The Last Story of Mina Lee

Margot and Miguel visit Mina’s shop. Mina worked in a swap meet called Mercado de la Raza. Many Koreans work there because of the low rent. Margot hated coming here as a child. She remembers her mother yelling at customers’ backs as they left, trying to get them to visit her booth. She goes inside and finds a roll of cash in the spot where her mother always hid it. Outside, Miguel is talking to a woman named Alma. Alma hugs Margot, whom she has known for 20 years. Alma saw Mina two weeks prior. She says Mina seemed depressed for a couple of months.

Margot wonders if her mother’s sadness had anything to do with the obituary. Alma says Mina often talked with a Korean woman who owned a sock booth. They visit her—Mrs. Baek—at her shop, and she remembers Margot. Margot doesn’t remember her, even though Mrs. Baek says she has known her since she was four. Margot doesn’t remember going to Hanok House, a restaurant where Mrs. Baek worked. Mars. Baek tells Margot that her mother stopped coming to Hanok House after the riots because she had to earn money to replace what she lost when her store burned. The riots she refers to are the 1992 riots that followed the beating of Rodney King by police officers.

Margot starts to cry and tells Mrs. Baek that Mina died. Mrs. Baek says Mina was depressed because her boyfriend died in October, so he couldn’t have been the one the landlord heard yelling the night that Mina died. Mr. Kim was married, and Mina was ashamed. Margot wonders if Mr. Kim’s wife confronted her mother, resulting in a confrontation.

A teenage boy named Mario is Mina’s bagger at the supermarket. They work together most days. The Korean customers don’t talk to her much, and the little girls who pass through her line remind her of her lost daughter. In the bathroom, she prays to God to help her endure and to keep her from killing herself. She considered suicide after her husband and daughter died.

Mr. Kim notices that she’s upset and asks if she is okay. When she leaves for the day, she notices that someone left a small bag of fruit for her, which cheers her up. On the bus, she asks the driver if she is all right. At home, she cuts an apple and remembers when she used to do this for her daughter. She remembers when the police came to her door to tell her that her family was dead. She fell to her knees and screamed.

Margot and Miguel go to Hanok House. Margot remembers asking her mother why she didn’t go back to Korea. Mina said it would be too far away from her. Margot calls Officer Choi and tells him about what the landlord said about the yelling. Officer Choi says he’ll talk to the landlord this week and think about Mr. Kim’s obituary. He advises her not to contact Mr. Kim’s wife. She may not know about the affair, and now that Mina and Mr. Kim have both died, learning about it could hurt her. Margot won’t settle for less than the truth. She gets angry and defends her mother. Choi says he understands better than she thinks.

Margot shows an old picture of her mother to a waitress at Hanok House. The waitress asks the owner if he recognizes the woman in the photo. He stares at Margot’s body, and she dislikes him immediately. He says he can’t tell if he recognizes woman in the photo.

Miguel asks Margot what her mother did after the riots. That was when she stopped talking to Mrs. Baek. Margot doesn’t know when they became friends again. After dinner they go to the beach. She receives a call from the tour company in Arizona. The man confirms that Chang-hee Kim was her mother’s guest on the September trip. He texts her Mr. Kim’s Calabasas address.

Someone leaves a small treat for Mina after most of her shifts. She knows it is Mr. Kim from the way he looks at her. Mario, her bagger, disappears after a few weeks. A teenager named Daniel replaces him. Mr. Kim says Mario was deported to Mexico. His family is still in Los Angeles. Mr. Kim wants to raise money for them, and Mina says she will help. One week later, Mr. Kim drives Mina to deliver donated food to Mario’s family. Mario’s mother, Lupe, hasn’t told the other children where he went.

They visit the family again the next week. Lupe heard from Mario from a detention center. Mr. Kim tells Margot they are all at risk of being deported. He has talked to Mr. Park about giving Lupe a job. Mr. Kim takes Mina home and asks her to have dinner some time. She says no. She believes she is ruined and would be too much work for a partner. She also feels that she “could never afford to lose anyone again” (117).

Lupe begins stocking shelves at the supermarket. Mina wants to learn Spanish to ask her about Mario and buys a book to study. That night she has dinner with Mrs. Baek. Mrs. Baek speaks perfect English and studied English literature. Something about her unsettles Mina. She thinks Mrs. Baek might be in hiding. Otherwise, Mina believes she would have a better job in a nicer location.

Over the next week, Mina feels that Mr. Kim is distant. She thanks him for the gifts. That night he catches her leaving a pear on his desk. She asks if he still wants to have dinner.

Margot and Miguel sleep in her mother’s apartment. She remembers wishing her mother would ask her how she felt more often. Officer Choi calls. He says the landlord says there was nothing unusual that night and that he didn’t hear any yelling. Margot is furious. Officer Choi tells her that Mr. Kim had a wife but no children. Again he urges her not to contact Mrs. Kim. Miguel thinks they have to investigate on their own.

Margot is jealous of Miguel—how organized he is, and how he pursues his ambitions. She remembers Jonathan and how much the breakup hurt her. They drive by the opulent Calabasas house where Mrs. Kim lives. They look through the window and see a man and woman talking and then kissing. The woman is far younger than the man and dressed in expensive, beautiful clothes.

Mr. Kim takes Mina to Hanok House on their first date. Over dinner, he tells her that he came to Los Angeles after finishing his master’s degree in economics. He was married for a year, but his wife died of cancer. She tells him that her husband died. She goes to the restroom and feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere. On the way home she apologizes for being awkward. Mr. Kim tells her she is pretty and invites her to dinner the next Saturday.

Autumn arrives. Mr. Kim keeps giving her gifts. Mina starts wearing lipstick. People at work and at the apartment complex notice that she is taking better care of her appearance. Her feelings surprise her. She never expected to feel desire for a man or a relationship again.

During lunch with Mrs. Baek, Mrs. Baek says she saw Mina with a man at Hanok House while she was working. She also says that she will never trust a man again. Mina tells her that her husband died in an accident. When she looks at the autumn leaves, “all she could imagine was the blood that must have been in the road, after a reckless driver, rushing on his way to work, mowed her family down” (146).

Margot sits in a church. She loves the music. She wonders if her mother truly believed or if she went to the church for a sense of community. Margot cries as the priest reads the scriptures in Korean. She wants to see her mother again, and it is too late. She sees Mrs. Baek, who says that she recently started going to church. Margot wants to be as calm and self-possessed as her. Mrs. Baek says they should have a small private service for her mother to save money on a funeral. She also tells her how much she misses Mina.

Margot returns to the swap meet to ask Alma and some of the other owners if anyone is interested in buying her mother’s shop. Alma says her sister wants to buy it for $6,000. Margot agrees. She remembers never wanting to go to work with her mother. She didn’t understand why she had to while other teenagers had fun. On her way out, she notices that Mrs. Baek’s store is gone.

She meets Miguel at Hanok House and asks a waitress how to contact Mrs. Baek. The waitress asks to speak to her outside. Margot tells her about her mother. The waitress says Mrs. Baek told them never to tell anyone her address. She says Mr. Park bought the restaurant to be closer to Mrs. Baek. That’s when she quit. Margot remembers that Mr. Park stared at her too long. Mrs. Baek had to move because he was stalking her. The waitress gives her the new address.

On their second date, Mr. Kim says he is having stomach problems. They go to the beach. Mina remembers watching her husband and daughter play on the beach. Mr. Kim invites her on the Ferris wheel, but she is scared of heights. She doesn’t like American food, but she gets a cheeseburger. She thinks American food is barbaric and wishes she had chopsticks. She doesn’t know how to eat something so messy with her hands.

Mr. Kim gives her his jacket. They play a basketball game at the arcade. They win small white teddy bears and trade them with each other. Mina wonders if she is cheating on her husband. Even though he is dead, she wonders how he will think about her if she sees him in the afterlife. She agrees to go on the Ferris wheel. As she steps onto the ride, she remembers an explosion, and trying to hold her mother’s hand while it was torn away from her.

Mr. Kim hands her a hot chocolate, the first she has ever had. She closes her eyes as they get on the Ferris wheel. They kiss.