The Paper Daughters of Chinatown
Page 27
“He’s not here,” Ruef said in a clipped tone.
“Oh?” Dolly looked past him again. “He is not one of these five Chinese men you have with you? Who are these men, then?”
“They are here to help us search your house if you do not produce Mei Lien immediately.”
Dolly merely pursed her lips, then turned toward Tien, who by practiced agreement had come to the front door after ushering the new girls to the basement. “Tien, have you heard of a girl named Mei Lien? These gentlemen are looking for her.”
“Mei Lien?” Tien’s forehead pinched. “I have not heard of her.” Her English might be stilted, but it was perfectly understandable to everyone on the porch. “Did they try the next house? Maybe the girl is there.”
“She’s not there,” Ruef growled, pushing on the door. “Let us in. We will search for ourselves if you refuse to bring her to us.”
Still Dolly didn’t budge from her place. “Do you have a search warrant for these premises, Officer Cook?”
He gave a stiff nod, and Dolly knew he hated to be on this errand. “We do, Miss Cameron.” He took his time fishing it out of his jacket pocket, then handed it over.
Dolly grasped the search warrant and again took her time reading every single word.
“Well, Tien, it appears we must let these gentlemen inside to search.” Dolly sighed. “Please be quiet. Most of our residents are asleep, and some of them are young babies. Abandoned, you know, by their Chinese fathers.”
Ruef moved past Dolly, bumping her shoulder and offering no apology. The instant he crossed the threshold of the mission home, it was as if someone had cracked a horse whip. Six men were suddenly inside the house; two of them headed toward the kitchen, while the other four pounded up the staircase to the higher floors.
Officer Cook remained by the door, his hands on his hips, a scowl on his face.
So much for keeping any semblance of quiet. Not that any of the Chinese girls were sleeping. Still, Dolly prayed that Mei Lien’s hiding place in the basement would keep her safe. Hopefully these men held the usual Chinese beliefs that evil spirits lived below ground, which suited Dolly just fine.
She and Tien followed the men up the stairs in order to make sure they didn’t disturb too much. All the girls knew to tell any man who asked after another girl to claim they didn’t know her.
Dolly walked into the bedrooms the men had left, quickly reassuring each girl that everyone was fine, everyone was safe.
When she stopped by Lonnie’s room, the girl wrapped her arms about Dolly’s waist. “Will they find her?”
“Hush,” Dolly whispered. “Everyone is safe.”
Lonnie nodded vigorously, her eyes welling with tears.
Dolly bent and kissed the top of the girl’s head. “Don’t cry. We must be strong and have faith.”
Another nod, and Dolly had to move on. There were many more girls and women to check on and offer comfort to. And all the while, she listened to the men going through each room, searching. It seemed hours had passed before they left, but it had been only a half hour. When they reached the lowest level above ground, they peered into the dark basement below.
Dolly watched from the top of the corridor, holding her breath, as she waited to see whether they would enter. Their murmured voices were indistinguishable, but Tien joined Dolly and whispered, “They think that is where you leave the girls you poison.”
Dolly might have laughed if the situation weren’t so grave. The men were literally feet away from stepping into the same space where Mei Lien was hiding. Dolly clasped her hands behind her, clutching her fingers together.
Tien, with her astute observance, said, “They will not go down there. They are more afraid of what might be lurking in the dark basement than of any punishment they might receive from Zhang Wei.”
Sure enough, the men eventually left without going into the basement. The moment Dolly had clicked the last lock on the tall, double doors, she turned and rushed to the door leading to the basement. There, she found Tien already inside, with her hand in Mei Lien’s.
The trembling young woman stepped out of the darkness and into the dimly lit corridor. Tears stained her face, and her skin was as white as a goose egg.
“Was it Zhang Wei?” Mei Lien whispered.
“It was the men who work for him.” Dolly stepped to the woman’s side and rested an arm about her shoulders. With Tien translating, Dolly said, “They found nothing, and no one gave you away. You are safe here, just as I told you.”
Mei Lien nodded, then suddenly, she turned toward Dolly. Dolly pulled her close and held her as sobs racked her body. Tien simply stood and waited. Despite the lateness of the hour and the disruption to everyone’s sleep, neither of them was in a hurry to get Mei Lien to bed.
After several moments, Mei Lien lifted her head and drew away. Dolly offered her a handkerchief. Mei Lien wiped at her face. Then she folded the damp cloth into a square, and folded it again. She continued twisting the handkerchief between her fingers as if she had something else plaguing her beyond the raid.
Finally, she whispered, “I am pregnant.”
Tien translated, but Dolly already knew what the young woman had said. She grasped Mei Lien’s hand. “We know, dear.”
Mei Lien’s eyes widened at that admission. “You know? How?”
“We have seen others in your situation,” Dolly said.
Mei Lien asked, “Will you make me leave now?”
“No,” Dolly said with a soft smile. “Your child is welcome here too. Have you seen our nursery yet?”
“I have walked past it,” Mei Lien admitted.
“They are the babies and young children of other residents,” Dolly said. “Of women who found themselves in your same situation.”
Mei Lien stared at her. “You mean, they were pregnant when they were rescued, and you didn’t send them away?”
Dolly nodded after Tien translated.
It seemed that once Mei Lien realized she wasn’t going to be sent away due to her pregnancy, the tension that always surrounded her softened. Over the next few days, Mei Lien spent more and more time outside her bedroom. She joined in the classes and cooked in the kitchen with Lonnie.
Several evenings later, Dolly was working on returning overdue pieces of correspondence when someone knocked at the front door of the mission home. It was a quiet knock. A quick look at the clock told Dolly it was about an hour after dinner.
Of course, a knock any time of day could mean anything. It was with trepidation that she approached the front door. Through the glass she could see a Chinese man. He was alone, and Dolly recognized him immediately. He had visited her weeks ago with a desperate plea.
Something wasn’t right. The expression on his face looked pained. She unlocked each of the bolts quickly, then opened the door. “Huan Sun, are you all right?”
The man staggered through the doorway, grasping his shoulder. He said something in a raspy voice, but it was all in Chinese.
When Dolly saw the blood, she called for Tien.
“Let the first oath be recited. By this incense stick we swear to avenge any wrong committed against any brother of this Tong. He who violates this oath, let thunder from all points annihilate him. . . . He who violates this oath, let him suffer death by a thousand knives. . . . By this incense stick we swear to kill without mercy all who lift their hands against any member of this Tong. He who fails to keep this oath shall without fail die at the hands of the salaried assassin.”
—Ceremony of the Tong with the Exalted Master, the slave owner, the secretary, the treasurer, and Six Honorable Elders in attendance
1904
“You must come. Now.”
Mei Lien glanced up from her embroidery to see Tien Fu Wu in the sewing class, looking like she had bit into a sour lemon.
“What is it?” Mei Lie
n asked.
“There is a man,” Tien Fu Wu said. “And he’s been shot.”
The rest of the girls in the class stilled. One of them gave a little cry. After a few seconds of silence, the room erupted into noise as the girls abandoned their work. Some fled the room; others crouched beneath tables.
Mei Lien stared at the young interpreter. Why had she been singled out? “Who is this man?” Then she knew, without Tien Fu Wu telling her. Mei Lien scrambled from her chair and hurried into the hallway.
“It’s Huan Sun, isn’t it?” she demanded from Tien Fu Wu. “Was it the tong?”
“Yes,” Tien Fu Wu said.
Mei Lien didn’t waste another moment. She didn’t ask if Huan Sun was still alive. She bolted into the corridor and hurried down the stairs. “Huan Sun!” she cried as she reached the main level. Where he was, she didn’t know. She continued through each room until she found him on the couch in the Chinese parlor.
Miss Cameron hovered over him, and another staff member stood nearby.
Huan Sun wasn’t moving.
Mei Lien choked on a sob and moved to his side, searching his face for any sign of life. “Huan Sun,” she whispered.
His eyes fluttered open, and Mei Lien started to cry. He was alive.
“Don’t cry,” Huan Sun said. “They missed my heart.”
Mei Lien only cried harder. She grasped his hand and sank to his side. “Who did this to you?”
His voice was a whisper. “I don’t know.”
“It has to be Zhang Wei,” she said.
Huan Sun’s gaze was resigned, which told her he agreed. He grimaced as Miss Cameron undid his shirt. Mei Lien began to help remove the stained garment. She blinked through blurry vision when she saw the wound. The blood was not stopping.
“Where is the doctor?” she asked, but Miss Cameron couldn’t know what she was saying, and neither did the other staff member.
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Mei Lien told Huan Sun.
“No,” he said in a faint voice. “They won’t treat Chinese there. That is why I came here.”
“What do you mean they will not treat Chinese there?”
Tien Fu Wu entered the room then, and Mei Lien peppered her with questions.
“The doctor is coming,” Tien Fu Wu assured her. “You should sit down and not get overexcited.”
Mei Lien shook her head. “I can’t sit and do nothing. What do you need help with?”
“Watch for the doctor’s arrival,” Tien Fu Wu said. “As soon as he arrives, bring him in here.”
This, Mei Lien could do. What she couldn’t do was have a man who had just been shot for protecting her look at her with sympathy. She waited for what seemed like a hundred minutes, and when she saw a man approach the door, she called for Tien Fu Wu.
“That’s him,” Tien Fu Wu confirmed. “Let him in.”
Mei Lien opened the door and ushered the doctor in. She locked the door behind him, then led him to the parlor. The doctor set to work immediately, and Mei Lien wished she spoke enough English to ask him questions.
First the doctor examined Huan Sun, speaking to Miss Cameron. Tien Fu Wu translated for Huan Sun. Then the doctor took out a bottle of liquid from his black satchel. After swabbing the wound with the red liquid, he poured something else into a handkerchief and held it to Huan Sun’s nose.
His eyes slipped shut.
“What’s happening?” Mei Lien asked, rising to her feet.
“He is only sleeping,” Tien Fu Wu said. “The doctor said the bullet went through his arm, and it needs to be sewn closed.”
Still, Mei Lien stayed on her feet, and only when the doctor prepared to stitch up the skin did she turn away.
When the doctor finished the repair work, Mei Lien’s first question was, “Will he live?”
Tien Fu Wu smiled. “Yes, he’ll live.”
Mei Lien absorbed this good news, then fled from the parlor, her stomach churning. When she reached her room, she vomited into the washbasin. Then she curled up on her bed, hating that she was weak. She also hated that anyone took punishment because of her, and she hated that her baby would be born in such a cruel world.
Eventually Mei Lien fell asleep from exhaustion, and when she awoke, it was sometime in the middle of the night. Shame washed over her as she thought of how she’d fled the scene of a little blood. Huan Sun had been the one who had been shot, not her. The least she could do was take care of him.
She rose from her bed and crept down the staircase. Outside the parlor, she paused, watching the patches of moonlight coming in from the high windows. Huan Sun was asleep on the couch. Across the room, Tien Fu Wu was sitting in a chair, asleep as well.
Not wanting to disturb either one, Mei Lien watched Huan Sun breathing from where she stood. Assured that he seemed to be doing well, she turned to leave.
“Mei Lien.” His whispered voice stopped her.
Slowly, she faced him.
“Are you all right?”
Her throat burned with emotion. “I am all right. You are the one who was shot.” She moved closer to him, keeping her voice low.
He raised up on an elbow, but then grimaced and lay back down.
“Don’t move,” she cautioned. “I don’t want your stitches to pull out.”
Huan Sun motioned with his good hand for her to come toward him. Carefully and quietly, she crept forward, then knelt next to the couch.
“You are feeling better?” she asked.
“I need to tell you what happened.”
“If you are too tired . . .” Mei Lien glanced over at the sleeping Tien Fu Wu.
“Mei Lien.” He grasped her hand and held on tight. “Zhang Wei will not stop. When I found out he sent the members of his tong to this house a few nights ago to search for you, I knew I had to do something more. I paid him the money of your contract from selling my shop. I told him I was going to marry you, and that I would not allow anyone to make you a slave again.”
She stared at Huan Sun. Was this all true? He had paid off her contract? “Why?”
“Why?”
She nodded, tears forming in her eyes, then escaping onto her cheeks. “You have done too much. I could not live with myself if something else happened to you.”
Huan Sun only tightened his hold on her hand. “I feel the same way, Mei Lien. I want to take you away from this place. We will marry, and we will live a good life. Away from San Francisco and men like Zhang Wei and women like Ah-Peen Oie.”
Mei Lien drew in a breath. His words sounded like a dream—one she had never thought she could have. But the constant knot in her stomach reminded her of her added responsibility. She had more than one person to care for now. “Where would we go?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I will find a place, and I will come back for you.”
Mei Lien stared into the warm brown eyes of Huan Sun. “You would do that for me? You care that much for me?”
He ran his thumb over her wrist. “Have I not already proven it?”
Yes, he had. Many times. But Mei Lien, her hope shredded, had been too afraid to believe. To think that her life might truly change and become something good. Still, she worried. “What about the child I’m carrying? It might be Zhang Wei’s.”
Huan Sun brought her wrist to his lips and pressed a soft kiss on her skin. “It doesn’t matter. From the moment I met you, I felt something between us. And I believe you felt the same.”
“I did,” Mei Lien whispered. “But I didn’t recognize it. My life had changed so much. And you were the first . . .”
Huan Sun released her hand and ran the tips of his fingers alongside her face. “I need to leave before the sun rises. Miss Cameron doesn’t want me here when the girls wake up.”
“Take the pearls,” she said. “They can buy your way.”
Mei Lien hadn’t heard of this. “Why?”
“They are very strict about who they let their girls marry.”
“Then I will leave.”
“No,” Huan Sun said. “I want you safe. Here. Wait for me, Mei Lien.”
Mei Lien nodded, then wiped at the tears now coursing down her face. “I will wait.”
And she did wait.
Weeks passed, and she still waited. Her belly grew with her child. And yet Huan Sun did not return. No word was sent—no letter, no message—and Mei Lien was left to wonder.
The days blended into endless weeks, and the weeks became one month, then two, then three. She worried about Huan Sun’s safety. She worried the tong would return and kidnap her. Or perhaps they had found a way to punish her mother. What if they came when her child was born and stole him away?
The first labor pains began when Mei Lien was with Tien Fu Wu, working on her English. The low, deep pains in her back soon wrapped around to her stomach, spreading like a quick-burning flame.
“What is it?” Tien Fu Wu rose from the table, her expression already alert.
Mei Lien’s eyes slid shut as the pain ebbed, bringing a sweet but temporary relief. “The baby . . . is coming.”
Everything after that was a blur as Tien Fu Wu ran from the room shouting for help. Miss Cameron came. Other women in the house crowded around her, and people were giving orders in both Chinese and English.
Tears burned Mei Lien’s eyes as her belly contracted and the pain elevated once again, getting stronger now. She wanted her mother. “Ah Ma,” she whispered over and over again, but her mother never came. Her mother would never know this grandchild of hers.
“It’s a boy,” someone said in Chinese, and then Tien Fu Wu was smoothing back her hair, a huge smile on her face. “He is healthy.”