by Lin Zhe
“Dad, Ma! Oh, I am so sorry for disturbing you. Look how silly that Baohua is. Is there any couple who doesn’t quarrel?”
Second Sister noticed that Ninth Brother’s face had turned white. “Oh, Big Zhang, look how upset you’ve made Dad. Nowadays there’s no hard times we can’t get through. How come your temper hasn’t improved?” she grumbled in her distress.
The doctor took out a bottle of medicine. “It’s nothing. I just take two vitamin B tablets and then it’s all right.”
During those several months, Ninth Brother was often taking medicine. He told Second Sister it was vitamin B and she never believed otherwise.
“Ma, you’re an extraordinary woman,” Big Zhang said. “If Baohua were half of what you are, even one-tenth, this family would be at peace.”
The doctor waved his hand. “‘Even the fairest magistrate has a hard time judging family matters.’ We haven’t come to judge your family matters. We’ve come to see Maomao.”
The smile stiffened on Big Zhang’s face. “I’ve kicked the little bastard out. Kicked him out ten times and ten times he’s come back. This time I told him if he dared show his face again I’d have the Public Security Bureau grab him and send him to labor reform.”
The doctor looked down and was silent for a long time and then said to Second Sister, “Go inside and rest. Big Zhang and I are going out to talk for a bit.”
Commissioner Zhang’s building was near the river. The two of them, father-in-law and son-in-law, sat under an old banyan tree by the riverside. The doctor took out the medicine bottle he had stuffed in his shirt pocket and told him that what he was taking wasn’t vitamins and that he had only a hundred days at most left on earth. He said he wanted to make full use of this time to settle a few matters that weighed on him. And one of these was the relationship between Big Zhang and Maomao.
Big Zhang’s face took on a deep and imposing look. “Dad, you have been very kind to me. If I could, I’d be willing to die for you. Even though I’ve given up on that child, for your sake, I’m willing to try one more time.”
He called over his driver and they drove to P Town’s long-distance bus station. That was Maomao’s other home, and a gang of street-children beggars were his brothers and sisters. Whenever Maomao returned to his adoptive parents from this other home, “the lotus root would snap, but the fibers stayed attached.”
They found the utterly filthy Maomao under a bench. Every time he had been kicked out of his home he would brazenly ask for forgiveness. This last time Big Zhang had given the final word. And when Big Zhang very clearly and plainly declared there was no blood relationship between them, Maomao despaired and in this despair a fierce hatred was born. Now, suddenly seeing Big Zhang and his grandpa from Old Town, he was so affected he started to cry wildly. Before, he had cried often but that had been all bluff and playacting. Today he didn’t want to cry and in his tear-drenched eyes there was still hatred. He gnashed his teeth and his chin crumpled up in trembling and shaking.
If this child can be moved to cry, then he can still be saved. The doctor stroked Maomao’s head. “Maomao, you’re Daddy and Ma’s son, and you’re Grandpa’s and Grandma’s grandson. We all love you.”
Maomao’s facial features unclenched and he burst out wailing. The doctor seated Maomao in Big Zhang’s Shanghai sedan. Big Zhang made a big show of looking dour and sat in the front without turning around to look.
Can bringing Maomao back home solve the basic problem? I’m going to take him back to Old Town. Perhaps this is the thing I ought to do most of all before my life ends. We shouldn’t have come to P Town just to seek a peaceful conscience. Second Sister said, “God knows whose prayers are sincere.” This is far, far from good enough.
Second Sister boiled water and bathed Maomao and then presented him with the snacks brought from Old Town. She wanted to give him a talking to, but then she thought that she herself was only a guest here, so she let the idea pass.
Big Zhang came into the kitchen and took the thermos. Maomao was so panic-stricken he stuffed a whole egg tart into his mouth. Big Zhang couldn’t help exploding in anger. “What’re you scared of? Feeling guilty about something? You just can’t change the bum looks of a dog rustler and chicken thief!” he roared.
“Oh, this child! He does give people a headache. Big Zhang may still drive him away again,” murmured Second Sister.
The doctor gazed at Maomao and said to his wife, “We’ll take him back with us to West Gate to live there for a while.”
“What did you say?”
“Bring Maomao back to West Gate.”
“Have you gone mad?”
Big Zhang sat there drinking tea and smoking, while a stream of curses poured out of him. “Listen, brat. If you want to become a bad guy, I’m not stopping you. Take me, for example—back then I’d have joined the bandits, you can be sure, if I hadn’t run into the Communist Party. If you’ve got the guts to rob the highway then I’ll say you’re a man. What I can’t stand is a sneak. How can I have someone like you as a son?”
The doctor said, “Big Zhang, we’re taking Maomao back to West Gate to stay with us for a while.”
“If Big Zhang can’t manage him, I suppose you can?” Second Sister broke in.
“Just let me give it a try. How can you know if you haven’t tried?”
Big Zhang looked with surprise at his father-in-law. That old guy knows he hasn’t got long to live. Where does all his love come from? He thought of that time in the Cultural Revolution when he was behind bars in the provincial Public Security Department building and saw his father-in-law. For as long as he could remember he had never cried—even when he buried his father and mother he didn’t shed a tear. But that day he cried, cried as if his heart would break. This old bag of bones in front of him was no ordinary man. Maybe he really could change Maomao.
Second Sister’s mouth was half-opened, but she couldn’t get a single word out, as if she had a sudden stroke. She was thinking, there are so many rooms at West Gate, so many drawers. Even if I grew eyes on the bump in the back of my head I wouldn’t be able to keep it all in view. Oh, Ninth Brother, you’re always up to something and I really can’t hold my own…
She saw Ninth Brother lead Maomao out of the kitchen and sit down with him side-by-side in front of Big Zhang. He took off the watch and put it into the boy’s hand. “Maomao, Grandpa has been poor all his life and never had anything that was worth much money. There was only this watch. Now I’m giving it to you.”
Maomao looked fearful, not sure whether this was a blessing or a curse.
“Now you’re still small and have no use for a watch. Give it to your Dad to put away safely and keep it as your eighteenth birthday present. Would that be all right?”
Maomao held the watch in both his trembling hands and gave it to Big Zhang.
Big Zhang didn’t say anything as he took the watch. Grasping it in one hand, with the other he stuck a cigarette between his lips and took one big drag after another.
Second Sister thought, How come Big Zhang is keeping it? Why not leave it with Grandpa to give to Maomao?
After the busy day, they both went to bed. As she closed the door, Second Sister said, “If you bring Maomao to West Gate, I’ll live here in Daughter’s home.”
Today Ninth Brother’s reactions were pretty quick. He knew that Second Sister didn’t like Maomao and so he didn’t respond directly. “If you settle in here, what happens when the West Gate residents come looking for Director Guo?”
“Whatever you do you never discuss it with me first. For you it’s all a command performance. It wasn’t this way before. When you were deaf, the whole family had peace and quiet.”
Ninth Brother laughed as he burrowed under the covers. “Now you don’t know, but later you will. You’re in good health. You’re sure to see Maomao’s future.”
Second Sister lay down and then sat up. “Ninth Brother, we’re both people over seventy. Before, I always said that when we get to this
age, when we take off our shoes at night, we don’t know if we’ll be wearing them on the next day. So how can you undertake such a heavy responsibility?”
“Second Sister, even when we’re young we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Reality is right there before our eyes. God wants us to extend a helping hand.”
“You’re always shifting everything onto God. God has a special love for you and you’re the only one he speaks to.”
“You’re saying I can turn away and not be bothered?” Second Sister had nothing to say to this.
The next day, Big Zhang himself drove his parents-in-law and Maomao back to West Gate. Then he turned in the direction of Baosheng’s home to get Baohua. Baosheng stood blocking the doorway and demanded that Big Zhang guarantee he wouldn’t bully his elder sister again. Big Zhang didn’t utter a single word, but the smile on his face said he held the winning ticket. Baohua was quick to anger and quick to cool down. He believed that she would go with him. If Baosheng wouldn’t let her go, it was possible she might still have a falling-out with her brother. And sure enough, when Baohua heard Big Zhang’s voice, she immediately pulled off her own things from the clothesline and squeezed past her brother.
4.
THAT WAS A warm and bright Winter Solstice. The Dr. Lin we saw was an elderly kid in his second childhood. He took Maomao to play all around those fun places in Old Town and they ate wherever there were the tasty snacks Old Town was famous for.
In the evenings when we gathered at the dinner table, Grandpa would have Maomao describe the awkward and embarrassing things that happened during their rambles. For example, when they had rowed out to the middle of West Lake and couldn’t get back to shore, grandfather and grandson yelled for help to the people walking along the lakeside. He told how Grandpa climbed up a children’s slide but was afraid to come down. Everybody at the table laughed so hard they were spitting rice. Grandma picked up the thread and told of Grandpa’s many misadventures when he was young. In the early 1930s he rode his bicycle on the streets around Drum Tower but couldn’t get off, and charged right toward the trees, scared out of his wits and shouting the whole way. Director Guo not only didn’t exclude Maomao anymore, she was very grateful for the joy this child brought to Ninth Brother. After her reinstatement she was totally swamped with her work. If Maomao hadn’t been by his side, Ninth Brother would have felt very lonely.
Thus, when my grandma found out that Grandpa, burdened by certain thoughts, would frequently walk up and down the streets in the dead of night, she was both surprised and even quite irritated. She had always considered that she and Ninth Brother were the most harmonious married couple under heaven. “We haven’t had so much as a cross word between us for decades now. What are these heavy thoughts of yours that you can’t tell me about?”
Great-Auntie moved over to West Gate to keep her younger sister company. All the Lin family inside dope couldn’t fool her. And naturally, she could never pass up the opportunity to let her imagination run wild. “You all never notified the Shanghai relatives, so surely Ninth Brother left with a troubled heart.” She once dreamed she saw Ninth Brother turn into a bird whose wings drooped and couldn’t fly away.
Second Sister firmly contradicted her elder sister, but she was a little puzzled and doubtful. Without letting anyone in the family know, she quietly looked through a big stack of letters for the ones that Mrs. Yang had sent to the Lins from Shanghai and studied each of these in detail. She was literate, for she had accompanied her younger brothers to their old-fashioned private school. But she always humbly kept a fair distance from writing. Before she was married, writing matters were done by her elder sister on her behalf. Afterward, anything connected with writing in the family was undertaken by Ninth Brother. During the War of Resistance she had Baosheng write her Letters from Home to Ninth Brother.
The address on every one of Mrs. Yang’s envelopes was written, “Young Mr. Lin and Madam.” She gave a bundle of letters to Elder Sister to read. “Take a good look at these. When you make up stories, don’t go so far off track.”
Ninth Brother spent several months arranging his posthumous affairs. Fangzi came back to the West Gate family she had cut herself off from for over ten years. Maomao returned to school. At the funeral he wept and rolled on the ground.
When the coffin was carried to the burying ground, standing next to Baosheng and Baoqing were Big Zhang, Young Li, and Enchun. They are big government officials now. From West Gate to Drum Tower all your patients came to send you off. Ninth Brother, you always said you were a ne’er-do-well and down on your luck your whole life long. Today you ought to have seen how honored and glorified you were. You shouldn’t have any more troubled thoughts that you can’t shake off.
The doctor, in fact, did have one unfinished piece of business that weighed on him and many nights he couldn’t get to sleep on account of it. It was the sense of concern that stayed with him from the last time he traveled north.
He had gone to the hospital affiliated with his old Shanghai college and reproduced the X-ray films of Mr. and Mrs. Qiao’s teeth. It was his wish to go to Shandong and look for their remains so that he could bury these in the courtyard of the church at West Gate. They were the father and mother who gave him his second life. Although in terms of Christian thoughts and beliefs doing this was of no particular significance, he still held the traditional Chinese moral and ethical concepts. He wanted to honor his filial responsibilities toward Mr. and Mrs. Qiao, just like all Chinese sons. Brother Yu, traveling with him at the time, shook his head and said this idea was just about unfeasible. The old bones in the vicinity of the concentration camp were piled as high as a hill. How could they identify those of Mr. and Mrs. Qiao?
After Ninth Brother retuned to Old Town, Pastor Chen heard of this and gave his firmest support and he himself wrote a report to the government. Mr. Qiao had been the founder of a school for girls in Old Town, a hospital for the poor, and the West Gate church. In the end, he died in a fascist Japanese concentration camp out of his belief that he should sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Pastor Chen proposed that a memorial tablet be set up at the West Gate church. The streets were already filling up with Red Guards when that letter was sent off, and for the past ten years the negatives of Mr. and Mrs. Qiao’s teeth had stayed hidden at Shuiguan’s home.
This was a matter that weighed on him alone. The doctor couldn’t think of whom to pass the baton to. He had spoken with Mrs. Chen. The pastor’s widow was just then doing everything she could to restore the West Gate church. She was already almost eighty years old and her final hope was to once again play hymns there in the church. He sought out Enchun but Enchun was preparing lectures. The doctor sat for a few minutes in that room piled high with books and then said good-bye, never mentioning this matter. He even thought of Young Li. Young Li had just received notification that his party membership had been restored. Obviously he would not be an appropriate candidate.
He missed Pastor Chen. It was only then that he understood the Old Town saying, “Having a friend who understands you is all you need in life.” At night he would often linger in the neighborhood of the church, calling to mind his many, many years of friendship with Pastor Chen. Sometimes he would close his eyes and meditate on what kind of world there would be after passing through death. Would he be able to meet Mr. and Mrs. Qiao and Pastor Chen?
Perhaps this streak of obstinacy in the doctor moved the spirits of Mr. and Mrs. Qiao. They floated down on the night streets of West Gate and, as when he was little, they embraced him and stroked his head, saying, “Child, that’s not important, it’s not important in the least. We are waiting for you in the eternal country…”
In short, he never mentioned to anyone the material he had placed in Shuiguan’s home. He wrote a memorial speech for Mr. and Mrs. Qiao and gave it to Pastor Chen. Many years later a monument was set up in the churchyard at West Gate, its inscription telling the history of the West Gate church and quoting the writing left by Dr. Lin.<
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Shuiguan was already a very old man now. When the doctor passed on he had been lying semi-paralyzed in bed already for a long time and he made his son, Ah Ming, carry him on his back to the Lin home to say good-bye to the doctor. After the funeral, he recalled that the package the doctor had entrusted him with safekeeping ten years before was still on the roof beam of his home. He told Ah Ming to bring it down and again carry him to the Lins where he himself handed it to Baosheng.
Baosheng guessed that the package contained an important document connected with the fate of the Lin family. Dad had been poor all his life, but the Lin family before him had been a great one. Might it be there was some inheritance that no one knew of? He gravely assembled all the offspring of the three branches of the Lin family, and, gathered around the Eight Immortals table, opened the package. There was a layer of oil paper and one of cowhide, and he opened them layer by layer. All eyes were fixed on Baosheng’s hands and everyone was surprised to see him drop out two black negatives from a small paper sleeve. Baoqing picked up the film and looked at it closely against the light. He said these possibly were his dad’s dental records. Baosheng let out a guffaw of laughter. “Dad is playing a joke on us!” He put the negatives back into the little paper sleeve and handed it over to his mother. “Ma, we can’t figure out what Dad had in mind. Do you want to keep this?” Grandma took the paper sleeve and sat down on the rattan chair and cudgeled her brains for some time. Then she said, “I know whose teeth these are.” The brothers and sisters around the Eight Immortals table had now turned to other topics. No one was curious about whose teeth those had been.
As far as I know, my grandma gave those two negatives to Mrs. Chen. Some years later Mrs. Chen herself passed away and the church was dismantled and relocated. The negatives became ashes and smoke, along with the rest of West Gate’s past.
