Mulberry and Peach

by Hualing Nieh

  ‘Just what I was thinking!’ As soon as the old man gets excited, he starts coughing. ‘You should live each day as it comes. I still have four bottles of liquor in my suitcase. I was going to give it to friends in Chungking. To hell with them, let’s drink now.’ He opens a bottle, gulps down a few swallows and strips off his coarse cotton jacket. He bares his chest. A few hairs stick out of his armpits.

  The five of us crowd together in a circle. Lao-shih has ignored me all day. I want to sit next to her on the bunk, but I also want to sit beside Refugee Student. In the end I squeeze in between them. We pass the bottle around the circle. I’ve never drunk liquor before. I gulp down several swallows in one breath. My face burns. My heart pounds. My left hand rests on Lao-shih’s shoulder and my right on Refugee Student’s shoulder.

  We put the dice in a porcelain bowl in the middle of the circle.

  I raise my hand and shout, ‘I’ll be the dealer!’

  ‘I’ll be the dealer.’

  ‘I’ll be the dealer.’

  ‘I’ll be the dealer.’

  ‘I’ll be the dealer.’

  ‘Let’s decide by the finger-guessing game. Two people play; the winner gets a drink; then plays the next person. The last one to win gets to be dealer!’

  ‘Let’s begin. Two sweethearts!’

  ‘Four season’s wealth!’

  ‘Six in a row!’

  ‘Lucky seven!’

  ‘Pair of treasures!’

  ‘Four season’s wealth!’

  ‘Three sworn brothers.’

  ‘Pair of treasures!’

  ‘Eight immortals!’

  ‘Six in a row!’

  ‘One tall peak!’

  ‘Four season’s wealth!’

  ‘Lucky seven!’

  ‘All accounted for!’

  ‘Three sworn brothers!’

  ‘Six in a row!’

  ‘Pair of treasures!’

  ‘Eight immortals!’

  ‘Lucky seven!’

  ‘I win, I win,’ yells Peach-flower Woman. ‘I’m the dealer. Place your bets.’

  ‘OK. Fifty dollars!’

  ‘Sixty!’

  ‘Seventy!’

  ‘Eighty!’

  ‘Another seventy!’

  ‘Another eighty!’

  Peach-flower Woman laughs. ‘You just bet more and more. I haven’t got that kind of money. If I win, I get to be the dealer again. If I lose, I’ll give up. I get first crack at this!’ She grabs the dice and throws them into the bowl with a flourish.

  They spin in the bowl.

  I take a drink. I see several dice spinning crazily in the bowl.

  ‘Five points! The dealer has got five points!’

  ‘I only want six points, not a single point more!’ The old man cups the dice in his hands, blows on them, and then his hands open slowly like a mussel shell opening.

  The dice spin in the bowl.

  He bends over, glaring at the dice and yelling, ‘Six points, six points! Six points! Six points . . . oh, three points.’ He lifts Peach-flower Woman’s hand and sticks the bottle in it. She takes a drink. She’s still holding the bottle and he lifts her hand and puts the bottle in his mouth. He pulls her toward him with his free arm and presses her face against his naked chest. He strokes her face. He finishes off the liquor with one gulp and sucks on the empty bottle like a baby.

  ‘Sir, men and women should not mix. The booze is all gone. I don’t have anything for you either. You are supposed to be respectable. You shouldn’t touch a woman’s body like this,’ laughs Peach-flower Woman as she struggles out of his embrace and straightens up. Her chignon comes undone and hair straggles across her chest. The buttons of her blouse pop open, exposing most of her breasts.

  The dice click as they spin.

  ‘Six points! Six points! Six points! I only want six points!’ Lao-shih yells, rolling on the bunk.

  I roll next to her, turn over and climb on her back, as if riding a horse, bumping up and down as if keeping time. I yell with her: ‘Six points! Six points! Six points! Six points! Six points! If you keep on ignoring me, I won’t let you go. Six points! Six points!’

  She suddenly stops yelling, yanks me off and rolls over on the bunk and grabs me. Our faces press together, legs curl round each other, rolling this way and that. She mumbles. ‘If you ignore me, I won’t let you go. If you ignore me, I won’t let you go.’

  ‘Four points,’ yells Peach-flower Woman. ‘You got four points, Lao-shih! OK, Mulberry, it’s your turn.’

  I struggle out of Lao-shih’s embrace, roll over to the circle and stuff the dice in my mouth. I spit them out into the bowl. ‘Six points, come on, six points! Six points! Six points!’ Refugee Student is sprawled beside me on the bunk. I pound on his hip with my fist. ‘Six points! Six, six, six, six points. How many? How many did I get?’

  ‘Five points. The dealer also got five. The dealer wins!’ Another bottle of liquor is passed around.

  Refugee Student sits up, grasps the dice with his toes and tosses them into the bowl. He looks at me and begins singing in a flirtatious way. The dice, as if minding their own business, clatter in the bowl.

  Wind blows through the window

  My body is cool

  The willow tree whistles in the wind

  Lovers behind the gauze curtain

  I have a husband, but we’re not in love

  Ai-ya-ya-erh-oh!

  Ai-ya-ya-erh-oh!

  ‘Too bad, you lose. You only got three points.’ Peach-flower Woman smiles at Refugee Student. With one sweep she rakes in the money.

  She beat all of us.

  We place larger and larger bets. In the end, we take out all our money and valuables and place them down. Lao-shih and I share our money. We have only two hundred dollars left in our purse. I put down the two hundred dollars. She puts down the purse. The old man bets his gold watch. Refugee Student bets his flute.

  We lose again. Refugee Student wins twenty dollars, the price of the flute. He proposes that we change dealers. The three losers all agree. Of course, he gets to be the dealer. In any case, since he’s won once already, he’s probably the only one who can beat Peach-flower Woman. But the three of us losers don’t have anything else to bet.

  ‘I have an idea,’ says Refugee Student. ‘We play only one more game. This time it will be a game of life or death. Everyone take out his most prized possession. If you don’t have anything, then bet yourself. I’m the dealer. If I win, I’ll take things, if there are any. If not, I’ll take people!’

  ‘And what if you lose?’

  ‘All I’ve got is myself, you can do what you want with my body, cut it in two, chop it up, lick it, kiss it, fuck it.’

  ‘Good Heavens!’ laughs Peach-flower Woman, as she looks at her baby asleep on the bunk. ‘My most valuable possession is my son.’

  Refugee Student leans over to her and says in a low voice, which everyone can overhear: ‘Your most valuable possession is your body.’

  The old man chuckles. ‘What you say sounds reasonable. I’ll bet my house in Peking. If you win, you can go back and take possession. I hope to retire there once the war is over.’

  ‘I’ll bet my family heirloom!’ I yell as I step over to the ‘Girls’ Dormitory’ and fish out the jade griffin from the little leather case by my pillow and return to the ‘Boys’ Dormitory’. ‘Hey, everybody, this is my family heirloom.’

  The old man’s eyes suddenly light up. He tries to take it out of my hand. Refugee Student snatches it first and holds out his hand, staring at me. ‘Are you going to bet this piece of junk?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I’d rather have you! A sixteen-year-old virgin!’

  Lao-shih jerks me behind her and thrusts out her chest. ‘Hey, Refugee Student, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll bet this person here! If I win, you get out of my way! If you win, I’ll get out of your way. You know what you did.’

  ‘What did I do?’

  ‘Mulberry, did you he
ar what he just said.’

  ‘I heard. So what did I do?’

  ‘Did you hear what she said, Miss Shih?’ Refugee Student says. ‘Two negatives make a positive. They cancel each other out. OK, everybody, back to your places. I won’t steal your precious treasure. So what are you going to bet? Speak up!’

  ‘I don’t have anything. I have only myself.’

  ‘OK, if I win, I’ll know what to do to you,’ Refugee Student leans over to Lao-shih and stares greedily into her eyes.

  ‘Drink up! Come on and drink. It’s the last half bottle.’ The old man raises the bottle to his lips.

  We pass the bottle around. The liquor is gone. The dice click.

  We shout.

  ‘One, two, three.’

  ‘One, two, three.’

  ‘Four, five, six.’

  ‘Four, five, six.’

  ‘One, two, three.’

  ‘One point!’

  ‘OK, it’s one point.’

  ‘Come on, be good, be good, another one!’

  ‘Be good, be good, don’t listen to him. Let’s have a two.’

  ‘OK, four points, great, the dealer got only four points.’

  The dice click again.

  ‘Five points! Five points! Five points. Hey, you little beauties, did you hear me, I only want one more point than that bastard. Keep my house in Peking for myself. Five points. Five points, please, five points . . . Ah! You fuckin’ dice, you did it, you did it! Five points!’

  The dice click again.

  ‘Five points, five points, five points, I don’t want any more, don’t want any less, just give me five points. Good Heavens, let me win just this once in my life. Just this once. Only five points, only five points. Have they stopped? How many did I get? Six points, six points, thank Heavens.’

  Everything is floating in front of my eyes. I feel the boat floating underfoot, everyone, everything is floating. The jade griffin is floating. It’s my turn, they tell me. I grab the dice and throw them in the bowl. I get a six. They tell me I only picked up two dice and want me to throw again. Lao-shih stuffs the cubes in my hand. I can’t hold on to them, they slip from my hand into the bowl. I hear Lao-shih moaning, ‘It’s over, it’s over.’

  Dealer, Refugee Student: Four points

  Old man: Five points

  Lao-shih: Six points

  Mulberry: Three points

  Peach-flower Woman: Four points

  ‘Dealer, I beat you by one point!’ says the old man. ‘You little punk, I want you to kneel before me and bow three times and kowtow nine times. Nine loud thumps of your head.’

  Refugee Student kneels down on the bunk.

  ‘No, no,’ says the old man, crossing his legs on the bunk like a bodhisattva statuette. ‘Haven’t you ever seen your old man pray to his ancestor? Did he ever kneel on a bunk and kowtow to his ancestors that way? Humph. You have to kneel properly on the floor. Knock your head against the floor so I can hear it!’

  Refugee Student jumps down from the bunk into the aisle and bends down.

  ‘Hey, you punk, just slow down a little. Have you ever seen anyone kowtowing half-naked? Go put your clothes on!’

  Refugee Student grinds his teeth.

  Lao-shih, Peach-flower Woman and I burst into laughter.

  He puts on his shirt, squeezes down in the narrow aisle between the two rows of bunks.

  The old man sits erect on the bunk, strokes his beard and raises his voice like a master of ceremonies, ‘First kowtow, second kowtow, third kowtow.’

  Refugee Student stands up, bends and bows with uplifted hands, then kneels back down. ‘Fourth kowtow, fifth kowtow, sixth kowtow!’ He gets up again and bows and kneels back down. ‘Seventh kowtow, eighth kowtow, ninth kowtow. Ceremony finished.’

  Refugee Student scrambles to his feet and points at me. ‘I beat you by one point. It’s time to settle with you.’

  ‘That’s easy. You won, take the jade griffin.’ I pick it up and give it to him.

  He doesn’t take it and just looks at me. ‘What would I do with that? I’m a wanderer. All I want is a pair of grass sandals, a bag of dried food, and a flute. This jade griffin is nothing but a burden. Anyway,’ his voice becomes oddly tender, ‘I owe you something. I’ll repay you by giving back your jade griffin.’

  ‘You don’t owe me anything. You said yourself, “two negatives make a positive.” I don’t owe you anything either.’ As I’m talking, I try to put the jade griffin in his hand. I’m sure I’m holding it securely, but when I raise my hand, it slips through my fingers and falls. I let out a cry.

  The griffin breaks in two on the floor.

  The old man picks up the two halves and fits them together. It looks as if they’re still one piece.

  ‘All right, we’ll do it this way. You take one half, I’ll take the other,’ Refugee Student says and stuffs one half into my hand.

  ‘OK, problem solved,’ Lao-shih rubs her palms together and noisily grinds her teeth. ‘Now, I get to settle with the dealer. I’m the real winner; I beat the dealer by two points. I only wanted the satisfaction of beating you. I won’t cut you in two or chop you up. I won’t chew on you. I only want you to dress up like a girl and sing the Flower Drum Song.’

  ‘Good idea.’ I also want to get even with him. I toss my half of the jade griffin into the opposite bunk.

  The three of us, Lao-shih, Peach-flower Woman and myself, strip off his clothes, leaving only his underpants. I remember when he lay naked on the deck, his weight on my body, head hanging over my shoulder, my thighs wet and sticky. I’m still a little sore there. I couldn’t stop caressing his body, like a rock in the sun, so smooth, warm, hard. So a man’s body was that nice. I wished I could stroke him forever, but when he used all his strength to push into my body, it hurt. How could Peach-flower Woman sleep with her man every night? And even have a baby? I don’t see how she could bear the pain.

  We dress him in Peach-flower Woman’s clothes. He wears the peach flower blouse, blue print pants, a turban of a blue-flowered print wound around his head, two red spots painted on his cheeks, his masculine eyebrows thick and black.

  He daintily folds his muscular hands and curtsies. He picks up Peach-flower Woman’s red handkerchief and dances with it like a woman, twisting, turning and singing.

  You say life is hard

  My life is hard

  Looking for a good husband all my life

  Other girls marry rich men

  My husband can only play the flower drum.

  The old man, sitting on the bunk, laughs until he has a coughing fit. Lao-shih, Peach-flower Woman and I roll with laughter on the bunk.

  Suddenly Refugee Student leaps on the bunk and jumps on Lao-shih. ‘If you ignore me, I won’t let you go! I’m your girl. You have to give me a kiss!’ He presses his mouth to hers and strokes all over her body. Lao-shih begins choking and can’t speak.

  I tackle him to save Lao-shih. ‘Good, I’ve got you both!’ He turns over and grabs us both, one on each side, arms locked around our necks, holding us down. ‘You come here, too,’ he says to Peach-flower Woman. ‘I can put you on my chest.’ Lao-shih and I beat on his chest with our fists.

  He suddenly lets go and rolls over to Peach-flower Woman. He stretches up his hands to her, fingers curled like claws and moves closer and closer to her, saying, ‘Now, I am going to settle with you!’

  She laughs, her blouse still unbuttoned, straggling hair on her breasts. ‘What do you want? Take all the money I’ve won?’

  ‘Me? I want you!’

  She points a finger at him. ‘Let me ask you, are you man enough to deal with me?’

  ‘If he isn’t, I am,’ chuckles the old man.

  Refugee Student doesn’t say anything. He rips open her blouse and jumps on her, grabs one of her breasts and begins to suck on it. The old man jumps over and grabs her other breast.

  She laughs, her full breasts shaking. ‘Do anything you want with my poor old body. Just don’t take away my baby�
��s food. My milk is almost gone!’

  The baby on the bunk starts to cry.

  She shoves them aside and goes to pick up the baby.

  ‘I have an idea. I still have two cigarettes. Be my guest.’ Refugee Student gropes in his pocket and pulls out two cigarettes - The Dog with a Human Head brand - and steps over to Peach-flower Woman.

  She is lying on the bunk nursing her child. Refugee Student lights a cigarette, grabs Peach-flower Woman’s right foot and sticks it between her toes. He presses his face against her sole and smokes, his two hands holding her foot.

  The old man does the same with her left foot.

  She lies flat on her back, her limbs flung out as the child clutches her breast and sucks loudly and the two men hold her feet and suck on the cigarettes.

  She laughs and jerks back and forth. ‘You devils, you’re tickling me. You sex fiends. When you die, you’ll get what’s coming to you.’

  ‘Listen, listen. The bombers are coming back.’ I hear the droning of aircraft.

  We sit up stiffly in our bunks.

  The roar comes toward us.

  It’s twilight in the Gorge, the time when day can’t be distinguished from night, or clear dusk from a cloudy day.

  The captain and the crew are in the bow.

  ‘Hey, the bombers are coming. Come and hide in the cabin. Don’t endanger everybody’s lives!’ shouts the old man.

  No response.

  ‘Look at that,’ says the captain, ‘three planes in each formation. Nine altogether.’

  ‘Motherfuckers, those traitors. Only traitors aren’t scared of bombers.’ Refugee Student gnashes his teeth.

  A boat comes downstream. People on board are yelling. Gongs are crashing.

  The bombers are overhead. We sprawl on the bunks. I cover my head with the quilt, the rest of my body exposed.

  The yelling, the gong, the roar of the planes get louder.

  ‘I can’t hear you,’ the captain is shouting to the people on the other boat, ‘say it again.’

  Shouting, gongs, bombers.

  ‘The Japanese have surrendered!’ the captain finally yells.