What actually became of the heroes of the macaroon war?
There is more to tell about Concord's lovely master baker Fan Ting Huang – who, as it happens, was one half of the legendary victors – than you might think. A former classmate (whose name we will, of course, not reveal, as we are not completely unscrupulous) claims that Fan Ting solved a missing persons case during her pastry training. According to the account, the following happened:
“Fan Ting sat cross-legged on her bed in the small room she shared with another student while preparing for the master class, staring at her notebook. The pages were full of scribbles with names, times, places and her own wild theories. She had tried everything in the last few days to find out why Dora had disappeared. She didn't believe the official explanation – a sudden illness – for a second.
Three days had now passed since Dora disappeared, and Fan Ting couldn't stop thinking about it. Officially, it was said that Dora had fallen ill and gone home. But something about that didn't add up. Why hadn't she said anything? Why hadn't anyone seen her parents on the evening she disappeared? And why did her roommate seem so nervous when asked about Dora?
But her investigations had reached an impasse. No one had seen Dora pack her things. No one had confided in her. And her family was keeping quiet. She had tried everything: talked to classmates, observed teachers, even snuck into the secretary's files after class – but nothing revealed a clear picture. She stared at her notes. There had to be a clue here somewhere. All right, she would start from the beginning again. She turned back.
The last day that Dora was seen: morning classes. Lunch together. Afternoon theory class and practice sessions in the bakery. Nothing out of the ordinary. And then came the evening: she and two other girls had met in Dora's room to watch a movie. Fan Ting scanned the title and suddenly stopped.
The Thing Called Love.
It hit her like a bolt of lightning. The film was about young people who moved to Nashville to pursue their dream of becoming country singers. One scene in particular came to mind: the character played by Sandra Bullock enters a beauty pageant even though no one takes her seriously – and then decides she wants to control her own life.
Fan Ting remembered that Dora had said at one point, “Oh, I can understand that so well.” At the time, she hadn't paid any attention to it, but now... What if Dora had identified with someone in the movie? What if she had been secretly planning or at least dreaming about something for a long time?
Dora had always been the sensible one, the dutiful one. But what if that was only half the truth? With a new suspicion, Fan Ting jumped up and ran to Dora's roommate, Theresa. “I need to go back to your room.”
“What? Why?” Theresa asked suspiciously, but Fan Ting was already pushing her way in. She let her eyes wander. Everything seemed neat and normal. But this time she was looking with different eyes. If Dora had a secret life, what would she have hidden? Or to put it another way: what would she have taken with her?
“Did you notice anything else that was different that evening? Or something missing the morning after Dora left?”
Theresa hesitated. “No, nothing... well, I mean...” She bit her lip.
“What?”
“It's just... my makeup case is gone. And an evening dress.”
Fan Ting blinked. “Did Dora take it?”
“Yes. I didn't want to say anything because... well, you know how strict her parents are. I didn't want to get her into more trouble.”
That made sense. So she had probably decided on one of these three directions: singer, model or actress. But where had she gone?
Then Fan Ting remembered something else: Dora had always been sad that she had never been outside of New England. She had often raved about big cities. And then there was her strange hobby: she had collected old, printed travel guides – something quite unusual in the age of smartphones.
Fan Ting leafed through Dora's collection – not for the first time, Dora had shown it to them all before. One seemed to be missing. “Look T, Dora had one for New York too, didn't she?”
Theresa frowned. ”You're right... the one for New York is missing.”
New York. The city of theaters, acting schools, modeling agencies. A place where Dora could disappear with make-up, an evening dress and a new name.
“Gotcha!”
But when she excitedly told the others how she had come up with the solution, she only received incredulous shaking of heads and a few laughs. ”You're like a walking crime novel.”
In fact, Dora was later tracked down in New York. It turns out that her escape to the big city didn't end quite as glamorously as she'd imagined... when she was about to be arrested for indecent behavior after a photo shoot, completely distraught and storming out onto the street in her underwear.
But Fan Ting didn't manage to be proud of this success. She had guessed right – and yet no one took her seriously. Maybe that was a sign. Maybe it wasn't for her after all...
But deep down she had to admit to herself: she had enjoyed it. The mystery, the search for clues, the excitement. And even though she would never have dared to disappoint her family, she would always secretly look for the next secret...”
Whether her detective talent was really taken seriously at the time or not – today we know: If you have secrets and want to keep them, you'd better stay away from Fan Ting.
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