Can Xue - The Last Lover

Vincent had nothing to say. The noise of the air-raid siren disappeared from the bedroom, but his heart still leapt with a peng peng throbbing sound. He’d heard Joe’s insinuating tone when he spoke of Maria’s long march. In his memory it was a kind of sweet punishment since Joe, always stiff in conversation, grew red-faced and excited when he talked about it. Similarly, Vincent could not figure out what Maria’s activity was. But his wife could communicate with Maria, without their actually meeting. Everything was changing. Even this morning, he could no longer enjoy that strange territory with Lisa through the intercourse of their bodies.

The whistle of the train entering the station woke Vincent. He walked out onto the platform with no plan in mind. He left the station alone and discovered himself in a small rural town. The town had only one road, thinly dotted on both sides with shops and the residents’ houses. As it was early in the morning, not a single person was out on the street. He thought, This is what the gambling city is like. Where were the casinos? He turned his gaze toward the distant stone mountains beyond the small town and saw low-hanging clouds covering their summits. He stood for a good while until a black woman, a street cleaner, appeared. The woman looked just like the street cleaner in his own city. She waved her broom, sweeping little by little over in his direction. The closer she came, the more Vincent felt that she was just like the beautiful street cleaner he’d seen so often before. He simply stared. Finally, she swept up right to his feet.

When her broom touched Vincent’s leather shoes, he almost jumped.

“Welcome to the gambling city, Grandfather.” The young woman smiled charmingly, showing her appealing teeth.

“Do you recognize me?”

“I’ve seen you on my sister’s street. I knew you would come here.”

“Why?”

“Because everyone comes to the gambling city. This road is covered with traveler’s footprints. They’ve even worn down the granite pavement. Our place here is beautiful, isn’t it? At dusk, it’s like the whole city is filled with rose blooms. . They say a white elephant will come to the city soon.”

There weren’t even many trees in the crude little town. He couldn’t see the scene she spoke of, but the young woman’s description of it enchanted him. What sort of migratory bird was she? He inquired about a hotel. She pointed out a stone building and said that was one, but she urged him not to stay there. She said that once he entered he would turn into a real gambler. After this, she suddenly became upset. Because talking delayed her work, she lowered her head to sweep the ground and didn’t acknowledge Vincent again.

Vincent walked toward the stone building. First he rang the old-fashioned doorbell. It rang for a long time without anyone answering. Then he experimentally pushed the door, without thinking it would actually open. Inside was an empty parlor with a few sofas. Vincent went over and sat down on a sofa, waiting for someone to come. He waited a long time, yet no one came. Was it really a hotel?

Later someone finally came, but it turned out to be the same street cleaner. She had probably swept the entire road.

“Is this your home?” Vincent asked her, perplexed.

“No, this is my hotel, Grandfather. I’ll take you to your room.”

She led him to the rooms below ground. Vincent was a little unhappy, but she said, “In the gambling city, we have to have rooms underground, because of the daily earthquakes.”

They followed the staircase down turn after turn in a spiral. The room he was going to appeared to be buried deep underground.

She turned her head and spoke vivaciously: “There will never be earthquakes down here. This has been proven. I am named Joyner, too. I am my mother’s obedient daughter, and so is my older sister. I never thought you could love this place. All the people who come here come out of love. How else could it be? Or else why would they come?”

Joyner led Vincent into a large room. It was more like a bedroom at home than a hotel suite. The room was messy and smelled of cigarettes. It looked like a room an elderly bachelor might live in. Joyner gave him the key and told him that whenever there was an emergency, he should stay inside the room and not move around. She suddenly turned melancholy, adding to what she’d already said: “If it were any worse it would still only be suffocation; people here don’t have bodily suffering.” She went out in a hurry, shutting the door. A tong tong tong thumping sound followed as she ran upstairs.

Vincent felt that he was entering a murderous trap. He stuck his head outside to look around and saw three tightly shut doors in the hallway. He imagined what was going on behind the doors and suddenly felt afraid. He quickly closed the door, latched it from inside, and then went to shower.

When he’d finished his shower and came out of the bathroom, someone else was sitting in the room. The man had his back to him. Vincent could not see his face, only his brawny neck.

“I’m your neighbor,” he said, “Don’t be concerned. You don’t need to be concerned here.”

“How did you get in?”

He smiled slightly, then answered, “The locks are all for show, there aren’t any rooms that can be locked. You must have thought that only a few people lived in this small town. No, the gamblers all live underground. We drink spring water. Listen, it’s the sound of the spring.”

What Vincent heard was the roar of floodwater. The sound was coming from the bathroom. He instinctively ran into the other room, thinking in confusion that he should shut off a faucet, but there was nothing wrong in the bathroom. When he came out, the man was nowhere to be seen and the door was locked shut, as though he’d never been there.

In exhaustion, Vincent lay down on the bed. He knew he wasn’t in a deep sleep, but rather in a lethargic doze, because he was worried that some emergency would occur. There was a brief moment when he heard the whole floor of people in the underground rooms snoring. Altogether there were eight people — that is to say, in the other three rooms there were eight tenants. Vincent thought the gamblers must be truly happy to be sleeping so soundly. Where were the casinos? He struggled with his drowsy state, wanting to pick out through the thick black smoke the street where Lisa had lived, and wanting to find the dwarf. He walked, all the while asking in a loud voice, “Who? Who?” He thought there was bound to be someone who would come out and answer. But no one did.

When he woke up he saw Joyner, who looked miserable, sitting on the sofa and worrying over her own thoughts.

“Where is the dwarf?” Vincent asked.

“Are you asking about my husband? He never stays at home, he comes and goes between your city and my city, never resting. Grandfather, have you gotten used to the earthquakes?”

“I haven’t felt any earthquakes. There’s only a lot of smoke.”

“That’s an earthquake. You must be anxious? Earthquakes make people anxious. I sit here, thinking about your problems, then I also think of my sister’s situation, and I become more and more pessimistic.”

The expression in her eyes made her look as if she were not of this world.

“Grandfather, you know, my sister and I are both street cleaners. This is the only work we can do. But we love our work! Why? Because when we stand in the street nothing can escape our eyes. You, for example. You got off the train, walked over, and who did you run into? It could only be me. I brought you to my hotel, and you are staying here. Of course this isn’t quite the same as your original travel plans. But now it’s the only thing you can do — stay here underground. You could also go up to the surface, only that wouldn’t result in anything. You already know that it’s a deserted city. This is the privilege of a city’s street cleaner!”