Ha Jin - Ocean of Words

After that Lev picked up a strange habit — whatever was Russian had to be good and better and the best: Russian weather was the most congenial, Russian girls the most pretty, Russian horses the most powerful, Russian pigs the most delicious, Russian apples the most juicy, Russian tongues the most clever.

We didn’t bother to argue with him whenever Mr. Jiao interpreted to us what he said, except that once Wang Min challenged him to pronounce a few Chinese sounds that Lev’s clumsy Russian tongue couldn’t manage. We laughed but then agreed to let him indulge himself in his Russian chauvinistic dreams alone.

The officers all went home at night and slept with their wives. Interpreter Jiao took over the night command. He had been an officer for just three months and had not yet dropped the airs of a college student. Not used to acting as a superior, he would not demand to have more men if we left him only two men guarding Lev in the evening when the rest of us went to a movie or a game in Longmen City. Three people together with Lev could play any kind of poker game. Unlike Mr. Zhang, Jiao would join in whenever Lev played with us. He wanted to seize every opportunity to improve his Russian. He was the root of our troubles; after he came, our vigilance slackened little by little.

On a Tuesday evening, we all went to the Divisional Headquarters to see a movie, having left Vice Squad Leader Hsu and Wang Min with Interpreter Jiao at home. We heard that it was an anti-espionage movie made by North Korea, and everybody felt excited. No sooner was the title, The Invisible Front , shown on the screen than the lights were on again. The loudspeaker announced: “Emergency call, emergency call: All officers and soldiers leave immediately and gather outside.

“Emergency call, emergency call …”

We jumped up and ran out. In front of the movie house we joined our company. Commander Yan was walking to and fro before us with his hands behind him, waiting for more men to arrive. The whole yard was full of shouts: “Engineer Battalion —” “Communication Battalion gather here—” “Antichemical Company go to the gate.”

Our political instructor Niu shouted to the crowd rushing out of the movie house, “Here’s Guards Company.”

Commander Yan called for attention, and we pulled our feet together. “Number One has escaped,” he declared.

I shuddered. “Number One” was Lev — our first Russian prisoner. The commander continued, “The orders just came from Beijing: We must mobilize all the troops and the militia in Longmen and the neighboring cities and counties to search every field, every hill, every ditch, every yard, every cellar until we catch him. Now, we’ve no time to decide who is responsible for his escape. It happened in our company, and it’s our responsibility to bring him back. The divisional leaders have ordered us not to return until we find him.” He paused, then shouted: “Right face. Double time.”

We actually sprinted back to our company barracks to get guns. Running in front of me, Squad Leader Shi never stopped cursing Vice Squad Leader Hsu and Wang Min. “Damn it, I’ll do the two asses in! They ruined us all. I’ll finish them off!”

Our company got on four trucks and were driven to the Eastern Airport. On the way we saw lights on in all the other barracks and heard people shouting and trucks moving everywhere. The entire city was going into action. Our trucks were running at full speed. Mosquitoes and moths struck our faces while Platoon Leader Fang, clutching the panel of the truck, was busy dividing us into groups. Each group had three men who were to stay together in the search.

The trucks pulled up in front of the building at the airport. We jumped down. Interpreter Jiao, Hsu Jiasu, and Wang Min ran over. Shi clutched the vice squad leader’s upper arm and cursed, “Screw your ancestors! You undid us all!”

“Old Shi, listen to me. Please listen —”

“Cut it out!” Platoon Leader Fang shouted. “Shi Hsiang, let him go. I said let go! You think you can get away with this? I tell you, you are the one responsible. If we can’t bring Number One back, we’ll all go home turning up dirt clods. Stop biting each other, man. Save your breath for the job. Hsu Jiasu, you go join the sixth group, and Wang Min, you go with the seventh group.”

The two squad leaders stood among their groups motionless as Wang Min walked over to our group. “Remember,” the platoon leader went on, “keep fifty meters between groups and don’t move too fast.”

We started to search. Meng Dong led our group, which included Wang Min and me. We walked slowly in a cornfield, trying hard to see if there was something hidden in the field’s ditches. The corn leaves lashed our faces time and again, but we dared not complain. It was terrifying to make our way through the crops. The cornstalks were thick and taller than we were, and we couldn’t see our neighboring groups. We only heard them proceeding quietly. The most frightening part was that we didn’t know if Lev had a gun with him, though we had been told that he had not stolen any of our pistols. He was in the dark and could observe us moving. If we ran into him, surely he would shoot first. Full of fear, we used our rifles to remove the cornstalks in our way, always keeping the barrels pointed at the darkness ahead.

After combing the cornfield, we entered a soybean field. This was less frightening, since we could see other groups advancing with us in a line. Then we got into a cabbage field. God knows how many cabbages we trampled. Behind us the field was scarred with numerous dark tracks.

In front of us, two German shepherds, accompanied by some officers, were dashing in opposite directions along a brook. One of the dog handlers was carrying Lev’s pillow, and the other was holding Lev’s washbasin. They threw the pillow and the basin to the dogs time after time to refresh their memory of Lev’s smell so that they could pick up his trail. There were six dogs all together, running about and barking, but none of them was any good. They ran in six directions, so the officers soon lost interest in them.

In the beginning we dared not talk. After crawling through four fields, Wang Min couldn’t contain himself anymore and started cursing. We asked him how in the world the whole thing had happened. He said it was nobody’s fault. Lev, the son of a wolf, wanted to make a fool of us on purpose:

“We were playing cards, and he said … he wanted to go to the bathroom. I went with him — Watch your step, Song Ming — I saw him squat down and — as usual, waited outside for him to finish. I waited for ten minutes, and he didn’t come out. Interpreter Jiao … and Hsu Jiasu came to see what … was going on — Slow down a bit, Old Meng. We have to wait for the other groups — We three went in the bathroom. Lev was still squatting there, so we came back out. Then we heard a thump, and we went in again. Lev was not there! He had jumped out the window. We leaned on the window … and saw him down there staggering along … toward the cornfield.

“ ‘Halt! Le-v, halt! Come back, Lev!’ we shouted from upstairs. He didn’t even turn his head, just walked straight ahead, and disappeared in the field. Interpreter Jiao didn’t know what to do. He could only shout, ‘Just look at that, just look at that!’ Hsu Jiasu told him … to call the headquarters. Then we both ran out looking for Lev in the fields.”

“Did you find him?” Meng Dong sounded rather serious.

“Damn you, Old Meng. You can still joke about it.”

“You shouldn’t have tried. It was impossible you two could get him back.”

“You may be right, but we had to do it. It’s a part of the job, you know.”

“What will you do if we catch him?” I asked Wang Min.