Tie Ning - The Bathing Women

The steaming soup was brought out; tiny light yellow shrimp, emerald scallions, minced mustard greens flavoured with garlic, drizzles of seaweed and sesame oil, all set off the delicate soup. Fan finished two bowls in a breath, put down the chopsticks, and said several times over, “That was really delicious.” She had been prepared to arrive with a condescending attitude, to return as some kind of conquering hero. But after two bowls of wonton soup she surrendered, finding her old homeland not that different from her new one — the way Tiao had driven the Publishing House’s car to Beijing to pick her up, and how she also had her own apartment. So she couldn’t hold on to her American attitude anymore and lost control of her emotions. She started to cry, not sobbing but wailing. She raised up her face and opened her mouth, without a thought to how she looked, and out came the weeping. This was the kind of crying that Tiao couldn’t help admiring and that she herself couldn’t do. Only when Fan wept did Tiao start to feel that her younger sister had truly returned and that this person truly was her younger sister.

Fan’s crying made everyone sad. When she stopped, Yixun asked, “How are things going?” Fan then started to talk about her life in America, about things they had learned from her phone calls and letters. They all knew that “David and I love each other deeply,” but had no idea that Fan had worked in a restaurant. Smiling, she told them that she had decided to get her master’s degree several years ago, but that David didn’t like the idea. Out of pique, she refused his money and worked in an insurance company while she studied. A French classmate, Virginia, encouraged her to work in a restaurant to earn her tuition. Fan said she had never expected to wait on tables, or maybe wash dishes, in America, things only someone with neither English skills nor a green card would do. She had American citizenship and a home, so why would she work in a restaurant? Virginia told her that the cash came fast. When you counted out handfuls of tips from your apron pocket after work, you’d feel differently. A person became addicted. Virginia already was. She arranged for Fan to come to the restaurant in the wealthy neighbourhood where she worked, and the boss asked Fan what she was good at, whether she had any special talents. Fan said, “Hmm, I do have a special talent — I can speed up a song.”

The boss asked, “What do you mean, ‘speed up’?” Tiao said she could change the speed of a 33 rpm record into a 78. She then opened her mouth and sang a song. The boss laughed. How could he let a clever girl like Fan wash dishes? Her quick wit and fluent English impressed him, so Fan became the hostess for the restaurant. Fan said she did become addicted and almost quit her job at the insurance company. How could you not get addicted when you watched those actual dollars become your own? There were unpleasant moments, of course. The restaurant was located in a wealthy neighbourhood and the clientele were all dressed to the nines. One day David’s parents, her in-laws, came to the restaurant. Desperate not to have them find out she was doing restaurant work, she panicked and hid in the back. Taking advantage of her absence, a fancy couple left without paying their bill. Fan discovered this and ran after them, determined to collect no matter what. If she couldn’t get the money back, the boss would dock her pay. She said it was apparently no oversight, judging by how fast they were walking. She hurried in pursuit and, reluctant to shout on the street, ran tenaciously until she caught up, finally, two blocks later. On the inside, she had been shouting to encourage herself, saying, Stinky dog shit. Stinky American dog shit! Coming up to them, she tried her best to keep calm. “Sir, you forgot to pay the bill.” That tall blond man and woman put on a surprised look, both almost at the same time, which Fan only saw as revolting evidence of nervousness and hypocrisy. The phony looks of surprise were meant to persuade Fan that she’d made a mistake, but Fan repeated, calmly and politely, “I’m sorry, sir, you forgot to pay. This is your bill.” Compared to them, Fan seemed small, but her stern face and formal English forced them to take her seriously. When the man tried to protest, Fan added, “If you don’t pay the bill, I can call the police.” Without further argument, they paid up, and even gave Fan a tip.

“What happened with the job later on?” Tiao asked, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Fan told her that later David discovered that she was working in a restaurant and went to find her. He took her home and told her that she shouldn’t be doing that sort of work. He agreed to her continuing to study for her master’s degree and said he would pay for her, for his “little sweet pea.”

Though Fan was a little tired, neither of the sisters felt sleepy, and they didn’t go to bed until the next morning. Tiao had a bad dream then. She dreamed that she was passing above a dirt embankment and heard a tiny voice from below calling her: “Older sister, save me! Older sister, save me …” Tiao squatted down and saw Fan trying to climb up from the bottom of the embankment. She looked the way she had in elementary school, hair cropped, wearing a pink corduroy jacket with small black polka dots, her chubby face smeared with dirt. Tiao hurried to pull Fan to her bosom. There was no river down the slope, yet Fan was thoroughly soaked. With wide-open eyes and mouth, she kept panting, her mouth reeking of fish, and slowly disgorged seaweed. Tiao was very sad; the seaweed in Fan’s mouth meant that she had been living underwater for a long time. Tiao didn’t want to see the seaweed in Fan’s mouth, so she reached her hand in to scoop it out while holding Fan tightly with her other hand. Or this might be described as pulling weeds, the weeds growing in Fan’s mouth. The strands seemed endlessly long, and she had to reach her finger down into Fan’s mouth to scoop and probe … until Fan was probed to the point of vomiting, and Tiao woke up.

She woke up to find herself still sobbing, and Fan on the bed across from hers was sleeping soundly. Fan slept for a whole day, turning to one side and another, flat under the quilt like a frog, as if she were making up for all the sleep she had missed in America, the way Wu had slept after she came back from the Reed River Farm. It also seemed that the five years of sleep in America were not real sleep. Only sleeping in China is a real sleep, and a Chinese person has to have Chinese sleep — the carefree, relaxed sleep where your family waits beside your bed when you wake from a nightmare.

When Fan finally yawned and stretched, she saw Tiao gazing at her with red, swollen eyes. She blinked and said, “What’s wrong?” Tiao told her the dream she’d had. A little superstitiously, she believed the power of a bad dream would be dispelled once she told it. Fan seemed unmoved. She rested her head on her hands and stared at the ceiling, saying, “Actually, none of you need to worry about me. I’m not as miserable as you have me in your dream. I’m fine.”

Tiao explained, “I’m not trying to say you’re miserable. It’s just concern, and I can’t help the concern in the dream. After all, you’re out there by yourself.”

“How am I by myself? Isn’t my husband, David, family? Speaking of being by yourself, you’re the one. You’re by yourself but you’re always ready to pity me.”

Tiao started to feel once again that she didn’t know Fan. Her moodiness suggested that her life in America was probably not as good as she portrayed it, but Tiao could say nothing.

3

There were some happy moments during Fan’s visit. One day, Tiao’s high school classmate Youyou, the friend of her teenage years, treated Fan to dinner.