Mambo in Chinatown

by Jean Kwok

  “That was excellent,” said Dominic. “Now, Charlie, with me.”

  I took a deep breath, then ran toward Dominic and turned just as I reached him. He put his hands around my hips. I bent my knees to jump.

  Dominic drew back. “What’s that?” He traced a few bumps around my waist with his fingers.

  “Safety pins. My sweatpants are too big.”

  “Too big isn’t a problem, but anything that can poke your partner is. I don’t want to drop you when you’re in the air and I don’t want to be afraid to touch you because you’ve got all sorts of needles hidden on your body.”

  “Sorry.” I removed the safety pins and put them on the stereo shelf.

  “All right. Run toward me as fast as you can. Jump right here.” He indicated a spot on the floor directly in front of him. “I’ll grab you and lift you straight up. When you’re in the air, keep one arm up and one to the side while I turn us both.”

  I did like he said and felt myself go high in the air, suddenly dizzy as Dominic spun us. After a few seconds, he put me down. “Wonderful. Now the two of you together.”

  I looked at Ryan for a moment. Then I repeated the move with him and he took me up. It was exhilarating at first, but then my feelings turned into fear. If he were to drop me, I wouldn’t be able to use my arms to break my fall since they were stretched out. As I thought about this, my body realigned itself and I started to flail, off-balance. Ryan caught me in his arms while dropping a few steps back, then we both tumbled onto the floor in a tangle.

  “What was that?” Ryan sounded angry.

  “Sorry, sorry.” I scrambled off of his chest. “I started thinking . . .”

  “I could have hurt you!”

  Nina was doubled over, laughing. “The problem is that you guys don’t trust each other.”

  “She’s absolutely right,” said Dominic. “You need to do some trust-building exercises. Come here.”

  Dominic made me stand in front of Ryan. Ryan extended his arms on both sides of my rib cage. I had to keep my body completely straight and let it fall to the side slowly while Ryan supported me.

  I tried not to panic. I didn’t want to get involved in any of this. “How come I have to do all of the trusting here?”

  “I’m trusting you not to lose your form and squash me,” Ryan said.

  “This is a man,” said Dominic. “He is here to support you. Lean on him, use him.”

  I heard Nina’s voice. “Aw, don’t be such a chauvinist.”

  We got started. It took a great deal of core strength to keep my body in one line as I tilted to the side. It went against all of my instincts to allow Ryan to hold my weight as I headed toward the floor, but he kept me from falling. Then we leaned to the other side. Finally, hardest of all, I had to fall backward while he held me by the neck and rib cage. He didn’t seem to be exerting himself too much.

  Then we practiced the lift again and I didn’t fall on top of him this time. To my surprise, Ryan said, “You went up like a feather. You really helped me get you off the ground. And you’re so lightly built. That was great.”

  “Now a more difficult lift, I think,” said Dominic.

  Half an hour later, I was lying on my side on the hard ballroom floor, practicing the position I needed to hold. Dominic stretched my entire body backward until I thought it would break. “Arch as far back as you can. Also, you need to keep your left arm by your ear and your other leg bent and pointed at your knee. Hold the arm behind his neck straight. When you feel him starting to put you down, stretch out with your arm toward him so that he can take it to lead you out into the turns you’ll be doing the moment you land.”

  “Anything else? You want a hamburger too?” I muttered. Dance was always like this: millions of details to remember while you were spinning through the air at a hundred miles per hour. I heard Ryan snort back a laugh.

  I did the new lifts again and again with Dominic while Ryan worked with Nina. Sometimes, for Dominic’s own amusement, he spun us around five or six times instead of the two or three that the choreography required. I had to lose all control, yet at the same time I had to hold my body tight. When he put me down, I often forgot to give him my hand, and I was so dizzy, I could barely find a place on the wall to spot for my last two turns. Finally, I could try one of the lifts with Ryan.

  I turned and whirled my outstretched leg toward Ryan as hard as I could. I felt the impact. Ryan stumbled a step backward, then wheezed, “I thought we were dancing, not trying to murder each other.”

  Dominic said, “Children, children. This is enough for today. You have enough material to work on. Before you leave, Ryan, pick up the mambo CDs at the front desk as your homework. You’re both going to need help. Since you must not disgrace our studio, I’ll get Nina to work with Charlie and Mateo to help you, Ryan.”

  “Ooooh, Mateo’s going to be happy,” said Nina. Ryan covered his eyes with his hand.

  “Quiet,” said Dominic. “You’ve made a good choice, Charlie.”

  “With what?” I asked.

  Ryan rolled his eyes.

  Dominic stepped in between us while Nina snickered. “I meant in your choice of partner, Charlie. He has a great deal of work to do, as do you, but you fit well together. Dance is about the architecture of the body, and a flexible mind and soul. People who are control freaks don’t tend to be very good dancers. You must let go, allow yourself to feel and be honest. I think you both have that.” He nodded slowly. “Yes, you are now a disaster together but you are a catastrophe with potential.”

  —

  I smelled fresh incense in the apartment when I got home. That was unusual. Normally, Pa would light some for the altars in the morning but not so late in the day. Lisa was already asleep but tonight Pa was still up. Even with the Hunter issue behind us, she still wasn’t improving. These days, she didn’t want me to leave her alone. She said she was tired and didn’t want to go to school. Despite all of my probing, she insisted there were no problems there. I thought that maybe she was already anticipating going to Hunter so much that she didn’t care about her current school anymore but the truth was, I had no idea. Pa let her stay home a few times, but it didn’t seem to make things better.

  I went over to Lisa and rearranged her blanket. She had the scarf I’d made for her tucked underneath her chin. I looked up to find Pa watching the both of us, seeming so sad that my heart hurt for him. He had a little ceramic pot in his hand, the one that he boiled his medicines in.

  “Was the Vision here?” I asked.

  Slowly, he nodded. “She gave Lisa a charm. It’s around her wrist.”

  I looked and there was a bead bracelet around Lisa’s wrist, the same type that monks wore. You could buy them at the temple for a few dollars. I doubted the witch had been as inexpensive.

  “Here is a bit of the strengthening medicine that Uncle Henry made for Lisa. I saved it for you.”

  “What is it?”

  “Donkey umbilical cord with herbs.”

  I tried to keep my disgust from my expression. “Thanks so much, Pa, but I don’t need it.”

  Pa stepped forward eagerly. “No, Charlie, you are working so hard and bringing home money for us. I only wish I could afford enough to get you a full dose of everything, instead of just the remains of what Lisa needs.”

  I realized he was feeling bad, guilty that he hadn’t bought two donkey umbilical cords instead of one. “Pa, I really don’t need it. And even with my salary, how are you managing to pay for the Vision and all of the medicine?”

  “Let me worry about that. The health of my two girls is more important than anything.”

  I got up and hugged him awkwardly around the shoulder, being careful not to jostle his small pot. “You’re a great father. I need to rest now. Good night.”

  “Are you sure about the medicine?”

  “Yes, I’m
really fine without it. It’s too late for me to be hungry anyway. Don’t waste it on me.”

  With a nod, he was gone.

  —

  That wasn’t the first or last time I came home to the smell of fresh incense, meaning the witch had been present again. Lisa was sleeping with all sorts of new items. Once I found her with a red veil over her head, which was supposed to protect her from the evil spirits. All I could do was hope that it worked.

  —

  One night, as all of my fear welled up in me, I shut myself in the bathroom so I could call Zan on her mobile. Having only prepaid phones, we didn’t talk or text too much because of the expense, but sometimes I just needed a friend. She sounded groggy when she answered. I apologized, then told her everything that had been happening to Lisa.

  “Oh, Charlie, why didn’t you tell me that she was getting worse?” Her voice was fearful. “I assumed it’d stopped after the test.”

  “I guess it seemed like it would make things too real if I talked about it. When I saw you, I wanted to think about other things. Zan, do you believe in all of that Chinese medicine?”

  “I never thought about it. My mother would make me herbal teas and stuff whenever I was sick. I feel guilty when I eat a lot of yang foods—you know, too much fried stuff and so on. It’s so much a part of our way of life, it’s hard to separate it out.”

  “I know, I’ve always accepted it too. But it doesn’t seem to be helping Lisa.” My voice broke. “I’m at a loss.”

  “Mo Li.”

  “What?”

  “You need to talk to Mo Li. She’ll know what to do.”

  —

  The next morning, when Mo Li answered her phone and heard it was me, she said, “What’s wrong?” since I almost never called her.

  I filled her in as quickly as I could.

  “I can’t believe there’s something wrong with Lisa,” she said. “I love that girl. She was always tagging along after us. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Listen, I don’t know a lot about medicine or treatments.”

  “But you’re smart. You study. And read.”

  “That counts for a lot less than you’d think. But if you’re asking for my opinion about eastern versus western medicine, I’d say that both types can be effective. Many eastern remedies have the same drugs in them that western medicine does. It’s just not quantified, so you don’t know exactly how much or what is in everything. Treatments like acupuncture have been proven to work.”

  I heard the reservation in her voice. “But?”

  “But the thing is that eastern medicine is still very much unknown. You have to trust the practitioner, believe that they know what they’re doing.”

  “It’s my own Uncle Henry. And the Vision.”

  “Well, you know how I feel about all of that mumbo jumbo. I can only tell you that if Lisa were my sister, I’d want to get her to a western specialist as well and hear what they thought.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing. But we’re not insured.”

  “Of course not. I don’t know, Charlie. I can just say that if you have a trustworthy practitioner, that’s great. But if you don’t, how would you know if they were a fraud or not?”

  “Mo Li! You don’t mean that.”

  “I’m simply trying to be scientific here. What you really need is to talk to a medical person.”

  I pressed my palm to my cheek. “You’ve given me an idea.”

  Seventeen

  I waited anxiously until Jason and Naomi’s next lesson. Jason was a neurologist. I couldn’t remember exactly what Naomi did, but in any case, Jason was the one I wanted to consult. I learned a great deal just from chatting with my students as we went across the dance floor. Jason and Naomi were one of my favorite couples and they were so warm, I was sure they would do their best to help me. The moment they really stole my heart was when they were learning to tango.

  “By day, I work at a hospital. But by night . . .” Jason waved his arm and suddenly a rose appeared in his hand, which he then tucked in between his teeth. The tango music rolled on. He pulled Naomi into a dip, then stood up, gave her the rose with a flourish. . . . “I am magic itself.”

  I clapped, delighted. “How did you do that?”

  “I’m a magician. This door-to-door fire alarm salesman came by one day and did a few tricks while trying to sell us his alarms. I was hooked, then started hanging out at the magic shop. It’s my hobby.”

  “He does shows in the evenings and weekends,” Naomi said, very proud. “He has a partner who covers for him when he has to cancel at the last minute because of his hospital work.”

  “So you may have two students for life in us,” Jason said. “As you can tell, I have a bit of a weakness for performing, and what better way to attract attention than by dancing up a storm with my lovely wife.”

  Now a waltz was playing, and since they hadn’t learned how to travel around the room yet, they stayed in one corner and revolved like a merry-go-round. The other dancers steered around us. I thought about Pa and how grim and lonely his life was much of the time. He spent all of his time working and shunning everything outside of Chinatown. Jason and Naomi had two daughters as well, but if one of them had gotten sick, they wouldn’t be dragging witches home, they would know what to do. Of course, it wasn’t fair. Pa also worked day and night to earn what Jason probably made in an hour.

  “Try an underarm turn,” I said.

  Jason lifted his arm and Naomi waltzed underneath. “It must have been hard when your kids were little,” I said to her. “That Jason’s job could involve so much last-minute work.”

  “Yes, but we’re lucky that my work is fairly flexible.” Naomi returned to dance position with him and they started revolving again.

  “What do you do again?”

  “I’m a psychiatrist.”

  I hesitated. I wanted to get back to Jason, but to be polite, I asked, “How does that actually work?”

  “I basically try to treat people’s mental problems. And my specialty is something that’s even less well known, which is conversion disorder: people who develop physical problems because of a mental issue they have. Maybe you’ve heard of hysteria? That’s what it used to be called.”

  “I think I remember a bit from school. Isn’t that people making things up?”

  “Oh no, it’s very real. For example, you see people having actual seizures, only if you can manage to scan their brains at the same time, you find that there is a lack of neurological activity. People run the gamut of physical tests before turning to us. It drives the insurance companies crazy because it’s expensive to do all of those medical tests, and nothing will help until the underlying psychological problem is treated. But we have to be sure there is no physical cause.”

  This was getting close to what I truly wanted to know. “Jason, how about trying a balance step now? Good.” He stumbled, then recovered. “How does health insurance work anyway?” I tried to sound nonchalant. “If I were to want to get some, for example?”

  “Well, luckily, you look young and healthy. It’s not such a problem then to get a fairly inexpensive policy.”

  “What happens if someone already has a problem?” I asked, again still trying to seem as if I didn’t really care.

  He paused a moment, like he was trying to figure out how to say something difficult. “Insurance companies won’t cover pre-existing conditions. They’ll charge a hefty premium or put conditions on the payout. It’s like someone trying to buy fire insurance while their house is burning down. Although the law is changing and it may soon be possible, the reality is that it’s not right now.”

  I took the plunge. “I know an eleven-year-old girl. She’s got headaches, dizziness, nightmares, wetting the bed at night, and the thing that really scared her family was she lost control of her legs for a minute or two.”

&n
bsp; He stopped dead. “That could be serious. You need to get her diagnosed. Sounds like she needs an MRI scan. There are so many reasons she could be having those symptoms. I’d need to see her first, see how much she can do, before I know which tests she’d need. Take a family history. There are so many different diseases it could be. You’d want to rule out a brain tumor or multiple sclerosis, which is often overlooked in children but can do very serious damage.”

  My stomach clenched so hard, I felt like doubling over. Lisa could have something very serious. This confirmed it. It was like the nightmare with Ma all over again. I tried to keep them talking and reverted to a standard combination. “All right, let’s try two basic boxes, an underarm turn, two more basic boxes and then a balance step.”

  Jason blew his hair out of his eyes and started.

  During his boxes, I said, “If she didn’t or couldn’t get insurance, about how much would it cost to get her diagnosed?

  Jason completely forgot the combination and only did the basic box step while he answered me. I could tell from Naomi’s smile that she noticed, but she didn’t say anything. “I don’t normally treat children so I’m not an expert on health laws concerning them. But if you’re just asking about the fees, it’s not just the cost of the consultation, which is usually at least around two hundred and fifty dollars, but you’d also need to cover any tests that needed to be done: MRI, EEG, CAT scan. It can all easily run into the thousands. But if you get her to me, I’ll help you as much as I can. I give you my word.”

  Naomi nodded. “You can count on Jason.”

  Thousands? How could I ever get that much money? It made the Vision look cheap by comparison; no wonder Pa stuck with our own kind. But I could have kissed Jason for his kindness. “I appreciate that so much. Now try the combination and I won’t distract you with more questions.”