60 pages • 2 hours read
Jesse Q. SutantoDial A for Aunties
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapter 26-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary
Panicking, Meddy tries to fix things. The MC is oblivious to the disaster, continually announcing the arrival of various members of the bridal party. Tom, the groom, is furious when he sees the drunk/high groomsmen, but he refuses to lose face by sending them away. The wedding planner convinces the MC to get them off the stage. Jacqueline agrees; her bridesmaids lead the groomsmen back up the aisle. Tom, angry at being undermined, grabs one of the groomsmen, knocking him off-balance. This groomsman was holding Ah Guan’s corpse upright; without support, the body topples over. In the confusion, Meddy tries to grab Ah Guan. Jacqueline tries to help. Panicking again, Meddy pushes Jacqueline away; the bride falls into the pool.
Part 3, Chapter 27 Summary
Meddy immediately sets down her camera and jumps into the water to rescue Jacqueline, who is weighed down by her enormous wedding dress. Nathan rescues Meddy, while others rescue Jacqueline. Meanwhile, bridesmaids trip over the corpse, and everyone realizes there’s a dead body on stage. As Nathan and hotel security take charge of the crime scene, Meddy and the Chans convene away from the crowd. Meddy demands an explanation; her relatives all blame each other.
Big Aunt went to get a staff uniform for Ah Guan, but she took too long. Second Aunt got impatient and decided to disguise Ah Guan as one of the groomsmen. Ma and Fourth Aunt helped her, planning to hide him in the back garden until after the wedding. On the way there, they heard the group searching for the missing tea ceremony gifts and hid. Fourth Aunt was inspired—she retrieved the absinthe she carries around to soothe her performance nerves and brought both the alcohol and the body to the groom’s suite. They hid the body there while the groomsmen got drunk. Ma also added marijuana, her substitute for a traditional Chinese medicine ingredient, to other alcohol in the room, which the groomsmen also drank. The women left, unaware of the effect of both alcohol and THC on the men. Meddy concludes the rest: The groomsmen were called to the altar for the wedding, and, still drunk and high, they brought Ah Guan with them, thinking he was another unconscious groomsman.
Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary
After their explanation, Ma and the aunts argue again. Meddy walks away, shivering as the storm approaches. At the altar, security has cleared away the people. Meddy approaches Nathan, but Sheriff McConnell gets there first. Meddy keeps her distance and eavesdrops. The sheriff tries to dominate Nathan, but he is clearly out of his element, demonstrating a total lack of knowledge of crime scene protocol; he “actually sticks one of his feet out and nudges Ah Guan’s arm with the tip of his shoe” (241). The sheriff demands to question the groomsmen. The ones lucid enough to (somewhat) answer reveal that none of them know each other—Tom has no friends, so he hired men from various agencies to be his groomsmen. Meanwhile, the aunts return to the hotel; Ma remains with Meddy. The sheriff ignores Nathan’s suggestions about protecting the crime scene from the weather; instead, he arrests Nathan for murder.
Part 3, Chapter 29 Summary
As Nathan is arrested, he sees Meddy and tries to comfort her. Instead, Meddy is furious. Her family, back at her side, tries to comfort her too; overwhelmed and upset, she lashes out at them, revealing her filial suffocation and her dislike of the family business. The aunts comfort Ma, who is hurt by her outburst; though Meddy tries to apologize, it doesn’t work. They leave. Meddy searches for Nathan, pretending to be his lawyer.
Meddy confronts the sheriff, using all the loopholes she can find: what Nathan is charged with, what evidence ties him to the crime, the details of the crime itself, lack of crime scene preservation, and so on. The sheriff nearly frees Nathan, then changes his mind, granting them five minutes of private discussion instead. He leaves. Meddy confesses to Nathan that she killed Ah Guan. Nathan reveals that he already knew.
Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary
Meddy is shocked. Nathan explains how he figured out everything from the Chans’ suspicious behavior and the corpse’s appearance at the altar. Meddy explains the accidental murder was self-defense. Nathan promises to keep her secret, even if shouldering the blame will cost him everything. They kiss. Meddy disagrees with him, but he won’t listen. They kiss again, but are interrupted by the sheriff’s return.
Meddy leaves, determined to take the blame and save Nathan’s career without also implicating her family. When she returns to her room, however, she is surprised again. Maureen is holding the Chans at gunpoint.
Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary
Maureen directs a terrified Meddy to sit down. Meddy obeys. Maureen commands Meddy to steal the tea ceremony gifts again, since her original plan with Ah Guan was ruined. She extorts Meddy by recording her confession to killing Ah Guan and revealing that she overheard the family’s conversation near the pool earlier. Ma and the aunts are impressed at Maureen’s opportunistic manipulation skills, much to Meddy’s irritation. With no other choice, Meddy takes a second (unloaded) gun from Maureen and leaves.
Part 3, Chapter 32 Summary
Meddy seeks Jacqueline in the bridal suite as she tries to figure out how to get the tea ceremony gifts. Jacqueline is distraught, but mostly because she usually confides in Maureen and now she can’t. Meddy asks if Jacqueline still plans to marry Tom after all the terrible things he’s done; Jacqueline hesitates, torn between her own dislike of him and the alliance that their families want. Meddy ponders Maureen’s motivations for everything she has done and realizes the truth: Maureen loves Jacqueline. Meddy thinks of a plan.
Part 3, Chapter 33 Summary
Meddy returns to her room with the tea ceremony gifts. In classic Chan fashion, Ma and the aunts are having tea with Maureen. After inspecting the gifts, Maureen demands to know how Meddy got the treasure. Meddy tells her that Jacqueline gave it to her; when Maureen doesn’t believe her, Meddy tells a different version of the theft: that she held Jacqueline at gunpoint until the bride gave her the loot. Maureen asks if Jacqueline mentioned her at all, revealing that the plan to steal the gifts was mostly Ah Guan’s idea. Maureen just wanted to stop the wedding because she loves Jacqueline and hates Tom. Jacqueline bursts in, revealing that she heard everything and that she loves Maureen too. They kiss. The Chans are freed, and Ma and Meddy are mutually proud of each other and their family.
Part 3, Chapter 34 Summary
Back in Nathan’s office, Maureen, Jacqueline, and the Chans feed the sheriff a story about Ah Guan’s death: disguised as a groomsman, he tried to steal the tea ceremony gifts; after the gifts were discovered missing, he hid them in Maureen’s room and went back to the groom’s suite, where everyone was drunk and high. He had stashed a baker’s cooler in there to hide the stolen gifts and hid inside to avoid the search party; however, he got locked inside and died. Later, the groomsmen found him, didn’t realize he was dead, and brought him to the altar. The sheriff questions the groomsmen, who are all still very unwell. They confess that Tom had hired them and that none of them knew each other or Tom before the wedding. They don’t remember much after partying so hard and knew nothing about the corpse before someone shouted about it at the altar. Fed up, the sheriff sends away the groomsmen.
Meddy demands Nathan’s release. In return, the sheriff can take credit for solving the case. Maureen offers to help with the bureaucratic paperwork; the sheriff accepts their deal.
Epilogue Summary
Time passes. Nathan and Meddy are dating and cohabiting; Ma visits often. Meddy left the family business to start her own photography studio, but still works with them on occasion. Maureen and Jacqueline married. Tom Cruise Sutopo is marrying someone else; the Chans are his wedding vendors, and their business is very successful. Nathan’s hotel is still a popular venue for photo shoots, weddings, and other big events. At dim sum, the Chans celebrate their successes, though Ma makes pointed comments about Meddy’s own slow steps in her relationship. Nathan proposes. Meddy accepts, ecstatic.
Part 3, Chapter 26-Epilogue Analysis
In the final section of the novel, all themes and symbols reach their conclusion. The theme of Familial Duty Versus Independence is again intertwined with the theme of Intergenerational Immigration. After Ah Guan’s corpse is discovered and Meddy learns how the aunts’ actions resulted in this discovery, Meddy’s fury finally pushes her to voice her wish for independence; she reveals her desire to leave the family business, despite her family’s expectations. While finding her voice is an important step for Meddy’s character development and self-assertion, it initially backfires. Her original fears seem to come true: Whenever a younger family member voices a wish for independence, her elders always “band together and reduce us to kids having a tantrum, dismissing our words so we can’t pierce their armor” (249), and this moment seems to be no exception.
This response reflects the theme of Intergenerational Immigration, as immigrant parents like the Chans often must sacrifice much of their lives, resources, and heritage to create a new life for their families in a new country. Their offspring, who grow up in that new life, may or may not appreciate their parents’ sacrifice, but are burdened with the knowledge of it and, like Meddy, may feel guilty about dreaming of lives different than what their parents expect of them. In turn, the parents, who desire their children’s happiness, fear burdening them. This is the crux of Meddy’s inner conflict throughout the novel, and like her cousins, she must find the courage to balance her needs with those of her family. The first step is shown as Meddy finally finds her voice and communicates her long-withheld feelings. The next steps, and the benefits of balance, emerge as Meddy channels her aunts’ strengths, especially Big Aunt’s confidence and commanding voice, to rescue Nathan. By drawing on her background as a source of power while pursuing her own goals, Meddy starts to become more fully herself. Finally, she and Nathan are able to create a new life together in California while Meddy remains close to her family.
The theme of The Karmic Justice of Honesty and Lies is also highlighted here, as all secrets come to light. The corpse is discovered. Meddy reveals her desire for independence. She also finally comes clean to Nathan about everything: her current feelings for him, the reason for their breakup, and the fact that her family has been trying to hide a dead body. Following the karmic rules of the novel, this dramatic honesty opens doors to better things. Though Meddy’s family needs time to come around, she is finally able to communicate with them openly as an adult, and her relationship with Nathan is rekindled.
In a related vein, the theme of Loyalty Versus Fear and Selfishness is also further developed in these chapters. Meddy overcomes her fear of emotional risk and confesses everything to Nathan. Her loyalty meets his, and now united, they each stubbornly resolve to save the other at the expense of their respective careers—at the very least. Similarly, though it requires Meddy’s interference, Maureen sets aside her own fear of emotional risk enough to confess her feelings for Jacqueline aloud. Jacqueline, on overhearing, sets aside her own fear and confesses in return. Once Maureen regains her confidence, she is able to work with the Chan family to produce a cover story to feed the sheriff.
In these chapters, the symbolism of the Corpse reaches its peak. The disastrous discovery of the body foreshadows the dramatic and messy reveal of Meddy’s long-buried feelings: Meddy reveals her secret wish for independence in a fierce flash of anger. The discovery foreshadows the revelation of other secrets too: Tom’s hired groomsmen and lack of friends is revealed through their atrocious behavior and his own refusal to cooperate at the altar. In addition, Maureen and Jacqueline’s love for each other is revealed at gunpoint. As these secrets come to light in quick succession, so, too, does Ah Guan’s corpse fade from the novel, once more becoming a simple dead body.
In a similar vein, the symbol of the Camera begins to fade in these chapters. The camera’s importance is now in its absence: Meddy sets down the camera to rescue Jacqueline, indicating that she is setting aside her passive behavior in favor of a more active role in the proceedings. Soon after this rescue, Meddy—sans camera—poses as a lawyer to confront the sheriff in Nathan’s office. Later, when Maureen forces Meddy to once again steal the tea ceremony gifts, Meddy hides the gun that Maureen gives her in her camera bag, removing two camera lenses to do so. At the end of the novel, while Meddy doesn’t give up photography, she is forging her own path with it. She remains connected to the family business but runs her own independent photography studio, symbolizing her new role as an actor in her life, rather than a passive reactor.
The Tea Ceremony Gifts also reprise their symbolism of desire/desperation when Maureen holds the Chans at gunpoint. Maureen’s revelation that she doesn’t want the valuables, just Jacqueline, reinforces the idea that the gifts, while expensive, also have figurative worth. Meddy’s return with both the gifts and Jacqueline reveals that Jacqueline’s desire mirrors Maureen’s. With this final revelation of desire and the desperation that accompanies it, the gifts fade from the novel, their purpose served.
Finally, the motif of the Wedding further reinforces the growth of several characters. While Tom and Jacqueline’s wedding was canceled, the motif still serves its function as a backdrop suggesting substantial change to come: Tom’s terrible personality is revealed; Maureen and Jacqueline confess their feelings for each other; and Nathan and Meddy renew their relationship. In a literal sense, weddings do occur in the epilogue, hinting at the lives begun anew. In a more figurative sense, Meddy also completes her transformation: No longer the passive, unquestioning daughter she was at the start, she now believes in family blessings rather than curses and has the courage to separate from her family, both physically (in terms of housing) and professionally (with her photography studio). Nathan’s proposal symbolizes this change and her new life, hinting at more transformations to come in the future.
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By Jesse Q. Sutanto
