Part 31 (1/2)
Spring/Present.
Jiao/Hong Kong/Miami/Kyoto/Moscow/Beijing/Was.h.i.+ngton/Karuizawa Amid the storm, with the pain that enwrapped her, this is what Qi lin thought: I am an animal. I have been an animal for months without end. If I am to survive now, I must become civilized.
Easier said than done. Qi lin raised one filthy hand to the wide purple bruise, the enflamed vampire's kiss where Colonel Hu's spatulate thumb had dug in and, in desperation, had snapped her collarbone. Pain throbbed through her but that was something she was used to.
Pain was her friend, her only constant companion, while Colonel Hu convinced her that black was white, love was hate, pain was feeling and comfort nonfeeling; that death was life.
Using pranadeep breathingshe a.s.signed the pain to a specific compartment of her mind while she tested the use of her arm. It was all right as long as she kept it below shoulder height. Beyond that point, she could feel the broken ends abrading, and from shoulder to fingertip, her arm went numb, which meant there was a nerve involved. She knew enough to understand that she needed to get to a doctor.
That, she suspected, would not be the problem. It was silencing the questions she would have to worry about.
But first the forest. She needed to rest but she was all too aware that she was a fugitive. On foot, in this weather, there was a finite distance she could travel before she pa.s.sed out.
Her pursuers would know that and certainly they would already have calculated a circle using the compound from which she had come as its central point. No matter where she went, they would eventuallyfind her. So the trick was not to fall into the trap of trying to outrun them. Better by far to outthink them.
She looked up and the rain beat against her fluttering eyelids. She grasped what she had to do. It meant using both her hands, her arms, lifting them up over her head. The alternative was death.
Gritted her teeth and, reaching up, grasped at a jutting branch. Went off the forest floor, high up into the arboreal foliage. On a limb, perhaps one hundred fifty meters off the ground, she stretched out and, holding her aching arm, fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
When she awoke, it was almost dawn. Scenting the air, she came down from the tree, swinging and half-sliding. She heard voices and froze, clinging to the bole until they faded away. Then she put her feet on the forest floor and got out of there as quickly as she could.
Just over two kilometers away, she broke into a farmhouse and stole clothing and some food staples. She knew that it was as good as leaving her spoor for the dogs but she had no choice.
Insinuating herself into a group of women working an enormous stretch of paddy fields, Qi lin worked all day pulling up the tender shoots of rice and, at day's end, received a ride on a belching, rusted truck. She made friends with a woman and, on learning her name, moved off to another part of the field after lunch, introducing herself around as the woman's fourth cousin. No one seemed curious and she was required to answer few questions.
It was after dark when she reached town, where bleak unadorned housing reminiscent of barracks stood brooding in militarylike rows. On the way they pa.s.sed a series of mills, sprawling factories, sparking ironworks and the like. She found the physician's residence and knocked on the door. Because of the lateness of the hour, she was obliged to wait several minutes. At last, a small window on the second story opened and a head peered out. Streetlight flashed on round, steel-rimmed spectacles. In a moment, a hand beckoned her around the corner.
Qi lin followed the directions and was admitted through a small doorway hidden in the shadows of an alley.
”Younger Sister?”
He was a homely man, bandy-legged and pot-bellied. He wore an old-style coat and pajamalike trousers. His long mustache quivered when he spoke; his mouth was small as if echoing his soft voice. His spectacles shone in the lamplight, sending reflections batting off the walls like frightened moths.
She kowtowed in the old manner, intuiting that would impress him.
”Elder Uncle, a thousand pardons for my appearance. Early this morning I slipped on a root in entering the paddy fields.” Her fingertip gingerly touched the bruise just below the hollow of her neck. ”I think I broke a bone.”
The stoop-shouldered doctor clucked his tongue. ”You should have come right here then.”
Qi lin made her eyes go big and round. ”Oh, I could not, Elder Uncle. I could not afford to miss even an hour's wages. You see, my boyhe's only threeis quite ill. In hospital. I must travel constantly to see him. He cries for his mother. Isn't it right that I should be by his side?” Bringing tears to her eyes. ”But I have other children I must feed, Elder Uncle, and no man to provide for the family.”
”But surely the State”
”The State, the State!” she cried, working herself up. ”I would not be an orphan of the State nor suffer my children that fate either.”
”Ah, Little One,” the doctor said, ”you know what Confucius said about pride.” But he was obviously moved. He shuffled forward. ”Now let me see how badly you have injured yourself.”
Qi lin watched as he parted her blouse and began his work. ”Tell me, if you will, exactly where I am, Elder Uncle.”
”You are just past the shen dao, the way of the spirit, the Sacred Way down which the Ming emperors rode during their funerals. On their way to the tombs.” His touch was light and deft. Nevertheless she made herself gasp when he was probing and he clucked his tongue again. ”This village is known as Jiao zhuang hu. Perhaps you have heard of it. It has an important place in our modern history.
”During the war, the peasants here built a network of underground pa.s.sages in order to hide from and spy on the invading j.a.panese. They stand to this day, a monument to the ingenuity and courage of the Chinese mind.”
He paused a moment, then turned and, swabbing the area with chill alcohol, inserting two long needles into her flesh. The pain was instantly gone. Qi lin looked at him as he said, ”I must now set the break, Little One. Perhaps you will want to look away.”
Qi lin laughed so hard to herself that she almost began to cry again. Oh, old man, she thought, if you only knew the blood I had seen. More in my short time on earth than even you. She averted her gaze because it was his wish.
”There,” he said, after some time. ”It is done.” He began to apply an herb poultice, wrapping it with adhesive bandage, a true blendingof the old and new. Then he went over to a small gas stove and began to heat water.
She watched as he unscrewed bottles, jars, flagons, flasks, pouring first this liquid, then that powder into the pot on the stove. Out of one container, he produced a solid object from which he cut a piece and, using a mortar and pestle, ground it up. That, too, went into the pot. He hummed a little as he worked.
It wasn't until after he had obliged her to down the foul-tasting concoction that he went across to his small, shabby desk. He took up a quill pen and produced an official-looking sheet of paper. ”Now, Little Sister, I must have your name, address and work number.”
The first two would not be an immediate problem, Qi lin knew, but the third would be impossible. He would require that she present her doc.u.ments. This, of course, she could not do. Other than the setting of her collarbone, this was the reason she had come here. Now that she was on the verge of civilization again, she needed the proper doc.u.ments to move about at will. That was not easy for a fugitive in Communist China.
”The tunnels,” she said, slipping down off the examining table.
”I beg your pardon?”
”This famous underground labyrinth you spoke of.” She approached him carefully. ”So ingenious. I would like to see it. Will you take me?”
”When? Now?”
”But of course now.” Pumping enthusiasm into her voice. ”What better time? Isn't this when our ancestors took to the tunnels in order to spy on the j.a.panese?”
”Well, yes, but”
”Then what good would it be to see them in the light of day?” She smiled. ”Besides, right now I need something to take my mind off my shoulder.”
After a slight hesitation, he nodded. ”All right.” She had hit all the right b.u.t.tons. Colonel Hu would be gratified to know that a significant part of him lived on within her.
The doctor led the way. He lit a magnesium torch as bas.e.m.e.nt stairs turned a corner into a blank wall. He pressed somethingan irregularity in the rock formationand they went through.
In the flickering semidarkness, she said, ”I want you to show me the way to Beijing.”
He paused. His old rheumy eyes looked into hers. ”You will need papers in the capital,” he said.
”Then you will provide me with them.” .He shrugged. ”I am no forger, Little Sister.”
She smiled. ”I saw the photograph of her on your desk. I saw her dress shoes in a corner of the room.” Her eyes were steely. ”Your daughter.”
He held the torch higher so that the shadows danced like madmen along the seeping walls. ”Who are you?”
”I am Chinese,” she said. ”I am not Chinese.”
He heard the defiance in her voice. ”You are not from anywhere around here.”
”No.”
”Not from the Mainland.”