6
THE MITCHELLS left for Nanjing in early June. The two-month delay had been prolonged for another month, and as a result, they'd had to rebuy some clothes for Hailee, who wore larger sizes now. Even so, the Mitchells were elated by the final approval of the Chinese side. At long last they could bring their daughter home, they kept telling others. When Janet and Dave were away in China, Ping-ping would stop by at the jewelry store from time to time, chatting with the tall Susie, who kept everything in good order, as if she owned the business. Since the previous spring Susie had been working full-time for Janet. She told Pingping that her boss was a cheapskate and wouldn't give her a paid vacation. Pingping defended her friend, saying, "Look, you have health insurance, right?"
"Yes, but it's not that good. Every time I go see the doctor, I have to spend twenty bucks for the co-pay." Susie made a pout, then licked her upper lip.
"We have a child, but we don't have any real insurance. You're lucky. It cost Janet a lotta money to cover you."
Susie looked annoyed and kept flexing her henna-nailed fingers. She was wearing so much rouge that she looked sunburned. "I know you two are close," she muttered. "Don't tell Janet I bad-mouthed her."
"Of course I don't do that."
Susie often went to the Gold Wok for lunch, mainly because it was convenient. She didn't have a car, and her boyfriend, a young carpenter who had a centipede tattooed on each bicep, would drive her to work and pick her up when she closed up in the evenings.
Today there were few customers at the restaurant after two o'clock, so everybody could take a breather. Pingping and Niyan settled at a table drinking tea and paring apples to eat. Nan was reading Time magazine, to which he had subscribed for business use. Usually they didn't have lunch; whoever was hungry could take a bite from the kitchen. But they'd eat a meal together late in the evening before they called it a day. Nan often cooked light, homely food for their dinner, such as fish-head soup, sauteed watercress, and tofu with peas and pickled mustard greens.
As Nan lifted his coffee mug absentmindedly to his lips, the phone rang. Pingping picked it up. "Where are you calling from, Janet?" she asked excitedly.
"Where can it be? I'm in Nanjing!" Janet said.
"Do you have Hailee already?"
"Not yet. We have to wait another day."
"It's very hot there, right?"
"Yes, it makes me miss Atlanta. I've never been in such weather. It's scorching outside during the day, but that doesn't seem to bother the locals."
"That's why Nanjing is called 'Furnace.' "
"We went to see the other baby yesterday."
"What baby?"
"The one whose photo came together with Hailee's, remember?" "Yes, how she's like?"
"She's a lovely girl too, a bit taller than Hailee. My heart went out to her. The good news is that a single woman in Philadelphia is going to adopt her. That makes Dave and me feel better."
"So no more guilty, okay? Did you go to other place? I mean, look around and buy things?"
"We went to the Yangtze River and a park. Nanjing is a fascinating city. There's a lot of good food here."
"Did you walk on Yangtze Bridge?"
"Yes, it was kind of scary."
"How come?"
"It trembled whenever a train passed beneath us. Dave and I were afraid it might collapse. You know he can't swim."
Pingping laughed. "You're so funny, Janet. Everything is all right so far?"
"Yes. I'm calling to see how things are at home."
"Everything is fine. Your house and yard is safe and clean. I went there yesterday morning. Your grass is cut, and everything look nice. Don't worry. Susie keep your store good too. She's very careful about everything."
"Thanks a lot, Pingping. After we get our daughter, we'll have to go to Beijing to get her papers. Then we'll go see the Great Wall before we fly back."
"Why you do that? Isn't hard to go there with baby?"
"We figure we won't be able to travel for a long time once we have Hailee. Also, we want to take some photos, to show them to her in the future."
"I see. Travel safely then. Don't worry about anything here."
Having hung up, Pingping said to Nan, "They're going to see the Great Wall with the baby. Isn't that crazy?"
"Hailee is really a lucky girl," Nan said poker-faced. "If some American family had adopted me when I was an infant, I could have become a movie star, or at least a CEO."
That cracked everybody up.
Late that afternoon Nan read an article in a week-old Overseas Daily, reporting that Mr. Manping Liu had gone back to Beijing to get cancer treatment. The old exile had suddenly collapsed one day as he was patching the muffler of his jalopy with duct tape, and had been rushed to a local clinic for poor people. The diagnosis was liver cancer, and the doctor said his days would be numbered if the treatment wasn't effective. It was rumored that the old dissident had written to a member of the Political Bureau, begging for permission to go back to China. "Please let me die in our motherland," he wrote. Out of pity or political expediency, they let him return and even assigned him a hospital bed in Beijing, provided he'd remain silent about sensitive issues and would inform the police beforehand if he was to meet with any foreigner. He could resume receiving the same salary as before he had fled China. Mr. Liu accepted the provisos and went back quietly, together with his wife.
His case evoked mixed feelings in Nan, and for days he'd been thinking about the implications of Mr. Liu's return. Why did the old man stoop to the authorities so easily? True, he was nostalgic and might get better medical treatment and live longer in Beijing. But wouldn't his return compromise his principles and impair his integrity? Nan couldn't answer definitively. His mind couldn't help but turn to Mr. Liu even when he was busy cooking.
Gradually he figured out the essential difference between himself and the old scholar. Mr. Liu was an exile, whose life had been shaped by the past and who could exist only with reference to the central power that had banished him from China. Here lay Mr. Liu's tragedy-he couldn't possibly separate himself from the state's apparatus that could always control and torment him. Without the frame of reference already formed in his homeland, his life would have lost its meaning and bearings. That must be why so many exiles, wrecked with nostalgia, would eulogize suffering and patriotism. Physically they were here, but because of the yoke of their significant past, they couldn't adapt to the life in the new land. In contrast, Nan was an immigrant without a noteworthy and burdensome past. To the authorities, he was nobody, nonexistent. He didn't even have a Chinese official to beg. Who would listen to a man like him, a mere immigrant or refugee? People of his kind, "the weed people," survived or perished like insects and grass and wouldn't matter at all to those living in their native land. To the people in China, they were already counted as a loss. Small wonder that a senior official had recently declared to a group of overseas Chinese, "You must be qualified to become a real patriot," implying that China needed only those who could make substantial contributions to its economic and technological development. The more Nan thought about these issues, the more upset he became. On the other hand, he was willing to accept the immigrant life as the condition of his existence so as to become a self-sufficient man. He felt grateful to the American land that had taken in his family and given them an opportunity for a new beginning.
7
A THUNDERSTORM warning was broadcast the following day, and many people went to supermarkets to buy nonperishable foods, bottled water, and other supplies. No customers showed up at the Gold Wok after four o'clock, so the Wus closed early and went home to prepare for the severe storm due to hit the area in the evening. They were worried about the massive oak near the east end of their house. If it fell, it might crush the roofs of their carport and living room. The tree belonged to both the Wus and Gerald, the property line going right through its trunk. Several times Nan and Pingping had talked to Gerald about bringing the oak down, since it could fall on his roof as well, but he wouldn't share the cost of six hundred dollars, saying he had no money. However, Alan had told Nan that oaks had deep roots and wouldn't fall easily. It was pines that were more likely to cause damage; that was why Alan had taken down nineteen of his pine trees two years ago and had kept the oaks in his yard. Now all the Wus could do was cross their fingers and watch the television showing destroyed houses and overturned vehicles in the wake of the storm. A newsman said, "Besides the thunderstorm, it's reported that some places in the northern suburbs got hammered by a tornado. We'll bring you more on that once we have the details."