In this installment, Fei continues her own journal observations on Clete's second night's stay at her home. You will recall that he is serving out his sentence of imprisonment and drudgery at the Hall of Justice, which is Qi and Fei's cottage and yard, outside of which he is not allowed to go.
The previous night they amused themselves by doing an out-loud reading of The Merchant of Venice." This evening they will pass the evening by playing cards. Dog Island is a place bereft of Internet connection, so there's a very early 20th-century pace to their pastimes, along with collaborative participation. Very different from the evenings that I have observed in households today where everyone retreats into solitary digital activities.
One of my music teachers was a Vietnam War vet who told me he spent most of his enlistment sitting around playing the card game Hearts with other soldiers, facing combat situations only very rarely (for which he was grateful). He and some of his other students and I were in a situation where we had to kill a few hours before a scheduled performance. If you haven't played Hearts, you should get three other people and try it. It's quite addicting.
In this section a reference is made the 12 Scholar Pirates. They are legendary figures in the local mythology of Dog Island. This is as much as you will hear of them in this book (passing reference only, but you may get a glimpse of them later), but I've got a few stories in my head as to where they came from and what their exploits are. They are my riffs on the Eight Immortals in Chinese folklore.
As reminder, Fei is the antithesis of Qin Qin. Fei loves Dog Island and cannot imagine leading a life anywhere else. Qin Qin on the other hand cannot wait until the first opportunity comes along for her to move off. This is part of the reason they cannot stand each other.
So much intro! Storytime! This is a longer section. I would break it up, but I am wanting to move this on a little more quickly. Apologies if it's more words than you want to bother to read in one sitting ...
the story continues ...
Dr. Wong may be very book smart,
but I don’t think he understands himself very well. And he definitely does not
understand Mother. How can he NOT like her? When she did arrive home, she was
upset that Auntie Feng had disrupted her careful work schedule for the
Professor, but when Wen pulled the lid off the pot of vegetable stew Auntie had
sent over, all was forgiven. We delighted in the perfect blend of herbs that
steamed into our noses.
Mother is a fine subsistence cook
and she told me she set aside all jealousy for her cousins’ superiority there.
Sometimes I wonder if that’s one of the reasons she became vegetarian—basically
because she just gave up and decided to specialize in soups, porridges, and
vegetables. But mostly it’s because she cannot bear the thought of eating of
any of our animals. Their health of all furry animals is her responsibility as the Chilin or Tiger Guardian.
After we finished dinner, we cleaned up and Wen, who had stayed with us, asked:
“What’s next? We’ve missed you so much in class Dr. Wong. How about a
private lesson with Fei and me here? Teach us something.”
“Instead of something on a standardized test, how about something fun? Do
any of you know the card game Hearts?”
We all said no.
“It’s something men in my situation have played for generations.”
“And what situation would that be?” asked Wen.
“Uh … being away from home … for an extended period … um, with other
such men. Yeah, that’ll work. I brought a couple of card decks with me. They’re
in my shirt if you don’t mind getting them, Faye? I packed them with the
intention of passing the time playing cards at some point.”
Wen got the cards set them in front
of him. She then just kept her eyes low, as if staring at his bare torso. The
Professor reached his hand toward Wen, put it under her chin and pushed her
head so that her eyes met his.
“My eyes are up here. What did I tell you about Western culture’s rules
on eye contact? And please, please, please! Do not develop any attractions or fetishes
for old men’s bodies. It’s not good for the species. I would cover up, but I’m
dressed according to the rule of this house. Qi! We need to get some boys their
age on this island. Don’t you think it’s time?”
“Are you offering to help arrange their matches?” asked Mother.
He thought about that for a
moment. “I suppose I am. A lot of women I know met their spouses in college. Girls,
tell me what types you prefer. Tall? Pale? Stocky? Butch? Femme?”
“Never mind that! What did you do with all your time since Feng was so good
to cook for us?”
“Mother? Didn’t you notice? All of the hinges and latches on every door are
repaired. And so are all of the cords that pull up the blinds.”
“Oh. You made time for that? Well how is the grain sorting and the
coconut husking progressing?”
“I’ve made some progress,” said the Professor. “I think you’ll be
pleased when you inspect my work at the end of my … my stay.”
I wanted to say that he was done,
but I remembered my promise to secrecy. We all sat back down on the porch and
the Professor proceeded to teach us how to play Hearts.
“As I was looking around your cottage for things to repair,” said the
Professor, “I realized how much residential architecture is all about keeping
bugs and critters OUT of a house, since most people think of them as pests. In
a place where they have free access it requires a lot of adjusted thinking.”
“That’s very encouraging Pri… uh, Dr. Wong. Speaking of bugs, where are
they? Fei? Were they fed?”
“They were. Maybe they’re all out trying out their new limbs!” I said.
“New limbs? What nonsense is this?”
The Professor broke in. “Well, ‘Katie Scarlet’ is accounted for right
here.”
“WHO is that?” demanded Mother.
“The red centipede that loves to hang onto my right calf. A couple of
her buddies are there with her. I can’t believe I’ve gotten used to having venomous
bugs on my skin. Ick.”
“Don’t just give her a name! That is so rude. She is not yours to name.”
“But he renamed me,” I said.
“What are you talking about?” asked Mother.
“Faye, don’t. I don’t need your mother getting more upset,” Dr. Wong
whispered to me, “I already went through this with Lee.”
“What are you whispering about?” asked my mother.
“He renamed me ‘Gwen,’ short for Gwendolyn,” said Wen. “It is my Western
academic name. My American school name. Fei, didn’t you tell your mother?” And
then Wen realized what she had said out loud that she should not have. She put
her hands to her mouth and gave me the most “I AM SO SORRY” look I’ve ever
seen.
“Tell me what? Wong! Did you? Did you rename her? And what school name
did you give my daughter?”
“None. I just call her Faye.”
“And do you think she does not deserve one? Do you think she is not
smart enough? Not good enough?”
“Mother! What are you upset
about? First you complain that he …”
And then Dr. Wong just calmly assures Mother, “Princess, please. When
the time comes, her academic name will be clear. It will choose her because
it’s her nature, a teacher is just a conduit. It will be something that even
you cannot dispute. Until then, she is Faye, the name you gave her. In the
meantime, shall we play cards?”
Mother quieted down. Maybe he does
understand her. We played a couple of learning rounds with open hands, explanations,
and wide collaboration with all of us. And then we closed up and played for
real. It was great fun learning the
strategy, but Dr. Wong decided to push us a little more.
“You know,” said the Professor, “if you guys were truly Chinese folks
like all the ones I know, we’d be betting like crazy on the outcome of every
damn round. I’m confiscating your Tong
Yun identity cards now!”
“But Professor,” said Gwen, “we don’t have any money.”
“Tut my dear. Running up a massive debt is practically a rite of passage
for an American college student. Just to make this interesting, how about I
lend you each $10,000 American, and we just keep track on paper as we go. I
don’t have cash here myself so it’s all virtual. Play as if you have the money—let
your natural greed and your worry about losing it guide your betting. We’ll
just tally up where we are at the end of the night. How’s that?”
“But you’re good at this game,” I complained. “We will all be in debt to
you. Isn’t that right Mother? It’s not fair.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Mother. “I can play this game. AND I can read
all of his bluffs, feints, and confidences. You are an open book Clete. Shall
we proceed?”
“Faye, don’t worry about it. You guys will have beginner’s luck. If I
had a shirt on, and I don’t, I’m sure I’d be in danger of losing it.”
It would be boring to describe the
games, but true to the Professor’s prediction, we did have beginner’s luck, and
we put him into the negative, but the time came when we knew our true
capacities and he said he could tell.
“If I were sitting behind you at a gaming table right now, Dolls, I’d
say let’s cash the notes and get the fuck out of here. But let’s keep going and you watch me carefully.”
Sure enough, he went into a streak,
got back all of his money, the $10,000 he had lent each of us, and another
$5,000 or so as well. And then when I think he had proved his point he slowly
started losing on purpose. What a show-off!
“So, your mother and Lee tell me that this island once had a working
gambling hall?”
“It was near The Shrine, in The Outside,” I said. “Gambling was only
permitted in The Outside. But they eventually ceased to license it as well. I’m
sure citizens always played games of chance among themselves though. Like we
are now.”
“What changed?” asked the Professor.
“When governance of The Outside was assumed by the faction known as the
House of the Chrysanthemum,” said Mother, “the moral order became quite strict
there. They became quite religious, where before The Outside had been quite,
what’s the English word?, ah, with no governors…”
“Anarchy?”
“Yes, that’s it,” said Mother. “It was quite a wild place. The Island
had been just a pirate hideout for as long as there have been sailors, where ships
set anchor to take on clean water, and mariners would rest, eating fish and
coconuts until they could move on. Until our ancestress, the Empress, arrived.”
“So she created a place modeled on her home then? This turned into a
little piece of China way out here?”
“You could put it that way.”
“Man, it’s like what would have happened if Chinatown wound up taking
over San Francisco. But the current Sea Witches are Japanese? What's up with that? So the Outside is your J-Town
then? You ever have a K-Town?”
“K-Town?”
“The
ghetto for Koreans.”
“Koreans? Hanguo ren! Oh them!
The few that washed up here a long time ago said they were of the Joseon
Kingdom. Supposedly when they found out we were Manchurians they feared for
their lives—I believe there was a war on at the time—but they eventually learned
that there were never ethnic enclaves among us. Too many peoples but too few
people for anything like that to work here if you know what I mean.”
“I get ya.”
“Any who stayed were accepted,” Mother continued, “but I don’t think
they stayed. If people could not live within our customs and order, they went
to The Outside. You need to talk the Sea Witch about their history,” said Mother.
“They are the remnant of The Outside’s House of the Chrysanthemum. But in either
place, the divisions here are not ethnic, they’re philosophical.”
“You guys keep mentioning the pirate traditions here. Any colorful
stories?”
“I always loved hearing the stories of the Legendary 12 Scholar Pirates
from my mother,” said Wen.
“Scholar Pirates?”
“Yes, they were mariners who swore fealty to Empress who guarded and
supplied The Island and transported Island people from here to other Islands or
to the continents and back again.”
“Legend is that they were gentlemen and scholars who had all gone to
school together. They had fallen out of favor with the Imperial Court and that
they had bounties on their heads,” I added. “I always liked ‘Backward Fong’ who
built his ship so that it looked the front was the back, so that as he pursued
a victim, the prey assumed they were gaining on a slow vessel, until it was too
late.”
I added, “My favorite was Skyrocket Li. He loved fireworks and inventing
different kinds of explosions. He would set up a barge for displays to distract
the crew of a victim ship, and while they were watching, they would sneak up on
them, board, plunder, and finally scuttle his prey.”
“Well, MY favorite was Madam Captain Pretty Face Zhou,” said Mother.
“So there was a female among them then?” the Professor asked.
“It is said the other eleven said that Zhou was a woman who got
mistakenly placed into a man’s body by the gods, because the gods got too distracted
by his beauty to realize what they were doing—hence his name ‘Pretty Face.’ He
turned his looks into great advantage, dressing as a woman and operating his
ship as a brothel on the open seas. His crew was equally divided male and
female, but they were all skilled courtesans and knife masters. You can imagine
the kinds of subterfuges such a crew could execute.”
“Knife masters? Not unlike yourself, then,” asked the Professor.
“That’s why I like him. Fei and I are descended from him. It’s a family
tradition. It was said that Zhou was so skilled at playing the part of the
female, that no male client of his ever knew that they had been with a man when
the lights were out.”
“So that’s where you got your good looks from then, eh? Maybe he had
work done in Thailand on the down low. I’m told they’re really good at that. Shit,
my ancestors are pretty boring people compared to yours. My Goong-Goong worked in a sardine cannery
in Santa Cruz County I think.”
“Just remember Clete, that Chinese parents NEVER tell their children
everything about who they are or what they’ve done.”
“So true. They never tell you
anything period. My buddy Johnson told me he learned at his father’s funeral
that his dad had been a numbers runner for a gambling syndicate. And that’s how
they could afford to send him and his sister to college for undergrad and
graduate degrees. We did have a clue. I remember whenever Johnson and I said we
were going to the track, Mr. Lai would always hand his son a 20 and tell him to
bet on a particular race. We always jumped in too, because he was always right.”
Toward the end of the night, Dr.
Wong toyed with our expectations and subsequently escalated the betting and
each of us ended up owing him approximately $80 thousand American. Mother
looked so frustrated, but he just winked at her and joked.
“It’s a nice round number, eh? I’m never going to collect those debts so
it’s all in good fun, hunh? Besides, I hear you like the number 8. Oh man it’s
late! Well, it’s time to hit the hammocks.”
“Oh shut up and go. I am going to tend
some things but I will be there to secure you.”
Wen said good night, saying that
she would be back with dinner the next night. Mother told her not to bother,
but Wen said her mother felt bad for not handling a proper duty and that she
owed it to Mother and me.
“Mother? What is the proper duty that Auntie Feng did not fulfill?”
“Security Council business. It is no affair of yours to know.”
“There was a session to which the Junior Council was not invited? Why?”
“Dear. There are some things that are better not to know.”
“I have a different question then. Why is Dr. Wong staying with us?”
“He is our house guest.”
“I don’t think so. You keep having him do things he doesn’t want to do.
But he is putting on a very good act of acting like a guest.”
“Have you asked him why he is here?”
“Yes. He said to ask you.”
“You are now such a smart girl then? Being educated by a college
professor. Why don’t you tell me what you think?”
“I think you have him imprisoned here for some reason. You tied yourself
to him last night. How is that hospitality?”
“What makes you say that? Have we ever had a house guest before?”
“Mother! Do you really think that’s necessary? You are afraid that he
will flee to The Outside, aren’t you?”
“I have nothing to say to any of those statements.”
“I am an adult citizen of this Island. Don’t I deserve to know what is
happening here?”
“Darling, listen to me. He is not a trustworthy person.”
“Mother you are SO wrong. He shows so much loyalty that …”
“How DARE you contradict me.”
“I don’t …, I don’t … Ai! By the heavens…”
“Here’s a story. One day a strange man shows up who pays a little girl
some compliments. Tells her all kinds of nice things about herself. And then she
starts to believe everything he says. She thinks he’s wonderful. He makes her doubt
the person who has dedicated her entire life to her welfare.”
“NO. I am not a little girl. Every high mark I have gotten, I have
earned! Oh Mother …”
“I know what men like him are like.”
“You know nothing. When was the last time you actually talked to a man
before him? I don’t know anything. None of us know anything. Nobody ever talks
to us. We are isolated.”
“I am going to tell you something. You are not supposed to know, so this
is just between you and me. You need to know this. He is here with us because
he is a criminal.”
“He is NOT.”
“He IS. He broke our laws. He has been sentenced to jail. Here. That is
why he is with us. A prisoner in the Hall of Justice—NOT a houseguest. I am
going to show you something and prove to you how right I am. I will not bind
him. He will break perimeter. That is his nature. Wanton. Lawless. A man of no
restraint. Loyal to no one but himself. You will see. And you will see that you
need to trust your mother more than this stranger. I am going to bet … that he
has probably told you or shown you something that he is hiding from me. To get
you on his side. To turn you against me. Hasn’t he?”
“I have nothing to say to that.” I absolutely hate it when Mother is
right, even partially.
© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.
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Be truthful and frank, but be polite. If you use excessive profanity, I'll assume you have some kind of character flaw like Dr. Wong. Tks!