Can Xue - The Last Lover

“What does he want to do inside the garden? Or is he waiting for something to come out?”

“No, it’s not that. He only wants to become a worker in the poppy garden. This way the source of opium won’t be a problem for him. His lazing around here will become an accomplished fact. How shameful!”

Joe could now carefully size up Kim. This Kim and the pasture owner Kim bore no resemblance to each other. The pasture owner had a northerner’s imposing high-bridged nose, and this one had a flat face, roughly drawn. His nose was only two holes. But why was their speech so similar? They spoke like twins, and even their gestures were exactly the same. Joe remembered the Korean Kim who lived halfway up a mountain and a warm emotion sprung up in his heart. Because of his fond memory, he clung to this flat-featured Kim in front of him. He wanted to spill out words from his heart.

An old man was pushed into the courtyard by the clamoring people outside the gate. He was blind and wore dark glasses, and he carried a walking cane. He appeared very timid, taking great caution in touching the cane to the ground.

“The rays of light from the snowcapped mountains stabbed him blind.” Kim’s voice was dry.

“Does he also smoke opium?”

“Of course. If he didn’t, how would he dare enter the courtyard?”

The wind sent the odor of the old man’s body over. It was a dizzying, evil stench. He shuffled to the extreme end of the courtyard’s circling wall. His gait looked like he might collapse and tumble to the ground at any moment.

The old man sat at the base of the wall. His feet showed from inside his robe. One was a fake foot made of wood. He took off his sunglasses, and Joe saw two deep eye sockets.

“Why doesn’t he stay here with us?” Joe asked.

“This man loves cleanliness. He fears even a touch of foul odor on his body. Just now when he entered, he probably smelled a stranger in the courtyard — you came from far away, and you haven’t show-ered — so he skirted us and walked over to that side. This old man is known for keeping himself clean and out of the muck. Look, one leaves and another enters.” He meant the man who’d just left, and the old man who’d arrived.

Joe listened and nodded, and all at once began to feel himself inferior. He wanted to ask Kim if he could help him get opium. Then he felt it wasn’t a suitable occasion for this question, because he was an outsider.

“I’m afraid the old man won’t leave now. In that case, you’d better leave for a while. He can’t stand you. Look how impatient he is, he’s digging holes in the ground with his cane. He wants to monopolize the poppy garden. That way he can return to the beautiful scenery of the snowcapped mountains.”

“Beautiful scenery of the snowcapped mountains? Weren’t his eyes blinded by light from the mountains?”

“Yes and no. How can I put it? He reached a place where ice and snow were everywhere, and the landscape made him go mad. In order to forever keep that landscape in his mind, he blinded himself. Of course, I’m not sure if his mind is actually filled now with the light of those snowy mountains. Or if it’s a stretch of pitch darkness. See how much he’s suffering? It’s because we are here. We should go.”

Kim lifted Joe’s suitcase without explaining further and walked outside.

One by one the people blocking the door gave way to Joe and Kim. A few of them lay down on the ground in fright. What were they afraid of? They lay prone on the ground and covered their faces with their hands.

“Do you like the women here?”

They stopped at the doorway of a bar, where Kim asked this question.

“I don’t know. I haven’t examined them. And I’m dirty, it’s no time to think about that kind of thing.” Joe felt himself speaking without logic. He didn’t even know what he was saying.

“How can you be dirty? Didn’t you just shower at the poppy gardens?”

Joe didn’t understand. He raised his head and saw the signboard for the bar. He didn’t recognize the blood-red script, but he felt that the red color was like a false display of power.

“Why is it so red?” He unconsciously spoke aloud.

“Hmm.”

They went in. There was no one inside.

They had just sat down when they heard a hair-raising, bone-chilling scream from the inner room, followed by restrained weeping. It was a woman.

“It’s sexual repression.” Kim lifted his liquor bowl and drank a mouthful. “For a year already, everyone has suppressed their desire. Do you want to see her? She’s waiting for you to go in.”

Joe uneasily made an “ah” sound, and his face reddened. He saw Kim curl his lip in disdain, and avoided his glance in shame.

The door creaked with a zhi ya sound as a woman appeared. She was young, her body naked, her long hair worn to her waist. Her nipples were erect, and she watched Joe with eyes like a wolf’s. Fortunately she swiftly went back inside. Otherwise Joe wouldn’t have been able to sit still.

“I’m so ashamed. .” Joe spoke haltingly. He wanted to say something to Kim, but Kim was nowhere to be seen.

Joe was enlivened. He stood up and went inside.

The woman lay on a felt cloth, as red as orangutan blood. She was moaning. She saw Joe approach her in the dim light and made signs for him to strip off his clothes. Joe complied. There was a deep riverbed, with a crowd of snakes dancing madly. The snakes entered into their bodies without friction and came out again from another side. In a state near to unconsciousness, Joe saw the woman, indistinct, above him. She put a dagger, flickering in the cold light, into his hand, and with infinite tenderness pressed it down on her wild breasts. Joe subconsciously took the dagger and cut into her left breast. His last thought was: how could there be waves in the deep, dry riverbed?

Maria was weaving the largest of her patternless tapestries. She felt some object about to bulge out from the weaving on which she concentrated her mind. Lisa had already quietly entered, and stood behind her.

“The entire Rose Clothing Company is in chaos.” She spoke gently.

“Oh!” Maria shut her eyes. The hallucination disappeared from her memory. The room was deserted. She smelled something burning, so she jumped up and ran to the kitchen, with Lisa following her closely.

That cat ran through the door shrieking. Its fur was all burned away.

“Look, it opened the stove,” Maria said anxiously.

Together they cleaned up the kitchen, sat down, and ate a chocolate cake. Maria stroked the burned cat. Its brown fur fell in pieces to the floor. Its eyes were bleary. Only Maria knew how much it suffered because it missed its old home in Africa. When people brought it here, it was only as big as a mouse. But Maria knew its body was filled with memories of burning heat.

Lisa told Maria that last night on the long march she reached Luding Bridge, the iron cable bridge in Chinese Tibet. She stepped onto the bridge, and cold wind spun up from the abyss. An idea appeared in her mind: if she came across Joe in Tibet, surely she would bring back a message for Maria. But she was trapped on the bridge the entire night.

“Is the day when two dreams will meet still as far away as before?” Her voice was contained within the kitchen.

Maria raised her head and saw the handsome driver standing next to the refrigerator, looking absentminded. He grabbed the chocolate cake and put it in his mouth, eating as he said, “This is for me? This is for me? Why can’t I taste it?” He ate an entire large pan. Cake crumbs covered his face.

“Eating cake cannot solve his problems.” Lisa watched him sympathetically.

He heard what Lisa said and nodded.

Daniel dug up earth in the yard. He’d gotten poppies from his girlfriend Amei’s family. He wanted to plant them in all corners. Yesterday Amei told him that if he napped among the poppy flowers a book would spread open in the sky. Daniel asked her when she’d seen that book. She said it was aboard the ship on the way to Country A, and then afterward she’d seen it twice more. She also said that the book was not used for reading, because its pages were filled with revolving lotuses. Eyes could never endure it. Daniel was enthralled by the scene she described, and immediately asked her for poppy seeds. When Amei gave him the seeds she joked: “Daniel will run into his father.”