Summary

Clodagh and her family had used the same laundromat for “about ten years” (34). Clodagh paid extra for them to “deliver clean, folded clothes” to her home (34). The laundromat was owned by a Chinese-American family. Having observed them for years, Clodagh could not understand why the wife was married to the husband. Although she did not know their names, Clodagh got “to know the family well enough” (34). They had one son and an employee who Clodagh often studied, unsure about their origins or relationship to the family.

Whenever the father spoke well of the son, Clodagh was surprised. She doubted he was as smart as the father said, as the son was always at the shop “playing video games” (35). She watched over the years as he started working with his family. When she later learned he “was the only student in his year to...