Part 3, Rose Hsu Jordan, "Without Wood" Summary

When she is a child, she believes everything her mother An-Mei says. Her mother talks to ghosts. She and her sisters sleep in the same bed, but Rose is always the last to go to sleep, or to see "Old Mr. Chou", the guardian of a door that opened into dreams. Her sisters do not dream, but Rose has bad dreams involving Mr. Chou.

Thirty years later An-Mei is still trying to make Rose listen to her. At a friend's funeral, she tells Rose she is getting too thin. Rose recognizes the pastor as Wing, a boy who used to steal baseball cards with her brother Luke. Wing went to seminary but Luke went to jail for selling stolen car stereos. Even though An-Mei's friend has been cremated, An-Mei buys an...