Little Reunions

by Eileen Chang

  Another day when no one was in the dining room, Julian came up to Julie. “So you’re going to England?” he asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to go,” Julie replied.

  “I expect that you will not have any problems going,” he said. To Julie, her brother sounded like a statesman.

  Julie had always believed that one day she would go overseas just like Rachel and Judy, but as she grew older it felt was less certain.

  “He promised, it’s part of the divorce settlement,” said Rachel.

  That was when Ned still loved Rachel, thought Julie. It would take another court case to get him to fulfill his already settled obligations. Yet Rachel still had Ned under her spell; every time Julie told him she was going to visit “Third Aunt” he always acquiesced in a soft voice without showing any emotion on his face.

  “Your second uncle has plenty of money,” said Rachel.

  Julie had her doubts; she was keenly aware of Ned’s fears.

  Ned never said that he didn’t have the money to send Julie overseas. Instead he just said, “She can’t manage for a day without Auntie Han, let alone traveling overseas by herself when a war is about to start—that’s just looking for a way to die!”

  “Doesn’t little Julie ever want to get married?” Jade Flower chimed in.

  When Fifth Uncle related this conversation to Judy, she was both angry and amused. “I can’t believe it! Asking a teenager if she wants to get married?!” she ranted.

  Auntie Han probably heard something from Julian. With no one else around, she said to Julie, “I can’t complain if your mother takes you in.” She then mumbled and avoided looking Julie in the eye, “But she won’t take you in, she just wants to send you to a faraway place where there is no one to look after you.”

  “I want to go overseas,” declared Julie matter-of-factly. “I want to be like Third Aunt.”

  Auntie Han yelped at Julie to desist. She had never said anything against Rachel and Judy, except this once.

  Julian was again summoned to visit Judy’s apartment.

  “Little Julian, why are you being so ridiculous?” Rachel asked sternly.

  He didn’t reply.

  Julian had not gone to the hospital to get an X-ray. Julie thought Rachel didn’t trust Julian enough to give him the ten dollars for the X-ray fee. Of course, it was also a question of whether or not he would spend it elsewhere if she had given him the cash.

  The day Julie returned home after graduating from middle school, the newspaper vendors were selling a special edition. A maidservant went out to buy a copy, which was only one sheet and slightly larger than a flyer. “Why is the paper so small today?” she asked, surprised.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Julie read the broadsheet for herself. The paper was covered in large red-and-black characters. The Battle of Shanghai had begun.

  Rachel and her brother lived on extra-Settlement roads outside the International Settlement. Yün-chih admitted to cowardice. As soon as the fighting started, he rented a three-room suite in a hotel in the French Concession and took his entire family to seek refuge there. His concubine had long ago been “dismissed.” He invited Rachel and Judy to move there too. Rachel probably wanted to fully utilize the exorbitant hotel so she asked Julie to go with her, probably thinking it was also a good opportunity to teach the seemingly hopeless Julie some model behavior by example.

  “Third Aunt says we’re too close to Chapei here and wants me to stay with her for a few days,” Julie told Ned. Jade Flower had gone out, which was a great relief to Julie. She had a tacit understanding with Ned about her mother but always felt uncomfortable using Third Aunt as an excuse to escape when Jade Flower was present.

  “Hmm.” Ned made his customary grunt without raising his eyes.

  The hotel was full of life. A ring of oily scum ran around the lavender-colored bathtub.

  “If we must lose our country,” declared Yün-chih, “I’d rather be conquered by the British. Those Japanese devils are the worst.”

  Rachel snorted. “This kind of talk is just infuriating. You think you have a choice over who will conquer your country?”

  “Those poor Indian devils,” Yün-chih lamented. “Slaves without a country.”

  “You people never go overseas,” said Rachel. “If you did, then you’d know just how humiliating it is to be looked down upon.”

  “And who ordered you to go overseas?”

  Rachel and her brother were the same as Judy and her brother, always jousting whenever they got together. And yet despite the bickering, Rachel and Yün-chih were very close.

  “Why don’t you bathe?” asked Rachel. “We especially paid for rooms with en suite bathrooms.”

  “Excessive ablutions are detrimental to the vital element,” replied Yün-chih.

  Yün-chih and his wife entrusted Rachel to introduce his eldest and second daughters to some students who had recently returned from studying abroad. To make two rooms available for the guests, everyone else had to squeeze into a single room. Rachel and Judy were busy with their Red Cross work: rolling up bandages and knitting socks out of brown wool for the International Volunteers.

  “One day at home I heard them playing catch in the living room,” said Yün-chih in a low voice. “There was lots of laughter, so of course I was a bit concerned. I walked by the door and caught a revealing glance of a gown that wasn’t buttoned down fast. Out of desperation, I called out for Auntie Liu and told her to go in and pretend to get something. I then told her to serve them refreshments, and not just once.”

  “That’s exactly why I say we Chinese know nothing about romance and still never learn,” Rachel said in despair. “Who would take a visitor at the gate straight to the inner chamber?”

  When the bombing began, everyone said that the hotel staircase was the safest place. Julie sat on a step reading The Story of a Noble Family, a popular novel that her cousins had borrowed. She was happy.

  The next day there was a huge boom at noon when bombs hit the Great World entertainment center on Avenue Edward VII. From the window Julie saw a convoy of army trucks pass by. A pile of artificial limbs poked out from under the dark-green tarpaulin on one truck as if intended for a department-store window display, except it was a jumble of limbs poking out from a chaotic pile of floral fabrics and gowns and trousers. Glistening rivulets of blood streamed down some of the limbs. She just caught a glimpse of it and would rather believe she had not seen anything.

  It now appeared that the French Concession was more dangerous than Ned’s house. “Very well, then,” said Rachel after lunch. “You may go home.”

  The tram stop was abuzz with newspaper vendors selling special editions, and hands reached eagerly out of tram windows to buy them. People seemed to be smiling as if everyone was experiencing a new thrill.

  It was a hot day and Julie still had to walk a distance from her stop. By the time she arrived home her face was red and puffy from exposure to the sun. She went to wash it before going upstairs to see Ned and his wife. In the bathroom, she could smell the fresh sweat on her body.

  After washing her face, Julie bumped into Jade Flower descending the stairs. She immediately interrogated Julie about why she had stayed away from home the previous night without telling her in advance and slapped Julie in the face. She then complained to Ned and accused Julie of slapping her, which provoked Ned into giving Julie a thorough thrashing. The main gate was locked and Julie couldn’t leave, so for her own safety, she moved into the two unused rooms downstairs, as far away from Ned and his consort as possible.

  As soon as she settled in, Julie felt a little better. The two nightmarish storms that had just turned her life upside down were now fading away. If she could be by herself for a while, everything would be fine. This kind of detachment, which Julie had acquired in childhood, gave her the strength to hold herself together.

  Unused furniture Julie had never seen before, even as a child, was piled up in the two room
s, including an out-of-favor teak cabinet with decorative carving on the top. Jade Flower had two brothers studying at university and the rooms were turned into guest rooms when they visited. They slept on the teak-frame bedsteads with stretched woven rattan. Julie only occupied one room so she closed the sliding door between them. Later, when she went next door to look for a book to read, she noticed an inkstone and a brush on the desk, and a piece of paper loosely scrunched up. Julie flattened out the paper. It was a sheet of old-style letter paper, on which were large characters scrawled in her brother’s hand:

  Esteemed Second Brother,

  Regretfully I did not meet with you when I recently visited.

  The news of my sister, I believe, is known to you. The disgrace brought to the family is indeed mortifying.

  What is this? Julie was not particularly surprised because the score marks Julian once scratched onto one of her paintings had psychologically prepared her. Second Brother was a cousin from Tientsin. Is it an unsent letter or is this the draft? Carelessly leaving something like that on the desk has all the hallmarks of Julian.

  Could he really believe something had happened when I stayed out that night? Jade Flower only accused Julie of disrespect for not informing her that she would sleep away from home for a night, as she knew no one would believe any other accusations. That should be especially true of Julian, who until not so long ago had shared a room with Julie whenever she came back from school, a room with two single beds separated by a small cabinet. Julie had heard Auntie Han say Julian had wet dreams, but when Julie undressed to get into bed he politely looked away and both of them did not think much of it. Julie was busy growing taller and taller, as tall as a bamboo pole. At times she thought it strange that no one arranged for them to live in separate rooms. It was probably because Jade Flower did not want to give people the impression that she coveted the furniture that Judy had brought for the children—on the pretext of Ned’s need to set up a new household—so she was reluctant to ask one of the children to move out. It was not until the previous year that Jade Flower had arranged for her own younger sister to move in with Julie.

  If he really did not believe I had done something disgraceful, why was he assisting the evildoer by spreading lies like this? Julie didn’t follow this line of thinking any further and simply made formalistic arguments angrily to herself. You read the classics, didn’t you? Your rhetorical flourishes show no regard for the seriousness of the consequences. She crumpled up the letter back to the way it was when she found it and left it on the desk. She never told anyone about it.

  After a few days locked up, Auntie Han came in the afternoon and whispered, “Third Mistress has arrived.”

  Rachel and Judy had caught wind of the incarceration and Judy had come take up the matter with Ned and Jade Flower.

  “Under no circumstances can you leave the house,” said Auntie Han in a low threatening voice. “If you leave you’ll never be able to come back.”

  Julie nodded and smiled. Of course that was Auntie Han speaking in Julie’s best interest. Julie had already written a note for Auntie Han to deliver upstairs:

  Second Uncle,

  Mother truly has misunderstood me. I implore Second Uncle to vindicate me. I hope Second Uncle will also forgive me.

  Julie

  Of course, as soon as he saw the note, Ned tore it to shreds. Auntie Han said nothing, and Julie did not ask.

  Auntie Han pulled a chair over so she could sit next to Julie. She put on a very stern face to guard Julie but avoided looking at her directly. Julie found it uncomfortable to sit so close, face-to-face. She had sobbed in Auntie Han’s arms after Ned beat her, but at that moment she felt Auntie Han was cold. Julie realized she was nothing more than a job for Auntie Han, and Auntie Han loved her job. In the past, Julie had always thought that only Auntie Han truly loved her and she would never be calculating about whether Julie would be a success in the future.

  Suddenly Julie heard arguing coming from upstairs. The high-pitched voice didn’t sound like Judy’s; the shouting continued, words too muffled to be made out clearly.

  Third Aunt has only been there for a short time. Perhaps I can seize the chance to dash out and leave along with Third Aunt.

  Auntie Han became even more tense.

  Julie remained seated, aware she could not overpower Auntie Han, let alone get past the guard at the gate.

  A few days later, Auntie Han came to Julie’s room at night to tidy up. “I heard they want to move you to the bungalow,” she said in a low voice.

  “What bungalow?”

  “The bungalow at the back. The derelict one.”

  Julie had never been inside the bungalow, having only peered in once from the corridor. There was a row of wooden rooms built along a wobbly covered corridor with paint peeling off faded dull-green rickety balustrades. The place looked eerie, as if a servant girl had once hung herself there.

  Auntie Han’s eyes revealed what was on her mind: What furniture would be best to move there to make Julie more comfortable? “Luckily they haven’t announced anything yet,” continued Auntie Han in a whisper.

  Before there was time to lock her up, Julie fell gravely ill. Auntie Han appealed to Jade Flower for medicine and was given a canister of Tiger Balm oil.

  At the height of a raging fever Julie dreamed of her father taking her for a drive in the countryside. Outside the city the chauffeur drove very fast. It was all so carefree with the cool breeze of a summer evening. As the streetlights became few and far between, there was more open country on both sides of the road. Julie felt a chill as she was reminded of the case of Yen Rui-sheng and Wang Lien-ying. Yen took a prostitute out for a drive in the countryside, strangled her, and stole her jewelry. Driving with Ned made that murder feel so real.

  As soon as she had recovered a little, Julie took advantage of the lowered security since she had fallen ill and slipped away without telling Auntie Han. She made her way to Rachel and Judy’s place. A week later, Auntie Han delivered a jewelry box Julie had treasured since childhood. Auntie Han greeted Rachel with the same heartfelt, felicitous “Ma’am.”

  Rachel acknowledged the salutation as usual, asking if she were well. “Did they say anything after Julie left?” she inquired, smiling.

  Auntie Han blinked and smiled back. “Nothing much,” she responded in a low voice.

  Julie knew that Rachel was short of money at the time, but after Auntie Han left, Rachel said to Julie, “I gave her five dollars. The old dear is so pathetic, having to wash bedding in her seventies. Now she knows what nasty really means. Think about how she treated me in the past! Finally, she can compare and see the difference!”

  “What did she do to you?” asked Julie.

  “Ha! When we were leaving for Europe—you didn’t see the way all those maidservants behaved! Just as we were about to get on the boat, the porters took off with the luggage. Your second uncle pounded his fist on the table and said, ‘I’m keeping the luggage.’ You didn’t see the haughty faces of those people on the sidelines. It was so infuriating!”

  Judy found work at a foreign trading company and was rarely at home. Rachel worked on making matches for two attractive younger cousins from the Pien branch of the family with students who had just returned from abroad. In the past, Judy’s residence also had a disciplined and purposeful atmosphere. It was now transformed from a litigation factory into a marriage factory, and several courtships were simultaneously in progress. An unending stream of Pien relatives came to visit.

  “Your third aunt just doesn’t like visitors,” Rachel groused. “Even one dog is one too many for her.”

  Nancy was also a frequent visitor.

  “Oh dear,” Judy said with a sneer, knitting her brow, “that Nancy!”

  Julie knew Judy was referring to the inappropriateness of Nancy’s makeup and clothing, given her respectable family background.

  “You didn’t see the sorry state she was in when she first arrived in Paris,” said Rachel. “She h
ad just met Charlie and would come running over to us in tears every time they had a fight. In the end, Charlie married her, but his family still look down on her, even now. They’re very conservative.”

  Rachel didn’t return from Paris with them. Her Javanese girlfriend insisted she go with her to Java, so Rachel took a trip through Southeast Asia.

  “What are the Javanese like?” Julie asked Rachel.

  “Flat faces. Nothing much to look at.”

  Julie was entranced by the two pieces of Egyptian textile art Rachel brought back with her: little orange men leading camels sewn on a base of coarse beige cloth with three faded blue pyramids floating in the distance like the Chinese character 品. Julie had recently discovered in her study of ancient history that the svelte ancient Egyptians had faces and figures that matched Oriental concepts of beauty.

  “What about Egyptians?”

  Rachel pressed her lips together and furrowed her brow in concentration. “Nothing much to look at. Flat faces.”

  Julie slept in the same bed as Rachel. Luckily it was a large bed, though the springs and the cotton-padded mattress were ridiculously soft, like a giant powder puff. In the morning, no matter how carefully she moved, the mattress tilted when she tried to get out of bed and she frequently woke Rachel. “The crease in my eyelid doesn’t look right when I don’t have enough sleep,” Rachel constantly whined. She didn’t realize that her eyes were revealing signs of aging—the autumn of her life had arrived.

  Julie was afraid to ask Rachel for bus fare, preferring to walk halfway across the city from the extra-Settlement roads all the way to the YMCA for her cram classes. Along the way, she passed the racecourse where she saw several goats on the grass, the only milking goats in all of Shanghai. Things are valued in proportion to their scarcity; Rachel ordered a bottle of goat milk every day, complaining that the cost was killing her. At the time it was popularly believed in the West that goat milk was particularly nutritious and would make people younger.