Old Town (69 page)

Grandpa gave this some serious thought. “Your metaphor has some truth to it.”

“You’ve been able to do it. We couldn’t. So only you will get to heaven and see Jesus.”

Grandpa gazed at his wife with eyes brimming with love and affection. “I’ll be waiting for you in heaven.”

No matter how openly sarcastic or subtly you put it, he just can’t understand. If I keep going on pestering him at this rate, won’t I become just like Fangzi?
There was nothing more she could do.
Just treat it as some unexpected loss. How many times in this life have we gone through poverty and ruin? What’s one bracelet?

“Don’t stay up any longer,” she said, yawning.

The next day, Grandma excused herself from paying respects to Fangzi, claiming that she was tired and headachy. Grandpa got the bracelet from her and went off alone.

What would Fangzi’s reaction be when she saw the father-in-law she hadn’t seen in so many years? Would she curse him to his face for being a secret agent?
My grandma was worried about Grandpa, but she also wanted to see the old coot hit his head against the wall. Grandpa returned home in high spirits a few hours later and reported that the results of the talk had been excellent. Grandma didn’t ask for details. She basically didn’t believe that one conversation could turn Baoqing’s home situation around.

When payday came that month, Fangzi, as always collected Baoqing’s salary on his behalf. For more than ten years now, ever since his wife’s relations with her in-laws at West Gate had broken down, Baoqing had not collected his own salary. Normally, husband and wife did not speak to each other. Fangzi washed the clothes and cooked. Baoqing fetched the children and washed the dishes. This cooperation was a sort of tacit agreement. If husband and wife needed to communicate while under the same roof, they would ask their son to be the messenger. Whenever they didn’t require a messenger were the times for fusillades of gunfire.

Every month it had been routine for war to burst out over the living allowance for his parents. After work, Baoqing went to get his children and came home. Fangzi had already set out the bowls and chopsticks. Baoqing discovered that fifteen
yuan
had been laid at his place setting. Keeping a watchful eye on Fangzi, he hurriedly stuffed this money into his pocket, thinking that war was inevitable now. But Fangzi’s expression never changed as she spooned food into their daughter’s mouth. He didn’t dare believe that Fangzi would on her own have set aside the money for his father and mother. He said to his son, “Tell your ma that Daddy’s taken the fifteen
yuan
and in a little while will be going over to Gramps with it.” The boy then parroted this to his mother. Fangzi’s expression remained normal. Baoqing still didn’t believe it and made so bold as to speak directly to her. “I’ll be taking the money to West Gate in a bit.” “Go ahead,” Fangzi said softly.

Baoqing didn’t know that his father had met with Fangzi. As he rode his bike back to West Gate, he just couldn’t figure out what had touched her heartstrings.

3.

W
HEN THE DOCTOR
and his wife went to P Town they encountered Baohua’s own family war. Big Zhang had once again driven Maomao out of their home and the pictures of the boy when he was small were all torn up. Big Zhang now had been appointed commissioner of P Town, but as far as he was concerned, with the Zhang family having no descendents, even being secretary of the provincial party committee wouldn’t have had the slightest meaning. In his despair, Big Zhang’s temper grew even worse.

That morning, Big Zhang saw Baohua in the kitchen leisurely boiling rice porridge and frying dumplings.
Your son is gone, but you can still be in such a good mood
. All at once he flew into a terrible rage and started smashing up the kitchen. Baohua returned in tears to Baosheng’s home in Old Town. Baosheng’s home was her place of refuge.

The doctor and his wife arrived at Commissioner Zhang’s new residence just when Big Zhang had locked himself inside and was drinking all alone. When he heard the knock on the door he roared out, “Beat it! Scram! I don’t know you!”

Big Zhang’s natural voice was unusually loud and clear. At meetings when he made reports, no matter how big the occasion, he never needed a microphone. Long ago, the first bad impression his future son-in-law had made on the doctor was that very same voice when Big Zhang had exploded at a taxi driver at the West Gate street crossing. His voice could terrify heaven and shake the earth.
Who had messed up heaven’s marriage register and introduced Baohua to this northern oaf?

Second Sister thought that Baohua was inside and called out in the Old Town dialect, “Big Zhang, listen to me! Don’t hurt Baohua!”

Big Zhang calmed down. He was puzzled.
Baohua’s only just gone. How could she have called my mother-in-law here?

Before the Cultural Revolution, Big Zhang harbored tremendous hostility toward Baohua’s family. But several years later, his father-in-law’s daring visit to him in jail was a kindness he would never forget as long as he lived. These days, though he might feel every kind of dissatisfaction with Baohua, he still felt a deep reverence toward his father-and mother-in-law. When he and Baohua quarreled, he would often say, “Your mother could take three children out of danger, but
you
can’t raise just one child.”

He hurriedly put away the liquor bottle, scooped up some cold water and ran it through his hair a few times. After all, he was seasoned in the world of officialdom. He knew when he could let himself go and when he had to put on a mask. He opened the door and, smiling radiantly, welcomed in his wife’s parents.

“Dad, Ma! Oh, I am so sorry for disturbing you. Look how silly that Baohua is. Is there any couple who doesn’t quarrel?”

Second Sister noticed that Ninth Brother’s face had turned white. “Oh, Big Zhang, look how upset you’ve made Dad. Nowadays there’s no hard times we can’t get through. How come your temper hasn’t improved?” she grumbled in her distress.

The doctor took out a bottle of medicine. “It’s nothing. I just take two vitamin B tablets and then it’s all right.”

During those several months, Ninth Brother was often taking medicine. He told Second Sister it was vitamin B and she never believed otherwise.

“Ma, you’re an extraordinary woman,” Big Zhang said. “If Baohua were half of what you are, even one-tenth, this family would be at peace.”

The doctor waved his hand. “‘Even the fairest magistrate has a hard time judging family matters.’ We haven’t come to judge your family matters. We’ve come to see Maomao.”

The smile stiffened on Big Zhang’s face. “I’ve kicked the little bastard out. Kicked him out ten times and ten times he’s come back. This time I told him if he dared show his face again I’d have the Public Security Bureau grab him and send him to labor reform.”

The doctor looked down and was silent for a long time and then said to Second Sister, “Go inside and rest. Big Zhang and I are going out to talk for a bit.”

Commissioner Zhang’s building was near the river. The two of them, father-in-law and son-in-law, sat under an old banyan tree by the riverside. The doctor took out the medicine bottle he had stuffed in his shirt pocket and told him that what he was taking wasn’t vitamins and that he had only a hundred days at most left on earth. He said he wanted to make full use of this time to settle a few matters that weighed on him. And one of these was the relationship between Big Zhang and Maomao.

Big Zhang’s face took on a deep and imposing look. “Dad, you have been very kind to me. If I could, I’d be willing to die for you. Even though I’ve given up on that child, for your sake, I’m willing to try one more time.”

He called over his driver and they drove to P Town’s long-distance bus station. That was Maomao’s other home, and a gang of street-children beggars were his brothers and sisters. Whenever Maomao returned to his adoptive parents from this other home, “the lotus root would snap, but the fibers stayed attached.”

They found the utterly filthy Maomao under a bench. Every time he had been kicked out of his home he would brazenly ask for forgiveness. This last time Big Zhang had given the final word. And when Big Zhang very clearly and plainly declared there was no blood relationship between them, Maomao despaired and in this despair a fierce hatred was born. Now, suddenly seeing Big Zhang and his grandpa from Old Town, he was so affected he started to cry wildly. Before, he had cried often but that had been all bluff and playacting. Today he didn’t want to cry and in his tear-drenched eyes there was still hatred. He gnashed his teeth and his chin crumpled up in trembling and shaking.

If this child can be moved to cry, then he can still be saved
. The doctor stroked Maomao’s head. “Maomao, you’re Daddy and Ma’s son, and you’re Grandpa’s and Grandma’s grandson. We all love you.”

Maomao’s facial features unclenched and he burst out wailing. The doctor seated Maomao in Big Zhang’s Shanghai sedan. Big Zhang made a big show of looking dour and sat in the front without turning around to look.

Can bringing Maomao back home solve the basic problem? I’m going to take him back to Old Town. Perhaps this is the thing I ought to do most of all before my life ends. We shouldn’t have come to P Town just to seek a peaceful conscience. Second Sister said, “God knows whose prayers are sincere.” This is far, far from good enough
.

Second Sister boiled water and bathed Maomao and then presented him with the snacks brought from Old Town. She wanted to give him a talking to, but then she thought that she herself was only a guest here, so she let the idea pass.

Big Zhang came into the kitchen and took the thermos. Maomao was so panic-stricken he stuffed a whole egg tart into his mouth. Big Zhang couldn’t help exploding in anger. “What’re you scared of? Feeling guilty about something? You just can’t change the bum looks of a dog rustler and chicken thief!” he roared.

“Oh, this child! He does give people a headache. Big Zhang may still drive him away again,” murmured Second Sister.

The doctor gazed at Maomao and said to his wife, “We’ll take him back with us to West Gate to live there for a while.”

“What did you say?”

“Bring Maomao back to West Gate.”

“Have you gone mad?”

Big Zhang sat there drinking tea and smoking, while a stream of curses poured out of him. “Listen, brat. If you want to become a bad guy, I’m not stopping you. Take me, for example—back then I’d have joined the bandits, you can be sure, if I hadn’t run into the Communist Party. If you’ve got the guts to rob the highway then I’ll say you’re a man. What I can’t stand is a sneak. How can I have someone like you as a son?”

The doctor said, “Big Zhang, we’re taking Maomao back to West Gate to stay with us for a while.”

“If Big Zhang can’t manage him, I suppose you can?” Second Sister broke in.

“Just let me give it a try. How can you know if you haven’t tried?”

Big Zhang looked with surprise at his father-in-law.
That old guy knows he hasn’t got long to live. Where does all his love come from?
He thought of that time in the Cultural Revolution when he was behind bars in the provincial Public Security Department building and saw his father-in-law. For as long as he could remember he had never cried—even when he buried his father and mother he didn’t shed a tear. But that day he cried, cried as if his heart would break. This old bag of bones in front of him was no ordinary man.
Maybe he really could change Maomao
.

Second Sister’s mouth was half-opened, but she couldn’t get a single word out, as if she had a sudden stroke. She was thinking,
there are so many rooms at West Gate, so many drawers. Even if I grew eyes on the bump in the back of my head I wouldn’t be able to keep it all in view. Oh, Ninth Brother, you’re always up to something and I really can’t hold my own…

She saw Ninth Brother lead Maomao out of the kitchen and sit down with him side-by-side in front of Big Zhang. He took off the watch and put it into the boy’s hand. “Maomao, Grandpa has been poor all his life and never had anything that was worth much money. There was only this watch. Now I’m giving it to you.”

Maomao looked fearful, not sure whether this was a blessing or a curse.

“Now you’re still small and have no use for a watch. Give it to your Dad to put away safely and keep it as your eighteenth birthday present. Would that be all right?”

Maomao held the watch in both his trembling hands and gave it to Big Zhang.

Big Zhang didn’t say anything as he took the watch. Grasping it in one hand, with the other he stuck a cigarette between his lips and took one big drag after another.

Second Sister thought,
How come Big Zhang is keeping it? Why not leave it with Grandpa to give to Maomao?

After the busy day, they both went to bed. As she closed the door, Second Sister said, “If you bring Maomao to West Gate, I’ll live here in Daughter’s home.”

Today Ninth Brother’s reactions were pretty quick. He knew that Second Sister didn’t like Maomao and so he didn’t respond directly. “If you settle in here, what happens when the West Gate residents come looking for Director Guo?”

“Whatever you do you never discuss it with me first. For you it’s all a command performance. It wasn’t this way before. When you were deaf, the whole family had peace and quiet.”

Ninth Brother laughed as he burrowed under the covers. “Now you don’t know, but later you will. You’re in good health. You’re sure to see Maomao’s future.”

Second Sister lay down and then sat up. “Ninth Brother, we’re both people over seventy. Before, I always said that when we get to this age, when we take off our shoes at night, we don’t know if we’ll be wearing them on the next day. So how can you undertake such a heavy responsibility?”

“Second Sister, even when we’re young we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Reality is right there before our eyes. God wants us to extend a helping hand.”

“You’re always shifting everything onto God. God has a special love for you and you’re the only one he speaks to.”

“You’re saying I can turn away and not be bothered?” Second Sister had nothing to say to this.

The next day, Big Zhang himself drove his parents-in-law and Maomao back to West Gate. Then he turned in the direction of Baosheng’s home to get Baohua. Baosheng stood blocking the doorway and demanded that Big Zhang guarantee he wouldn’t bully his elder sister again. Big Zhang didn’t utter a single word, but the smile on his face said he held the winning ticket. Baohua was quick to anger and quick to cool down. He believed that she would go with him. If Baosheng wouldn’t let her go, it was possible she might still have a falling-out with her brother. And sure enough, when Baohua heard Big Zhang’s voice, she immediately pulled off her own things from the clothesline and squeezed past her brother.