(2001) The Bonesetter's Daughter

by Amy Tan

  As she gathered up Art’s clothes at the dry cleaner’s, Ruth flexed her big toe and remembered she was supposed to call Wendy. Mrs. Scott and a boy toy, what a shock. She decided to wait until she was in the parking lot by the grocery store, rather than risk a head-on collision during a juicy cell-phone conversation.

  She and Wendy were the same age. They had known each other since the sixth grade, but had gone through periods when they did not see each other for years. Their friendship had grown via accidental reunions and persistence on Wendy’s part. While Wendy was not the person Ruth would have chosen for her closest friend, Ruth was glad it had turned out to be so. She needed Wendy’s boisterousness as balance to her own caution, Wendy’s bluntness as antidote to her reserve. “Stop being such a worrywort,” Wendy often ordered. Or “You don’t always have to act so fucking polite,” she might say. “You’re making me look like shit.”

  Wendy answered on the first ring. “Can you believe it?” she said, as though she had not stopped repeating this since their last conversation. “And I thought she was over the top when she had the facelift. Last night she told me that she and Patrick were getting it on twice a night. She’s telling me this—me, the daughter she once sent to confession for asking how babies were made.”

  Ruth imagined Mrs. Scott taking off her Chanel suit, her trifocals, her diamond-encrusted designer crucifix, then embracing her beach boy.

  “She’s getting more sex than I am,” Wendy exclaimed. “I can’t remember the last time I even wanted to do anything in bed with Joe except sleep.”

  Wendy had often joked about her dwindling sex drive. But Ruth didn’t think she meant it was absent. Would this happen to her as well? She and Art were not exactly the red-hot lovers they’d been in earlier years. They prepared less for romance and accepted more readily excuses of fatigue. She wiggled a toe: Get estrogen levels checked. That might be the reason she felt a sense of unease, fluctuating hormones. She had no other reason to feel anxious. Not that her life was perfect, but whatever problems she had, they were small. And she should keep them that way. She vowed to be more affectionate with Art.

  “I can see why you’re upset,” Ruth consoled her.

  “Actually, I’m more worried than upset,” Wendy said. “It’s just weird. It’s like the older she gets, the younger she acts. And part of me says, Good for her, you go, girl. And the other part is like, Whoa. Is she crazy or what? Do I have to watch over her now, act like her mother and make sure she doesn’t get herself in trouble? You know what I mean?”

  “I’ve been that way with my mother all my life,” Ruth said. Suddenly she remembered what had been eluding her. Her mother was supposed to see the doctor at four this afternoon. Over the past year, Ruth had been vaguely worried about her mother’s health. Nothing was terribly wrong; it was just that LuLing seemed slightly off, hazy. For a while, Ruth had reasoned that her mother was tired, that her hearing might be going, or that her English was getting worse. As a precaution, Ruth had also gnawed over the worst possibilities—brain tumor, Alzheimer’s, stroke—believing this would ensure that it was not these things. History had always proven that she worried for nothing. But a few weeks before, when her mother mentioned she had an appointment for a checkup, Ruth said she would drive her.

  After she and Wendy finished their conversation, Ruth stepped out of the car and walked toward the grocery store, still thinking. Nine, Mom’s doctor. And she started to count on her ringers the questions she should ask the doctor. Thank God she could speak once again.

  TWO

  In the vegetable aisle, Ruth headed toward a bin of beautifully shaped turnips. They were each the size of apples, symmetrical and scrubbed, with striations of purple. Most people did not appreciate the aesthetics of turnips, Ruth thought as she chose five good ones, whereas she loved them, their crunchiness, the way they absorbed the flavor of whatever they were immersed in, gravy or pickling juice. She loved cooperative vegetables. And she loved turnips best when they were sliced into wedges and preserved in vinegar and chilies, sugar and salt.

  Every year, before their family reunion dinner in September, her mother started two new fermenting jars of spicy turnips, one of which she gave to Ruth. When Ruth was a little girl, she called them la-la, hot-hot. She would suck and munch on them until her tongue and lips felt inflamed and swollen. She still gorged on them from time to time. Was it a craving for salt, or for pain? When the supply grew low, Ruth would toss in more chopped-up turnips and a pinch of salt, and let them pickle for a few days. Art thought the taste was okay in small doses. But the girls said they smelled like “something farted in the fridge.” At times Ruth secretly ate the spicy turnips in the morning, her way of seizing the day. Even her mother considered that strange.

  Her mother—and Ruth tapped her ring finger to remind herself again of the doctor’s appointment. Four o’clock. She had to squeeze a lot of work into the shortened day. She hurried, grabbing Fuji apples for Fia, Granny Smiths for Dory, Braeburns for Art.

  At the meat counter, she evaluated the options. Dory would not eat anything with eyes, and ever since seeing that pig movie Babe, Fia had been trying to be a vegetarian. Both girls made an exception for fish, because seafood was “not cute.” When they announced that, Ruth said to them, “Just because something isn’t cute, is its life worth less? If a girl wins a beauty contest, is she better than a girl who doesn’t?” And Fia scrunched up her face and replied: “What are you talking about? Fish don’t enter beauty contests.”

  Ruth now pushed her cart toward the fish counter. She longed for prawns in the shell, always her first choice. Art wouldn’t eat them, however. He claimed that the predominant taste of any crustacean or mollusk was that of its alimentary tract. She settled on Chilean sea bass. “That one,” she told the man at the counter. Then she reconsidered: “Actually, give me the bigger one.” She might as well ask her mother to dinner, since they were already going to the doctor’s together. LuLing was always complaining she didn’t like to cook for just herself.

  At the checkout counter, Ruth saw a woman in front of her scoop up bunches of ivory- and peach-colored tulips, at least fifty dollars’ worth. Ruth was amazed at how some people casually bought flowers as household staples, as if they were as necessary as toilet paper. And tulips, of all choices! They wilted and dropped their petals after a few days. Was the woman having an important dinner party on a weeknight? When Ruth bought flowers, she had to assess their value in several ways to justify what she bought. Daisies were cheerful and cheap, but they had an unpleasant smell. Baby’s breath was even cheaper, but as Gideon pointed out, it was the lowest of floral low taste, what old queens used, along with lace doilies they inherited from their grandmothers. Tuberoses smelled wonderful and gave an architectural touch, but they were expensive at this store, nearly four dollars a stalk. At the flower mart, they were only a dollar. She liked hydrangeas in a pot. They were making a comeback, and while they cost a lot, they lasted a month or two, if you remembered to water them. The trick was to cut them before they died, then let them dry in a pottery pitcher, so you could keep them as a permanent floral arrangement, that is, until someone like Art threw them out, citing that they were already dead.

  Ruth had not grown up with flowers in the house. She could not remember LuLing ever buying them. She had not thought this a deprivation until the day she went grocery shopping with Auntie Gal and her cousins. At the supermarket in Saratoga, ten-year-old Ruth had watched as they dumped into the cart whatever struck their fancy at the moment, all kinds of good things Ruth was never allowed to eat: chocolate milk, doughnuts, TV dinners, ice cream sandwiches, Hostess Twinkles. Later they stopped at a little stand where Auntie Gal bought cut flowers, pink baby roses, even though nobody had died or was having a birthday.

  Remembering this, Ruth decided to splurge and buy a small orchid plant with ivory blooms. Orchids looked delicate but thrived on neglect. You didn’t have to water them but once every ten days. And while they were somewhat pr
icey, they bloomed for six months or more, then went dormant before surprising you with new blooms all over again. They never died—you could count on them to reincarnate themselves forever. A lasting value.

  Back at the flat, Ruth put the groceries away, set the orchid on the dining room table, and went into the Cubbyhole. She liked to think that limited space inspired limitless imagination. The walls were painted red with flecks of metallic gold, Wendy’s idea. The overhead light was softened by a desk lamp with an amber mica shade. On the lacquer-black shelves were reference books instead of jars of jam. A pull-out cutting board held her laptop, a flour bin had been removed for knee space.

  She turned on her computer and felt drained before she even started. What was she doing ten years ago? The same thing. What would she be doing ten years from now? The same thing. Even the subjects of the books she helped write were not that different, only the buzzwords had changed. She took a deep breath and phoned the new client, Ted. His book, Internet Spirituality, was about the ethics created by cosmic computer connections, a topic he felt sure was hot right now but would lose its cachet if the publisher didn’t get it to market as soon as possible. He had said so in several urgent phone messages he had left over the weekend when Ruth was in Tahoe.

  “I have nothing to do with arranging publishing dates,” Ruth now tried to explain.

  “Stop thinking in terms of constraints,” he told her. “If you write this book with me, you have to believe in its principles. Anything is possible, as long as it’s for the good of the world. Make the exception. Live exceptionally. And if you can’t do that, maybe we should consider whether you’re right for this project. Think about it, then let’s talk tomorrow.”

  Ruth hung up. She thought about it. The good of the world, she muttered to herself, was her agent’s job. She would warn Gideon that the client was pushy and might try to change the publication date. She would stand firm this time. To do what the client wanted while meeting her other commitments would require her to work ‘round the clock. Fifteen years earlier she could have done that—in the days when she also smoked cigarettes and equated busyness with feeling wanted. Not now. Untense the muscles, she reminded herself. She took another deep breath and exhaled as she stared at the shelves of books she had helped edit and write.

  The Cult of Personal Freedom. The Cult of Compassion. The Cult of Envy.

  The Biology of Sexual Attraction. The Physics of Human Nature. The Geography of the Soul.

  The Yin and Yang of Being Single. The Yin and Yang of Being Married. The Yin and Yang of Being Divorced.

  The most popular books were Defeat Depression with Dogs, Procrastinate to Your Advantage, and To Hell with Guilt. The last book had become a controversial bestseller. It had even been translated into German and Hebrew.

  In the coauthoring trade, “Ruth Young” was the small-type name that followed “with,” that is, if it appeared at all. After fifteen years, she had nearly thirty-five books to her credit. Most of her early work had come from corporate communications clients. Her expertise had woven its way into communication in general, then communication problems, behavioral patterns, emotional problems, mind-body connections, and spiritual awakening. She had been in the business long enough to see the terms evolve from “chakras” to “ch’i,” “prana,” “vital energy,” “life force,” “biomagnetic force,” “bioenergy fields,” and finally back to “chakras.” In bookstores, most of her clients’ words of wisdom were placed in the light or popular sections—Self-Help, Wellness, Inspirational, New Age. She wished she were working on books that would be categorized as Philosophy, Science, Medicine.

  By and large, the books she helped write were interesting, she often reminded herself, and if not, it was her job to make them interesting. And though she might pooh-pooh her own work just to be modest, it irked her when others did not take her seriously. Even Art did not seem to recognize how difficult her job was. But that was partly her fault. She preferred to make it look easy. She would rather that others discern for themselves what an incredible job she did in spinning gold out of dross. They never did, of course. They didn’t know how hard it was to be diplomatic, to excavate lively prose from incoherent musings. She had to assure clients that her straightforward recasting of their words still made them sound articulate, intelligent, and important. She had to be sensitive to the fact the authors saw their books as symbolic forms of immortality, believing that their words on the printed page would last far longer than their physical bodies. And when the books were published, Ruth had to sit back quietly at parties while the clients took the credit for being brilliant. She often claimed she did not need to be acknowledged to feel satisfied, but that was not exactly true. She wanted some recognition, and not like the kind she had received two weeks before, at the party for her mother’s seventy-seventh birthday.

  Auntie Gal and Uncle Edmund had brought along a friend from Portland, an older woman with thick glasses, who asked Ruth what she did for a living. “I’m a book collaborator,” she answered.

  “Why you say that?” LuLing scolded. “Sound bad, like you traitor and spy.”

  Auntie Gal then said with great authority, “She’s a ghostwriter, one of the best there is. You know those books that say ‘as told to’ on the cover? That’s what Ruth does—people tell her stories and she writes them down, word for word, exactly as told.” Ruth had no time to correct her.

  “Like court stenographers,” the woman said. “I hear they have to be very fast and accurate. Did you go through special training?”

  Before Ruth could answer, Auntie Gal chirped: “Ruthie, you should tell my story! Very exciting, plus all true. But I don’t know if you can keep up. I’m a pretty fast talker!”

  Now LuLing jumped in: “Not just type, lots work!” And Ruth was grateful for this unexpected defense, until her mother added, “She correct spelling too!”

  Ruth looked up from her notes on her phone conference with the Internet Spirituality author and reminded herself of all the ways she was lucky. She worked at home, was paid decent money, and at least the publishers appreciated her, as did the publicists, who called her for talking points when booking radio interviews for the authors. She was always busy, unlike some freelance writers who fretted over the trickle of jobs in the pipeline.

  “So busy, so success,” her mother had said recently when Ruth told her she didn’t have any free time to see her. “Not free,” LuLing added, “because every minute must charge money. What I should pay you, five dollar, ten dollar, then you come see me?” The truth was, Ruth did not have much free time, not in her opinion. Free time was the most precious time, when you should be doing what you loved, or at least slowing down enough to remember what made your life worthwhile and happy. Her free time was usually usurped by what seemed at the time urgent and later unnecessary. Wendy said the same thing: “Free time doesn’t exist anymore. It has to be scheduled with a dollar amount attached to it. You’re under this constant pressure to get your money’s worth out of rest, relaxation, and restaurants that are hard to get into.” After hearing that, Ruth didn’t agonize as much over time constraints. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t have enough time to do what was necessary. The problem was universal. But try explaining that to her mother.

  She pulled out her notes for chapter seven of Agapi Agnos’s latest book, Righting the Wronged Child, and punched Agapi’s number. Ruth was one of the few people who knew that Agapi’s real name was Doris DeMatteo, that she had chosen her pseudonym because agapi meant “love” and agnos referred to ignorance, which she redefined as a form of innocence. That was how she signed her books, “Love Innocence, Agapi Agnos.” Ruth enjoyed working with her. Though Agapi was a psychiatrist, she didn’t come across as intimidating. She knew that much of her appeal was her Zsa Zsa Gabor shtick, her accent, the flirtatious yet intelligent personality she exuded when she answered questions in TV and radio interviews.

  During their phone meeting, Ruth reviewed the chapter that presented the Five Don’t
s and Ten Do’s of becoming a more engaged parent.

  “Darling,” Agapi said, “why does it always have to be a list of five and ten? I can’t always limit myself to such regular numbers.”

  “It’s just easier for people to remember in series of fives and tens,” Ruth answered. “I read a study somewhere about that.” Hadn’t she? “It probably has to do with counting on our fingers.”

  “That makes perfect sense, my dear! I knew there was a reason.”

  After they hung up, Ruth began work on a chapter titled “No Child Is an Island.” She replayed a tape of Agapi and herself talking:

  “. . . .A parent, intentionally or not, imposes a cosmology on the little child—” Agapi paused. “You want to say something?” What cue had she given that let Agapi know she wanted to add a thought? Ruth seldom interrupted people.

  “We should define ‘cosmology’ here,” she heard herself say, “perhaps in a sidebar. We don’t want people to think we ‘re talking about cosmetics or astrology.”

  “Yes, yes, excellent point, my dear. Cosmology, let’s see… what we believe, subconsciously, implicitly, or both, how the universe works—you want to add something?”

  “Readers will think we mean planets or the Big Bang theory.”

  “You are such a cynic! All right, you write the definition, but just include something about how each of us fits into our families, society, the communities we come into contact with. Talk about those various roles, as well as how we believe we got them—whether it’s destiny, fate, luck, chance, self-determination, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, and Ruth, darling, make it sound sexy and easy to grasp.”

  “No problem.”

  “All right, so we assume everyone understands cosmology. We go on to say that parents pass along this cosmology to children through their behaviors, their reactions to daily events, often mundane— You look puzzled.”