Anchee Min - Pearl of China

At the mention of Pearl, I broke down.

“I can’t believe that I have lasted to see you return!” Lilac said. “Here, come meet your aunt Willow!” She turned to her sons. I didn’t recognize the men in front of me, although I knew they must have been Double Luck David and John and their younger brother, Triple Luck Solomon.

“Where is Carpenter Chan?” I asked.

“Oh, he is long dead,” said a toothless man.

“Dead?” I asked, then instantly recognized Carpenter Chan himself.

“Don’t expect an elephant’s ivory teeth to grow in a dog’s mouth.” Lilac slapped her husband’s back. “Since Absalom’s death, Chan is good for nothing.”

“When did Absalom leave?” I asked. “And how were his last days?”

“Old Teacher had a good ending,” Carpenter Chan said.

“Absalom didn’t suffer?”

“No, he didn’t. I was with him until the end. Old Teacher delivered his last sermon and went to lie down. Shortly after, I found him sleeping on his bed, and he was with God.”

A white-haired woman squeezed through the crowd and jumped on me. She scrunched her eyelids together and then stretched them as if trying to open her eyes, but couldn’t. “Guess who I am?” She drew her face so close that I could smell her rotten breath.

I shook my head and said that I couldn’t recognize her.

“I am Soo-ching, the beggar lady!”

“The beggar lady, yes! How are you? What’s wrong with your eyes?”

“I can only see a shadow of you, Willow. I am blind. But I remember your face before you left us.”

“How have you been?”

“I am a believer in Jesus Christ,” Soo-ching said. “How is Pearl? Is she here with you? I am upset that you two no longer visit.”

“Where is Confucius, your son?” I asked.

“You remember him? Good!”

“How could I not? He has such a unique name!”

“He is no longer Confucius,” Soo-ching said. “He changed his name to Vanguard.”

“Vanguard? Why?”

“Confucius is no longer a beggar lady’s boy,” Lilac whispered in my ear. “He has become somebody important.”

“That’s right,” Papa confirmed. “Vanguard was the first person in Chin-kiang to join the Communist Party. He is the town’s boss today.”

“Donkey shit!” Soo-ching coughed up phlegm and shot it at the ground. “I regret naming him Confucius. He doesn’t deserve it. Willow, you’ll see him soon enough.”

“How is your husband, Dick?” everyone asked me.

I hesitated, because I didn’t know how to answer.

“Oh, my father is well,” Rouge answered for me. “He is busy working in Beijing.”

Papa sat down and told me how the town of Chin-kiang had changed over the years. “It is a place of exile,” he began. “The government dumps people back in their hometowns once they can no longer be of benefit.”

Carpenter Chan explained further. “The government seems to think that undesirables should fall back on their native regions and relatives to survive.”

“It saves prison costs,” Papa said. “We had to build all this ourselves.” He waved an arm indicating the inside of the church.

Carpenter Chan smiled. “I am still building it.”

“We are truly under God’s roof now,” Papa said.

“Chan never learned his lesson,” Lilac said. “We could have stayed in Nanking if he had denounced Absalom. I told him that Absalom wouldn’t mind because he was dead. My stubborn husband wouldn’t do it. So we were sent back to Chin-kiang. What can I complain about? The old rule for a woman has always been: Marry a dog, follow the dog; marry a rooster, follow the rooster. But our children’s future was ruined. In Nanking they would have had opportunities, better schools and better jobs. Here in Chin-kiang, my twins work as coolies, and my youngest son is a field hand… They see no brightness in their future.” Lilac began to weep.

“Who is making that racket?” a man’s voice came from above.

I raised my eyes and saw three figures crawling out of the sleeping boxes.

A dark, bearded old man came down a rope. He was followed by two other men. “Damn lousy bones, they won’t stop protesting! This rotten body is falling apart.”

The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place the speaker.

The bearded man approached me. He smiled, mocking. “I bet you’d never guess who we are.”

The other two men echoed, “But we know you and your friend well.”

I searched the corners of memory but could find nothing that would match the images in front of me.

The bearded man sighed. “Twenty years in the national prison must have changed my appearance… Willow, look hard at me. I am Bumpkin Emperor.” He turned around and pointed at the men behind him. “They are my sworn brothers.”

“Bumpkin Emperor? General Lobster and General Crab?”

“Yes, that’s us!” the men cried in unison.

Papa came and put his arm around the men’s shoulders. “They are with us now.”

“What do you mean by ‘with us’?” I asked. “Bumpkin Emperor almost killed Absalom, Pearl, Grace, and their children! Absalom would have sent him to hell!”

“On the contrary, my child, on the contrary.” Papa shook his head. “In fact, it was Absalom’s wish. He made sure that everyone in his church forgave Bumpkin Emperor and his sworn brothers. After all, Christ died for our sins and his Father forgives us.”

“I don’t believe it, Papa.”

“Ask Carpenter Chan.”

“Is it true?” I asked.

“Yes.” Carpenter Chan nodded. “It was indeed Absalom’s wish.”

“To forgive Bumpkin Emperor for what he did?”

“Yes.”

“God is good, God is fair, and God is kind,” Bumpkin Emperor murmured with tears in his eyes.

“Absalom is happy with me in heaven!” Papa sang his words. “I converted the three of them.”

The sound of Sunday service woke me. It took a moment to realize that I was not dreaming. I was inside my sleeping box. I rolled over onto my stomach and stuck my head out to see what was going on. I saw Papa performing a sermon in front of the kitchen stove, which was covered with a white cloth. Papa was dressed in his old minister’s robe, so washed and worn that it looked like a rag, the color no longer black. Papa’s expression was solemn and calm. As he continued speaking, I could hear Absalom in his voice.

I glanced at the door in fear, and I noticed that it was closed and secured with a thick wooden bar.

The hundred and nine residents of the old church listened to Papa quietly. They were either sitting on the benches or on the floor or inside their sleeping boxes.

When Papa finished, people began to sing “Amazing Grace.” Memories of sitting with Carie at her piano rushed back to me. I had never understood the lyrics until now

’Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,

And Grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that Grace appear,

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far,

And Grace will lead me home.

I slid back into my sleeping box. I hadn’t cried when Dick had told me that he had fallen in love with his secretary and had decided to end our marriage. But now I was hit by an emotion that felt like the ocean’s high tide.

Rouge rolled over and hugged me as I sobbed.

“You are home, Mama.” She gently wiped my tears. “We are home.”

The person in charge of my reform was Chin-kiang’s Communist Party boss, Vanguard, formerly known as Confucius, the son of the beggar lady Soo-ching. Vanguard had grown into a squirrel-faced, cross-eyed, middle-aged man with a fat belly. He enjoyed denouncing me so much that he ordered others to do the same.