White Shanghai

by Elvira Baryakina

  “All is well,” Hugh said. “We need to sort out those Russian Cossacks. They flooded the Shanghai with smuggled weapons and their holds are full of explosives—enough to destroy half the city. I was thinking about setting up an accident for them, but Mr. Bernard gave me a better idea.”

  “Really?” Robert asked, his mouth full.

  “We’ll send the Cossacks back to Russia. The main thing is to get rid of General Glebov, he’s the one who doesn’t let them leave.”

  Robert stood up very impolitely. “I need to go to the stables.” He pecked Lissie with greasy lips. “I’ll be very late this evening—I want to visit the Club as well.”

  In discomfort, Lissie wiped her cheek with a napkin.

  “Nerves, nerves…I understand,” Hugh said when the door had closed behind Robert. “And you, my dearest, what are you going to do?”

  “I’ll be reissuing my magazine,” Lissie replied.

  “That damn thing about empty-headed floozies? About silly little geese no one wants to marry?” Hugh took a velvet box out of his pocket, fiddled with it and handed it over. “It’s for you if you’re a good girl.”

  Lissie opened the lid. A two-inch-thick bracelet lay on the green silk.

  “Diamonds and sapphires,” Hugh said nonchalantly. “Robert’s mommy used to wear it—I brought it for her from India. Do what a young modest woman should do: look after the house, bring up your daughter—she’s going to school soon, right?”

  Lissie moved the box away. “I don’t need it.”

  Hugh’s face went dark. “Do you understand that you’ll never see this bracelet again? You have a family and you have no right to bring it shame! I’m embarrassed to look at people when my daughter-in-law is writing some bullshit. I’ll close you down!”

  “Dream on!” Lissie snorted. “Thank God, your corrupted Municipal Council is not the only one in Shanghai. I’ll obtain a license in the French Concession in no time, or even in the Chinese City if need be. Sir, you’re so stuck in the mud that you’re not even aware of it. No one is interested in your opinions anymore—you’re out of date, like last year’s newspaper.”

  Hugh went blue in the face, grabbed a decanter and swung his arm up. The blow took Hobu’s hand: she had rushed forward to cover her mistress with herself. With a scream, Hobu fell on her knees, pressing her hand to herself.

  “Get out of here, cretin!” Lissie roared. “Shao! Kick him out of here! Hobu, dear…how are you?”

  Hugh put the box and bracelet into his pocket and stormed out, his shoulders hunched over.

  “Never! You hear me? Never let that person into my house again!” Lissie shouted to the running servants. “Hobu…don’t be silent…did he break your arm?”

  3.

  Lissie hurried into the editorial office of the North China Daily News. She wanted to see Edna.

  “Robert refused to support me,” she said in a trembling voice. “My husband is still going to work for his father, for his insurance company. I begged him to find another place, we know a lot of people in the city, maybe somebody would take him…to the bank or somewhere else. … But Robert is scared that they’ll remember about the baby he knocked down.”

  “You have no money?” Edna asked.

  Lissie nodded. “That’s the problem. Hugh purposefully arranged everything so we can’t move without him. And all my savings went into the magazine.”

  Edna hugged her, trying not to cry herself.

  “I need to leave them,” Lissie said quietly. “If I had money, I would have resurrected Flappers, but no one would give me a loan without my husband’s word. Hugh prohibited Robert from helping me. He won’t dare disobey.”

  “We’ll lend you some money,” Edna said. “It’ll work out—you’re a strong girl. We need to locate Klim Rogov—he’ll help you find your feet.”

  Lissie kissed her. “Thank you! … And forgive me...for that sausage.”

  They laughed. “It’s okay,” Edna said. “I’ve already thrown it away.”

  CHAPTER 49

  THE COSSACKS GO HOME

  1.

  Nazar jumped along the street, swinging his crutches like oars.

  Please, God, I have to make it!

  If only he had coins, he would have sent a Chinese street boy to Klim and the Zaborova ladies with a note. But he didn’t and had to drag himself there.

  Finally, Nazar arrived at the House of Hope. He flew down a corridor smelling of damp wood and hammered on the hatch with his crutch.

  “Hey, Klim, are you there? I won’t come up, I’m in a hurry.”

  Klim appeared barefoot, his fingers’ smeared in ink spots.

  “Writing your articles?” Nazar laughed. “Drop everything. We’re going home!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Sokoloff sent a note: General Glebov is on his deathbed. This is a signal to us to quickly get a move out of China. My Mommy probably thinks her son is not with the living. Imagine: I’ll just appear in front of her with a battle wound. Boys from our neighborhood would look at me wide-eyed. ‘Where have you been? What have you seen?’ Oh my dear buddies, you would never believe what happened to me.”

  “What about Glebov?”

  “He was poisoned with an unknown substance.”

  Klim swore through clenched teeth, “Damn, they’ll think it’s me…”

  “Who cares what they think?” Nazar rushed towards him. “We’re leaving today!”

  Klim didn’t look at him. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a daughter…”

  “Up to you.” Nazar shook Klim’s hand. “Say hi to everyone. Now, I need to get to the girls.”

  Dragging himself to the boarding house, where the Zaborovas lived, made Nazar wet with sweat. The young ladies were home, both sitting by the window, nibbling sunflower seeds.

  “We’re going home!” yelled Nazar.

  They jumped up and husks flew everywhere. “When?”

  Nazar wanted to come inside, but Maria wouldn’t let him.

  “Keep out! Stay where you are, stupid fools!” she shouted to her sisters. “He’s sold you to the Bolsheviks!”

  The girls started to sob. Nazar came up to the window again, “What’re you scared of? If she wants to stay she can rot here, but we’ll go to Russia.”

  As a reply, Maria poured a bucket of water on his head. “Get out of here!”

  Ten minutes later, Pasha or Glasha appeared at the window crying, “Nazar, she’s locked all our clothes in a chest.” Then the girl turned to her older sister, “How dare you? You can’t tell us what to do.”

  “Sure as hell I can. You’re daughters of a White Army soldier. The Bolsheviks will shoot you the minute you cross the border.”

  “What for?”

  “They’ll find a reason.”

  Nazar was rearing to go when Maria appeared on the porch.

  “Okay,” she said, crossing her hands on her chest. “As you wish, I’ll let them go. But only after you settle in Vladivostok. Send us a detailed letter about how things are there. Actually, no. Not a letter. They can force you to send a fake. Let’s agree between us two: you send a photo. If you are pictured standing, then everything is well. But if you are sitting on a chair, then you’re not too impressed with socialism.”

  There was no time to wait.

  “Sure,” Nazar shrugged. “Maria, my pretty sweetheart, please give me at least twenty cents. I can’t go on these crutches anymore. I’m running out of time.”

  It was all a vague memory for Nazar: flying in a rickshaw to the quay. He swore he’d break the rickshaw boy’s neck if he wasn’t there on time. “Oh, have a heart, I’ll be late.”

  Nazar didn’t have enough money and promised to give the boatman his crutches. “Just get me there, get me to the Russian ship!”

  Then the river, the squeaking of rowlocks. Is this for real? I’m going home? Finally, the end of my ordeal? Mom will surely begin to cry and rush to start the dough for pancakes…

  Here they were, the ships
Okhotnik and Mongugai tied with ropes. Nazar was so anxious he’d gnawed his nails till they were bloody.

  “There! Go there, you, stupid head!” he yelled at the boatman. “Hey, Mongugai! I’m here! I made it! Get me up, people!”

  An astrakhan hat appeared from above the board.

  “Nazar? Is that you? You son of a bitch, we thought we’d lost you!”

  “Me, Me! Goodness me, my darlings. I missed you like my mother.”

  2.

  Tired and splashed in dirt, Felix returned to the police office.

  It was eleven in the morning. Idle students had again arranged a protest in front of the gates, demanding the freeing of political prisoners. Felix pushed through them and fell into the stuffy semi-darkness of the waiting room.

  An on-duty Sikh raised his bushy eyebrows. “Where’ve you been?”

  Felix didn’t answer.

  For several days, he’d sat on the shore of the Huangpu River watching the two Russian ships with binoculars. Early that morning, there had been shooting. General Anisimov ordered the ropes cut on the Mongugai and in reply the Okhotsk had opened fire with a machine-gun. Two men were injured, one killed. Then a British ship drove up to the Mongugai and led it out of the range of the shooting.

  Felix couldn’t understand it. Why the hell would the British help Anisimov’s Cossacks? They wanted to run back to the Bolsheviks!

  Back in his office, he kicked off his boots soaked and muddy after the recent rains clogged the roads.

  Felix had no idea how to present what he’d seen to Hugh Wayer. You never knew what this old man had on his mind. If you said things as they were, Hugh would hit the roof, why had Felix not stopped the Mongugai leaving? But how could he stop it? He wasn’t given any people or weapons—just told to watch the vessels, which he did.

  Felix lifted the receiver, about to dial Wayer, but changed his mind. Something wasn’t clicking in the story.

  The door flew open and Klim Rogov burst in without knocking.

  “We need to talk.” He was pale, his eyes glowing with fury. “Why did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “You’re a former cadet, damn it! How can you be such a bastard?” Klim held out several pieces of paper covered in notes and threw them in Felix’s face. “Here, take your interview! Okay, you made me a poisoner… but why kill Glebov? He’s trying to save people, our people, Russians. … Oh, it’s a waste of time talking to you anyway…”

  He headed for the door, but Felix shouted, “Glebov was poisoned?”

  They sat in front of each other, angry and tense. Felix couldn’t believe his ears. According to Klim, the interview was arranged with one goal: to get rid of the General so the Bolsheviks could take the Mongugai back to Russia.

  “You’re saying that you didn’t know about it?” Klim asked, incredulously.

  Felix shook his head. “I received an order from Hugh Wayer arranging your meeting with Glebov. To make it happen, Wayer talked to the editor-in-chief of the Daily News himself.”

  “What did you say? Wayer? The Commissioner’s deputy?” Klim pressed his hands to his temples. “The only strange thing is how Wayer came to terms with Sokoloff? Or is he also for communism? In any case, I’m not going to play these games. All the best.”

  “Wait!”

  Felix didn’t know what to do: let Klim go in peace? Threaten to deport him? The fact that Klim counted him as a traitor of the White Movement hurt him more than a slap in the face.

  “You can’t just leave us like that…” Felix started.

  “I sure, can. I have nothing to lose. If the General dies, his followers will want to take revenge and I’m the chief suspect. So deportation is not the worst option.”

  A heavy stone flew into the window and glass showered down on them. Instinctively, Felix threw himself onto the floor like in an artillery shelling. There was a wild roar from the crowd in the street. When Felix lifted his head, Klim was gone.

  CHAPTER 50

  DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM!

  1.

  Edna drove slowly along Nanking Road. Dozens of cars, crowds of young Chinese people—guys in long silk robes, girls in shirts and pants. A lot of them carried flags and placards.

  “What do they want?” Lissie asked.

  “They want to free their political prisoners,” replied Edna. “The administration of a Japanese textile factory had a disagreement with workers and ended the matter with shootings and arrests. I’ve just heard about it in the office.”

  “And what’s on the placards?”

  “I can’t read Chinese characters. Probably the usual Down with foreign imperialism! Wake up, people!”

  On the corner of Tibet Road, the traffic had completely stopped. Edna’s car was trapped in a sea of tooting vehicles. She opened the door and stepped up onto the footboard.

  “What’s going on?” Lissie asked.

  “A crowd in front of the police office.”

  More and more Chinese were squeezing between the cars and rickshaws.

  “Give me a pad and a pencil,” Edna ordered her sister. “It’s in the back pocket of the seat. I’ll try to get an article out of this mess.”

  One of the students stood up on a wooden box. Edna could clearly see his face, he was a very young boy with an emaciated body—his shirt hung on him like on a pole. The crowd passionately saluted his speech.

  A couple of policemen appeared from the gates. The student on the box looked at them with desperate horror in his eyes, but didn’t move from his place. Suddenly, a song rang from the crowd; the female students were singing in high-pitched voices, repeating the same song over and over again.

  “What are they singing about?” Lissie asked, frightened. She also stepped up on the car’s footboard.

  “I don’t know,” Edna whispered.

  Now everyone sang, even the onlookers. Edna saw how policemen dragged the orator to the ground. He bowed to them as they knocked him down with heavy blows. A fight started near the gates. The students got their emaciated leader back and raised him over the crowd. A new squad of policemen appeared: there were several Chinese constables, Sikhs and two whites. An officer shouted something, but Edna couldn’t hear over the roar of the crowd. The policemen lined up in front of the gates and attached bayonets to their rifles. The wind brought the officer’s shout, “Last warning! If you don’t stop—”

  “What’s the point yelling? They don’t understand English anyway,” Edna uttered.

  A discharge exploded. The sudden silence was deafening. Several people fell on the ground, then an animal, primeval howl radiated out from the crowd.

  “In the car, quick,” Edna screamed to her sister. “Close the door and bend down.”

  The mad crowd was sweeping past. Edna and Lissie slid to the floor and covered their heads with their hands. The car was rocking from side to side under heavy blows.

  Someone jumped inside and Lissie let out a shriek.

  “Start the engine,” the man roared in English.

  Edna lifted her head—it was Klim Rogov. She hurriedly climbed into the driver’s seat, her hands trembling. “Where to?”

  “Forward!”

  Someone threw a cobblestone, smashing the windscreen.

  2.

  Their tire had a puncture, so Klim pointed out a garage on Lloyd Road. The American owner handed a bottle of spirits to Edna and Lissie to wash their grazes and cuts from the shattered wind screen. Klim escaped with just a sore knee.

  The garage smelled of car oil and petrol. Edna waited on the customer’s couch; horror-stricken faces, wild horses and upside-down cars replaying in her mind.

  The owner’s daughter gave her a cup of coffee. Edna took a sip, burned her tongue and put the cup aside.

  “How did you happen to be in that crowd?” she asked Klim.

  He told them about his interview with Glebov and how the communists used it as a ruse to poison the General. They did it through a tip-off from the police, namely Hugh Wayer.


  “I went to that station to talk to someone,” Klim said. “We needed to dot the i’s and cross all the t’s. When I came outside they started firing.”

  “Hugh poisons people? That’s impossible!” Edna’s voice wavered.

  “Very possible indeed,” Lissie confirmed. “I heard him boasting about his plans to get rid of the General and send the Cossacks back to Russia. He said it was your husband’s idea.”

  Edna didn’t understand anything anymore. What in the world had Daniel to do with this mess?

  “Listen, Klim,” Lissie said in a tense voice. “Maybe now it’s not the best time to talk business, but I want to ask you anyway. Would you agree to work for me? I need to revive Flappers.”

  Klim looked at his feet. “Mrs. Wayer, the girl who was crushed by your husband was my daughter.”

  Edna pressed her palms to her cheeks. “Oh my God…”

  Lissie had told her that ladies in the Columbia Club were going mad from curiosity: Who was the father of Nina Kupina’s baby? A lot of them used to frequent her balls or knew her personally, but she’d never mentioned a husband before. Everyone silently agreed that it was an illegitimate child.

  Edna looked at her sister. Lissie was biting her lips. “It’s not my fault,” she blurted. Klim didn’t answer.

  Edna thought of Nina Kupina and just couldn’t imagine Klim and her together.

  “Nina is your wife?”

  He nodded. “But we are separated.”

  The owner came back and said the car was ready.

  “Let’s go to my place,” Edna offered. “We all need to get drunk.”

  3.

  Daniel had invited Nina to watch a regatta on the Yangtze River. They’d set out at six in the morning, reached a place called Hen-lieh where workers for the Rowing Club had installed benches for spectators. Daniel and Nina wandered around for fifteen minutes, discussing those who discussed them, and decided to escape.

  Together, they strolled down a beach, barefoot, their shoes in their hands. Nina drew something on the wet sand with her big toe, but wiped it away.

  Daniel was telling her about flocks of birds, how amazingly similar they are to people in a crowd. They don’t have a leader, but move as if following one command.