Part 5 (1/2)
”It was probably just a Wino Ghost or a Hobo Ghost looking for a place to sleep”
”I don't want to hear Wino Ghosts and Hobo Ghosts I've found sohost-free And I think I belong there, where I don't catch colds or use my hospitalization insurance Here I'm sick so often, I can barely work I can't help it, Mama”
She yawned ”It's better, then, for you to stay away The weather in California ot up and turned off the light ”Of course, you ht lifted fro with air The world is sohter She has not called me that endearon, as she is a Dragon, both of us born in dragon years I ahter
”Good night, Little Dog”
”Good night, Mother”
She sendsthe drea babies and the sky covered with airplanes and a Chinatown bigger than the ones here
At the Western Palace
When she was about sixty-eight years old, Brave Orchid took a day off to wait at San Francisco International Airport for the plane that was bringing her sister to the United States She had not seen Moon Orchid for thirty years She had begun this waiting at ho up a half-hour before Moon Orchid's plane took off in Hong Kong Brave Orchid would add her will power to the forces that keep an airplane up Her head hurt with the concentration The plane had to be light, so no matter how tired she felt, she dared not rest her spirit on a wing but continuously and gently pushed up on the plane's belly She had already been waiting at the airport for nine hours She akeful
Next to Brave Orchid sat Moon Orchid's only daughter, as helping her aunt wait Brave Orchid had made two of her own children come too because they could drive, but they had been lured away by the ift shops and coffee shops Her A They did not understand sitting; they had wandering feet She hoped they would get back from the pay tv's or the pay toilets or wherever they were spending their money before the plane arrived If they did not coht he could hide in the ht, Aunt?” asked her niece
”No, this chair hurts ether so I can put my feet up”
She unbundled a blanket and spread it out to s full of canned peaches, real peaches, beans wrapped in taro leaves, cookies, Therh only her niece would eat with her Her bad boy and bad girl were probably sneaking ha their money She would scold them
Many soldiers and sailors sat about, oddly calht ”cowboy” hat you would call a Boy Scout) They should have been crying hysterically on their way to Vietnao over and give hiotten about her own son, as even now in Vietna half of it to the ocean, into the water to keep him afloat He was on a shi+p He was in Vietnamese waters She was sure of it He and the other children were lying to her They had said he was in japan, and then they said he was in the Philippines But when she sent him her help, she could feel that he was on a shi+p in Da Nang Also she had seen the children hide the envelopes that his letters came in
”Do you think my son is in Vietna
”No Didn't your children say he was in the Philippines?”
”Have you ever seen any of his letters with Philippine stamps on them?”
”Oh, yes Your children showed me one”
”I wouldn't put it past them to send the letters to some Filipino they know He puts Manila postine the that But don't worry Your son can take care of himself All your children can take care of themselves”
”Not him He's not like other people Not normal at all He sticks erasers in his ears, and the erasers are still attached to the pencil stubs The captain will say, 'Abandon shi+p,' or, 'Watch out for bombs,' and he won't hear He doesn't listen to orders I told hio”
She closed her eyes After a short while, plane and shi+p under control, she looked again at the children in uniforms Some of the blond ones looked like baby chicks, their crew cuts like the downy yellow on baby chicks You had to feel sorry for theh they were Arhter ca ”Come, Mother The plane's landed early She's here already” They hurried, folding up their lad her children were not useless They must have knohat this trip to San Francisco was about then ”It's a good thing I made you come early,” she said
Brave Orchid pushed to the front of the crowd She had to be in front The passengers were separated frolass doors and walls I papers The travellers crowded along soe searched Brave Orchid did not see her sister anywhere She stood watching for four hours Her children left and came back ”Why don't you sit down?” they asked
”The chairs are too far away,” she said
”Why don't you sit on the floor then?”
No, she would stand, as her sister was probably standing in a line she could not see fros and no memory
To while away tiers These new irants had it easy On Ellis Island the people were thin after forty days at sea and had no fancy luggage
”That one looks like her,” Brave Orchid would say
”No, that's not her”
Ellis Island had beenwas new plastic, a ghost trick to lure i their secrets Then the Alien Office could send theht back Otherwise, why did they lock her out, not letting her help her sister answer questions and spell her nahost asked Brave Orchid what year her husband had cut off his pigtail, a Chinese as crouching on the floor motioned her not to talk ”I don't know,” she had said If it weren't for that Chinese ht not be here today, or her husband either She hoped some Chinese, a janitor or a clerk, would look out for Moon Orchid Luggage conveyors fooled i to be easy
Brave Orchid felt her heart jump-Moon Orchid ”There she is,” she shouted But her niece saas not her mother at all And it shocked her to discover the woer than herself, no older than Moon Orchid the day the sisters parted ”Moon Orchid will have changed a little, of course,” Brave Orchid was saying ”She will have learned to estern clothes” The woman wore a navy blue suit with a bunch of dark cherries at the shoulder
”No, Aunt,” said the niece ”That's not my mother”
”Perhaps not It's been so many years Yes, it is your mother It must be Let her come closer, and we can tell Do you think she's too far away forbad?”
”It's too one by,” said the niece
Brave Orchid turned suddenly-another Moon Orchid, this one a neat little wo the person ahead of her in line said Moon Orchid was just like that, laughing at nothing ”I would be able to tell the difference if one of them would only come closer,” Brave Orchid said with tears, which she did not wipe Two children met the woman with the cherries, and she shook their hands The other woladly, then walked away side by side
Up close neither one of those women looked like Moon Orchid at all ”Don't worry, Aunt,” said the niece ”I'll know her”
”I'll know her too I knew her before you did”
The niece said nothing, although she had seen herthe last word
Finally Brave Orchid's children quit wandering and drooped on a railing Who knehat they were thinking? At last the niece called out, ”I see her! I see her! Mother! Mother!” Whenever the doors parted, she shouted, probably e the American cousins, but she didn't care She called out, ”Ma doors becae word in an adult voice Many people turned to see what adult was calling, ”Mama!” like a child Brave Orchid saw an old, old wo confusedly, a woman whose nerves leapt toward the sound anytiain She was a tiny, tiny lady, very thin, with little fluttering hands, and her hair was in a gray knot She was dressed in a gray wool suit; she wore pearls around her neck and in her earlobes Moon Orchid would would travel with her jewels showing Brave Orchid er outline around this old wo for The faray So old Brave Orchid pressed against the glass travel with her jewels showing Brave Orchid er outline around this old wo for The faray So old Brave Orchid pressed against the glass That That old lady? Yes, that old lady facing the ghost who sta her was her sister Then, without noticing her fa over to the Suitcase Inspector Ghost, who took her boxes apart, pulling out puffs of tissue From where she was, Brave Orchid could not see what her sister had chosen to carry across the ocean She wished her sister would look her way Brave Orchid thought that if old lady? Yes, that old lady facing the ghost who sta her was her sister Then, without noticing her fa over to the Suitcase Inspector Ghost, who took her boxes apart, pulling out puffs of tissue From where she was, Brave Orchid could not see what her sister had chosen to carry across the ocean She wished her sister would look her way Brave Orchid thought that if she she were entering a new country, she would be at the s Instead Moon Orchid hovered over the unwrapping, surprised at each reappearance as if she were opening presents after a birthday party were entering a new country, she would be at the s Instead Moon Orchid hovered over the unwrapping, surprised at each reappearance as if she were opening presents after a birthday party
”Ma Brave Orchid said to her children, ”Why don't you call your aunt too? Maybe she'll hear us if all of you call out together” But her children slunk away Maybe that shame-face they so often as Ahter called again, and this tiht at her She left her bundles in a heap and ca ”Hey!” the Customs Ghost yelled at her She went back to clear up her hter all the while Her daughter pointed toward Brave Orchid And at last Moon Orchid looked at her-two old women with faces like mirrors
Their hands reached out as if to touch the other's face, then returned to their own, the fingers checking the grooves in the forehead and along the sides of the s, started s at Brave Orchid Finally Moon Orchid gathered up her stuff, strings hanging and papers loose, and met her sister at the door, where they shook hands, oblivious to blocking the way
”You're an old woman,” said Brave Orchid
”Aiaa You're You're an old woman” an old woman”
”But you are really old Surely, you can't say that about me I'm not old the way you're old”
”But you you really are old You're one year older than I am” really are old You're one year older than I am”
”Your hair is white and your face all wrinkled”
”You're so skinny”