E.V. Slate, "Purple Bamboo Park"

The maid and the family go to a park.

(from Pen/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009)

This was a slow build, and there were moments early on where I was sure this was going to be dull, annoying, innocuous. This picked up pretty soon and the end was not just fun and action-packed, but beautifully written. This blog has more and better things to say about this story, and a Ha Jin piece also in the collection.