Skeleton Women

by Mingmei Yip

  Two days later, I wrote the magician a letter. A day later, she called me.

  “Camilla!” Her voice sounded excited. “What a coincidence! I was just about to call you, when I received your letter. It’s been such a long time.”

  “How have you been doing, and how’s your finger?”

  “It has healed pretty well. Except for a scar, it’s basically recovered.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. And once again, I apologize for the accident. I owe you, Shadow.”

  “Let’s forget about it, Camilla.” She paused, then asked, “How about yourself? You didn’t show up at the Bright Moon for quite a while. What happened?”

  Of course I was not going to tell her the truth, so I said, “I was just generally not feeling well. I guess it was the stress from our last show, my overwork, and my worry over harming you. So I decided to take a break.”

  “I wish I had your freedom and luxury,” she sighed.

  Freedom and luxury? A little while ago I would have laughed bitterly, but now I was beginning to feel something like hope and compassion, however slight. Shadow had far less than I, and was completely on her own.

  She sighed. “Even if I’m dying to work, there is no money.”

  Because of the failed knife-throwing show, I had insisted that we refund the audience. That had been intentional, so that she would remain poor.

  She went on. “Actually I tried to get sponsorship from Master Lung... .”

  “Did you go to see him?” I was perturbed that she had done this behind my back.

  “Yes. But I was turned away by his assistant, Mr. Zhu. He never even let me talk to his boss, not even over the phone, despite my reminding him that I am your friend. So one day I went straight to Master Lung’s place. But when I saw all the expensive cars parked at his place and the intimidating bodyguards, I felt hopeless and lost my nerve. Moments later I forced myself to be brave and walk back to the gate, but I was stopped by his very muscular guard, Gao. It was very scary. I felt he might shoot me if I refused to leave.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Shadow.”

  Some silence passed before she spoke again. “Camilla, since we’re friends ...”

  “Yes?”

  “I wonder if you could do me a favor.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve been thinking, since you’re Master Lung’s favorite woman, maybe ... if you wouldn’t mind asking him for me ...”

  I felt sorry for Shadow. She was no fool and must have realized that the “accident” with the knife-throwing was no accident. Yet she was asking for my help, anyway. That could only mean she had no one at all to turn to in her state of desperation. Suddenly it occurred to me that both of us would be better off as allies than as enemies. Fate had dropped us both into a city populated with people who would pay for their own pleasure but not to help anyone in trouble. As the proverb says, “They will add flowers to the rich’s brocade but not send coals to the needy on a frigid day.” They loved me singing in my brocade gown, but what if I were begging from them on the street? Then I thought of little Jinjin’s plaintive cries to me in my dream. Had I been any less heartless than Wang or Lung or Zhu or Rainbow?

  Shadow was even more alone than I was. But she had gone to Lung, and who knows what she would have done with him, had she had the chance? Though I felt some sympathy for her now, she might not feel the same for me. And who could blame her, considering what I had done to her? I was still in the dusty world where no one can completely relax their guard.

  If Shadow, or anyone, managed to steal Lung from me, Big Brother Wang would have me eliminated sooner rather than later. I realized that it was a mistake to have introduced her to Lung in the first place. But I didn’t have to compound my mistake by asking him to meet her again.

  So I said, my tone serious, “Shadow, Master Lung is in a very tense business deal with some Frenchmen, so I don’t think it’s a good time to ask.” I paused, then spoke again. “If the only problem is money, you don’t have to ask Lung. I can ask Mr. Ho to let us use the hall again.” I would tell Mr. Ho that Big Brother Wang wanted me to have the show. Though Ho was certainly not happy about how the last show had ended, he would not chance refusing anything Wang wanted.

  There was silence on the other line for a moment, then her voice rose, this time with a suspicious tone. “But why? Since our last show turned disastrous—”

  “Exactly. Because I want to make amends to you, to our audience, and to prove that no mistake would deter Camilla, the Heavenly Songbird, or Shadow, the great magician.” I paused again, this time for suspense. “Anyway, our last show was a great one, and you still have all your fingers. The blood made it that much more exciting.”

  She replied, her tone tainted with sarcasm, “Hmm ... you might be right. But maybe if you had sliced off my whole finger, the audience would have liked it even better!”

  “But I didn’t, and your finger is fine. I feel terrible about what I did. But, Shadow, can we set all that aside and do another show together?”

  I sensed hesitation on the other end, but I knew she’d agree. After all, she did not have much choice.

  “All right, then let’s meet soon to make plans.”

  Good. The Chinese say, “If you pay enough, you can make a dead man turn a millstone.” It’s always easy to work with someone who desperately needs money. Indeed, what can’t you do if you have enough money? If I were filthy rich, I could do filthy things, like hire an assassin to kill both Wang and Lung, then buy a first-class passage on a luxury ship to America. In a land far from China, I could boss around a slew of servants—maids, cook, drivers, bodyguards—and live like a queen. With enough money, Chinese or American wouldn’t matter.

  Shadow’s voice woke me from my reverie. “This will be our comeback together. I’ll do my best show—The Great Escape. I submerge myself in chains in a tank of water, then escape in less than the four minutes it would take for me to drown.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous?”

  “Camilla, you think letting you throw knives at me wasn’t dangerous?”

  I didn’t like her sarcasm but couldn’t blame her for it, either. “Can you really unlock yourself in time?”

  “Trust me.”

  So, despite our unfortunate debut show together, we plunged into preparing for our next one. However, one day a complication arose. Zhu called and told me that Lung didn’t want to see Shadow’s face in Shanghai anymore.

  Alarmed, I asked, “Mr. Zhu, why?”

  “You know Master Lung does everything for a reason.”

  I gripped the telephone hard as he continued. “He’s missing a jade dragon statue, one of his favorite fengshui decorations, and he knows Shadow stole it.”

  “Mr. Zhu, why does Lung think she took it?”

  Zhu’s voice was cold. “A while ago she came to Master Lung’s residence. So who else besides her?”

  But she never got inside. Besides, would Shadow be so stupid as to steal from Lung?

  As if he was reading my mind, Zhu’s tone grew even angrier. “As Master Lung said, ‘It must be Shadow. Who else can appear and disappear anywhere like a ghost? If she can make a whole castle disappear, for her to steal a small statue is as easy as flipping her hand!’ If you ask me, we should get rid of her. But Master Lung won’t have her killed if she gets out of Shanghai. Master Lung could have someone push her down from the Customs House tower, but this time she’d become a real corpse, ha-ha!”

  I waited anxiously for him to finish laughing.

  “But Master Lung said that since you and Shadow are like sisters, he’d spare her life for you. However, she has to disappear from Shanghai for good. And Master Lung has decided that you must be the one to tell her. Because you caused this by allowing her to meet Master Lung.”

  “But, Mr. Zhu, my new show will be totally ruined! She’s in it, and many tickets have been sold. If it is canceled, no one will come to my acts again. So please ask Master Lung to let me first finish my show with h
er.”

  “All right, I’ll see what I can do.” He grunted, then hung up.

  Twenty minutes later, Zhu called back. “Master Lung said you can do the show with her but only on one condition.”

  “What is it?”

  “That Shadow makes herself disappear after the show—forever. Ha-ha!”

  After I finished talking to the gangster, I thought for a few moments, then called Shadow to deliver the bad news. There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

  Then Shadow replied, “You know I’d never do anything to offend Master Lung! Besides, none of his people would let me inside his house, so how could I have the chance to steal?”

  I remained composed despite her obvious alarm. “Unfortunately no one can argue with Master Lung. Everyone knows that once he makes up his mind, he’ll never change it.”

  A long silence was followed by Shadow’s sobbing.

  When her sobbing subsided, she said, “Camilla, thanks for telling me. But should I just leave now without doing the show?”

  “I don’t think so. Because he’ll think you deliberately disobeyed him to make him lose face, and he will track you down. No magic, no matter how fantastic, can save you from Lung and his men.”

  She cried again. So I tried to comfort her, assuring her that by doing the show, at least she could make some money for her new life outside Shanghai.

  “Camilla, why are you trying to help me now?”

  “We’re friends, remember?” This time, I surprised myself, because I actually meant it.

  If Shadow suspected that I’d made up the whole thing, she didn’t show it. Of course even if I did, she still had to leave Shanghai, because the gangster head would get rid of her anyway.

  When I told Wang about the show, he agreed right away. Since my boss was still waiting for his rival’s protection star to shift, he was glad that I was doing something to bring in money.

  For this show, Shadow would be the star and I her assistant. I would be there mostly for decoration and to attract my fans; the physical work would be done by two male assistants. There were two reasons for me to be in the show: It would bring in some money, even though Wang would take most of it. But also, though I now felt sympathy for Shadow, given Lung’s animosity toward her, for both our sakes I needed to be sure that she really left afterward.

  Zhu told me that Lung was not coming, since he didn’t want to give Shadow face, even though he could see her disappear with his own eyes. I didn’t invite Jinying, for this time it was really Shadow’s show, not mine. To my great relief, Rainbow Chang declined my invitation, from what motive I had no idea. So it seemed that, for once, heaven would let me do my job without distraction.

  As expected, tickets were sold out. People, especially after the disaster of our first show, were eager to see us again; they would be equally entertained by a thrilling success or an embarrassing flop.

  On Sunday night, Shadow, in a black tunic outlining her shapely, muscular body, and I in my high-slit cheongsam, walked onto the stage to be greeted with thunderous applause. For a warm-up, I sang three of my most popular songs, and Shadow did some simple tricks. Then the orchestra struck up a rousing melody as a big glass water tank was pushed to the center of the stage. When the clapping died down, I demonstrated that the tank would be locked on top and showed them the stocks that would hold Shadow’s hands and feet.

  Then I made a sweeping gesture with my gloved hand. “Does anyone want to come up and check?”

  Immediately two girls in pink dresses dashed up onto the stage. They put their hands into the tank to stir the water, knocked on the glass, tugged at the locks, then smiled with satisfaction.

  “So you’re happy with what you saw and touched?” I asked, realizing that they were pink ladies from Rainbow Chang’s entourage.

  They nodded.

  “You can tell our audience that this is the real thing?”

  They answered “Yes” simultaneously, then went back to their seats.

  The music now shifted to an eerie mood as the lights dimmed and the audience grew quiet.

  I locked chains onto the hands and ankles of a pale-looking Shadow. I could not tell if this was the effect of the dim lights or her fear of another disaster. Right after I finished, the two male assistants lifted her up and, with a loud swoosh, released her headfirst into the tank, where she could be seen wriggling like a huge fish.

  I closed the lock, then, smiling mysteriously, asked the audience, “Do you all see Miss Shadow in the water?”

  A collective answer burst from the crowd. “Yes!”

  Someone yelled, “She is beautiful, like a mermaid!”

  After making sure that everyone had a good view of the aquatic Shadow, I draped a black cloth over it. Gasps and whispers were ejected here and there, and everyone started to count, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ...” with me.

  Three minutes passed, and I, with another dramatic wave of my arm, lifted the cloth.

  To my astonishment, Shadow had not disappeared as we’d rehearsed but was struggling spasmodically to get out of the tank! The music stopped abruptly. Her two male assistants, armed with axes, rushed onto the stage. They struck at the glass relentlessly till finally cracks formed a spidery pattern through which the water eerily oozed like colorless blood.

  When the glass finally shattered, the magician’s body washed out onto the stage and did not move. What the two men fussed over was now but the magician’s lifeless shadow!

  A huge commotion burst out in the hall.

  “Is she dead?”

  “Call an ambulance!”

  Women covered their faces and screamed hysterically. Children cried, and teenagers giggled. People in the front, splashed by the water and hit by shards of glass, tried to push their way out toward the exit. Others pushed them back, probably eager to get nearer to the stage so they could get a closer look at the dying magician or her corpse. Shadow’s two assistants swiftly carried her backstage away from the crowd.

  I yelled, “Please stay calm! An ambulance is on its way!” but to deaf ears.

  Unable to placate the audience, I went backstage to check on Shadow. But I received yet another shock—the magician and her staff were nowhere to be found! Had the two men taken her body away for some obscure purpose? Or was this another of Shadow’s astounding illusions? Of course I knew she planned to leave Shanghai, but it was not the plan that she would drown, thus setting off a near-riot in the hall. Now that she was gone, I was left alone to face the angry audience, the sensationalizing press, my damaged reputation, and possibly severe rebukes from Ho and Wang.

  The following day, all the major newspapers reported about our second disastrous show.

  Rainbow Chang’s column read:

  A Shadow in the Shade

  Last night there was a BIG surprise at the Bright Moon Nightclub.

  In what was billed as The Great Escape, Camilla, the Heavenly Songbird, locked her magician friend, Shadow, hand and foot upside down inside a water tank. Shadow was supposed to disappear from the tank while it was covered with a curtain.

  But the stunt went horribly wrong. When our Heavenly Songbird lifted the drape, instead of an empty tank, the audience saw a drowning Shadow. Her assistants chopped through the glass, but the magician showed no signs of life and was quickly carried offstage.

  Since then, she has not been seen. Is she in the shadowy next world with the great magicians of the past? Or did she make herself disappear, just as she once did with a castle?

  We wonder: Is Shadow dead or alive? If dead, where is her corpse? If alive, where is Shadow? Maybe the disaster was but another stunning magic show?

  We Shanghainese are more and more mystified by this singer-magician duo. With them, whatever seems real turns out to be fake, and what seems fake may be real.

  We hope that a living Shadow will come back from this fantasy. Until then, we miss her. Does our Camilla know the truth? We hope she will let us in on the secret.

/>   More to follow... .

  Rainbow Chang

  I had spent the night tossing sleeplessly; then reading Rainbow’s column made me even more confused. Pacing restlessly in my apartment, I noticed an envelope slipped under the door. When I opened the door, there was no one to be seen, so it must have been put there during the night. I picked it up, opened it and read:

  My dear friend Camilla,

  As you might have guessed, I am alive, and I did this trick on purpose. Why not? I’m as beautiful and talented as you, so why should heaven favor you over me? Now you know what it is like to be upstaged.

  Yes, I am jealous; that’s why I wrecked the show. Now we’re even. You sliced my finger; I ruined your show.

  Anyway, you told me I had to disappear, and so I did. Just not in the way you expected.

  Just when I was getting famous in Shanghai, I am forced to leave. It’s really not fair.

  I swore I’d never go back to my hometown in Shandong, where there is nothing but poverty. But as we Chinese say, “As long as we don’t destroy the mountains, we’ll always have firewood to burn.”

  We will meet again in this lifetime, but I won’t say when. We might need each other someday—who knows? Everything changes, as we both know well.

  Something dropped from the envelope as I continued reading.

  Here’s your ring. I won’t need it where I am going. I don’t know where Master Lung’s jade is, but I did not steal it.

  Your Shadow

  I stooped down, picked up the ring, and slipped it onto my finger, suddenly feeling a wave of loneliness. I had been planning and scheming to get rid of Shadow for such a long time, but now that she was really gone, I felt a loss. And I wondered, what was my most worthy rival up to? Would she live out her life in anonymity? Or was she plotting another spectacular comeback?

  Though I had wanted to be rid of her for so long, now I realized I would miss our pretended friendship—and our feuds.