Gold Mountain (9 page)

“That would explain it then.” We lapsed into silence again until Donaldina Cameron appeared.

“Dinah, I knew you’d be here, and whom have you brought with you?”

“Miss Hudson and I didn’t come together,” O’Connor explained quickly. “We just arrived at the same time. I’m Colin O’Connor. I was with Sergeant Cook on Washington Street the other day.”

“Of course, now I remember.” Miss Cameron put out her hand. “Forgive me, Officer O’Connor. My mind can retain only so much information before something drops out.”

“I should have let you know to expect me, ma’am. Only like you guessed, when we confronted Wing Chee about the girl in his cellar, he acted so surprised you’d have thought we told him we found President McKinley there. I thought if the girl had survived and was able to talk, I’d ask her a few questions about how she got there.”

“She has survived and she is able to talk, but don’t expect too much, Officer O’Connor. She was very ill and starving for a long time and doesn’t seem to recollect much about her experience. And the girls are often very reluctant to talk about what happened to them. The elements of shame and embarrassment limit their frankness. Still, you’re welcome to try. I’d testify in court myself if I thought it would remove Wing Chee and that filthy den he operates from harming any more children. Come upstairs. The child has developed a strong affinity for Miss Hudson so if Dinah asks the questions on your behalf, Suey Wah may be more forthcoming in her responses.”

“Hello, little bird,” I said when I entered the room where Suey Wah recuperated. She apparently expected company, for she sat back against her pillow dressed in a clean cotton gown, her shining black hair pulled into two neat pigtails.

“Hello, Qing,” the child answered shyly, her eyes suddenly lighting up. “Lo Mo said you would be here today, and I have been waiting for you.”

“Do you understand any English, Suey Wah?” I asked.

“Only
stupid girl
and
quiet
.”

“Then we will converse in your language,” I said calmly, “because those are not words we will need to use. This is Officer O’Connor. He is one of the policemen who helped us find you.” I added the last information because her eyes looked at the big man quickly and then furtively glanced away in a manner that indicated she was uneasy with his presence. “He would like to ask you some questions so he can find other girls and bring them to this safe nest. Don’t be afraid.”

Suey Wah raised her eyes to take a longer look at the policeman, examining him with a serious intensity that furrowed her forehead. “He is very big, Qing,” she finally pronounced.

“Yes, he is.”

“And very strong.”

“Yes, he is strong, too.”

“Is he your friend?”

I hesitated before responding, “I have only met him once, Suey Wah, so I cannot truthfully say he is my friend, but I believe he is here for good reasons and that he wishes to help other sick and frightened girls.”

“He makes me think of other men who did not care whether the girls in their care were sick or frightened, but because
you
wish me to talk to him, Qing, I will.” Having made her decision, Suey Wah settled herself more comfortably against the pillows and waited expectantly.

“What would you like to know?” I asked O’Connor. “She is willing to tell you whatever she remembers.” Sitting next to the bed, I had to look up at him as he stood beside me, and I added, “I think you should sit down. She’s already commented about how big and strong you are and standing up like that, you must seem like a giant to her.”

Donaldina pushed a chair over to the officer, which he placed so close to mine that when he was seated our legs almost touched. Miss Cameron sat in a straight-backed chair positioned farther back and out of the way, an observer only, but I had no doubt her shrewd brown eyes would miss nothing of the exchange.

“Ask her how and when she got into San Francisco and how she came to be in Wing Chee’s establishment. Ask her if she would recognize any of the people who were responsible for her imprisonment. Ask her what happened to her there.”

Suey Wah’s sad story came out in bits and pieces, a child betrayed more than once and bewildered by each betrayal. The youngest of seven children, she was the likely sacrifice when her father’s crops failed.

“I was little and weak. My family was poor and we were all hungry. My father said I did not work hard enough to pay for the food I ate, and he could not keep me any longer. My mother cried and cried, but my father would not change his mind. He said one less mouth would mean more for the rest of them, and I was proud to do my duty for my family. I told my mother I was only a girl but I could do this brave thing. She was still very sad. I miss my mother.”

I translated as dispassionately as I could, making a conscious decision from the start not to allow the girl’s story to affect me in a visible way. The tale was not new to me, after all; I knew such things happened. Only it was different when I put this sweet little face into the story, more difficult to hear as her hand crept into mine for support during the telling.

O’Connor appeared surprised when I shared that the man who bought Suey Wah had told her father he would take her to the missionary school in Pekin because they were looking for kitchen servants there and were willing to pay for them.

“That’s true,” I explained. “We did buy children and at exorbitant, inflated prices. We feared what would happen to them if we didn’t buy them. Most of the men who came knocking at the door were as unsavory as your Wing Chee.”

But they never met the “Jesus women” from the missionary school, Suey Wah told me regretfully. They went on a boat, instead, many girls crowded into a small space, some of them sick.

“Two girls died of a fever on the same night. The man who ruled us on the boat, a man with straight dark hair, not bright hair like his ”—she eyed Colin O’Connor speculatively—“wrapped them together in one cloth and dropped them into the sea. ‘They will not be lonely now,’ he told those of us who remained, but I think he was mocking us. Then he made us all disrobe to look at our bodies. He said he was looking for sickness, but when he saw one girl, a bigger girl, he took her away for a long time. When she came back, she was weeping. She bled in her private place. We were all afraid then.” Suey Wah’s hand tightened on mine.

I relayed only the key elements of her story in English to the listeners, but in Chinese I said, “Put that memory away, little bird. You do not have to be afraid any more. He was a very bad man, but there are no bad men here.”

She looked at Officer O’Connor once more, then nodded as if assuring herself of his good intentions, and continued her story. When she and the remaining girls finally stepped off the boat, they must have been on the docks of San Francisco, but she could hardly have known that at the time. A man met the girls there and told them they had arrived in Gold Mountain, a rich and pleasant place, and that he had husbands for some and homes for others.

“We did not believe him,” Suey Wah remarked simply. “We knew he was a bad man, too, like the others, but what could we do? We went with him. He brought us to a woman named Dow Pai Tai and she sold us to different places, some for house slaves and some to be daughters of joy. I did not see any of the girls again. I came to work in Wing Chee’s kitchen, but I was little and weak, and I could not carry what I was told to carry. The master of the kitchen beat me. I was afraid all the time. An old woman in the kitchen told me about this place and about Lo Mo. She said the house was safe and the people kind. She promised to tell them to come and get me, but many days passed and no one came and I thought she forgot. I tried to do my work, Qing, even though I missed my mother and I wanted to go home, but the pots were very heavy. One night I dropped one and it broke and oh, oh, I was put into the hole!” Her voice shook at the memory and for a moment I rested my palm gently, wordlessly against her cheek for comfort. Suey Way heard what I did not say, smiled tremulously, and continued, “After a while, I knew I would die there. At first, I did not like the darkness so much, but I was very tired and I could sleep all I wanted. I thought about food for a long time, but after a while food no longer mattered. All I wanted to do was sleep. Until you came, Qing, and brought me into the light and then to this good place. And now I am here.”

“Yes, little bird,” I agreed, “you are here indeed, safe and sound.” I turned to O’Connor. “What else do you want to know?”

I thought from the look on the policeman’s face that he had been quite affected by her story, and he had to clear his throat twice before he spoke.

“Ask her if she knows the name of the man on the boat or if she heard the names of any of the men who were involved?”

But Suey Wah could not answer any of his questions, could only shake her head at every query, looking so sad at her inability to answer that I felt compelled to pat her arm and say, “It’s all right, Suey Wah, that you do not know the answers to any of Officer O’Connor’s questions. You have been very helpful.” My words reassured her enough to allow her to smile.

“I will always be helpful for you, Qing. I will be your
mooie-jai
and do whatever you command.” I stood to look down at her, her figure so slight that she hardly made a mound under the covers.

“I don’t need a
mooie-jai
, little bird. You and I will be friends.”

“Friends,” she repeated happily. “That is a very good idea.”

“Now it’s time for this child to rest before lunch.” Donaldina spoke briskly from the side of the room, and we all recognized the authority in her voice.

“Of course,” O’Connor responded. He stood and said to me, “Tell her thank you for me. Tell her I think she is a brave girl and that I hope she feels better and stronger very soon.”

I relayed his good wishes to Suey Wah and added some of my own, concluding with, “But now Lo Mo says you must sleep. I’ll see you another day.”

“Tomorrow?”

I hesitated. “Maybe tomorrow. I’ll try, but I can’t promise. Very soon, though.”

“Tomorrow then,” Suey Wah repeated with a contented smile, apparently not hearing my hesitation. Then I caught a twitch of her mouth and knew she had heard it quite clearly and was simply ignoring what she did not choose to hear.

Little minx, I thought affectionately as I left the room and knew I would be at 920 tomorrow regardless of any other plans I had for the day.

After saying goodbye to Donaldina, Colin O’Connor and I made the steep walk down Sacramento Street and stopped at the corner, each of us poised to go in a different direction.

“I don’t think Suey Wah’s information can have been much help to your investigation,” I commented.

“Our best bet is to try to track down the steamer that carried her and the other girls,” he began and catching the expression on my face quickly asked, “What is it?”

I had the sudden memory of the Pandora Steamer Two unloading its human cargo of Chinese girls and wondered if little Suey Wah could have been in the group of girls I saw on the wharf that day six weeks ago when Johanna and I had arrived in San Francisco, the group that had included Mae Tao. What were the chances that of all the Chinese girls in San Francisco, we would have rescued one who knew Mae Tao and might be able to help me find her? I shook my head at the idea. I believed God answered prayer—my being alive after the siege of Pekin was proof enough for me—but His answers were seldom so direct or obvious. Still, my father had always taught that life held no coincidence, that everything, no matter how insignificant, was part of a divine plan and an answer to someone’s prayer, so perhaps I would discover a connection between Suey Wah and Mae Tao after all. When Colin O’Connor repeated my name, I realized I had been standing and staring off into space, a posture with which my family was familiar but which must have seemed like some kind of mental stupor to him.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I had a sudden thought.”

“Is that what you call it, Miss Hudson? It seemed more like a vision to me.”

“I don’t have visions, and please call me Dinah.” I almost told him about the Pandora Steamer and its huddle of little girls, but first I wanted to talk to Suey Wah again. My suspicions remained too speculative to be voiced.

“I will then, Dinah. Thank you. And I’m Colin to my friends. Well, I’ve friends that call me names other than Colin, but those would hardly be fitting for a refined lady like yourself to use.” His irresistible grin accompanied the words.

“You’d probably be surprised at what I know and what I’ve heard,” I responded, “but thank you for the compliment.”

“This may seem presumptuous of me, but since we’re standing here, I was wondering something.”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering—you being new to the city and all—if you’d care to step out with me tomorrow, have a little lunch at the Poodle Dog, and take a walk around Union Square. I know it’s short notice, but I’ve got the day off, and I can’t think of a better way to spend it than in your company.”

“Are you sure you’re only half Irish?” I asked, smiling up at him, enjoying the way the sun sparkled in his eyes. “You have the gift of charming speech, Officer O’Connor.”

“Colin.”

“You have the gift of charming speech, Colin.”