Little Paradise

by Gabrielle Wang

  They had been married a month after JJ had come back to Shanghai from his village. The dress Mirabel had designed for herself was not the long white lace gown and bridal veil of tulle, but a long red gown in taffeta that rustled and shimmered when she walked. It was sleeveless with a low neckline. She wore her hair swept up at the front and the sides, with small pearl earrings to offset her dark hair. As soon as she tried the dress on and looked at herself in the mirror, she knew. After all these years she had finally found it, that one perfect dress that brought out who she really was – Mirabel, dress designer, wife of JJ, mother of the most beautiful boy in the world and the happiest person alive.

  The morning of their wedding had been steamy. A typhoon several days before had brought driving rain and winds to the city, offering some welcome relief from the stifling heat. But Mirabel had barely noticed the weather as they rode in the car borrowed from her work to the church on Bubbling Well Road.

  Jin Yu was best man and Stefan, Max and Rachel were witnesses. They stood in front of the altar, the sun streaming through the stained-glass windows behind the minister’s head, the organ softly humming. JJ, still thin from his time in the countryside, had looked so handsome in his borrowed suit and tie. The service was performed in English by a Chinese minister and Mirabel smiled when he said, ‘to have and to hoard from this day forward.’

  JJ had been practising the lines all week and repeated, ‘to have and to hold from this day forward’ as he looked into her eyes.

  After the wedding they went dancing at the Paramount Ballroom, Mirabel taking it in turns to dance with JJ and Jin Yu. Watching the two brothers joking and reminiscing over their childhood saddened Mirabel when she thought of her own relationship with Lola. Even though Jin Yu’s politics often got in the way of brotherliness, she knew that no matter how hard they argued, the love between them would always be there – no bond was stronger than family, JJ always said.

  Then they returned to their mansion.

  JJ told her that next door had once belonged to the infamous traitor Wang Ching-wei. Only six or seven years before that, it had housed a brothel, an opium den and gambling rooms, all run by the Japanese. Now it was quiet and dark.

  Mirabel and JJ were lucky. They had two rooms on the top floor with a balcony overlooking next door’s immense garden. The other families had moved in after them, and had been forced to squeeze into one room each, just to have a roof over their heads. The tenants on the second floor, Mr and Mrs Tan, lived in their room with two children and a servant girl. Mrs Tan had been the daughter of a wealthy family, and still carried the airs and graces of a person used to living in high style. But she and her husband had fallen on hard times recently. Mr Tan was a squat, frog-faced man. Mirabel’s skin crawled when he stared at her, which he did every chance he got.

  There were some drawbacks to having the top floor, Mirabel had to admit, as she dumped the brush into the bucket of dirty soapy water and rose stiffly to her feet. The water problem, for instance. There was no running water. Buckets had to be filled from the tap in the garden and hauled up two flights of stairs for drinking, cooking and flushing the toilet. And bathing, of course.

  One day, Mirabel had found a metal baby bath that was still in good condition out on the street. After a vigorous scrub and a disinfecting rinse with water boiled on the smelly kerosene stove, she used it to give Bao Bao a warm bath each night.

  It had been so cold until the last month or so. Mirabel had found a fur coat to wear outside, but often ended up wearing it to bed as well. She smiled to herself. Mama would have been shocked if she knew the conditions they were living in, but Mirabel had been sure to write only about the good things. The mansion part, for example. This was their home, hers and JJ’s, and she loved it.

  She wrote as often as she could to Rose and Eva. She told them about Bao Bao and JJ and how happy she was; about the teahouses where the poets and writers gathered, the painting shop with its paper and brushes, and the old narrow laneways where, if you stood still for one long moment, a story might unfold before your eyes. One day, she wrote, she was shopping at the market when she saw a lady sitting in a rickshaw, arguing with the rickshaw man. They had stopped in the middle of an intersection. The lady was dressed in an immaculate maroon qi pao, her hair groomed shiny and sleek, her face thin and imperious. After several minutes of arguing back and forth, a crowd had gathered. Finally, the rickshaw-puller gave up. He shook his head and simply let go of the two rickshaw poles that pointed forward, and the whole contraption flipped backward. Two skinny legs flailed in the air in time with the outraged screams of the haughty rich lady.

  Still smiling at the memory, Mirabel put away the bucket and brush, and went to the bedroom. She washed, then put on her favourite qi pao for work. It was a beautiful jersey-knit fabric: bright green with purple flowers. She hurried to put on her high heels. It was almost time for the driver from the office to arrive to pick her up. She hung her old clothes in the closet, away from her other set of good clothes: the blue satin dress with black beading on the bodice and matching jacket, and the fur-lined mid-calf boots that she wore in winter.

  Edward had found Mirabel a job at a huge international firm, Murchison, Glass & Co, right on the Bund. It was clerical work, filing and letter writing, but she loved it. Only a month in though, JJ discovered that it had first made its fortune selling opium to the Chinese. When the Emperor had ordered the drugs be confiscated and destroyed, the company had been one of several that influenced the British government to start the Opium Wars.

  ‘They were drug dealers!’ JJ had shouted.

  ‘But, the money I earn – ’

  ‘These were the people who brought foreign armies into China!’

  ‘That was a hundred years ago. They don’t do it anymore. Now it is shipping, real estate, insurance, things like that …’ She had trailed off as he left the room.

  It had been their first fight. JJ was sullen for days but Mirabel refused to give in. The simple fact was, she enjoyed going to work, dressing up, and having a driver.

  Gradually, JJ had admitted that they needed the money. He was a practical man after all.

  ‘Goodbye, my little darling.’ Mirabel hugged Bao Bao and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Be good for Ah San.’

  Now that she was working, she needed to employ two servants, Ah San to look after Bao Bao, and Ah Ning to cook and clean. Help in Shanghai was cheaper than ever as conditions in the countryside worsened. Warlords, drought, bandits and rebellion had caused chaos and thousands of refugees were streaming into the city every day.

  The car arrived, and the driver jumped out and ran around to open the door for her. She sat in the back seat, shifting slightly to ease down the tight qi pao where it had bunched up under her. It was an interesting design. The slit up the side was the only reason the dress could be so tight but still be comfortable. And the high stiff collar elongated the neck, making the body appear taller and more elegant. She crossed her legs and sat back as the car pulled into the empty street. The traffic would congeal, she knew, when they left the International Settlement.

  She was paid only local wages, the equivalent of seventeen Australian pounds a week, and despite JJ’s fits of conscience their lives were much happier now that a regular stream of money was coming in.

  For his part, JJ had revealed an unexpected talent for imaginative business. He had been busy buying old army parachutes and using the silk to make undergarments. He hired women to sew them, and had Stefan sell them at the market. He named them ‘DDT Brand’ after the new miracle chemical that he had seen reduce malaria in the army. By spraying areas with DDT, it killed the mosquitoes that carried the disease. Science would solve everything, eventually, he had told her.

  But even though the money was steady, Mirabel thought, as she looked at the slightly tattered uniform hat of the company driver sitting in front of her, there was still one problem. The same money bought less and less every week. Because of the war, the rate of inflation was in
credible. Meat was too expensive to have often, so twice a week Mirabel bought only four ounces of pork and one egg for Bao Bao while she and JJ and the two servants lived on fish. That at least was still cheap, fresh and easy to come by.

  The streets flashed by outside the car window, but she wasn’t looking. She smiled to herself. Bao Bao was two years old now and running around on sturdy little legs. He loved riding on JJ’s shoulders along the alleyways of Shanghai, his head high above the crowd, or being taken to the park to chase a soccer ball. He was an easy-going little boy and could understand Shanghainese, Mandarin and English, and a little German taught to him by Frieda and Lottie. The rooms of their modest home were always filled with laughter. Rose had sent her some children’s books and every night Mirabel would read to Bao Bao. His favourite book was Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. When he saw the Banksia men he would point and frown, saying, ‘Ba man, ba man.’

  They pulled up outside the stately main entrance to Murchison, Glass & Co and Mirabel got out. The turbaned Sikh guard with the huge shotgun and bushy beard smiled at her. He lifted his shotgun to ‘present-arms’ position in front of him, as he always did when she entered the building. It was their little joke. He was only supposed to do that for the big bosses. But they never came to Shanghai anymore. She winked at him.

  As she climbed the stairs and made for her desk, Mirabel shook her head. So much had happened in the last year, and all of it – all of it – was good. She had dared to do what she had not even imagined possible: she had found her love, and had made a home with him, and their son, in China – land of her ancestors.

  Exodus

  Mirabel heard the scamper of footsteps and a loud knock at the door. She went to open it and smiled when she saw Rachel and the girls standing there. ‘If it isn’t my two little terrors,’ she said and bent down to give each girl a big hug. ‘You two look so beautiful.’

  ‘They love the dresses you designed, Mirabel. They have been dying to show you,’ Rachel said.

  ‘Where is Bao Bao?’ Frieda asked. When she saw Bao Bao running up to her she cried, ‘Komm her, Bao Bao.’

  ‘Ja, komm her,’ Lottie repeated.

  Mirabel and Rachel smiled at each other. The three children had become such good friends. They were like brother and sisters and it warmed Mirabel’s heart whenever she saw them together. But in just two short days the Hartmann family would be leaving Shanghai forever. And this was the last time they would meet for a very long while.

  ‘It is so good to see you,’ Rachel said. ‘And Max says hello.’

  Mirabel blinked back tears. She couldn’t imagine what life in Shanghai would be like without the Hartmanns. They had been her family away from home and she would never forget their kindness. ‘Come in and tell me what you’ve been doing,’ she said, ushering them inside.

  Rachel immediately went over to a table by the balcony doors that Mirabel had set up to do her painting on. It was laid out with pencils, paints and paintbrushes. ‘Are you working on anything at the moment?’

  ‘An engagement dress for a girl at work,’ Mirabel replied, turning a page of the painting book to show Rachel.

  Rachel looked admiringly at the painting. ‘You must open a shop one day, Mirabel.’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  Since she and JJ had moved into a place of their own, Mirabel had designed a number of outfits. There was the birthday dress for Rachel’s thirtieth, a cocktail dress for Chrissy, and of course her own red wedding gown that hung on the back of the bedroom door.

  Rachel turned away from Mirabel’s drawing table. ‘I wanted to get some cakes at Cafe Bonheur but it has closed down,’ she said.

  Mirabel looked shocked. ‘But why? They always had such good business!’

  ‘I found out they are leaving too.’

  After a silence, Mirabel said, ‘You must be looking forward to setting up a proper home for yourselves.’

  ‘It has been six years that we have lived as refugees.’ Rachel reached out her hand to touch Mirabel. ‘But I am so sad to leave you here in Shanghai all alone.’

  ‘It’s all right. I have JJ and Bao Bao, that is all that matters. And Edward and Chrissy aren’t going anywhere. And of course there’s Stefan. And it’s not as if we won’t ever see each – ’

  ‘Oh, didn’t Stefan tell you? His visa came through. He is coming to Australia with us.’

  This was a blow. Mirabel tried to hide her disappointment but her voice shook when she said, ‘That’s wonderful news.’

  ‘Ma, look, bow wow,’ Bao Bao said, smiling as he appeared pulling along a toy dog by a string.

  ‘We bought at the market,’ said Frieda. ‘Bao Bao likes it.’

  ‘Did you say thank you to Frieda and Lottie?’ Mirabel said.

  ‘Tankoo,’ Bao Bao said, and ran off to the bedroom giggling, the toy dog squeaking behind him.

  ‘Haizi men, chi fan le! Come and eat,’ Ah Ning called out as she brought steaming dumplings to the table.

  ‘Do you and JJ see much of Jin Yu?’ Rachel asked, helping Lottie pick up a slippery dumpling.

  ‘He has business in the countryside, so he’s not in Shanghai that often. But when he is, he always comes over.’ Mirabel had kept Jin Yu’s work with the Communist underground a secret from Max and Rachel. She knew how dangerous and precarious his position was in the city.

  ‘I have a special surprise for you two girls,’ Mirabel said, getting up from the table. She came back with parcels wrapped in brown paper.

  ‘What is it?’ Frieda asked, her eyes sparkling.

  Lottie stared at the presents. ‘Can I please to open mine?’ she asked.

  Mirabel nodded.

  Frieda and Lottie sat on the floor and untied the string. Inside the parcels were two matching sundresses.

  ‘Oh,’ Frieda said. ‘They are beautiful.’

  ‘Let’s try them on,’ cried Lottie.

  The girls went running into the bedroom with Bao Bao bounding after them.

  Rachel wiped away tears. ‘You have made the girls so happy.’ She stood up and hugged Mirabel. ‘I hope we see each other soon.’

  The wharf was teeming with people. Mirabel saw the girls first, jumping up and down and waving at her.

  She held tight to the end of the streamers as she leant against JJ for comfort. He put his arm around her, squeezing her gently, not saying a word. Bao Bao held a little Chinese flag and waved it in the air as the boat pulled away from the wharf. He was excited at seeing the huge ship with its smoking funnel, and when it blew its horn, he pointed, saying, ‘Big boat, say oooohh.’

  As they walked back home along the Bund, the streets seemed empty to Mirabel even though there were hundreds of people milling around her. There would no longer be any need for her to go to the French Concession or visit Stefan in the colourful market district of Hongkew.

  All at once the old familiar Shanghai had grown colder.

  October, 1948

  Dear Mirabel,

  Thank you, little sister, for the stockings, the perfume and the beautiful dress you sent me. You sound as if you are having a wonderful time in Shanghai.

  My new boyfriend, William, see photo enclosed, said I look like a movie star in it. Will’s a sailor and so dreamily handsome. I’ve decided I want to get into the fashion industry so I’m working in a hairdressing salon. I have to work long hours and it’s mostly sweeping and cleaning combs and brushes but you have to start somewhere.

  Jimmy has taken up amateur boxing. He’s in the bantamweight division, which is the lightest and smallest boys, and he’s won quite a few trophies already.

  Mama is amazingly well and hasn’t needed to go back to Forest Glades.

  As for Father, he talks about you and JJ quite a bit now. It seemed to happen around the same time he saw the wedding photos you sent. That gown was stunning! You looked amazing in it!

  Guess who I saw walking down Queen Street the other day? It was Rose. She was following one of those barristers, you know, the ones who wear th
ose funny white wigs and gowns? Anyway, she had a pile of books in her arms. I said hello but she just smiled and nodded, then they went into the big courthouse building. She looked very important.

  Oh dear, my hand is getting cramps from writing.

  Kiss Bao Bao for me, the darling.

  Love from Lola

  Deserted

  Mirabel and JJ watched Shanghai slowly change. The glamorous wild excitement of the city was all but gone. Kuomintang soldiers marched through the streets and more Chinese refugees poured in from the countryside, cramming into the slum dwellings. Nobody knew what was going to happen as the Communist-led armies approached. University students held mass demonstrations protesting against America’s post-war economic aid to Japan. Workers went on strike.

  The rate of inflation was so high that people had to carry millions of Chinese dollars to do a bit of shopping, often carting the paper money around in wheelbarrows. Shopkeepers had to increase their prices several times in one day just to cover their costs.

  Mirabel took her pay home in two large paper bags and hurriedly spent as much as she could that afternoon on food and groceries. By the end of the day it would be worth a fraction of the value. The exchange rate now was seven hundred and seventy thousand Chinese dollars to one American dollar.

  To try and restore the economy, the president, Chiang Kai-shek, ordered that the old Chinese currency would be replaced with a ‘gold yuan’ at the rate of one gold yuan to four American dollars. To aid in the cause, he said, all gold owned by Chinese citizens had to be given up, including jewellery. To enforce this, trucks with loudspeakers trawled the wealthier neighbourhoods blaring what sounded like warnings or slogans. Mirabel didn’t understand, but when JJ heard them he frowned, and then laughed long and loud. ‘They are saying that these trucks are fitted with special equipment that can detect hidden gold or jewels, even if they are buried.’

  Mirabel suddenly worried about her jade necklace, the one her mother had given her, but JJ said, ‘Don’t be silly, it’s all fei hua, pure garbage! They are just trying to scare people into giving up their gold!’