Shanghai Story: A WWII Drama Trilogy Book One

by Alexa Kang

  “Fine. You’re right. Now would you please go find Mr. Bernard and bring him back?”

  Grumbling to himself, Lin went to find the monkey. Arnie put away his camera and helped them pack up their things.

  “Such a shame,” Ava said. “I guess we’ll eat in a noodle shop or something next time if Lin can find one.”

  With lunch having abruptly ended, they continued on their way. By four o’clock, the country scenery had lost its initial allure in the stifling, muggy, end-of-summer heat. The bumpy road, bearable in the morning, was now making Eden car sick. Arnie’s soft snores in the front passenger seat made her wish she could lie down on a bed.

  “There’s a small town up ahead.” Lin pointed out the front window. “We should find an inn to stay for the night.”

  “That’s fine. Do whatever you think best,” Ava answered. Half-heartedly, she fanned herself and Mr. Bernard, who looked as tired as she sounded. “I thought we’d see some wild animals,” she said to Eden. “Lin.” She tapped the driver on the shoulder. “Aren’t there tigers in China? And pandas?”

  Lin stared back at her in the rearview mirror as if what she’d said was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

  An hour later, they drove into the city of Suzhou. Lin leaned out the driver’s side window and shouted out to the townspeople passing by, asking for directions. One of them pointed them to a lane leading to a two-story wooden house which Lin explained was an inn.

  When they arrived, Lin went ahead and spoke with the innkeeper. The rest of them got out to stretch their legs while they waited. Soon, a crowd gathered around them.

  “Why are they looking at us?” Eden whispered to Ava.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they’ve never seen white people?” She pulled Mr. Bernard’s hand and drew him closer.

  Finally, Lin returned with the innkeeper and his wife in tow. “We’ll stay here tonight,” he said to Ava. “I settled the rates. They have three rooms. Dinner’s included.”

  “Thank God,” Ava muttered under her breath. Eden herself was all too relieved.

  Leaving Boris and Dmitry to carry their trunks of clothes, Eden and Ava followed the innkeeper’s wife upstairs to their room. Lin, who only had a small leather bag which carried all his personal belongings for the trip, took one look at the trunk, then left with a hopeless shake of his head as he followed the innkeeper to the opposite end of the floor. He signaled Arnie to follow him.

  At least the innkeeper and his wife seemed thrilled to receive them as their guests. The wife kept talking to them as she led Eden and Ava to their room. As they couldn’t understand a word she’d said, all they could do was smile. In turn, the wife would smile back or laugh, or point at Mr. Bernard and talk again.

  She took them to a room with two Chinese beds. Dmitry and Boris soon followed with their trunks. The Russians apparently intimidated her and she scooted out of their sight.

  “Put them over there.” Ava pointed to a corner and hustled them out. Eden fell back onto the bed. It was not the soft comfort she wanted. She sat back up. “There’s no mattress.”

  The innkeeper’s wife returned with a tray of tea. Her husband followed with a washbasin and a pitcher of water, along with two small towels. He pointed at Mr. Bernard and laughed before leaving the room with his wife. The monkey had become their way of expressing amity.

  While Ava washed up, Eden helped herself to a cup of tea. This little inn might well be the best accommodation in this village. For all his objections, Lin Shifu had been an excellent guide. They couldn’t have made it this far without him.

  When Lin came to fetch them for dinner, two hours had passed, and Eden’s stomach was growling.

  In the dining room, they sat down to the gawking eyes and whispers of other guests at the inn. By now, Eden figured they’d simply have to get used to it. To the people in the countryside, they must look so strange.

  After Boris, Dmitry, and Arnie joined them at the table, the innkeeper brought out a round of tea. “He’ll be serving you personally,” Lin said. “He said you’re his guests of honor.”

  Eden noticed that indeed, the guests at the other tables were served by a kitchen helper.

  “They never had foreign guests. They took extra time to prepare a special feast for you,” Lin explained.

  “Good,” Ava said. She looked more spirited now that she’d had some rest and changed her clothes. Expertly, she picked up her chopsticks as she watched the other guests of the inn mumble in surprise. “What will they be serving us?”

  “They said their specialty is turtle.”

  Eden made a face. Didn’t sound like something she’d want to eat.

  Ava must have seen her reaction. “It could be good. I’ve never had it as a Chinese dish, but I’ve had turtle before. In France, it’s a delicacy.”

  “I’ll keep an open mind,” Eden said. It was only one dish anyway. If she didn’t like it, she’d skip it.

  The meal began with several small appetizers of pickled vegetables which Eden could not recognize but ate nonetheless out of courtesy. Next, the first dish arrived, a consommé of brown chunks and cubes. She couldn’t make out what they were.

  “Duck blood soup,” Lin said.

  “I think I’ll wait.” Ava put down her spoon. Eden decided to do the same. Arnie didn’t touch his serving, and neither did Boris and Dmitry.

  More dishes came. The horror only worsened. Stir-fried frog legs, pork innards, stewed snake. The only palatable dish was the chicken, which pieces had more bones than meat. When the innkeeper’s wife brought out a plate of sliced fruit for Mr. Bernard, Eden couldn’t help but eye his meal with envy.

  Lin picked up a piece of pork intestine. “We can’t leave these uneaten. It would be very rude.”

  Dmitry and Boris looked at each other. “Maybe I can wash it down with vodka,” Boris said and went out and retrieved a bottle from their truck. “Would you all like some too?” he asked when he returned. “We’re happy to share.”

  Ava stared at the uneaten dishes. “I don’t think it’ll help. Lin, can you ask them for some rice?”

  “I’ll take a drink.” Arnie crinkled his face. “I need one.”

  Thankfully, the next dishes were green vegetables and squash, and the innkeeper’s wife brought out the rice Lin had requested. Eden hungrily filled herself up.

  But when she saw the last dish, she nearly threw everything back up. A giant turtle lay on the platter. Its shell and body were hacked to pieces but put back together in its original form like a puzzle. Its detached head rested in front of its neck. Its stumpy limbs were placed next to the shell where they would’ve been had the turtle been alive and swimming.

  Unable to look at it, Eden kept her eyes down as the Innkeeper gushed to Lin. His pride in the dish was clear in his excited voice.

  After he left, Lin glanced around the table. “We have to eat. If we don’t eat, it will be an insult.” He picked the turtle’s head up with his chopsticks and showed it to Ava. “This should be reserved for you, ma’am. But I’ll eat it in your honor.” He chuckled and put it on his plate.

  Ava glared at him. Her face hardened and paled. “Boris, Dmitry, I will pay you double if you eat at least half of this.” She slid her eyes over at Arnie. “You too, Arnie, if you can stomach it.”

  Boris and Dmitry exchanged a glance. Dmitry gulped down his glass of vodka and put a piece of turtle in his mouth. Boris did the same, washing down the meat with a second shot.

  “I can do without.” Arnie pushed away his plate. “You can’t pay me enough to eat this.”

  “What about me?” Lin asked. “Why don’t I get extra pay?”

  “Because you aren’t suffering a special form of torture,” Ava said.

  “It shouldn’t matter. I’m eating the turtle. I should be paid double too.”

  “Fine. Don’t eat it then. Boris and Dmitry will finish up.”

  Dmitry almost choked when he heard that.

  Lin shot her an annoyed look, th
en shook his head and served himself another piece of turtle. “I told you not to come on this trip. The Chinese countryside is not like Shanghai. You won’t like it.”

  “It’s only one meal I don’t like.”

  “It’s every meal,” Lin said and spit out the bone. “In the countryside, this meal is fit for the emperor. We may not get anything as good as this when we go farther inland.” He finished his last piece and began cleaning his teeth with a toothpick.

  “In that case, we’ll eat the food we brought ourselves.” Ava stood up. “It’s been a long day. I’m turning in. You all get rested up. We have another long ride tomorrow. Come on, Mr. Bernard.”

  Mr. Bernard jumped off his seat and grabbed her hand.

  “I’ll come too,” Eden said, glad to get away from the sight of the turtle.

  Amused and grinning, Lin lit a cigarette as the rest of the men mumbled goodnight.

  A full night’s sleep did little to make Eden feel refreshed as she woke up the next morning with a horrible backache. She must’ve slept on the wrong side on the hard bed. The pillow, made of a block of stone, did not help.

  At least, the misery was helping her to get over all the embarrassment she was feeling before this trip began. It was hard to think about all that when her sticky body ached, when she knew she had another full day of a bumpy ride in wet, suffocating heat. This was not exactly the getaway she had imagined. But it would do, she consoled herself. When she returned to Shanghai, she wouldn’t feel embarrassed anymore.

  Or maybe she would still be. A person couldn’t get away from herself, no matter how far away she went.

  She pulled herself out of bed, washed up, got dressed, and packed up to go. Breakfast turned out to be a bowl of rice porridge, salted peanuts and thousand-year-old eggs, and steamed buns. Not her normal choice of food in the morning, but highly edible compared to last night.

  As they got ready to leave, the innkeeper and his wife both came out to see them off. They even packed them a bag of food to take on the journey, although Eden wasn’t sure if anyone but Lin would want to eat it.

  Watching them, Eden’s heart softened. No matter what, they had treated them the best they could. Like royalty, as Lin said.

  The gifts Ava brought came into good use. The innkeeper’s wife cried out in delight when Ava presented her a roll of blue and gold silk fabric and a pair of pearl earrings, topped off with two boxes of mooncakes. The innkeeper bowed and thanked her profusely in Chinese.

  “That was an adventure,” Ava said. “But like they said, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Right, Lin?”

  Lin muttered to himself and started toward the truck.

  “Hold on.” Ava looked around herself. “Where’s Mr. Bernard? He was here just a minute ago.”

  Boris and Dmitry stepped around the front yard searching, as did Arnie Shepard. Lin returned and spoke to the Innkeeper and his wife, and they, too, began searching about.

  “Mr. Bernard?” Ava yelled out to the monkey. “Mr. Bernard, where are you?”

  The monkey screeched from the back of the inn. Quickly, they went to find out if he was hurt. In the yard in front of the kitchen, Mr. Bernard screeched again. When he saw Ava, he laughed and pointed at a pig rolling in a puddle of mud. The pig got on its feet, snorted, and shook the mud off itself. The mud came flying off its body onto Mr. Bernard and the chickens pecking for food on the ground. Mr. Bernard shrieked.

  “Oh, God.” Ava pulled Mr. Bernard away. His entire safari shirt and shorts were soiled. “Bad. Bad monkey. Bad, bad, bad,” Ava said as she unbuttoned his shirt.

  “Do you want me to ask them to make a bath?” Lin asked Ava.

  Ava sighed. “No.” She stuffed the monkey’s soiled clothes into his hands. “We need to get going. We’ll wipe him off. Can you get me a wet towel?” She turned back to the monkey. “Well, Mr. Bernard, it’s back to nature for you from here on. We don’t have anyone doing laundry. Might as well. We’re in the countryside now anyway.”

  Eventually, they got on their way and the trucks moved on. As they drove further and further inland, even the semblances of direct roads disappeared. The roads became little more than tracks. The only things guiding their way were the compass and the maps. The maps were useful only because Lin had been asking for directions and marking down information he’d learned from the locals throughout their ride.

  At one o’clock, they stopped to take a lunch break. No picnic this time. The stretches of weeds and shrubs didn’t make for an idyllic setting for one anyway.

  “Oh, damn it!” Ava yelled from the back of the truck.

  “What’s wrong?” Eden rushed to her side.

  “There’re ants all over the jam and peanut butter.”

  Lin snickered, but nonetheless came to help her get rid of the jars and clean up the mess. From the basket, he picked up a molded loaf of bread. “See? Told you. These won’t last.”

  “Okay. You’ve made your point.” Ava put her hands on her hips. “They don’t usually mold this fast,” she said to Eden as she walked away.

  “It’s more humid here,” Lin said to Eden. “She had porters when she traveled in Africa. I told her. China not the same.”

  Mr. Bernard jumped into the back, grabbed himself a banana, and handed Eden an apple. Eden accepted and patted him on the head. Sometimes, the only thing one could do was to laugh.

  After a lunch of beans and oatmeal, they continued their way. Eden did her best not to scratch the mosquito bites on her arms and legs. No amount of citronella, it seemed, could keep them away. The ordinarily sweet and fruity scent of hualu water they’d lathered over their skin had turned pungent inside the car. Even so, she could not stop itching.

  Civilization seemed lost out here. Occasionally, they would pass by a farmhouse. Beyond that, they would go on for hours without seeing anyone in sight.

  The last person Lin spoke to on the way had told him about a small town near Nanchang. Lin had wanted to get to Nanchang itself, but as the sky was getting dark, he decided they should stop and find a place to rest for the night.

  The “town” was nothing more than a few sparse houses, a few shacks serving food to random travelers, and two inns. Their shabby exteriors made the inn where they’d stayed in Suzhou look like a palace.

  “We have to be cautious tonight,” Lin said. “Lots of black inns in the countryside. They poison their guests, kill them, and take all their belongings.”

  From the serious tone of his voice, Eden knew he was no longer joking or exaggerating. For the first time, she began to doubt whether this trip was a good idea. If anyone here were harmed, it would be all her fault.

  After checking out the two inns, Lin chose the one owned by a family with a sixteen-year-old daughter. He said she had an honest face. Even so, he did not fully trust them. “I told them we brought our own food for tonight. Use your own bedsheets. Keep all your valuables with you. Boris and Dmitry will have to guard your room and the trucks.”

  More beans and oatmeal. Not what Eden wanted, but better safe than sorry.

  Unlike the innkeeper and his wife in Suzhou, the owner of this place and his family stood far away when they unloaded their trunks. They stared at their foreign guests, seemingly intimidated. Only their daughter dared to show a friendly smile when her parents returned inside.

  Eden smiled back. At a different time, she would’ve made an effort to get to know the girl. In her current state, she was too tired and itchy. Her neck still hurt from her sleep last night. The bumpy ride all day didn’t make it any better.

  “Where’s Mr. Bernard?” Ava asked. “Did he run off again?”

  Lin dropped his cigarette and went to the back of the building. Moments later, he returned with a squeaking Mr. Bernard. The innkeeper’s daughter rushed behind them, agitated and babbling to Lin. Lin replied to her and waved her away. She bowed several times before she left.

  “Do not let him out of your sight.” He put Mr. Bernard’s hand into Ava’s.

&n
bsp; “What happened?” Ava asked.

  “They thought he was our dinner.”

  “What?”

  “She brought him to the back to wash him for us to butcher and cook.”

  “No!” Ava cried and picked up Mr. Bernard to give him a big hug. “What are these people thinking?”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Lin said and walked away.

  After a simple meal, there was nothing more for them to do except to try to sleep. Lin told Dmitry to keep guard outside their room and Boris by the trucks. He also warned them to carry their guns throughout the night. “If any girls come to talk to you, ignore them. Point your gun at them and tell them to go away. If you follow them, it’ll be the death of you.” He turned to Arnie. “You might have to drive tomorrow if these guys need to sleep during the day.”

  Arnie gulped. “How? They aren’t even real roads.”

  “Never mind.” Ava ran her hand through her damp hair. “I can drive. Let’s all now get some rest.” She took Mr. Bernard and went into her room.

  Exhausted, Eden told everyone goodnight and turned in herself. Despite the itching and aches, the soothing sounds of crickets soon put her to sleep.

  The shouts and arguing from outside woke her from her dreams. With a clouded head, Eden sat up from her bed.

  “What’s all that noise?” Ava asked, half asleep.

  “I’m not sure. Let’s get up and find out.”

  They slapped on their wrinkled blouse and pants and washed up from the water basin. Outside, Lin was yelling at Boris as Boris talked back and motioned his hands in the air. Dmitry and Arnie circled around the truck. The innkeeper followed them, pointing at everything and every direction while talking at them and his wife.

  “What’s going on?” Ava demanded to know.

  “Someone broke into one of our trucks,” Lin said, lighting a cigarette between his fingers.

  “What?” Ava shouted.

  “I’m sorry ma’am,” said Boris. “I don’t know what happened. I was on guard the whole night.”

  Lin glared at him. “You fell asleep, that’s what happened.”