My Splendid Concubine (45 page)

Shao-mei, on the other hand, was overdue. Nine months and a few weeks had slipped by since Payne Hollister had raped her. Robert was worried though she wasn
’t. She trusted the Chinese doctor and felt everything was perfectly safe.

“
What are we going to name our child, Robert?” she said a few days earlier. The tone of her voice and the expression on her face convinced him she believed he was the father and the rape never took place. She had deliberately forgotten it.

Robert was impressed with how the mind, like clay, was so ma
lleable. Maybe what she believed wasn’t such a bad thing. He decided not to correct her. Why bring back pain? “Wait until the child is born,” he replied, “Then we will all select a name?”

“
I want to call him
Juan Qu
,” she said, with a faraway look in her eyes. “I am sure he will look like his father.” She reached up and ran her fingers through Robert’s hair. “He will have curly hair like you.” She wanted to name the child Curly because of his hair.

He ignored his brooding thoughts and admired the old
man moving the boat effortlessly up river as if he were decades younger. Robert had offered to help, but Uncle Bark ignored him. He hoped he had the same stamina when he was in his seventies.

Uncle Bark
’s sole belongings were the clothes on his back, the sampan, a machete and a long, thin knife for cleaning fish. He had watched the old man eat several times and doubted he’d ever eaten enough to fill his stomach. Ayaou tried to get him to eat more. He refused by ignoring her. Robert would have starved on that much food.

The old man seldom spoke in the mornings. However, on the trip
s upriver, he poured out rich and sometimes bizarre snapshots of his life that never connected. The stories had no beginnings or endings. They were about one tragedy after another as if they were a continuous series of fierce storms. Listening to Uncle Bark, Robert learned much of what was going on in the common people’s lives in China, and how they coped with tragic situations.

One story that stood out was the time Uncle Bark
’s family was starving, and he had no more daughters to sell. To curb their hunger they ate clay, grass and weeds. There was a drought and there wasn’t much grass or weeds to be found except near the river. “It’s as if the fish in the river sensed our hunger,” Uncle Bark said, “and went into hiding.”

The old man
never did say what happened to his family. The one time he asked, Uncle Bark fell silent. Robert assumed he’d lost his family and the pain was too much. He didn’t ask again.

Usually Uncle Bark joined them for the evening
meal inside the cottage. After eating, he returned to his boat. On the trips up-and-down river, Robert sat out of the sun under the sampan’s shelter while the old man stood on a plank in the stern under the relentless glare of the sun and rocked the boat with his oar like paddle.

In the mornings, there was always a package of food wrapped in paper for Uncle Bark. Robert suspected that was what Ayaou paid him. He
’d do little more than fish during the day but was always waiting to take Robert home. He liked Uncle Bark. There was an indescribable internal peace the old man carried with him. It was as if he had gathered all the pain from his life and tossed it into the river so the current carried it away. He reminded Robert of a Taoist, or at least what he understood a devotee of Taoism to be like. Uncle Bark had been born on a boat. He would probably die on one.

Robert
’s Chinese lessons with Master Tee Lee Ping had moved on from the
Dao Dee Jing
to the
Tao Te Ching
, which had eighty-one chapters and used about five thousand Chinese characters. Since Robert only knew a few hundred characters, the lessons had slowed to a painful pace. He was forced to expand his written Chinese vocabulary and was determined to succeed.

That morning, he
had paused in front of the mirror to straighten his bow tie and felt unhappy with his curly thicket of hair, which made him look like a wild beast. He envied the Chinese their straight hair and wished there were a way to iron out his curls.

“
What is wrong?” Ayaou asked, as she came into the room.

“
My hair,” he said. “The barbers don’t know how to cut it.”

“
Barbers?”

“
They don’t cut it the way I want. It’s either too short, or they leave too many curls.”

“
Robert, your hair is fine. Just leave it alone.”

“
I agree,” Shao-mei said. Robert’s eyes went to her stomach. She was huge—more than huge, gigantic. The baby could arrive any minute. Maybe she carried twins. However, the Chinese doctor said there was only one, and it was going to be big because of Robert’s dragon seed. How could the doctor know all that by just holding her wrist? The man could be wrong.

“
I dream about having curly hair.” Shao-mei fluffed up her straight hair and twisted the long strands into curls. “If I could trade with you, I would.” When she let go, her hair fell like a sheet. “Our baby boy will have curly hair like yours. Everyone will be jealous.”

It was probably true
the baby would be born with curls, because Payne Hollister had more curls than Robert. “Get the scissors, Shao-mei,” Ayaou said. “I will fix his hair.” Shao-mei ran off and came back with scissors.

“
Have you ever-cut hair before?” he asked.

“
As the oldest daughter, I cut everyone’s hair in the family.” She pulled over a stool and had him sit on it. He lost sight of himself in the mirror. Shao-mei stood on the tips of her toes and walked around him getting excited. Ayaou started cutting and large clumps of hair fell on his shoulders, lap and floor. He wondered when she was going to finish and had visions of ending up bald.

“
Oh my, Ayaou,” Shao-mei’s voice went low. “Are you sure of this? I can see the scalp in places.”

“
What?” Robert jerked upright

Ayaou pushed him down.
“Sit still. I almost cut your ear off.”

“
No! I’m going back to the barber!”

“
If you keep frowning like that,” Ayaou said, “you are going to age and have lines like rivers on your forehead.”

“
Oh, Ayaou, look what you’ve done to the back of his head!” Shao-mei said, making a hissing sound.

“
Stop teasing him, Shao-mei. Do you see what you are doing? He is puffing up like a pigeon and ruffling his feathers.” After a few more cuts, Ayaou brushed the hair from his shoulders and stepped back. “Done. You look wonderful.”

When Ayaou went to the kitchen to get the broom, Shao-mei whispered,
“Did you know that every Lunar New Year, our Aunt Grass bought each of us a moon cake filled with sweet red beans? Well, if we did not eat fast enough, Ayaou snatched them from us and gobbled them down. She got away with it the first year. After that, we learned to eat faster. Our younger sister, Lan, never learned. She wanted to make her cake last. She hid it under some clothing and daily took one small bite. Ayaou kept hunting for the hiding place if she knew there was some left.” Shao-mei smiled causing her dimples to go deeper?”See what I mean. You should not have trusted her.”

H
e went to the mirror and saw a Chinese man. Ayaou had thinned his hair so much the curls had disappeared. When Ayaou came back and wanted his comment, he said it was innovative. He didn’t tell her he was unhappy with it.

“
What does innovative mean?” she asked.

“
It’s a great haircut.” He lied.

When Robert went outside to get into Uncle Bark
’s sampan, the old man looked at his head and grunted. “Good haircut,” he said. “You will be cooler on hot days. Put your hat on. You do not want the sun to burn your scalp.”

Robert’s chin was resting against his chest when he awoke. He jerked his head and wiped drool from his mouth. He’d fallen asleep. He was working too many hours and not getting enough rest. The first thing he saw when his vision cleared was Uncle Bark working the sampan’s oar propelling the craft upriver toward the cottage. Robert had been dreaming about the haircut from that morning. He smiled. This time his dream had been pleasant.

“
What do you think of this, Uncle Bark?” he asked. He launched into one of the
Tao’s
six passages
. “The Valley Spirit never dies. It is named the Mysterious Female. And the doorway of the Mysterious Female is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry
.”

The sampan was turning off the river
and into the creek leading to the cottage. Uncle Bark stared at Robert. He saw that the old man was thinking about his reply. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, something unusual caught Robert’s attention. He saw smoke billowing into the sky about where the cottage was situated. Alarmed, he left the shelter and stood.

Uncle Bark follow
ed Robert’s gaze and noticed too. He started to row harder. There was the sound of a shotgun blast.

“
Hurry!” Robert said. Grabbing a long pole from the bottom of the boat, he thrust it into the shallow creek and pushed to speed the sampan along. His mouth had gone dry. He was sure the smoke was coming from the cottage. “Oh my God!” he said.

Robert put down the pole and checked the loads in his pi
stol. When the sampan came into sight of the dock, there was a long flat-bottomed boat already there with two men in it. The boat looked like it was full of loot from the cottage. The two men had their backs to the sampan and didn’t see it.

He
heard Uncle Bark mumble a word that sounded like pirates. Then the sampan rammed into the creek bank where it stuck in the mud. The old man grabbed his machete and leaped ashore.

Robert saw movement behind the thick bushes and trees. He lifted the pistol and aimed at the two in the flat-bottomed boat. One of the pirates turned and revealed a heavily poc
kmarked face. When he saw Robert, the man’s eyes widened in shock. He grabbed for a musket. Robert was faster and fired a shot into his chest. The pirate flipped into the water.

The second pirate jumped out of the boat and ran toward the co
ttage yelling warnings. Uncle Bark stepped from behind a tree and used his machete to split the man’s head as if it were a melon. The body stumbled forward a few more steps before sprawling face down.

Reloading the pistol, R
obert advanced on the cottage.

Three men broke from behind the burning building and charged. Uncle Bark took off running to meet them. Robert stopped, took careful aim and shot one man in the face. Uncle Bark collided with the second man, who must have been fifty years younger than him. Uncle Bark
’s arms were like corded hemp. He slapped the other man’s sword aside and cut him across the middle disemboweling him. The third man turned and fled. Robert fired a hasty shot at his back but missed. An eye blink later, the man was out of sight.

Uncle Bark and Robert arrived at the cottage. It was e
ngulfed in roaring flames. The old man grunted and pointed at the pistol. Robert reloaded while the old man stood watch with the machete and his eight-inch fish knife.

A scream sounded up creek. Both Uncle Bark and Robert ran t
oward the sound. The old man moved ahead of Robert in a burst of speed. His arm whipped back and forward in a blur. The fish knife left his hand. Then he ran between two trees and leaped out of sight like a wild deer.

Robert had to force his way through the thick brush and stu
mbled on a man trashing about. Uncle Bark’s eight-inch fish knife was protruding from his throat. The pointed end of the blade was showing through the back of the man’s neck. The pirate’s eyes were bulging and blood bubbled from his mouth.

Robert reached down, grabbed the knife and
pulled it from the dying man’s throat. For good measure, he twisted the blade on its way out. The man waved his arms and lifted his head off the ground. Robert placed a foot on the man’s chest and held him down. With a sucking sound, the blade popped free.

When Robert caught up with Uncle Bark, the old man was st
anding over Ayaou’s prone body. The old man was holding off four men with his machete. Robert took up a position and fired. The brains of the first man he shot splashed into the face of the man behind him. The other three ran off. Robert stopped beside Uncle Bark and handed him the bloody knife.

“
Ayaou!” Robert got down on his knees. He pulled her into his arms. She felt like a rag doll. There was no sign of blood. She looked pale. He put his ear to her chest and felt relief when he heard her heart.

“
Ayaou,” he said. “Where’s Shao-mei?”

“
Come, Robert, the fight is not over,” Uncle Bark said. “The pirates might come back. Reload that weapon and bring Ayaou with us. Let us move!” He ran off.

Robert
’s hands shook as he reloaded the pistol. He took hold of Ayaou again. She opened her eyes. They were empty as if someone had poured the life out of her. Her lips moved, but Robert couldn’t understand her. He leaned down and put his ear next to her mouth. “Go find Shao-mei,” she said. He jerked upright at the sound of a shot from the direction of the creek. Then someone was screaming. Uncle Bark only had the machete and the dagger.