Pearl Buck - Kinfolk

This troubled Yumei, who belonged to the people, and one night she told James of her fears. He listened, having soon learned to consider whatever she told him, for she did not talk idly.

“When that day comes and the people turn against the officials and the police and the tax gatherers,” Yumei said, very troubled, “shall we be strong enough to save Uncle Tao?” She shook her head and broke off, not answering her own question.

“Can we save ourselves?” James asked.

“Our people do not kill those who serve them as you do,” she replied. “We are safe enough.”

He knew that it was she who kept them safe. He understood more clearly with every day that Yumei was the bridge he had needed to his own people. When they feared him and his foreign ways, they went to Yumei and she came to him. Through her he saw them and comprehended what he had not been able to know before. Thus through her he began to put down his roots into his ancestral land.

What is the end of a story? There is no end. Life folds into life, and the stream flows on.

No sudden love sprang up between James and his wife. He knew that she loved him before he loved her, and he was grateful for her patience with him. His love was to be the growth of years. But it seemed to him one day not too long after his wedding that a woman deserves to have children and so at last he became her husband. He was glad that he had not waited upon any dream of love. For after this Yumei took confidence as his wife, and she became a true part of all he did. It was she who stood beside women weeping in hard childbirth and she who held children in her arms when eyes had to be burned clean of trachoma, and she was not afraid to stay with one who had to die. She was no saint. Sometimes she grew weary and wanted to be alone and then he let her be. But she could always be called back when life was threatened. She had the gift of life.

And life, James knew, was what he wanted.