Tommy, who soon heads off to start her second set.

When Lily returns from the bathroom with Claire, the latter comments that the second set is usually better since the tourists have left, and Lily agrees. Eventually, last call comes around, and Lily is slightly disappointed when she sees Tommy take two beers to join Lana and Claire. She and Kath leave. Lily is reluctant to part with Kath but somehow shy; she thanks Kath for taking her.

Lily thinks her family should suspect that she snuck out, and the fact that they don’t makes her feel as if it was all a dream. The next day, she keeps imagining different details, like the names of two women written in the bathroom stall, the lights over the front door of the club, and the way Tommy sang.

At school on Monday, she’s excited to see Kath but also wants Shirley to notice some difference in her while they sit in the Senior Goals class. However, as their teacher passes out a picture of an “all-American family,” she becomes sad when Shirley looks away from her.

After school, she and Kath talk about the Telegraph Club, and Kath confirms that Lily looked like she was having fun even though she was quiet. Kath recounts the first time she went with Jean and the feeling of being overwhelmed, comparing it to having chocolate for the first time. Lily eventually says that she wants to go again and that she feels more like it was similar to having water after a drought. Kath smiles, and Lily feels a growing “understanding” between them:

It let like a coin dropping into one of the automated dioramas at Playland’s Musée Mécanique, and a mechanized scene was now about to play: miniature women on circular paths would begin to move toward and around each other, as if in a dance (165).

Kath says that they’ll go again and then gives Lily a magazine that features an article about Mars.

The school holds an air raid drill on Wednesday. Lily drops to the floor, remembering the first time it had happened, when she was in first grade during World War II. It was the Japanese that people feared then; later, it was the Koreans and Chinese. Now, it was the Russians, and Lily was secretly glad she’d never be mistaken as Russian.

Lily notices Shirley on the floor near her and nudges her. They make faces at each other, having to hide their laughter. When the drill ends, Shirley asks Lily to go to the restaurant that night. She agrees. That evening, they imagine the backstories of customers at the restaurant until Shirley offers a truce, saying, “We’ve been friends for so long, Lily. Let’s not forget that during our senior year” (172). Lily wishes that it were an apology but recognizes that at least Shirley isn’t trying to blame everything on her.

During Thanksgiving weekend, Lily waits with anticipation for Friday, when she, Kath, and Jean (who’s in town on a break from school) plan to go to the Telegraph Club.

She helps her mother prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, thinking about the night out as her mother tells her to stop daydreaming. Her Aunt Judy calls, and when it’s Lily’s turn to talk to her, they discuss the article on Mars and, later, trips to the moon, which Judy expects to happen soon. Judy asks about how Lily saw the article, and Lily mentions Kath. Judy is happy that she has another girl in math class with her.

Afterward, Lily thinks about the German scientist mentioned in the article. He was formerly a Nazi, and during the last Chinese New Year, her Aunt Judy, her Uncle Francis, and her parents had discussed how the German scientist was allowed to work on the army’s missile project but the Chinese Dr. Tsien—who had worked for the US military during World War II—was accused of spying.

When she gets off the phone, Grace talks to Lily about Shirley, having noticed that they’d had a fight. She’s glad that they’re talking again. When Lily asks about her father’s citizenship papers, Grace tells her that he hasn’t gotten them back yet and asks if Lily had any other encounters with the Man Ts’ing organization identified as Communist. Lily says no.