Skeleton Women (25 page)
Her talents were almost as much a mystery to me as mine were to her.
Now it was my turn again. I decided to tease the audience before putting them into a frenzy with my ultimate act. A few minutes after I started to sing, the audience saw not only a songstress but a woman twisting her body into impossible, surrealistic postures. There was no clapping or cheering in the hall, only mesmerized silence interrupted by stifled gasps. Their expressions told me that they couldn’t believe what they saw in front of their eyes. With Shadow, they knew she was an illusionist and that everything happening, however incredible, was a well-rehearsed trick to fool their eyes. But my performance was no trick, only the fruit of inhuman training and bitter practice. Since no one in the audience had ever seen me perform as a contortionist, the shock was all the greater.
More singing and twisting followed until suddenly I disentangled my limbs and transformed my body back to its normal shape. It took a few seconds before the audience came out from their trance and burst into thunderous applause. It was then that I noticed that Jinying and his woman’s seats were empty. Had they left?
Good.
They wouldn’t witness what was going to happen next. The young master must have been greatly distressed to see me twist my body into unnatural, excruciating shapes. What would he think of me if he’d been able to read my twisted mind?
Good.
They wouldn’t witness what was going to happen next. The young master must have been greatly distressed to see me twist my body into unnatural, excruciating shapes. What would he think of me if he’d been able to read my twisted mind?
The master of ceremonies went to the microphone and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you think there is no more excitement in store for you tonight, then you are dead wrong! What comes next is Miss Camilla and Miss Shadow’s most extravagant act, which will absolutely stun your eyeballs so much that you won’t be able to sleep for many nights. And when you do, what you see tonight will haunt you in your dreams!”
Of course neither the MC nor anyone else had any idea what I was
really
going to do.
really
going to do.
Equally oblivious of the upcoming evil, someone yelled, “Hurry up! Show us now!”
A man’s voice called out, “When are you two beauties going to show some flesh?” to collective laughter vibrating in the hall.
“You’ll see. Open your eyes as wide as you can so you don’t miss the next shocking act. You’ve never seen anything like what is about to happen!” the MC said excitedly.
“Get out of the way! We want to see the girls, not you, big mouth!”
Right after the master of ceremonies stepped down, I swiftly slid a dagger from my sleeve and plunged it into Shadow’s chest. Blood spurted in a crimson cascade from between her breasts. The magician, now covering her chest with her hands, looked at me with an indescribable expression. Shocked? Stunned? Tormented?
“Oh, no!” the audience cried out in alarm, but of course they had no idea what to do. I saw a few muscular men at the back spring up, ready for action. Fortunately, no one was leaving to call the police. I put on my best smile and bowed deeply.
“My apologies, ladies and gentleman. Relax. No one is going to get hurt, especially not our beloved Miss Shadow!”
At the same time, Shadow was regaining her composure. She must have realized now that she was only in shock, not in pain, and that the whole thing was, like her own magic, just a trick.
A smile materialized on her pale face as she bowed to the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m fine, really, as you can see.” She patted her bloody chest where the knife had stabbed.
However, this little trick was just a warm-up for the ultimate show, a tantalizing hors d’oeuvre to whet appetites for the gourmet entrée.
I had thrust a knife into Shadow’s chest, but it was not a real knife, only one whose blade was blunt and retracted into its handle. Fake blood stored inside the handle was squeezed out to create a realistic effect. So what looked like a stabbing was just an illusion. I was surprised that Shadow, as a magician, had fallen for this simple gimmick. But it is always different when the trick is on you. She needed to learn to be more shock-proof.
Shadow cast me a harsh look, whether real or feigned anger, I could not tell and didn’t care.
People in the audience were asking one another what had just happened. But I was not going to explain my trick, and now was the moment for which I had planned the entire show.
Two stagehands appeared, pushing a wooden platform on which was mounted a big wheel, while Shadow and I went backstage to change. When we came back out, I took several deep breaths, silently praying that everything would go according to plan. A plan that nobody knew, not even heaven.
Shadow twirled across the stage to the big wheel and climbed onto it, her feet resting on two small projections. Next, the stagehands strapped her securely to the wheel. Then one of the men handed me a brocade bag filled with knives, while the other pushed a button on the wheel board. Slowly the huge disc began to revolve, accompanied by sinister music from the orchestra. Now a bright spotlight was shined on me, making the knife blades glint as I lifted them from the bag. Instantly the usually rowdy crowd became deathly silent.
I meditated and planted my legs firmly on the stage. Then, like a lightning flash, twenty knives flew from my hand and landed around Shadow in a perfect circle. After a moment of stunned silence, thunderous applause burst into the air.
Shadow came down from the board and walked to me, smiling gorgeously. We held hands and sauntered to the front of the stage to bow.
She whispered to me, “Good job, Camilla.”
“You bet, Shadow. I never miss.”
As I lifted up my head, I spotted Rainbow Chang in the front furiously scribbling on her notepad, then looking up to stare at me admiringly. But I had no time to acknowledge her or anyone else in the audience. What I had planned next would take all the concentration my years of bitter training had prepared me for.
A heroic tune streamed out from the orchestra, energizing the air. But I felt a chill, an uncanny sensation, for I was the only being between heaven and earth who knew what was going to happen next... .
To build up more suspense, Shadow and I went backstage to change again, she into a beaded black Western outfit and I a black tunic bordered by silver sequins at the neck and sleeves.
Holding hands, we headed back onto the stage. Again, Shadow was strapped onto the board, which began to slowly rotate, while I set the knives in a row on the floor next to my feet. Now, accompanied by a mysterious tune from the orchestra, I began to contort my body into impossible, even inhuman, postures. As I entangled and disentangled my limbs, knives flew out with lightning speed and unerring accuracy, forming different patterns—circle, square, heart—around Shadow. I was sure none had ever witnessed a woman contorting while throwing knives at the same time. The spectacle was eerie, erotic, perverse. No sound was heard except the steady thudding of the knives landing next to Shadow.
The staff pulled out the knives and handed them back to me. Next I lay belly-down on the floor, my head facing the audience, my legs crisscrossed on top of my head, and my toes holding one another above my scalp.
But something strange happened. This time the knife hesitated for a fraction of a second before, seemingly with a will of its own, flying out from my hand. I heard a sharp cry burst from Shadow’s bright red lips. Her blood, this time real, sprayed onto the revolving board and splattered onto the stage.
The stunned audience remained as silent as corpses. They must have assumed that this was yet another trick. Only when the magician cried out again did the stagehands reappear.
Shadow begged plaintively, “Stop the machine!”
They quickly turned it off and helped her back down to the stage.
My secret goal had been to slice off one of Shadows’ fingers, ruining her chances of success as a magician or skeleton woman in Shanghai. But right now I was no better off than she because I was “stuck” in my contortion pose. No matter how hard I tried to loosen my limbs, they stubbornly remained in their perverse—and now extremely embarrassing—position.
Staff, bodyguards, and several men from the audience rushed onstage. Amidst the resulting confusion, I saw two assistants help the pale, bleeding, and trembling Shadow off the stage. I do not know what happened next, because I lost consciousness... .
The next day, the gossip newspapers were in a frenzy reporting the failed show of the century. In front of the elite of Shanghai, two of its most famous and beautiful skeleton women had met with exciting mishaps: one had her finger nearly sliced off, while the other got stuck in her contortionist act and passed out.
Rainbow Chang’s column read:
Show of the Century Ends in Disaster!
Last night the spectators at the Bright Moon Nightclub had their eyeballs stunned—twice. First by Camilla’s singing in contorted poses, then by her even more contorted knife-tossing at her partner, the magician Shadow. Everything went fine until Camilla lobbed a knife while in a particularly weird pose. The whirling blade sliced poor Shadow’s finger. In the meantime, Camilla got stuck in her pose and passed out.
So Shanghai might now have a nine-fingered skeleton woman and another skeleton woman entangled in an endless knot. Shadow lost so much blood that she now looks even more shadowy, while Camilla nearly suffocated and may never stand up straight again.
More to follow... .
Rainbow Chang
Rainbow Chang
I felt a smile playing around the corners of my lips. I had fooled everyone. Everything had worked out according to plan and under my control—the slicing off of Shadow’s finger, my being stuck in the impossible pose, and the fainting were no accidents, only strategies.
And yet as I tried to relish my impeccable plan by re-creating last night’s accident, I felt a headache coming on. Something was not quite right. Why the hesitation, just for a split second, before I threw the knife? Had I felt compassion just at that moment? Were my getting stuck in the contortionist position and fainting truly a pretense, or were they real?
I racked my brain but couldn’t be sure what had actually happened. Was my mind scrambling itself to prevent me from knowing the truth? Was I losing my grip on reality from my lifetime of lying, cunning, and scheming? As I brooded, my headache intensified, and fear gripped me like a tiger’s paw.
Not until I awakened in the evening did I realize I’d fallen asleep. The headache was gone, so I steeled myself to analyze and plan. Maybe I should stay out of the public eye for a while to let the whole thing cool down. But first I needed to visit Shadow in the hospital. I definitely didn’t want to be portrayed as both careless and heartless.
I put on a simple cotton
cheongsam
and only light makeup and was about to leave the house when the doorbell rang. To my surprise, when Ah Fong opened the door, it was none other than my ghostly rival! And I was even more surprised when she handed me a bunch of camellias and a bottle of red wine. It should be me who visited her and brought flowers and wine. Was this some new game she was playing?
cheongsam
and only light makeup and was about to leave the house when the doorbell rang. To my surprise, when Ah Fong opened the door, it was none other than my ghostly rival! And I was even more surprised when she handed me a bunch of camellias and a bottle of red wine. It should be me who visited her and brought flowers and wine. Was this some new game she was playing?
I smiled nervously at the inscrutable face across from me. “Thanks for coming, Shadow, but you really shouldn’t have done all this. In fact, I was about to ask Ah Wen to drive me to the hospital to see you.”
I cast a quick glance at her hand. “I’m so sorry about your finger.. . . I don’t know how I could have made such a horrible, horrible mistake... .”
She lifted her bandaged pinky while giving me a bitter glance. “The doctor said it was only slightly damaged. Fortunately the knife didn’t slice into the bone, so it should heal soon.”
“I’m so sorry, Shadow. I must have been so tense and exhausted by all the rehearsals and preparations that I ...” Then I realized that I had not sliced off her finger after all, as I had intended, merely scraped her fingertip.
She said sarcastically, “Ha! And I was so naive as to believe that you never make mistakes.”
I was about to respond, but she continued. “Camilla, I’ve eaten so much bitterness in order to be a magician, a little chip off my finger will not deter me. I’m not going to give up magic just because of this accident. In fact, I’m thankful for the valuable lesson it taught me: no one is ever safe in this life. Glory does not last forever, including mine. So I’ve made up my mind to ask Master Lung for long-term sponsorship.”
Surely she knew that I was Lung’s mistress. Did she suspect that I’d intended to get rid of her by slicing off her finger? Was this her clever strategy to retaliate? Why did this damn Shadow keep coming back to haunt me like a hungry ghost?
But I swallowed all my bitterness and smiled sweetly. “I’m sure he can’t resist the request of such a beautiful woman as you.”
“I certainly hope not.” She looked down at her bandaged pinky.
If I had sliced off her whole middle finger I thought that she would withdraw from Shanghai’s stage forever. Either she would be too embarrassed or unable to perform, or she would get my message for her to disappear. But now the damage was obviously much less serious than I’d hoped. She went on. “The doctor said the flesh might even grow back. Since you’re Master Lung’s favorite woman, and he once mentioned that you and I are like sisters, I decided to ask him to pay for the hospital fee. I meant to ask you to ask him, but since you don’t seem to be feeling well, I’ll do it myself. He is so rich—you don’t think he’ll turn me down, do you?”
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