by Paul Yee
He invited Kam for a drive. The motor accelerated smoothly, and the brand-new smells left them feeling carefree and invincible. They lowered the windows and let the wind clutch their hair. Tong changed lanes recklessly and darted ahead of lumbering trucks.
Suddenly his friend held up a hand. “You hear something?”
“What?”
“Listen hard. Can’t you hear?”
Tong shook his head, puzzled.
“Someone is humming Chinese opera.” They flicked off the radio and then the humming became distinct. “It s coming from the back seat.”
They both recognized Tongs father’s voice and his favorite opera tune.
Kam mopped his brow. “You have a ghost in this car.”
They sped back to town and Kam leapt out even before the car stopped completely.
When Tong pulled into traffic, the opera tune resumed. He checked his rear-view mirror but saw nothing. The humming persisted and grew louder. Finally, he turned, and there sat his father, wearing the suit he had been buried in.
Tong waited for a crashing blow to his head, for eternal darkness to overwhelm him, for a heavy truck to smash into his windshield. He expected his father to roar out in fury, but nothing happened.
After a while, the old man sighed deeply and said, “Son, you were right. I should have lived a fuller life when I had the chance.”
They passed glowing signs and window displays on streets that were clogged with citizens dressed in their best and eager for nightlife.
“It’s not too late, Ba,” Tong said. “This car belongs to you. You can go wherever it goes. We will drive to Montreal to see Mount Royal, to New York to climb the Statue of Liberty, and to the Atlantic coast to smell the sea salt. I’ll take you places so you can see the world and inhale a million new smells.”
When he looked behind him, the old man had vanished.
From then on, Tong always left a cushion in the back seat for his father. No matter where the car went, whether through blizzards or ice storms or heat waves, he always felt protected. The car never broke down and never had an accident. And years later, when he chose a bride, had children and purchased a station wagon for his growing family, he made sure his father’s cushion went into the new car.
NOTE TO THE READER
AFTER THE publication of Tales from Gold Mountain in 1989, I found I had more New World folk tales to tell, and they have emerged in this collection as ghost stories, a popular narrative form in China. As with the first collection, I wanted to dramatize the history of the Chinese in North America and create a New World mythology where immigrant stories can be told and retold.
Although I invented all these stories, they are tales much like the ones early Chinese immigrants told one another in bachelor halls or shared with their children and grandchildren during family banquets. Those tales described the very real occupations and immigration laws that the early Chinese experienced when they first came to North America. They also contained suspense and surprise, as well as elements of heartfelt folk culture that would remind Chinese Americans and Chinese Canadians of their ancestors.
About the Publisher
GROUNDWOOD BOOKS, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children’s books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.
Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.
We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.
