China Dog (12 page)

Jimmy walked into the dining room of the Good Luck Café, triumphantly carrying a dish of gently stir-fried succulent scallops with smoky dried mushrooms. He placed it in front of Yu Ling, who smiled with delight. “Ah, Jimmy, this smells wonderful. You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”

“No problem, very easy, Ling
soh
,” replied Jimmy, calling her, respectfully, sister-in-law, as he picked up his ceramic spoon and dipped it into the large bowl of winter melon soup. His eyes remained fixed on his sister-in-law’s face.

Yu Ling picked up a plump, shiny scallop between her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth. “Ummmm. Perfect!” She sighed in appreciation, smiling and returning Jimmy’s gaze.

Eddie scowled and muttered under his breath, steadily watching his brother and his wife. “Shrimps yesterday, lobster the night before. Show-off. Who’s he trying to impress?” Eddie picked up one of the scallops with his chopsticks and popped it in his mouth. “Not enough salt.”

From the very beginning, Eddie understood his younger brother’s interest in his new wife. It wasn’t easy living all those years without a woman. Eddie enjoyed flaunting his new status as a husband, as someone who had finally experienced a woman. Every night, he was aware of Jimmy’s footsteps, how they stopped outside their bedroom door. Eddie would pump harder and harder into Yu Ling’s body, so the springs of their bed would squeak louder and louder – if only to let Jimmy know what he was missing.

But then Eddie started to notice small changes in Jimmy’s behaviour. Every morning, Yu Ling came down to the dining room at about ten-thirty to help prepare for the opening of the restaurant at eleven. She entered the room just as the announcer at the bus station across the street finished calling the route: “Durham, Chatsworth … Owen Sound.” She walked over to the counter to wash the dirty glasses from the previous evening. There was a row of three stainless steel sinks and a draining rack. First, she placed the dirty glasses in the sink to her right. The middle one she filled with hot soapy water, and the third one with clear hot water and a capful of bleach. Every morning Jimmy rushed out from the kitchen. “Ah, good morning, Ling
soh
. Let me help you get these dried.”

“That’s very kind of you, Jimmy, but really, I can manage. You must have lots to do in the kitchen.”

“Not much left to do there. It’ll be much faster if I help you.”

In his corner of the dining room, Eddie filled the rows of tiny china coffee creamers and the glass sugar dispensers. His hands worked mechanically, automatically, as his eyes locked
in the direction of his wife and his brother – absorbing the image of his brother squeezing between the counter and Yu Ling, noticing his brother’s thighs brush against the body of his wife, and a few moments later, watching as their fingertips accidentally touched and Yu Ling smiling, shyly, in response.

Yu Ling never was able to get from Jimmy the details of what really happened. That night, after the restaurant closed, she went upstairs to run a bath. There was a dull persistent ache in her back, and the swelling in her calves and feet made her shoes feel small and tight. She left Jimmy tidying up in the kitchen. In the dining room Eddie was counting the cash.

Eddie was especially proud of the furniture in their bedroom. It was almost as good as what he imagined the
lo fons
to have. He had bought, second-hand, two matching wooden chests of drawers, and a metal double bed with a wire frame. The mattress he bought new.

Yu Ling walked to her dresser and pulled out the small top drawer that contained her underwear. Reaching into the back, she felt the gold coin that Jimmy had given her for Chinese New Year. She remembered how he waited until Eddie had left the kitchen. He had pressed it into her hand, wrapping his fingers around her fist with the gold piece inside. It seemed such an extravagant gift from a brother-in-law. Without a word being spoken, Yu Ling understood immediately that Eddie didn’t know, was not meant to know. As she held the
coin in her fingers, Yu Ling remembered the warmth of Jimmy’s hand surrounding her own.

Yu Ling closed the drawer, breathed deeply and let out a long breath of air, walked over to the window that overlooked the bus station. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of running away. She knew that Eddie kept a roll of bills in the left pocket of his pants, which he hung every night on the hook on the back of the bedroom door. But where would she go? She didn’t even know the words necessary for buying a ticket. Yu Ling sighed and pulled the blind down over the window.

She slowly undressed, put on her housecoat and placed her neatly folded clothes on a wooden chair next to the bed. Then she crossed the hall and filled the bathtub with hot water. Leaving her housecoat in a heap on the floor, she carefully stepped into the tub, gently easing herself into the water. The porcelain-enamelled, cast-iron tub stood on four clawed feet. It was long enough to allow Yu Ling to rest her head against the back and stretch out. She waved her arms gently in the water, making waves that lapped soothingly over her body. The heat seeped into her pores, loosening the knots in her calves and the muscles in the small of her back. Yu Ling tilted back her head and stared at the flaking paint on the ceiling. She closed her eyes, rested her hands on her slightly swollen belly, and breathed slowly and deeply. This was the only thing about Canada that she really liked. In Hong Kong she had to heat water on a gas stove and pour it into a round galvanized steel tub. That tub had only been large enough for squatting.
Here, the restaurant had an unlimited supply of hot water. Yu Ling felt like a queen as she relaxed in a sea of heat.

Yu Ling thought back to her third day in Urquhart, when Eddie had taken her to visit the Golden Gate Restaurant. The weather had been warm and Yu Ling was wearing a flower-printed dress. There was just enough breeze to make the soft cotton of her dress cling to her, gently outlining the roundness of her breasts and the fullness of her hips. Mrs. Woo clasped Yu Ling’s hand in hers. “Oh, here comes the bride, here comes the bride. You must be very happy, Eddie Sook.”

Eddie smiled nervously. They sat down with the Woos for tea and almond biscuits. “How’s business?” asked Eddie.

“Oh, so-so,” said Mr. Woo. But Eddie knew better. It wasn’t polite to brag and tell the truth.

Mr. Woo looked at Yu Ling, then lifted one eyebrow higher than the other and turned to Eddie. “You’re lucky to have such a
beautiful
bride,” smirking ever so slightly.

Eddie’s jaw tensed and his eyes flashed angrily. He forced out the words, “So-so.” He knew it wasn’t polite to agree and brag. Mrs. Woo was heavy and thickset.

“And soon there’ll be lots of children,” added Mrs. Woo quickly.

Yu Ling blushed as Mr. Woo looked at her. She looked at Eddie and saw his face turning rigid like a mask, his eyes glittering with anger. Suddenly he got up and said to her, “We must go now. We need to get back to work.”

“Oh, so soon?” said Mrs. Woo, smiling, looking puzzled. “You don’t need to go so soon. Stay some more.”

“Thank you very much for your hospitality,” said Eddie stiffly.

“Yes, yes, thank you,” said Yu Ling. She wanted to add, “Be sure to visit us soon,” but did not dare.

“Well, come and visit again,” said Mr. Woo.

Eddie marched briskly out of the restaurant. Yu Ling rushed to catch up. “Eddie, why are you in such a hurry?”

“Didn’t you see the way he looked at you? Full of salty, lewd thoughts.”

“But he was just being friendly. Really complimenting you, not me.”

“You don’t know anything.” Eddie stared straight ahead. He walked so quickly, Yu Ling could barely keep up.

That was their only visit to the Golden Gate Restaurant together, and Eddie never took her to the China Palace Café, as he had once promised. As a matter of fact, she rarely stepped out of the restaurant. Once, three months after their visit with the Woos, Eddie took her to a store that sounded like Wah-kar. There he bought her a navy blue winter coat. That was the last time she had left the restaurant.

Seven days a week they worked in the restaurant, and at night they went upstairs to sleep. On Tuesday nights, the Chinese grocery truck made its regular weekly stop at the Good Luck. Jimmy always ordered Chinese food supplies for the kitchen. Once he made a point of asking Yu Ling, “What would you like to eat? If you tell me, I’ll order it for next week.” When she turned to reply, she noticed that Jimmy was staring at his brother.

Every few weeks, Eddie allowed her to buy a Chinese movie magazine from the grocery truck. Yu Ling was pleased with the chance to talk to someone other than the brothers. But Eddie always interrupted the conversation, and the grocer was in a hurry to get back to Toronto.

The water in the tub was beginning to cool. She leaned forward and turned on the hot water tap.

Jimmy and Eddie had been fighting so much recently. Mostly over little things, like food orders being filled too slowly. It was always Eddie losing his temper with Jimmy. And it happened again tonight. Jimmy had steamed a bass with ginger and scallions. The flesh was firm and delicately flavoured. But again Eddie had found fault. “This fish is overcooked. The flesh is all mushy. You call yourself a cook. Good thing you don’t cook for Chinese. Only
lo fons
would be fooled by your cooking.”

Yu Ling had tried to soften Eddie’s words. “But the fish is very nice. Try another piece.” And she smiled apologetically at Jimmy, whose left fist was clenched, hidden from view under the table.

She knew Jimmy’s partnership was important to the restaurant. Anybody could be a waiter, but a good cook was hard to find. It was true that Jimmy had been paying Yu Ling a lot of attention, more than was right from a brother-in-law. He noticed little things – that she preferred fish to meat, that she had a love of clear soups and fresh fruit. The fact that he had bothered to notice made her feel, if not special, at least worthwhile, and perhaps, a little less alone. But was there more to it?
The heat from the bath had put her in a kind of trance. In a strange way it was helping her to slowly, gradually see. What was the real reason for Jimmy’s kindness? Sometimes she caught him looking at her in a way that was unnerving, yet thrilling. And she knew that Eddie found her body appealing. Even in her condition he wanted to do it – sometimes two or even three times a night. He wanted to possess her, swallow her up. Yu Ling smiled to herself. A short, sharp laugh burst from her throat. Deep down, she was realizing how much she liked not only the attention, but the intrigue – that dark surge of exhilaration. She smiled again; then without warning she started to weep.

Yu Ling leaned back against the bathtub with her eyes shut, trying to block out the arguing voices from the floor below. Then a scream rose out of the muffled angry rumble. The muscles in her body tensed. Feeling gripped with fear, she leaped out of the tub, awkwardly pulled on her cotton housecoat, half-stumbled down the stairs, and pushed past the door into the kitchen. Her heart stopped. Jimmy was sobbing as he crouched beside his brother, who was slumped on the floor with a slash in his throat, his face in a pool of blood. Yu Ling stood in the kitchen doorway and stared at the bloody knife that laid on the floor beside her husband’s head. Her hand covered her mouth, stifling the horror that filled her body.

Jimmy turned to Yu Ling. They stared at each other for a long moment before he spoke. “It all happened so quickly. He blamed you for everything. Accused me of sleeping with you. Then came at me with the cleaver.” Jimmy could barely control
his sobbing. “I picked up the knife when he came at me. The next thing I knew, I had stabbed him in the throat.”

“I-I can’t believe this.” Yu Ling clutched her swollen belly. Looking around, she saw that the wooden barrel holding the dirty cutlery had been knocked over onto its side. Knives and forks and spoons lay scattered all over the floor, glistening in a pool of weak, sudsy water. She stood staring at Eddie on the floor.

“What am I going to do?” Jimmy blurted.

Yu Ling continued to stare at him, saying nothing, unable to move. The garbage stood unemptied. She smelled the rotting meat and the decaying vegetables, mingling with a trace of shampoo in her freshly washed hair, still wet on her shoulders. She stood peeling back the layers of a trance, waking from a stupor, waking into a nightmare. She turned and ran back upstairs.

The coat that Eddie had bought her three months before was somewhere in her closet. Find it. Put it on. She had to leave. When Yu Ling stepped out of the Good Luck she was surprised by the chill of the winter air and automatically wrapped her unbuttoned coat more tightly around her body. She looked up and saw, suspended in the dark cloudless sky, a sharp crescent moon, translucent as rice paper. Without thinking, she knew where to go. Her face was streaked with tears as she banged on the door, then the window, then the door, the window. When Mr. Woo unlocked the door of the Golden Gate, Yu Ling looked down and saw the corduroy bedroom slippers on her feet.

The police came and took Jimmy away. He got off. Self-defence. Yu Ling stayed with the Woos until the Good Luck was sold. Months later, she and her newborn daughter moved into a rooming house in Toronto’s Chinatown. A short while later, she found work in a sewing factory and later bought a tiny house on Glasgow Street. She lived downstairs with her daughter and rented the three rooms upstairs. Three years later, she met and married a man with a stutter and fear in his eyes. A man named Tony Sue.