Down to a Soundless Sea (32 page)

He settled himself down on the soft bed and began to change into his sleeping robe when he noticed something bright on his pillow. It was a small bouquet of wildflowers bound with a narrow red ribbon. The ribbon also entwined a child’s gold ring set with a small amethyst. Next to this treasure lay one of even greater importance. A small embroidered cloth purse containing six beautifully matched seashells.

Sing Fat knew at once who had placed the gift there. It was all Sue May Yee possessed in the way of a dowry, but he wondered how she had learned about the seashells. Only his sponsor could have mentioned it to her.

Obviously these tokens indicated Sue May Yee’s acceptance of his proposal and no gift on earth could have made him
happier. Nonetheless, it was her relatives who would have the last word in the matter. Sing Fat tossed and turned on the edge of an impassioned sword until exhaustion and a bellyful of wine sent him into a deep dreamless sleep.

In the morning, Sing Fat awoke abruptly to the sound of a loud knocking on the exterior of the cart; then his master’s voice called him to arise at once. The hour was late, and there was much to discuss and do. When he had finished his ablutions, Sing Fat was to join his teacher, and the sooner the better. Sing Fat arose to find two trays set on the cart’s bench.

One held a bowl of hot water and a cloth to wash with, and the other held a small pot of tea and a dish of sweet rice cakes. On the side of the tea tray lay a small wild rose upon a napkin. Sing Fat smiled and began to wash.

Sing Fat found his teacher fending off the incessant, birdlike queries of village children who thought there might be something in all this adult business that would interest them. They clustered like hungry sparrows in the hope that sweet buns and honey cakes might fall from heaven as their portion of the impending celebrations. When the elder Fat caught sight of his apprentice, he waved him on impatiently and started to walk toward the center of the village like a man escaping mosquitoes.

Sing Fat raced to catch up with a heart full of anxious questions, but before he could utter a syllable his mentor congratulated his pupil on the successful conclusion of the marriage contract. He said that his young friend’s generosity quite overwhelmed any possible objection Sue May Yee’s relatives might have proposed. In fact, since the future bride was a widow, his protégé’s liberal munificence might be perceived, under dissimilar circumstances of course, as slightly conspicuous.
As he had said before, strained circumstances precluded any question of a dowry in return.

Here Sing Fat stopped and politely contradicted his teacher. A dowry had indeed been offered, he said, and happily accepted. The apothecary turned on his heel with a look of perplexed astonishment. He had heard no mention of a dowry offer. How had this come about? Sing Fat beamed, reached beneath his tunic, and withdrew the bouquet of wildflowers with the attached child’s ring and the little embroidered bag of seashells. These he showed to his teacher. The elder Fat nodded, laughed, and patted his pupil on the back with expressions of admiration and approval. His student was obviously a great soul with a poet’s heart, he said. Such fellows made the finest of medical men, he declared. Chow Yong Fat, master apothecary, was well pleased and proud of his enterprising pupil, and he said as much.

Near the center of the village stood a small outdoor shrine erected by the Chee Kong Tong and dedicated to the peace, longevity, and general felicity of the community. Here the elder Fat stopped and suggested that it might be appropriate to light a small bundle of incense to honor the Tong and ask blessings for the afternoon’s portentous ceremony.

Sing Fat agreed and placed a few coins in the donation box. Then pupil and teacher each took a bundle of incense, lit the sweet-smelling sticks from a small brazier of coals, and placed the smoking offering in the sand filled bowl under a calligraphic invocation that asked heaven to bless and preserve the people of the village.

This done, the elder Fat suggested a walk to the shore and perhaps taking something to eat at one of the small, rickety food stalls near the bay. While there, the elder Fat would instruct
his pupil on the procedures of the betrothal ceremony, the stipulations of the marriage contract, and other pertinent protocols that needed attention.

They found a suitable bayside noodle shop and sat down at a table made of an old hatch plank. The wood still bore part of the name of the unlucky ship that had last been in possession of the goods: SAINT PAUL is all it said.

Master and student ate fresh-steamed urchin and roe directly from the shell and watched the activity on the shore. Though the weather was still sunny and bright, the fishermen were hauling all their sampans high on shore where several old women were cleaning and butchering sharks.

It seemed odd to Sing Fat that, in spite of the early hour of the day, there was no one intent on fishing.

Quite the opposite. Men were busy unbaiting and coiling hundreds of feet of the many hooked trawl lines that were used for bottom fishing, and the squid boats were being divested of their booms and fire baskets. When the sampans were drawn far enough on shore, they were turned upside down on their rollers and secured with rope and large wooden pegs driven into the sand almost two feet. It was as though the fishermen feared that their boats would be drawn mysteriously into the sky if they were not thus fastened to the earth.

Sing Fat’s curiosity was piqued when he saw men hauling their drying nets from their trestles and bundling them into the net shacks that bordered the shore. He asked a passing fisherman what all the activity was about and was informed that two ships, recently arrived, had just barely outraced another storm that was bearing up from the south.

It had been a very strange and unlucky year for such things, the fisherman said. Storms at odd seasons, and fish that normally
could only be found much farther south had shown up in the bay, while the salmon and herring, which were usually abundant at this time of year, had moved farther north.

The fisherman said that the last big storm, but a week past, had caught the village off guard and they had lost a number of valuable sampans. This time they were taking no chances.

This exchange stirred the elder Fat to insist that they should also conclude their business as soon as possible. He wanted to be on their way back to Salinas before the weather turned foul.

Instructing Sing Fat to appear promptly at one o’clock, the apothecary rushed off to complete preparations for the afternoon. This allowed Sing Fat time to wander about as he pleased until the appointed time. He decided to make his way back by the shore and observe the people at their labors.

Walking south along the beach Sing Fat watched a woman gut and skin a sea lion with such skill that within a span of only five minutes the whole operation was complete. He observed as the people drying squid gathered in their harvest so the coming storm would not destroy their fetid treasure. He also witnessed the seaweed gatherers hurriedly rake up their dried produce to be packed away in sacks and stowed undercover.

As he came to the south end of the village, Sing Fat looked up to see Sue May Yee sitting on her back porch with her white cat. She was shelling soybean pods and singing softly to herself. This was the opportunity he had longed for.

He climbed up the shore and over the rocks and came to stand just below her perch. When she saw him, Sue May Yee smiled and invited her intended bridegroom to come up and sit with her while she worked. Sing Fat needed no coaxing, and within seconds he was sitting on the flimsy boards with only the white cat separating the couple.

The cat took little notice of Sing Fat. The animal seemed quite devoted to the subtle movements of a praying mantis that had taken up a perch on a sprig of rosemary growing in a little broken mustard pot on the edge of the porch.

At first the couple became entangled in a flutter of selfconscious smiles, blushes, and half-finished sentences, each apologizing for interrupting the other. Then they fell into a happy silence and watched the colliding waves on the rocks below. In that contented silence Sing Fat reached down to stroke the cat. It seemed to accept his caresses without taking its eyes from the insect’s fastidious preening. The mantis scoured its forelegs, a sign a recent feast had been consumed. Sing Fat reflected that perhaps the cat might be next to indulge in a savory bit should the mantis dally much longer.

As a means of incidental conversation, Sing Fat asked Sue May Yee if the cat had a name. She looked up and giggled with a modest flush on her cheeks. She said that the cat had been named after herself. Not her real name, of course, but the pet name her father used to call her when she was a child. Sue May Yee confessed that her father had spoiled her terribly. He had called her “the Imperial Duchess of Woo.”

When she acquired the white kitten from a cousin, she had thought of those distant cheerful days, and in honor of her father, as well as the lost pleasures of childhood, she had named the cat the Imperial Duchess of Woo.

Sing Fat grinned broadly and nodded. He said that he thought it was a most appropriate name for such a patrician creature. With that, the cat looked up at Sing Fat as though it had understood every word. It rose, stretched with an exaggerated yawn, and moved to rest contentedly across Sing Fat’s lap. He in turn stroked the pure white fur with pleasure. This was
a great triumph for the prospective groom, according to Sue May Yee.

This act of trust and acceptance on the part of her companion seemed to give Sue May Yee great pleasure. She commented on the fact, since it was not the Duchess’ habit to accept anyone but her mistress. Sue May Yee felt that this guileless gesture held profound and fortuitous significance. If the Duchess of Woo, who was closer to the gods of insight and fortune than humans, could willingly accept Sing Fat, then perhaps their future union was already blessed.

Sue May Yee was content to let the fates draw out her path as they would. The wheel of destiny had turned once more, and she was pleased with the lot she had drawn. The gods had smiled upon her loneliness at last. She would know the joy of children and the strength imparted by love and family.

The couple sat together for an hour discussing seemingly trivial questions, but all the while warming slowly toward the subject of their impending nuptials. With each passing moment they became more comfortable with the theme, and this opened the way for Sing Fat to discuss his plans for the couple’s future.

He said that when he returned to Salinas he would take a modest house with a small piece of land for a kitchen garden. Sing Fat knew of just the right place a little north of the town toward the beautiful Gabilan Mountains. The property belonged to an aging friend of his master. This old gentleman was forced by the constraints of passing years and failing health to move back to Castroville to live with his oldest son. The dutiful son ran a small emporium on the corner of McDougall and Speegle Streets. The elderly father was willing to lease the property, with a promise of purchase, at a very reasonable rate.
His master, the apothecary, had kept the old gentleman alive and well for a number of years, and the arrangement might be accomplished with his patient’s gratitude to grease the wheels.

After a moment, Sing Fat added that if Sue May Yee approved and thought it appropriate, he would also be most happy to look after her aging father-in-law as well. It was much warmer in Salinas. Far from the chilled ocean winds and fog of the bay, the old man’s bones would limber up a bit, and Sing Fat and his master would be available to look after Jong Yee’s health when necessary. Sing Fat saw no reason why the elder Yee would not be far more comfortable and satisfied working in his own garden than contorting his ancient frame stacking dried squid for pennies.

Sue May Yee looked up, and Sing Fat could see tears well up in the corners of her eyes. She said that Sing Fat’s consideration for the well-being of her father-in-law was a singular honor and the finest gift he could bestow. It was evidence that her future husband was a man of high moral and philosophical principles, as worthy of the blessings of good fortune as any child of heaven. Only a great soul, she said, values compassion above prosperity. She bowed her head and said formally, for the first time, that she would be honored to be his wife and friend in all adversity. This time it was Sing Fat’s turn to blush and tear.

Perhaps this was what the poets and singers meant when they spoke of abiding devotion. Whatever it was, Sing Fat knew at once that this strong but demure young woman now possessed every particle of his existence. Sing Fat looked down at the cat and was surprised to find the creature staring up into his eyes. After a moment it blinked and then, to Sing Fat’s total
surprise, the creature licked his hand once and went back to sleep in his lap.

Into the heart of their companionable reverie came animated voices from within the house. One of the voices he knew to be that of his teacher. Sing Fat felt the intrusion like a bee sting. He selfishly wished these joyful moments to last all day. He shook his head as if throwing off an unwanted dream. Sing Fat knew at once that it would be thought inappropriate for him to be found alone with Sue May Yee, so he gently lifted the cat from his lap and delicately rested the drowsing animal next to her mistress.

Sing Fat patted Sue May Yee’s hand in a reassuring manner, smiled with confident cheer, and jumped off the rickety porch to the rocks below. He looked up to see Sue May Yee beaming at him with a winsome expression. It was as if she could read his thoughts. He reflected for a moment that he had not experienced such joy since childhood. For the first time in many years he could say to himself that he was truly happy to be alive. With a parting wave Sing Fat bounded away around the house so as to make it appear that he had just arrived at the front door.

The afternoon’s modest betrothal ceremony, with its further distribution of gifts and considerations, went well. After the signing of the marriage contract, an unpretentious celebratory feast was served to one and all. Again the couple was kept apart, but Sing Fat suffered the whole affair with forbearance. His youthful impatience had been assuaged by the knowledge that in two weeks’ time he and Sue May Yee would be husband and wife. The elder Fat had suggested the two-week interval
so that everything could be prepared properly in Salinas. The couple would have worlds of time to rejoice in each other’s company then.