Tangled Vines (21 page)

“So this is it, huh?” Sky asked.

Mari read the engraved characters on the gate.
Beijing Social Welfare Institute #1.
“Yes, this is it. I can’t believe I’ve lived in Beijing all these years and have never come here.”

“Why would you?” Sky asked.

Linnea looked at Mari and they shared a silent thought. If Sky were an orphan, too, he’d know why they might be curious. Both of them had only escaped life in an institution because their Ye Ye had found them. If not for one kind man, things would’ve worked out differently.

Linnea picked up her bag and headed for the small building and the young guard inside, lounging back in a metal chair with his cap pulled low over his eyes. She hoped he was in a good mood. Behind her, Sky and Mari followed.

“
Ni hao
. I’m here to see Director Long.” She cringed as the guard almost lost his balance in his hurry to get his feet off the counter. She’d caught him taking an afternoon nap and he looked embarrassed.

He stood quickly and pulled on his jacket to straighten it. “No, we don’t have a Director Long here.”

Linnea looked at Sky. Just as they feared, the woman was probably long gone. They’d have to go with the next plan as Lao Zheng had instructed them.

“Well, can we talk to the current director so that we can ask her where to find Director Long? She used to work here many years ago.” Obviously the guard wouldn’t know who Long was, as he was barely as old as Linnea. Long had probably been gone for a few decades at least.

She saw his face fill with doubt. Zheng had told her it would be difficult to get access to the orphanage and would take strategy and even some smooth talking.

“We have a donation,” Linnea added, biting her lip. She pleaded with the gods that they could at least get in. There was no way she was turning back yet.

The guard’s expression changed, if possible, getting a bit darker. Linnea could see they weren’t winning him over. She turned to Mari to see if she had any ideas, but her sister held her hands up and shrugged.

Sky stepped forward and put one foot on the door frame of the shack, leaning in with a friendly smile on his face.

“Good afternoon, friend. I’m sure you have your orders, but I know they wouldn’t want you to turn away any donations, right? I’ve been here before and can find my way to the administration office. And I’ll let the director know you were very helpful.”

His calm confidence and politeness, as usual, changed everything. The guard suddenly smiled back and pulled three lanyards with visitor’s tags from his drawer. He handed them to Sky and pointed toward one of the shorter buildings among the others.

“Over there you’ll find Director Lu’s office.”

Sky put one of the lanyards around his neck and handed the other two to Linnea. “Let’s go.”

Linnea shook her head in amazement. She was glad she had brought him and though she missed Jet terribly, knew his way of dealing with those in power would possibly not have been so successful. She knew he wouldn’t be rude, but he’d probably use a much less gentle method than Sky had.

“How do you do that?” Mari asked.

“It’s all about truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance,” Sky answered.

“Please don’t get him started,” Linnea said. She wasn’t up for one of Sky’s teaching moments. She quickly changed the subject by pointing out the huge colorful billboard advertising the upcoming Children’s Day event. She wondered what sort of experience orphans would have on a day marked to celebrate childhood.

Together they walked through the huge open area that served as a parking lot and a courtyard. Other buildings stood around it in a semicircle and Linnea tried to figure out which one housed the children. The thought of living in the orphanage usually scared but also intrigued her. Though she didn’t hear any children’s voices, she could see the top of a tall building standing behind the others, starker and less polished than those that stood guard around it, and something told her that was where she’d find the children.

“It’s pretty here,” Sky said, pointing out a small garden to their left.

In it they saw huge apricot trees and a koi pond. Elaborate benches were set against the borders of the manicured walk, practically begging someone to stop and spend time there to reflect. Next to the area Linnea saw another walking path that led between two buildings and toward the direction of the tall building in the back. She pulled Mari’s arm and guided her toward the path. Over her shoulder she beckoned for Sky to follow.

“Sky, before they know we’re here, let’s go see if that’s the children’s quarters back there.”

Sky looked at Linnea, his brow wrinkled in confusion. “Why? Dahlia’s long gone from there, Linnea.”

She nodded. “I know. I just want to see what it’s like. Please.” She continued to walk, her arm through Mari’s as she guided her along. When Sky didn’t argue, she took that as a positive sign and picked up the pace.

At the end of the path they found themselves in another courtyard in front of the tall building. Sadly, once past all the administration buildings the atmosphere had turned less beautiful and more haunting. Here Linnea saw the true reality of the welfare institute and not the façade that was presented to most of the public.

There was another gate to go through, and a different guard, an older one this time, sat outside it on a bench and shelled peanuts into a pail. Linnea picked up her badge and flashed it at him, then dropped it and kept going with a feigned confidence she hoped would fool him. She felt a hesitation in Mari’s gait but dragged her along.

“
Aiya,
Linnea. Look how old this building is. The bars over the windows are even rusted. They look ready to fall off,” Mari said, shaking her head.

Linnea agreed. The building was old and years of rain sliding from the pink tiled roof offered a kaleidoscope of pastel colors staining the exterior of the building, bringing the only splash of color Linnea could see. On the third floor there was a landing of sorts and Linnea saw a group of older children hanging clothes on a makeshift clothesline. The children moved awkwardly, making Linnea wonder if they had some sort of disability. She wondered about Dahlia and if she had been like them, working to earn her keep in the orphanage.

She was surprised not to see more kids but then realized it was a school day. There were a few boys and girls standing around outside of the building and they looked up hopefully when they saw Linnea and Mari coming toward them. Linnea could see the children were drawn to Mari’s bright outfit, and she let go of her sister. Mari crouched down and began talking softly to the boys and girls as they took turns touching her clothes.

Linnea wandered over to a small girl who used a piece of chalk to draw an endless circle on the pavement. The little girl looked no more than seven or eight and her mismatched clothing was cute in a ragamuffin sort of way. She was separate from the others and Linnea wondered why she had isolated herself. Standing over her, she looked closer at the drawing and saw more than a circle. Inside the drawing were stick figures of a man and woman holding hands with a small child in the middle. Linnea wondered if that was her real family she was remembering, or her future family she hoped for. She bent down beside her and smiled. Sky joined them.

“
Ni hao,
what’s your name?”

The little girl smiled at her through the jagged clumps of bangs in her eyes. Her oval face and impish expression reminded Linnea of Peony and she felt a surge of warmth. Another girl a few years older ran over and held her hands up, shaking her head.

“She can’t hear! She’s deaf,” the girl said loudly, pointing at her own ear where a small white hearing aid was visible. Her speech was a bit disjointed but Linnea could understand her fine.

Linnea looked at the little girl smiling up at her, then at Sky, and saw the pity in his eyes. The little girl didn’t have a hearing aid. She looked around at the other boys and girls and saw a few of them using sign language with one another.

“So these are the deaf children and I guess they don’t go to school.” Linnea thought of Lily and wondered if there were blind children there, too.

“Yeah, I wonder why only some of them have hearing aids,” Sky said, looking at the other kids. He peered around them into the room they were standing in front of and saw colorful posters of animals and the English alphabet letters pasted to the wall. A young woman sat at a desk, her head bent over her work as she made pencil marks on a paper.

“Some have probably had donations for theirs, while others haven’t,” Mari said from behind them.

Suddenly they were interrupted when an exhausted-looking nanny came down the concrete stairs from the second level carrying a heavy load of folded clothes. She approached them, a suspicious look in her eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked, setting the clothing down on the walk in front of her. She straightened and used her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

Linnea wondered how or why she came to be employed there. Had she been an orphan? Did she even like children?

“I asked who are you?” the
ayi
asked again. “Do you have permission to be back here?”

“Uh-oh, we’re about to be kicked out of here,” Mari whispered.

Linnea didn’t know what to say but Sky stepped forward and flashed one of his winning smiles. “We have a meeting with Director Lu but she said we could stop over here and visit with the children first. Can I help you with that load of clothes?”

Without waiting for an answer, he bent to pick up the basket and turned his head sideways to wink at Linnea. He stood and nodded to the nanny, beckoning her to show him where she wanted the clothes taken.

Linnea was amused to see the nanny a bit flustered but obviously flattered by the attention from Sky. She turned and led the way to a corridor where she and Sky disappeared.

Mari laughed. “That guy is something else. But he probably just bought us a few extra moments. Oh, Lin, why can’t we take them all home to Ye Ye and Nai Nai? Just think what they are missing having to live here. It breaks my heart.”

“Mine, too, Mari.” Linnea put her bag on the ground and dug inside it until she found the bag of dried apricots her Nai Nai had stuffed in there for a traveling snack. At the sight of the bag, all the children came running and surrounded her. Linnea laughed at their excitement while she handed out the fruit to their reaching hands. As they stuffed the treats into their mouths, it was evident their bellies were hungry for food and their hearts for attention.

W
ith the children trailing them as far as the security guard, they all backtracked until they were once again on the way to the administration building. They didn’t talk and Linnea used the time to look around and think.

“Are you okay, Linnea?” Mari asked.

Linnea nodded. “Yes—it’s just that being here brings up all those questions in my mind I usually try not to think about. Like why my parents didn’t want me and where I might have come from. I know you probably feel the same.”

Mari didn’t answer.

“I can understand how that would be hard to think about,” Sky said. “Maybe you should just focus on the good in your lives instead.”

Linnea knew he was trying to be there for her, but even though he was sympathetic, she wished for Jet. He would’ve helped her talk it through instead of telling her to ignore the heavy emotion that had come over her. She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, looking at the call log.

“Has he called yet?” Sky asked.

“Who?” Mari asked.

“No one,” Linnea answered. She didn’t want her sister to know she was having boyfriend troubles. It was embarrassing enough that Sky knew it. She flipped through the log and saw there were no missed calls. She checked her e-mail account and there weren’t any new e-mails, either. She dropped the phone back into her bag. “Let’s hurry up and get to the director’s office. I hope she hasn’t left for lunch.” With that she picked up the pace and led the way down the path and then up the concrete stairs to the double doors. She took a deep breath and pushed through.

“Can you at least check to see if you have a file for her?” Mari stood with her hand on her hip and stubbornness spreading across her face.

Pulling her sweater closer against the chill of the stark room, Linnea waited for the director to answer the question. The woman frightened her—in the fifteen minutes they’d been there she had been nothing less than uncooperative. Linnea was even too afraid to bring out the letter, for she didn’t know what the woman would do when faced with such information. Linnea could tell right away the director was a no-nonsense type. She’d met them at the door and quickly shown them to her office, striding ahead of them in her navy dress suit and blocked heels.

The director went to the wall of shelves and, using her finger, traced each label as she went from the left to the right, checking each name on the rows of binders.

“Sorry, no records for a Zheng Dali Yeh,” she said, and turned around, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Maybe she wasn’t registered under that name. Please check Dang Li Jin.” Linnea knew by her attitude and body language the woman wasn’t going to find anything under either name.

“Anyway, all records are confidential and I would not be able to share them with you without official permission.”

“But we know she was here,” Linnea said. “Do you have older
records in some other place? She’s at least thirty years old now.”

The director shook her head. Her assistant, a tall and thin young woman, burst into the room. “Director Lu, is there anything I can do to help?”

Mari smiled triumphantly and Linnea knew her sister thought they might have a chance with someone else present. Linnea was glad to have an interruption to break the awkwardness in the room. The assistant at least looked friendly.

“You can show this couple to the door. I don’t have the information they seek.”

Sky stood and approached the director. “Director Lu, perhaps we can come to an understanding. We are not saying
you
did anything wrong. This all happened before you took the position here. Director Long was in charge and a girl was mistakenly given up. Her family didn’t know what happened to her but they would like to find her.”

The director stood with her finger to her mouth, apparently thinking over Sky’s request.

Linnea also stood and joined Mari closer to the desk. “And I can promise there won’t be any publicity, Director Lu. We only want to meet her and let her know that if she is interested, we’d like to reunite her with her ailing parents. Her father has tuberculosis and his dying wish is to see his daughter.” Linnea saw Sky cringe out of the corner of her eye. She ignored him; she’d do whatever it took to find Dahlia.

As she waited, she looked from the director to the assistant. In the younger woman’s eyes she saw a hint of compassion and she waited to see if that same spark would transfer to her boss.

Her hopes were dashed when the director pointed at the door. “Sorry, I have no information to help you. My assistant will show you out.”

The assistant came around and beckoned for Linnea and Sky to follow her. Linnea felt deflated. They’d come all this way and learned nothing. She thought about Nai Nai and how disappointed she would be. She and Sky stood and reluctantly followed the younger woman out of the office and down the long hall. At the double doors the assistant stepped outside and when they joined her, she shut the door behind them.

“I can tell you where the old director used to live but I don’t know if she has passed or not. She was very old and last year I heard she was bedridden.” She nervously looked behind them at the door as she whispered.

Mari smiled broadly and threw her arms around the young woman. “Oh, thank you!”

Linnea felt her hopes soar. “Really? You know where she lives?”

“I know where she
lived
. As I said, she may be dead by now. She has a reputation around here as being the most wicked director to have ever retired. Fate may have caught up with her.”

“Just tell us what you know,” Sky said, putting his arm around Linnea.

“She lived on Liulichang Street, what was once the known academic area of Beijing.” She opened the door and stepped through, then turned back one more time. “That is all I can tell you. But my heart has been burdened for these children here for so many years. I do what I can to place them with local families. I do hope even one lost girl can be reunited with her parents and perhaps find peace. Good luck.”

Before Linnea could tell her how much she appreciated her kindness, the assistant turned and was gone; only the sound of her heels clicking on the shiny ceramic tiles could be heard as she disappeared down the hall. Linnea had the feeling that she’d just met one of the children’s more loving guardian angels.

She smiled victoriously at Mari, then Sky. “All is not lost. We have another lead.”

Together they headed to the main road to hail another taxi.