Old Town

by Lin Zhe

  This evening, Second Sister locked the gate from the inside, picked up her sewing basket and sat in the main parlor. She was standing night watch, listening closely for any movement by Baosheng and Baoqing. She hadn’t invited her husband to be an ally in her “protect the calves” campaign, and so Ninth Brother groggily stepped out of the bedroom to call Second Sister to come to sleep. She told him she was rushing to make some baby clothes in advance of Fourth Sister’s month-long confinement.

  As the night wore on, Second Sister was overcome by fatigue and she dozed with the sewing still in her hands. Suddenly the front door creaked and she woke up in a fright to see Baosheng about to go out, taking Baoqing with him. Running after them, she scolded, “Go back! Get back to your own rooms!”

  Pulling Baoqing along as he moved out the gate, Baosheng said, “Ma. Daybreak is coming! Don’t worry anymore!”

  And, with that, her two sons dashed past her and disappeared into the blackness of the night.

  Once again Ninth Brother awoke from his dreams, and, groping his way into the parlor, discovered Second Sister’s sewing basket fallen on the floor and the front door wide open. Second Sister’s figure was standing motionless as a statue outside the doorway under the oleander. He approached and took hold of her arm. “Just stop worrying and come to bed now.”

  “How can I possibly sleep?”

  “What should or shouldn’t happen is beyond us.”

  In the darkness tears rolled down Second Sister’s face. She couldn’t pour out to her husband all the worries filling her heart. She knew that Ninth Brother would just reason with her by saying things like “If we allow ourselves to get worried and anxious it means we don’t trust in the God we worship.”

  Husband and wife went back into the house. Second Sister put some more oil in the lamp and resumed sewing. Ninth Brother sat silently by her side. When light appeared in the sky and roosters began crowing all around the neighborhood, neither of them had said a single word.

  The early morning at West Gate was as peaceful as ever. As Baohua stood on the steps under the sky well lazily brushing her teeth, her alcoholic uncle came in, a liquor bottle in his hand.

  “Oh, Baohua! How come you’re still at home? The students are all out on the streets greeting the communists. Didn’t you know?”

  Baohua rinsed out her mouth. “Uncle, there’s nothing for you to drink here, not one drop.”

  The eldest son of the Guo family pointed the bottle straight at Baohua’s nose. “The communists have arrived! This liquor now tastes again like it used to. Here, have a sniff. Now that’s real liquor!”

  Baohua pushed the bottle away. “When the communists get here you’re going to have to swear off drinking!”

  “Impossible!”

  Then he sat right down in the parlor and as he drank from the bottle he nodded his head in time to a little tune he hummed.

  Second Sister came out of the kitchen and was surprised to see her brother there. “There’s going to be fighting, and here you are, still gadding about!”

  “Fighting? Who’s fighting?”

  “The communists are already at Old Ridge and are about to come down to attack us!”

  Her brother exploded with laughter. “Second Sister, all you people out in the sticks here in West Gate, you didn’t get the news. At this very moment, the heavens above already belong to the communists!”

  Second Sister peered up through the sky well. The sky was very blue and wisps of clouds were slowly scudding by. It looked no different from yesterday.

  “Oh, you! So early in the day and you’re so drunk you have no idea of what’s going on around you. Go right home and tell my sister-in-law to store away a few bottles of liquor. In a couple of days, if they start fighting, the wine shops will be closed, and then what would you do?”

  Her brother laughed all the louder and the drink in his mouth went spraying all over. “Second Sister, you don’t drink but you’re the one who’s really all fuddled. The communists have already taken over the government offices at Drum Tower. Go downtown and take a look. There’s a whole sea of people there just waiting to greet the communists!”

  Doubtfully, Second Sister looked at her brother and then abruptly turned around and shouted, “Ninth Brother, the communists are already here in our Old Town!”

  Ninth Brother walked out of the clinic. At the same moment he heard young people passing by the door saying that Old Town was liberated. In such a flash of time had the new heaven and the new earth arrived.

  “Liquor knows best of all. When times turn bad, it turns into stuff that tastes plainer than water. Poor me, drinking water all these years and only now smelling the aroma of liquor. For just this reason alone, I’m going to raise both hands and welcome the communists!”

  This oldest son of the Guos hugged the liquor bottle as if it were a dear one who had gone through the separation and the chaos of war. Joy and sorrow mixed together had him all choked up.

  Second Sister glanced at Ninth Brother and saw that he too seemed ready to break into tears. She had no idea what the communist heaven would look like and couldn’t comprehend why her husband and children longed so much for the new era, but she clearly heard a voice within her say, “Second Sister, your family will be at peace from now on.” That heart of hers, tightly compressed by cares and worries, little by little unclenched and relaxed. A totally strange kind of fatigue came over her. She limply sank down and slumped over the table, her eyes closed and she fell fast asleep.

  Her brother stretched his neck back and drained the last few drops of liquor from the bottle and wandered off muttering and mumbling.

  The house was absolutely quiet. Ninth Brother stood beside his wife, staring at a patch of the blue, blue sky above a corner of the sky well. Inside he felt all stirred up and at the same time, a sense of doubt. Is this true? Has the communist era begun with such peace and quiet?

  Impulsively, the doctor thought of going to the East Street intersection to see for himself just what was happening. He went to his daughter’s room. Baohua was just then revising her assignment in preparation for her application to the teachers’ college.

  “Baohua, the communists have come to our Old Town.”

  Pencil in her hand, she leaned back to look at her daddy. The radiant smile now on her daddy’s face showed a childlike innocence. He was truly happy today. “Daddy, when did you join the Communist Party?” she teased him. “And how come I never knew about it?”

  “Communism is good. Everyone is equal. Everyone has work, and food to eat. This is the spirit of Jesus.”

  Baohua thought of Enchun. Had he returned to Old Town? Then immediately she thought of that girl from the teachers’ college who had been together with Enchun. Baohua felt a dull ache within her. She forced herself to smile at her father, and then lowered her head and continued with her reading.

  The doctor reached out and took away the book. “Daughter, today is not for reading books. Come on, let’s both go over to East Street. We too should make a brief appearance, wouldn’t you say?”

  He took her by the arm out through the gate. The two of them were still on West Street when they heard the sound of drums, gongs, and firecrackers loud enough to split the heavens.

  The doctor stopped where he was and like some demented person shouted, “It’s true! It’s true! It’s true!”

  At Drum Tower the streets were mobbed with people and Baohua and her daddy got separated along the way. Like a little loach, her slight figure wriggled with ease into the middle of the area. Then she saw with her own eyes the tawny uniforms of the communist soldiers. They had come from out of the north like a surging tidal wave. Every face under a military hat was Enchun, for she believed that he was in their midst. Even though she had vowed countless times to forget him, this moment of inner agitation inevitably gave rise to flights of fancy. She fantasized she saw Enchun stride out of the ranks of the communists, and grasping her, say, “Baohua, the world is at peace now. I can go back to scho
ol and resume my studies.” In total contrast to her normally shy aloofness, she couldn’t help following the citizens of Old Town along the side of the road, whooping and cheering together with them in the general jubilation.

  The tawny uniformed ranks gradually receded into the distance. A lion dance commenced at the street intersection by Drum Tower and the sound of gongs, drums, and firecrackers kept on and on. Baohua’s whole head was drenched in sweat as she squeezed her way out. She wanted to go to the West Gate church to ask for news of Enchun.

  At this very moment, Dr. Lin was in the church together with Pastor Chen writing slogans on brightly colored paper: “Love the Lord, Love the Communist Party,” “God Bless and Protect Communism.”

  Mrs. Chen was standing on a bench polishing the church windows, helped by a fellow congregant who rinsed the cleaning cloths. This person said to her, “Your young prince has rendered a great service to the Communist Party. He’s going to be a high official in the new government and that’s for sure.”

  “Our son loves the Communist Party just as we Christians love Jesus. But he doesn’t seek for his own interests. When communism has succeeded, his ideals will be realized. Maybe he’ll just teach school out by the seaside for the rest of his life.”

  Baohua stood behind them and just when she was just about to address her auntie, the helper asked, “Your prince should now be at the right age for marrying. Have you all approached anyone about this?”

  Deng, deng, deng, pounded Baohua’s heart wildly, and the fire in her cheeks spread right to the tips of her ears. She expected Mrs. Chen to say that they thought highly of the Lin family’s “thousand gold pieces.”

  The pastor’s wife stood on her tiptoes as she polished the glass. “These are new times. It’s no longer the fashion for the parents to arrange everything in marriage. We haven’t had news from him for a very long time. Everything’s been put into God’s hands.”

  “Maybe the day will come when your prince will return home, bringing along your daughter-in-law and their children.”

  The mother chuckled happily at that and turned to look out the window, as if little grandchildren just learning to walk were tottering toward her.

  Seeing the happy smile on Mrs. Chen’s face, Baohua pictured Enchun and that girl student from the teacher’s college coming in from the other side of the wooden fence carrying their children. They would be unaware of her presence. Just like at this very moment, when everybody was busily coming in and going out and unable to see her. This made her feel extremely sorry for herself. She went over to the well beside the church door, leaned over and stared at her own reflection. The image of the girl floating on the surface of the water was so delicate and pretty. Looking at her you would think she was a sixth-grade student. No one would believe she was already a big girl of seventeen or eighteen. The entire neighborhood around West Gate saw her as the “little one” of the house, and even her two younger brothers humored her as they would a younger sister.

  Totally dispirited, Baohua turned from her reflection and, rocking back and forth on her feet as she stood up, she found her gaze directed toward the far-distant mountain peaks. She thought, “I’m going to do something that will amaze everyone!”

  Two months later, Baohua really did do something that utterly confounded everyone’s impressions of her.

  2.

  WHEN THE COMMUNIST army came down from Old Ridge, the Guomindang’s Youth Corps organized a withdrawal of the students of Old Town’s two technical colleges to Taiwan. These students were now waiting at the docks of the fishing harbor for boats to take them there.

  Late that night, the bookshop owner, whose identity as the local department head of the Communist Party’s ministry of youth work had already surfaced, rushed to the harbor, taking with him a group of progressive young people to persuade the students to return to their homes.

  The two Lin brothers were told to quickly get in the group at the head of the West Floodwater Bridge. Beyond the bridge was a market town, and beyond that was the bay. There, by the side of the dock were some twenty or thirty small vessels packed with students. A number of other students had already been taken to the small island opposite the harbor. The students didn’t know that a life of exile was now beginning and that hereafter they would forever be separated in life and death from their families.

  In one night, the boss of the rice shop at West Gate lost two sons who had been studying at the technical college. Then, after enduring more than twenty years of bitter waiting, he and his wife both hung themselves. Many years later, the two sons returned to Old Town. They knelt right there in the street in front of the door of the rice shop, wailing and lamenting. There was no one at West Gate, man, woman or child, old or young, who failed to shed tears at this scene.

  Baoqing went aboard a pitching and rocking small boat. Following his leader’s instructions, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the students. “Old Town has been peacefully liberated! There won’t be any fighting! Whatever you do, don’t go into exile with the Guomindang! Just go home! Your parents are waiting there for you!”

  He didn’t know that at the other end of the craft, the boatman was already moving the scull. The students in the boat were all bigger than he was and nobody paid much attention to what this boy was shouting.

  On this evening the wind was in their favor and the boat moved fast. Baoqing shouted and shouted. Then abruptly he turned his head and discovered how far away he now was from the docks. He ran from the prow to the stern of the boat to find Baosheng and figure out what to do. When he realized that his older brother wasn’t on this boat, he felt totally helpless. “Uncle, I want to go home. My ma is waiting for me,” he said mournfully to the boatman.

  “Just sit down in the boat nice and quiet and wait for me to send the students to the island there, then I’ll take you back home,” the boatman replied.

  “No! If I don’t go back with my older brother, my ma will be worried crazy!”

  Baoqing’ face was all twisted up and he was just on the point of tears. The students sitting behind him let out a roar of laughter.

  With the wind behind it, the little boat scudded along in good time. The docks of the fishing harbor were now far off in the gray first light of dawn. Baoqing stood frozen there beside the boatman. He thought of his mother’s worry-filled eyes. He thought of that nightmare when his sister had been kidnapped and sold in Nanjing County several years before. No! I can’t let my mother suffer another shock. He went to the side of the boat and looked down at the billowing waves and then again at the distant docks. He took a deep breath of air and threw himself over the side. But just as he was in midair, the boatman grabbed hold of him by his collar and flung him back onto the deck.

  “You want to die, huh? Jump in and let the fish eat you up so that there won’t even be one bone left for your ma?”

  Baoqing rolled over and sprang up from the deck. “Uncle, when can you bring me back home?” he pleaded.

  “The quickest would be tomorrow afternoon. But if a storm comes up, it’s hard to say.”

  Baoqing lowered his head dispiritedly and for the very first time he thought of God and of praying for a safe return home. He remembered his mother teaching him that when he prayed he had to say “In the name of Jesus the Lord.”

  Suddenly, a girl student stood up in the middle of the boat and came over to Baoqing. “Baoqing! Are you Baoqing?”

  Baoqing looked blankly at this pretty student. I haven’t even started praying yet and God is already showing his powers?

  “Baoqing, I’m Baolan.”

  Imagine meeting one’s own relative in the midst of danger! Much against his will, Baoqing’s eyes filled with hot tears.

  Baolan was his cousin, the only daughter of his father’s third brother. She had distinguished herself by her intelligence ever since she was little, and she excelled in chess, calligraphy, painting, and plucking the qin. Even in grade school her writings were frequently published in Old Town
’s afternoon news. The children in Dr. Lin’s family greatly admired this gifted female scholar-cousin of theirs, though these past two years they hadn’t seen much of her. Now the two cousins were on the same small boat and had almost not recognized each other.

  “Baoqing, how come you’ve jumped on board this boat?” Baoqing remembered his mission and hastily drew himself up with as much dignity as he could muster. “Baolan, sister! Old Town has now been peacefully liberated! Whatever you do, don’t go to Taiwan with the Youth Corps! If you do, you’ll never see Third Uncle and Third Aunt again!”

  Baolan gazed transfixed at the water. She had left Old Town only yesterday afternoon and by the time the evening skies darkened she was already feeling homesick. She had always been somewhat lacking in animal vitality. All year round her hands and feet would stay cold. Every evening her mother heated up a pan of water for her to put her feet into, and she would sit there reading a book as her feet warmed up in the hot water. She would do this until her whole body was glowing with heat and only then blow out the lamp and go to bed.

  Baolan went back among her schoolmates. “How come I’ve got the feeling something’s not quite right? The school brought us out to escape danger. If there really had been fighting and chaos and we needed to seek refuge somewhere, we ought to have been with our parents and families. If we now go away for a few months, or even a few years, and can’t get back, then what?”

  Baolan had a lot of influence among her schoolmates. The words she just spoke were like drops of water falling into a red-hot frying pan, for they burst like bombshells on board the vessel.

  Taking advantage of the changed situation, Baoqing came up and fanned the flames: “Peaceful liberation! No fighting! Let’s hurry back home! Don’t, whatever you do, go with them to Taiwan!”