Mulberry and Peach (27 page)

‘Betty! You're hallucinating again, you've been smoking dope again . . .'

‘The water of the Nile is flowing, flowing, look, it's flowing right there, do you see it? Helen, believe what I say, it's all true. I've even seen many, many people, many different worlds, they're all surging forth! They're all real people, real worlds . . .'

‘I don't understand anything you're saying! Betty! The thing that's most real to me is the child in my womb, it's I-po's and my child.'

I hang up.

353-1876. No answer.

351-9466. The telephone buzzes. Busy.

338-2457. No answer.

338-0060. ‘This is a recording. The number you have dialled is no longer in service.'

351-9063. ‘Hello.'

‘Hello. I want to speak with Teng.'

‘You've got the wrong number!'

‘What's your number?'

‘I won't tell you. What number do you want?'

‘351-9063.'

‘I'll say it again: You've got the wrong number!'

I hang up.

351-9063. ‘Hello.'

‘It's you again! Wrong number! Please don't bother me, I want to sleep!'

‘Good night.' I hang up again.

351-9063. ‘Hello.'

‘It's you again - it's that woman! What's the matter with you anyway?'

‘You listen, lady. Just what's your problem? You . . .' The woman at the other end hasn't finished speaking when the man takes the phone and yells: ‘We're just having a hell of a good time in bed! If you bother us again I'll kill you!'

‘Are you committing adultery?'

‘None of your business!' Slams the phone down.

351-9063. ‘Hello.'

I laugh loudly. ‘I'm sorry. I've interrupted again.'

‘I WILL KILL YOU!' Slams the phone down.

351-9063. ‘Hi!'

‘Hi! Teng! You've finally wiggled your way out from under the bed!'

‘What are you talking about? I just wiggled my way out of the lab. I killed another cat.'

‘Killing a cat in the middle of the night!'

‘I have to finish my experiment. It was a pregnant cat. I raised her awhile, waiting until she bore the kittens before killing her. When I slit open the cat's stomach, guess what I was thinking about?'

‘Thinking about the new-born animals.'

‘Thinking about you!'

‘My stomach has to be cut open, too. I'll have to have a Caesarean.'

‘What? I don't understand what you're saying!'

‘I'm pregnant.'

‘We'll get married immediately.'

‘It's I-po's child.'

‘Oh. Well, then he should take the responsibility.'

‘I'm through with him. I'll take the responsibility myself.'

‘You want the child?'

‘Eh. It's a life, too.'

‘I agree with you. We kill too many living things. In the beginning it was only people killing other people; now people use machines to kill. I had a strange feeling: when I was killing the cat, for a while it seemed as if I were that cat, one stroke, another stroke cutting the cat's body, was cutting into my own body as well. Do you really want the child?'

‘No doubt about it!'

‘I admire your nerve. But, but, in your situation perhaps it isn't wise for you to have an illegitimate child. I still haven't told you: The man from the Immigration Service came to see me and ask about you. I said in my whole life I've admired only two women, one is my mother, the other is you. In my eyes you two represent all the good womanly virtues.'

‘What did he say?'

‘He didn't say anything, only copied down what I said. That reminds me. About your child, I have a plan. My sister's been married twice and has never gotten pregnant. You know, my sister's husband is a second generation overseas Chinese, working in New York as a stock broker, quite well off. All my sister does is go to concerts, travel in Europe, vacation by the ocean, buy works of art, buy designer clothes-several hundred dresses, twenty or thirty pairs of shoes. She also writes poetry, but it's only a pastime. She's been to Taiwan once, but her life style didn't change when she returned. There's no purpose at all. If she had a child, perhaps her life would change. Before school starts I want to go to New York, in order to apply for jobs and meet the people in the firms, also for the “Action Committee”, you know. We can drive there together and talk to my sister about this. You're old schoolmates, you can talk easily about anything. You can have a good time in New York. You . . .'

‘You don't need to go on. I decided a long time ago to go to New York, not to talk to your sister about the child, but to see the Empire State Building.'

‘Can I go over to see you now?'

‘There's no Empire State Building here!'

‘The hell with the Empire State Building!'

We hang up. The phone rings immediately.

‘Hello.'

‘Hi! Mulberry . . .'

‘Professor, Mulberry's already dead.'

‘Don't joke with me! Betty's dead!'

‘You're kidding! I just talked to her on the phone!'

‘When I came back, the room was really dark; there was a strange odour. Like the smell of drugs. I turned on the light, Betty was lying on the living room floor, an empty wine bottle beside her. Her mouth was open, fluid trickling from her mouth. I called to her, shook her, but no response. I was terrified. It's a sudden heart attack and she's dead! I felt her forehead, it was icy cold! I felt her nostrils, no air being exhaled. She died just like that!'

‘Hurry up and call the police!'

‘First I have to find something.'

‘Find what?'

‘Find the letters you sent me. What about your going to New York?'

‘I've decided to go next week.'

‘In fact, you needn't . . .'

‘I have to go open my door. Teng's here!'

‘What's he doing going to your apartment in the middle of the night?'

‘Didn't you come in the middle of the night, too?'

‘Is the child in your belly his?'

‘No. It's yours. Sorry. He's knocking!' I hang up.

 

 

 

It was my joke. You're dead, Mulberry. I have come to life. I've been alive all along. But now I have broken free. You don't know me, but I know you. I'm completely different from you. We are temporarily inhabiting the same body. How unfortunate. We often do the opposite things. And if we do the same thing, our reasons are different. For instance. You want to keep the child because you want to redeem yourself. I want to keep the child because I want to preserve a new life. You don't see Chiang I-po anymore because you are scared of the Immigration Service agent; I ignore him because I despise him. When you're with Teng you feel guilty, when I'm with him I feel happy. You and I threaten each other like the world's two superpowers. Sometimes you are stronger; sometimes I am. When I'm stronger I can make you do things you don't want to do, for example the evening the astronauts landed on the moon, you teased and tormented I-po, when you acted like a slut with Teng in the ghost town graveyard. After those things happened you felt you were even more guilty - I like to do mischief with you like that. Because you limit my freedom. Now, you're dead, I hope you won't come back, then I'll be completely free! Do you know what happened after you died? I thought Betty was dead. I walked up to the Chiang house. Betty opened the door!

‘I'm really happy that you're alive again! Betty!' I said to her.

She motioned to me to go around the yard and come in the back door. She was waiting for me at the back door. We went down to the basement. All I could hear was I-po and several people in the front living room competing to call out the names of old alleys in Peking.

‘Goldfish Alley!'

‘Emerald Flower Alley!'

‘Lilac Alley!'

‘Rouge Alley!'

‘Sesame Wang Alley!'

‘Master Ma Alley!'

‘Pocket Alley!'

‘Magpie Alley!'

‘Fresh Alley!'

‘Slender Reed Alley!'

‘Ladder Alley!'

‘Candlewick Alley!'

‘Bean Sprout Alley!'

‘White Temple Alley!'

‘Cotton Alley!'

‘Pa-ta Alley!' I-po was shouting.

‘The professor isn't thinking of Pa-ta Alley. He's thinking of the courtesans who lived there.'

I-po laughed. ‘That's right.'

‘Communist spy! You're playing a Communist record!' A girl's voice.

‘Revolution, revolution!' Chiang I-po's voice. ‘This young lady is going to turn in her old friend. Hsiao-Chuan, do you believe it? I even went to Taiwan last year and Chiang Kai-Shek's own son shook my hand.'

‘You're putting me on. I don't believe it!'

The basement was one long room. Clothes, newspapers, magazines, cigarette boxes, and empty liquor bottles were strewn everywhere. There was a kitchenette in the corner, all sorts of things piled on the filthy stove. The only furniture in the room was a large colour TV and a box spring mattress studded with cigarette burns. The room smelled of marijuana. A boy with long hair was lying on the mattress watching television. He was wearing only jockey shorts. When he saw Betty and me he gave an unfriendly grunt. The news announcer looked out into the emptiness and began speaking in a monotonous voice: ‘...
A bomb from the Second World War was discovered today by a cleaning lady in Carpenterville, Illinois. The police have warned the residents in the vicinity to be on guard for an explosion, and they de-activated the bomb. But a young professor maintained that the bomb would not explode, it was only a new toy left over from the war, he had picked it up in a junk yard in Chicago to use for a room decoration...'