Dragon Land

by Maureen Reynolds

  When the photos were developed, I sent copies off to Margaret, Maisie, Laura, Pat, and Sandy and Marie.

  Margaret wrote back saying she wished she could have been with us on our special occasion, a sentiment I endorsed, while Laura asked who the two tiny Chinese people were. ‘They look so cute, as if they should be on top of a wedding cake,’ she said.

  I wrote back and told her they were my dearest friends, and although they might look ‘cute’, as she said, I would gladly put my life in their hands if the need ever arose.

  44

  REFUGEES AT THE MISSION

  Elsie, Peter and I continued going once a week to the Mission to help Betsy and Jeannie with the influx of refugees. As Betsy said, there didn’t seem to be an end to the stream of displaced people from the northern regions. Some of the families had walked hundreds of miles, but they waited with patience and good manners until they could all be fed with a bowl of rice.

  Elsie never mentioned Ronnie again after her disastrous meeting with the mill manager, but I was worried about her. She had seemed so alive at the christening, but now she was pale and tired-looking. Some days her dress was wrinkled, as if she had slept in it or hadn’t ironed it, which I knew couldn’t be the case, because we both sent out our laundry to the local Chinese laundry. Every week a wizened old woman would call at the house and go away with our bundle and return later that day with it all beautifully washed and ironed. As with the paper boy, I always gave her some extra money and she would bow to me as she handed over the washing.

  The Chinese people seemed to work for a pittance and on the busy streets it was common to see old men almost bent double with bamboo poles slung across their shoulders and huge bundles of goods hanging from them. It was the same in the shops, which stayed open from morning until late at night, with entire families working in them; in workshops, tiny children with dark hair and large, luminous eyes bent over sewing machines or served food from the street carts and small restaurants.

  I knew Dundee had its jute workers who stayed in slum housing and worked long hours in the many jute mills, and they were similar to the maze of narrow streets that led off from the Bund and the river. There were dark, poky houses that seemed to overflow with people and street markets with live chickens, thin mangy-looking dogs and food all mixed up beside the stalls.

  Ping Li and I would walk through these streets as she bought swathes of material for her dresses, and we would hire a rickshaw to take us back to Bubbling Well Road. I sensed a tension in these streets, but thought I was imagining it until Ping Li said the same.

  ‘People are afraid of the Japanese armies. Stories are arriving here with the refugees and they hope the armies don’t come to Shanghai.’

  ‘But surely this is the International Settlement under the British, American and French governments, Ping Li.’

  ‘The Japanese don’t recognise any treaties. They work to their own agendas. That is what Zheng Yan says.’

  On Peter’s birthday on the tenth of May we took him to the zoo. I could hardly believe he was two years old. He held out his chubby arms when we passed the cages and waved his hands at the monkeys as they capered in the trees in their compound. I had a slight pain in my side and thought I had pulled a muscle, but it went away. Still, I was glad when we headed for home to the birthday tea and a cake with the two candles.

  Peter gazed in delight at his cake, but he kept blowing bubbles instead of blowing the candles out, so Jonas did it for him. His little face crumpled when the lights went out, so I relit them and he managed to blow them out by himself.

  ‘Who’s a clever little boy?’ He looked at me and I said, ‘Peter’s the cleverest little boy in the whole wide world.’

  He put his fist into the cake and it came out all sticky with sponge and jam, and Jonas and I laughed.

  45

  THE JAPANESE TREATY

  Although life went on as usual by July 1937 there was a different atmosphere, felt by not only the Chinese population but also the expatriates. The tension was like the threat of thunder before the storm breaks.

  This tension wasn’t helped by the arrival of Japanese naval ships anchored in the river or the fact that Chiang Kai-shek refused to join forces with Mao Zedong’s army in a joint display of strength against the Japanese threat. Zheng Yan was incensed by this.

  ‘You think he would put the safety of the people before his hatred of the Communists,’ he said bitterly.

  Then word came through that the Japanese army was fighting a battle with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist army on the outskirts of Peking.

  Jonas gave me a searching look. ‘I won’t go if you don’t want me to, because you and Peter are my main concerns and not my job. Alex can quite easily go alone and take his photographs.’

  I so much wanted Jonas to stay with me and Peter, just our little threesome in our own house, but I knew when I married him what his job was, so I said I would be fine. ‘I don’t suppose the Japanese will attack the Settlement.’ Although I sounded confident, I certainly wasn’t.

  As he packed his bag and stowed it into Alex’s car, he made me promise not to stay if there was any danger. ‘Now you must listen, Lizzie, and take Peter away from here if anything does happen. If they advise the women and children to evacuate, then you must go, either to Hong Kong or back to Scotland.’

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘I don’t want to leave you here, Jonas, and return home. This is my life now, with you and Peter.’

  He held me close. ‘Promise me you’ll go if you have to. No matter where you are, I will come to be with you. Now, do you promise me?’

  I tried hard not to be upset, but I whispered, ‘I promise.’

  ‘You’ll have Elsie and the Miller sisters to help you if you need it. Zheng Yan and Ping Li will help as well.’

  So I stood on my veranda and watched as the car slowly drove away, with Jonas’s face gazing at me till it disappeared from view. When I went to take Peter over to Elsie’s house, the street looked much the same as usual. Maybe, I thought, Jonas was just making sure I knew what to do if anything happened; maybe it wasn’t that an attack was imminent more that the Japanese were playing a game of cat and mouse.

  Two days later Lorna-May arrived at the house and said she and Conrad were moving back to America. ‘We only planned to be here for a few years,’ she said, ‘and now it’s time to go back.’

  Normally this wouldn’t have worried me, but because of the heightened tension and the departure of Jonas, I suddenly felt afraid. ‘Does Conrad know anything about the Japanese attack on Peking, Lorna-May?’

  ‘Why would Conrad know about the Japanese’s intentions, Lizzie?’

  Quite honestly I didn’t know, so I said lamely, ‘Well, he’s the head of the American Bank here in Shanghai and maybe the FBI has warned him to leave.’

  She laughed. ‘You’ve been watching too many films with your friend Elsie. Conrad doesn’t know anyone in the FBI or in any other government agencies. No, we planned this move a while back, but can I give you some advice?’

  When I nodded, she went on. ‘Get Jonas to go back home with you and leave Shanghai, and please tell your friend Elsie to do the same.’

  ‘Jonas and Alex have gone to Peking to write about the battle between the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek’s army.’

  She went quite pale under her Max Factor medium-beige foundation and her red lips clamped together. ‘I can’t believe Jonas would leave his wife and son alone to go off filming and writing about an incident a thousand miles away.’ She took her little notebook from her elegant handbag. ‘I must phone Conrad at the bank and get him to arrange two tickets for Peter and you on our ship.’

  I was so surprised that for a moment I was speechless. As she thumbed through her book, I finally found my voice. ‘I’m not leaving, Lorna-May. Jonas will be back and if anything does develop then we’ll make plans, but not at the moment.’

  She gave me a sorrowful glance. ‘I wish you would change your
mind, Lizzie, and leave with us. But if you’ve made up your mind, I’ll have to say goodbye.’

  She was at the door when I ran after her and gave her a hug. ‘Thank you for the thought, Lorna-May. You’ve been a very good friend to us and I won’t forget it. I hope you both have a happy trip back home and, who knows, we may meet up again one day.’

  Lorna-May wiped her eyes with a tiny handkerchief and she hurried down the veranda steps. ‘Say goodbye to Jonas and Peter for us, and I hope you all stay safe.’

  I was touched by her concern for our safety and tried to tell myself that their leaving Shanghai had been planned beforehand, but that didn’t ring true. If that had been the case, then she would have put on a grand leaving party at the Racecourse club. No, something or someone had warned them of danger. Was it the presence of the Japanese naval ships or some other danger I couldn’t even begin to imagine?

  I went back inside but was suddenly bent over with pain in my side. It made me feel sick, but after a while it subsided. I made a mental note to go and see the doctor at the hospital, but first I had to make Peter’s breakfast.

  I was washing the dishes when Elsie hurried in. She was out of breath and I thought she was ill.

  ‘What’s wrong, Elsie?’

  She sat down and began to cry.

  ‘Is it Ronnie who’s causing more grief?’ I asked, feeling really angry with him for his off hand treatment of his wife.

  She nodded, but it took two cups of tea before she felt well enough to tell me what was wrong. Peter was playing on the rug with his toy wooden train that he’d got for his birthday, and I kept giving him fond glances as he made train noises while pushing it around the wooden tracks.

  I sat beside Elsie. ‘Do you want to tell me what’s happened now?’

  She looked so miserable and tearful, but she nodded. ‘I haven’t seen Ronnie for four nights now, so last night I was determined to have it out with him. I went and hung around the American Café and he came out at midnight. He was with that dark-haired woman we saw that day on the Bund. They went to a house a few streets away and I followed them. A light went on in the window, so I went up to the apartment door and knocked.’ She stopped and swept her hair back from her wet, tearful face. There was an expression of grim defiance on her face that I hadn’t seen since the day on the ship when she’d told her mother off. ‘The woman answered the door and I saw Ronnie lying on the bed. When he saw me, he jumped up and almost pushed me down the stair. He said I was never to embarrass him again and that I should go home to my mother. I told him I loved him, and he laughed. It was a terrible, sneering laugh and he said he was in love with Ivanka, that’s the woman’s name, and he was going to divorce me and marry her.’

  I was shocked. ‘That’s terrible, Elsie. You must get a solicitor or write to his father and tell him how awful his son is.’

  ‘I did that this morning,’ she said. ‘I wrote to his father and asked for the money for a ticket back to Scotland. I mentioned the divorce and Ivanka so that he knows it isn’t just me wanting to leave his son on a whim.’

  I made another cup of tea and thought bitterly of the young girl I had met on the outward journey here.

  ‘Last night I was so unhappy that I wandered around these narrow streets and I got lost in the alleyways. I began to panic, but out of the blue this policeman appeared. He’s with the Municipal Police and he originally comes from Edinburgh. I realised we had been at the same school. His name is Robert Macdonald. At first he didn’t recognise me, but when he did he asked me why I was wandering around in the early hours of the morning.’ Elsie sat in silence, a deep-red flush spreading up from her neck. ‘I told him I had lost my way after being out for the evening with my husband. He offered to see me back to the house. We got chatting and he asked my husband’s name and what his job was in here in Shanghai. I told him I was Mrs Lomax and my husband was in charge of his father’s cotton mills. He gave me such a concerned look, Lizzie, when he said, “Ronnie Lomax: is that your husband?” When I nodded, he never said another word but wished me goodnight at my front door.’

  ‘Well, that was courteous of him to see you safely home, Elsie.’

  Her voice rose until it was almost a scream. ‘But don’t you realise he knows Ronnie and it looks like he’s been in trouble with the law? When he writes home to his parents, who live just a few streets away from my mother, then all her neighbours will know my situation. I’ve been writing to tell her how happy and contented I am here and now she’ll know I’m a liar.’

  I didn’t know what to say but told her she was welcome to stay with me until her ticket arrived. She was obviously concerned about her image of a happy marriage and that overcame her unhappiness. She knew her mother would be the target of gossips back in Edinburgh and she was ashamed at the thought of being the cause.

  Betsy and Jeannie were overwhelmed by the numbers arriving from Peking. Elsie and I went to help, but there wasn’t enough food to go round. ‘We’re hearing terrible stories from the refugees about Peking now being occupied by the Japanese and all the killing and fires and the utter devastation.’

  I was really worried about Jonas, as I hadn’t heard anything from him since he’d left. I now realised this was what my mother would have experienced when my father had gone to France. I hoped history wasn’t repeating itself, and I tried to feel confident. I managed it fine during the day, but in bed at night all my fears and worries emerged and stopped me from sleeping, which meant I was tired in the mornings.

  Ping Li came round every morning to help with Peter, as Elsie had gone back to her own house. I could see my Chinese friend was also worried about the future.

  ‘Zheng Yan says the Japanese naval ships have fired on some of the boats coming into Shanghai. A Chinese houseboat with a family on board was sunk and they all died. The Japanese captain said it was a spy ship and they were within their rights to fire on it. Zheng Yan said it was clear it was a local boat and the family could all be clearly seen from the riverbank.’

  I was now getting twinges in my side, but I didn’t want to go and see about it until Jonas came home. However, by the middle of August I couldn’t put up with the pain any longer. I decided to go to the doctor after Peter went to bed and thought maybe Elsie or Ping Li could look after him.

  By teatime I was doubled up with pain, and luckily Ping Li called round. She took one look at me and called for her husband.

  ‘Lizzie needs to go to hospital, Ping Li,’ he said. ‘Try to get a taxi for her, as I don’t think she’ll be able to walk.’

  I knew I couldn’t walk, as the pain came in waves and made me feel nauseous. I managed to ask Zheng Yan if he could ask Elsie to come and look after Peter, and he nodded. Thankfully a taxi arrived at the door and Ping Li helped me into it. I held on to her hand.

  ‘Can you come with me?’

  ‘Yes, I am going to come with you, Lizzie.’

  I don’t remember much after I was examined by the doctor, except that I heard him tell the nurse I had a perforated appendix and he was afraid peritonitis had set in.

  ‘How long have you had the pain?’ he asked.

  I only managed to gasp out a few words. ‘For a couple of weeks.’

  He looked concerned, and I was whisked away along the corridor on a trolley.

  The next thing I recalled was the sun shining in through the window of my little room in the hospital. For a moment or two, I couldn’t think where I was; then the pain struck me again and I called out loud. A small Chinese nurse came hurrying in, followed by the doctor, who sat in the chair by my bedside.

  ‘I’ve had to take your appendix out, Mrs O’Neill, but because it burst, you will still be in pain. I’ll give you something to dull the pain, but you must lie quiet and rest, with no sudden movements.’

  If I had had the strength to laugh, I would have, but every movement felt like my body was on fire, so I just nodded.

  The doctor went on. ‘I believe your husband is away on a job to Peking?’

/>   I nodded again but became alarmed when he turned to the nurse and shook his head.

  ‘Have you had any word from him?’ I asked, and my voice sounded deep and gravelly.

  He said he hadn’t, but when he did manage to contact him he would let him know I was recovering.

  I managed to fall asleep but was awakened by the sound of voices in the corridor. It had turned dark and I realised I must have slept all day. The voices became agitated, but I still didn’t think anything about it, as my pain had returned.

  The door opened, and I expected to see the nurse, but it was the doctor and Elsie. She was agitated as she came to my bedside.

  ‘Lizzie, you must listen to me. The Japanese have attacked Shanghai and there are dead bodies and fires all over the city.’

  I suddenly grew cold. I felt my heart hammering in my chest. ‘Is it Peter? Or Jonas?’

  The doctor tried to get her to leave, but she was adamant. ‘There’s a British ship leaving tomorrow to evacuate the women and children. I have to go on it and I want to take Peter with me, as I can’t leave him behind while you’re ill. Betsy and Jeannie say they aren’t going, but David has made them promise they will.’

  ‘Will Zheng Yan and Ping Li be going as well?’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s just the expatriates and their families. The doctor tells me you will be in hospital for ten days or more and this will be the last chance to get Peter to safety.’

  I looked at the doctor. ‘Can I be discharged right now?’

  ‘No, I’m sorry.’

  I grabbed Elsie’s hand. ‘Please look after Peter. Take him to my aunt’s house in Carnoustie, and Jonas and I will join him when we can.’

  She gave me a kiss on the cheek. ‘Of course I’ll look after Peter, and we’ll see you sometime when you leave and return to Scotland.’

  She was almost out of the door when I said, ‘Can you pack his wooden train, Elsie? It’s his birthday present.’

  She gave a backward glance and a tiny wave before disappearing. I cried silently into my pillow. I knew I had made the right decision, as I wouldn’t want Peter to be in any danger, but why wasn’t Jonas back home? Surely he had written up his story and Alex had taken his photos, so they should be coming home soon. Then, in the grey light of dawn when worries seem to magnify, I had the terrible thought that they were both either injured or dead. I knew history was repeating itself and I was now in the same position as my mother had been away back in 1917, with my husband missing in action like my father.