Pearl of China

by Anchee Min

  Papa was becoming nervous. Finally he couldn’t contain himself. “Absalom,” he called.

  Absalom ignored him.

  “Master Absalom.” Papa’s voice trembled.

  “Yes, Mr. Yee?” Absalom was visibly disturbed. “You’d better have a good reason for interrupting like this.”

  With a note of panic in his voice, Papa cried, “Nanking will be the next Chin-kiang!”

  “Calm down, Mr. Yee!”

  “Time is short,” Papa pleaded. “You and your family need to evacuate right away!”

  “What are you talking about, Mr. Yee?” Absalom stared at him.

  “Where do you suggest that we go?”

  “Home, Master Absalom!”

  “We are home.”

  “No! I mean your home in America!” Papa began to stutter. “Sir, your life is in danger!”

  “I’ll be going nowhere.” Absalom responded firmly. “My home is China.”

  Pearl watched the evacuation of all her Western friends. Laborers worked day and night carrying cases and bags toward the river, where steamboats waited. The last American family to depart was the embassy doctor’s. When their boat pulled away, Pearl lost her composure.

  “What if Carol gets sick?” she cried to Absalom. “What if you fall off your donkey and break a leg?”

  Absalom replied, “Chinese people have survived thousands of years without Western medicine.”

  “What if surgery is needed?” Pearl asked.

  “God will take care of us.”

  “Please, Father, this is a practical matter.”

  “I am talking about a practical matter.” Absalom became impatient. “You must have faith in God.”

  “I have a sick child, Father, and I can’t do without a doctor.”

  Absalom spoke without looking at Pearl. “God’s work requires sacrifice.”

  “God’s work?” Pearl became angry. “It’s your work! It’s Absalom’s glory, Absalom’s obsession! Why should the rest of us sacrifice for you?”

  Grace joined Pearl, begging her father to reconsider.

  “What’s wrong with you all?” Absalom yelled. “By all means go ahead and evacuate! Get going before the steamboats are gone.”

  “We can’t leave without you,” both Pearl and Grace said. “You are an old man!”

  “The Lord won’t let anything happen to me.” Absalom was confident. “He needs me to do his work.”

  The air smelled like it was burning. The streets of Nanking had turned ghostly. Businesses were closed. Nearly all foreigners had already fled. Pearl and Absalom hid inside their house. Although Pearl’s servants were willing to stay on, Pearl insisted that they leave. She promised that she would hire them back once the danger was over. The servants departed. They knew that if they stayed, they could be killed for having served the foreigners.

  Papa and I got busy trying to fill the water jars and stockpile food. Each day we checked on Pearl’s family. Pearl told me that Absalom had become a problem. He refused to stay inside. He believed that what was happening was perfect for his work. “Desperate people turn to God,” he said.

  Pearl and Grace came to Papa for help. They begged him to find a way to stop Absalom.

  Papa challenged Absalom on his Chinese translations of the Bible. The two men argued loudly.

  “It’s not an error,” Papa insisted. “Some of the stories just don’t make sense in Chinese.”

  Eventually, Absalom decided to sit down and work on his revisions.

  In only a few days, the streets were filled with strangers. The boarded-up shops were broken into. People were running and others chasing. Screams and shouts could be heard day and night. I could hear the sound of distant gunshots.

  I visited the university, wondering what had happened there. The campus was as quiet as a cemetery. I went to the science building and saw windows with bullet holes in them. Then I saw bloodstains on the sidewalk.

  “Help!” I heard a voice.

  To my horror, I found a foreigner hiding behind the bushes in a pool of blood. He had been shot in the chest. “Help!” the man cried, struggling to speak. “I am the dean of the school and I . . . am an American missionary.”

  Before I could ask for his name, he passed out.

  “Sir! Sir!” I knelt and shook him.

  The man died in my arms. The sound of gunshots was so near now that I listened for the whistling of bullets. I set the dead man down and covered him with my blouse. I walked toward the town. The wind felt cool on my face. It was an otherwise perfect spring day with camellias blossoming.

  There was a woman running toward me. Her arms were waving frantically in the air.

  I recognized her. “Lilac!”

  “The mobs have come!” Lilac yelled. “They are looking for foreigners! They have already killed one. I heard that he was the dean of the university.”

  “Lilac, that man died in my arms!”

  Lilac saw the blood on my hands and clothes. The color drained from her face.

  We took shortcuts through the hills toward Pearl’s house. I regretted not insisting that Pearl and her family leave days ago. Panic began to overtake me as I pictured the mob. Lilac told me that she had witnessed the murders of Chinese Christians, our friends and neighbors.

  Pearl felt fortunate that everyone in the family had survived so far. The house had been looted three times by soldiers and groups of angry men. Every valuable thing had been taken. The last group had left disappointed because nothing was left.

  Absalom’s forehead was bleeding. He had tried to stop the mob and had been knocked down. Even that hadn’t stopped Absalom from continuing to reason with the intruders. He was determined to show God’s grace. It had been Papa who had offered his last money to the looters so they would leave.

  Pearl was devastated to learn that the dean of the university, a personal friend, had been killed.

  “More soldiers will be coming to Nanking,” Papa predicted.

  Pearl and Grace held their children. Grace wept. The sisters wondered if it would be wise to separate the family.

  Papa told Pearl that soldiers and mobs were everywhere and that it wasn’t safe to be outside. “They will shoot the moment they see a foreigner.”

  Absalom talked again about faith in God.

  Pearl turned away.

  Absalom suggested that they all pray together. “Let us properly prepare to meet our fate.”

  No one responded.

  Absalom went to his room and closed the door.

  Pearl and Grace looked at each other. Their eyes were filled with tears.

  I was afraid. No one knew what to do.

  Pearl took a pen and paper and began to write quickly.

  “I’m going to the pier,” she announced. “Perhaps a foreign ship might take pity on us. It won’t hurt to try. I am writing down all our names.”

  “Let me do it,” I volunteered. “You’d be a walking target with your blonde hair.”

  Pearl gave me the folded letter. “Give this to anyone whom you think could help us.”

  “Let me go,” Papa offered. “The soldiers will rape Willow. Besides, she is pregnant.”

  “No, Papa,” I said. “You are old . . .”

  Before I could say more, Papa took the letter from Pearl and left the house. I had never seen him run so fast. His small frame bounded like a deer as he moved out of sight.

  We dared not light candles. The children were asleep. Pearl and Grace stood behind the front door. They listened to every sound. I was exhausted from carrying water to the house and tried to sleep on a straw mat on the floor. I thought about Dick and Papa and prayed for their safety.

  Hours later, a loud banging on the door woke me from a deep sleep.

  Thinking it was the mob, everyone jumped up.

  “Who is it?” Pearl asked.

  “Open the door, please! It’s me, Soo-ching!”

  “Do I know you?” asked Pearl.

  “Yes, I delivered my son in your back
yard!”

  “What?”

  “My name is Soo-ching, and my son’s name is Confucius!”

  “Oh, Confucius, yes, I remember!” Pearl opened the door.

  A heavy manure stink came with her into the room.

  “What has happened to you, Soo-ching?” Pearl asked.

  “I poured a bucket of feces over myself for safety,” she said.

  “How can I help you?” Pearl asked.

  “Help me? No, I’m here to help you! Because tomorrow you will be dead!”

  “What do you mean, Soo-ching?”

  “I was forced to cook for the soldiers. They are preparing a celebration banquet for tomorrow. I asked what for, and they said they were going to kill all the foreigners in Nanking, tomorrow!”

  Pearl’s face turned pale.

  “I come to offer you a hiding place, Mrs. Pearl,” Soo-ching said.

  “How kind of you, Soo-ching!” Pearl cried.

  “Buddha blesses you, Pearl. You offered me a drop of water when I was dying of thirst. Now it is my turn to offer you a flowing creek.” Soo-ching turned to introduce her son. “Confucius, come and pay your respect.”

  Confucius, a stick-thin, cross-eyed boy, bowed to Pearl.

  With tears in their eyes, Pearl’s family, including Absalom, gathered. They followed Soo-ching and arrived at her thatched hut.

  The moment Soo-ching opened the door, mosquitoes came swarming out like brown balls. They targeted our faces, arms, and legs. Their buzzing was like ten erhus playing at the same time.

  “Everyone stays away because of the stink,” Soo-ching said.

  As soon as Pearl, Grace, Absalom, and the children had let themselves into the hut, Soo-ching moved bales of hay against the door to seal it shut and make it difficult to open. She brought buckets of donkey piss and slopped it on the hard-packed ground before the door.

  Papa showed up exhausted. He hadn’t been able to find any help. I asked what he’d done with Pearl’s letter. He told me that he had given it to Carpenter Chan. “He’ll find a boat if there is a boat to be found.”

  I was upset. “Pearl has been waiting for your return.”

  Papa said that it was time for us to think about our own survival. “Have you heard anything from your husband?” he asked. “I thought he would come to fetch you.”

  “Dick did send a message,” I said. “But who is going to help Pearl and her family?”

  “We have done our best,” Papa replied.

  “Why don’t you go and find yourself a hiding place?” I was disappointed.

  “I will.”

  I never anticipated what would happen next: Papa and I were kidnapped in broad daylight. Unable to resist a reward, an acquaintance sold Papa to the soldier mobs.

  The informer pointed at Papa. “This man knows exactly where the foreigners are hiding.”

  Papa and I realized that we were dealing with professional soldiers whose leader was a warlord we used to know, Bumpkin Emperor.

  It had been over twenty years since I had first met him. The man had gone from being a local warlord to becoming the commander of the Nationalist forces in our region. Bumpkin Emperor claimed that he had killed more foreigners than anyone else in the country. He was responsible for the dean’s death.

  The soldiers prepared to torture us. They wanted to know the hiding place of the foreigners. I clenched my teeth and prayed. The soldiers choked me with hot-pepper water until I passed out.

  * * *

  I woke to a clean room. Papa was sitting next to me.

  I sensed his nervousness and asked, “Papa, where are we?” I saw that his fingertips were wrapped in cloth bandages.

  “Have some water, Willow.” He passed me the cup.

  “No, Papa. Please, first explain what happened.”

  “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “Papa, what is going on?”

  “I made a deal, and we are both going to be released.”

  “Deal?” I stared at him. “What kind of deal? What did you do?”

  He avoided my eyes.

  “Speak, Papa!” I tried not to let my imagination run wild.

  “The important thing is that both of us are safe,” he insisted. “Look at you, blood all over. You could have lost your baby.”

  The possibility of what he might have done hit me.

  “Don’t tell me, Papa, you didn’t . . .” I stopped, realizing what must have happened.

  Papa lowered his head.

  “This can’t be! No! Papa, it mustn’t be . . .”

  Papa began to cry like a guilty child.

  I could feel my blood freeze in my veins.

  “I have committed a terrible crime.” Papa spoke in a small voice. “I deserve to go to hell.”

  I pulled at his arms and shook him. “No! You didn’t do it!”

  “They used sharpened bamboo splinters and shoved them under my fingernails.” He raised his hands and pulled off the cloth, revealing bloody fingers. “They said that they were going to kill you if I refused to cooperate.”

  “You told them where Absalom and Pearl were hiding?”

  Collapsing to his knees, Papa nodded.

  CHAPTER 23

  “There are no foreigners here!” Soo-ching and Confucius shouted as they tried to push the soldiers away from the hut.

  A crowd gathered and watched in fear.

  One soldier hit Soo-ching with the butt of his rifle. She stumbled back, dazed, and her nose started to bleed.

  Confucius jumped on the soldier and bit him.

  Other soldiers pulled Confucius off and kicked the boy in the stomach.

  Standing hidden in the crowd, Papa and I were ashamed and scared.

  “Let’s burn the hut,” one soldier suggested.

  The other soldiers agreed. “Let’s roast the foreigners!”

  “No!” Soo-ching screamed.

  The crowd moved forward. “There are no foreigners in the hut!” They began to push the soldiers.

  The sharp crack of a gunshot came. A man in a high-collared military uniform with bars on his shoulders strode through the crowd. It was Bumpkin Emperor. A row of bright gold buttons ran down the center of his jacket. Medals were pinned across his chest. His hat looked like a lotus pad.

  “Is there anyone here hungry for a bullet?” Bumpkin Emperor’s fat cheeks quivered.

  Soo-ching crawled to him and grabbed his legs. “Respected general,” she cried. “Please spare my home!”

  “Only if you produce the foreigners.” Bumpkin Emperor waved his pistol.

  “I know nothing of foreigners,” Soo-ching cried.

  “Mother of louses! How dare you lie to me?” Bumpkin Emperor slapped her face. He turned to his soldiers. “What are you idiots waiting for?”

  “Please!” Soo-ching pulled at Bumpkin Emperor’s arms.

  “You stinking female hog!” He kicked her. “Get off me!”

  The soldiers came. They removed the bales of hay from in front of the door.

  Bumpkin Emperor walked to the door and kicked it open.

  Soo-ching threw herself at Bumpkin Emperor’s feet. “I will die first before you burn my home!”

  Bumpkin Emperor walked away from Soo-ching and fired a shot at her.

  “Mother!” Confucius screamed.

  The soldiers pinned Soo-ching down, and she squirmed to be free.

  “You are going to have a lingering death, crazy lady!” Waving his pistol, Bumpkin Emperor ordered, “Skin the rabbit and set fire to the hut!”

  The soldiers started to tie Soo-ching with a rope.

  Lit straws were thrown on top of the roof.

  A voice came. “Stop in the name of God!”

  Absalom filled the opening at the door of the hut.

  Behind him stood Pearl, Grace, and the children.

  “Tie the foreigners,” Bumpkin Emperor ordered. “Line them up.”

  “Absalom!” Papa threw himself at Absalom’s feet.

  “Mr. Yee, my friend!”
Absalom replied.

  Papa slapped his cheeks with both hands. “I have betrayed you! I gave in to the torture! May God punish me.”

  Papa turned to Bumpkin Emperor and pleaded, “These foreigners have done China no wrong. They have been living with us all their lives. Look, this is Pearl. You remember her when she was a little girl? She was raised in Chin-kiang under your lordship . . .”

  “Stay away or you will die with them!” Bumpkin Emperor yelled.

  “Your lordship!” Papa cried.

  The soldiers dragged Papa away.

  Absalom, Pearl, Grace, and the children were lined up against the burning hut.

  I no longer knew where I was. All I could think about was Dick’s knife in a basket in my kitchen. My legs began to carry me home. I ran.

  When I returned, a larger crowd had gathered. Many of the people were from surrounding towns and villages, having sought refuge in our city from the chaos. They outnumbered the city folks. Among them were many who believed foreigners were China’s curse. They felt that the sooner we got rid of them, the better.

  I pushed my way through the crowd, shoving people aside to reach Bumpkin Emperor. My intent was to stab him.

  “You!” He saw me.

  I held back, hiding Dick’s knife under my shirt.

  Bumpkin Emperor was standing near where Absalom, Pearl, Grace, and the children had been lined up. While I had been gone, their hands had been tied behind their backs.

  I hoped I could reach Bumpkin Emperor before he shot me.

  “I’ll die first,” Absalom said in a calm voice. He looked at his daughters and grandchildren. “We will be with God.”

  Terrified, the crowd watched in silence.

  Absalom turned to face the crowd and started to sing.

  The greatest gift the world has known

  When the God of Glory

  Who is full of mercy

  Sent His Son

  Pearl, Grace, and the children joined him.

  Love has come

  Hope has begun

  Still a higher call

  Had He, deliverance from our sins

  “Master Absalom,” the Chinese Christians called out as they dropped to their knees and joined in the singing.