“What if Dick refuses to convert afterward?” I asked. “We don’t want to disappoint Absalom.”
Papa replied, “Dick will remember that he was saved by a man of God.”
Even covered with a beard, Dick’s face was horribly misshapen. The right side of his jaw was swollen and much larger than the left. Pearl arranged for a doctor from the American Embassy to come. The doctor reset Dick’s jaw and wired his mouth shut.
For days, Dick couldn’t speak. This was perhaps fortunate, because he couldn’t respond to Absalom’s talk of God. If Dick had been able to speak, the two would have been in combat.
Laughing at the thought, Pearl said, “Dick would try to convert Absalom to Communism.”
Eventually Dick had enough. He left without saying good-bye to Absalom.
Two weeks after Dick’s release, an order arrived from Communist headquarters. He left the next day to join Mao at his base in Yenan. Dick told Pearl he was grateful for Absalom’s rescue, but that he could never believe in God.
“Your father must learn that we Communists are fighting for a real cause,” Dick said to Pearl. “ China will one day be free of politics and religion. People will be their own gods.”
Pearl told Dick that she and her father had disagreements on many things. “He is God’s fighting angel. I don’t understand him, but I love him.”
Dick replied that it didn’t make sense to him. “I could not love my father if he were my political enemy,” he said.
Pearl smiled. “There is no enemy for me.”
In retrospect, Dick’s encounter with Pearl and Absalom helped him become a different kind of Communist. In a way, it was a perfect example of how God worked. Only the future would reveal the changes that had occurred in Dick. Without knowing it, his horizon had been expanded as God’s light shone on him.
Before my husband left we spent the evening together. His jaw was still tender but I cooked him his favorite meal and we stayed up late into the night discussing our plans. Dick was excited by the journey he was about to take, although we both shed tears at the idea of parting. He promised to come back and fetch me as soon as he was settled. I knew that if I insisted, Dick would stay in Nanking. He would do it for me, even though his heart was already with Mao and his comrades. Dick left me with a quote from Madame Curie: The weak one waits for opportunity while the strong one creates. By opportunity, he meant his dream of a people’s China.
When I sent my first letter to Dick two months later I had some news to share with my husband. On our last night together we had shared a bed and I had become pregnant. I was thrilled because years before, a doctor had told me after my miscarriage that I would not be able to bear children. I was forty-three years old and Dick forty-six. It was the happiest letter I’ve ever sent.
Pearl suggested that I start collecting medicine and packing it into bags. She had learned from an American journalist friend who had interviewed Mao that “medicine is the best currency in Yenan.” And besides, I didn’t want to be without medicine for my newborn.
CHAPTER 22
The day Papa abandoned his church in Chin-kiang and came to Nanking was the day Pearl sensed that the safety of foreigners in China was a thing of the past.
Papa told us that the church had been attacked. The Nationalist government was convinced that Communism was a foreign idea, thus the church must be a hiding place for Communists.
“Dick was fortunate to depart earlier,” Papa said. “He could have been captured and murdered if he had stayed.”
We learned that all the escape routes from Nanking to inland and coastal cities were now controlled by warlords who had become allies of the Nationalists.
The city of Nanking showed no sign of what was about to take place as we gathered on Sunday morning at the church. People believed that what had happened in Chin-kiang wouldn’t happen here, because Nanking was a capital city and had a number of foreign embassies.
Absalom led the Bible reading. We studied chapter twenty-seven, Paul’s voyage to Rome. I had difficulty concentrating. I worried about Dick and the safety of the baby inside me. Tracing the words with my finger, I followed Absalom. “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away…”
As Absalom strained to convince us that God would not let evil win, a young red-haired officer from the American Embassy ran in. He was breathless and drenched in sweat.
“Yes, sir?” Absalom was annoyed by the interruption. “How can I help you?”
The officer passed a letter to Absalom and said, “The consul general has ordered the immediate evacuation of all Americans in Nanking.”
“What is going on?” Absalom put down the Bible.
“The Chinese government informed us that it has lost control over the spreading chaos.” The officer spoke quickly. “There have been riots in the provinces of Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu. Mobs and soldiers have killed foreigners.”
“We have seen none of this in Nanking,” Absalom responded. “Are you sure our consul general is not making a storm out of a little breeze?”
“Sir, I must move on,” the officer said and excused himself.
The church was silent.
All eyes were on Absalom.
Absalom gave an unconcerned expression as he picked up the Bible. He turned a page and began to read. His voice was calm, as if nothing had happened. “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve…”
Absalom asked the crowd to join him, and we followed. “Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar and God hath given thee all them that sail with thee, wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe in God…”
Papa was becoming nervous. Finally he couldn’t contain himself. “Absalom,” he called.
Absalom ignored him.
“Master Absalom.” Papa’s voice trembled.
“Yes, Mr. Yee?” Absalom was visibly disturbed. “You’d better have a good reason for interrupting like this.”
With a note of panic in his voice, Papa cried, “ Nanking will be the next Chin-kiang!”
“Calm down, Mr. Yee!”
“Time is short,” Papa pleaded. “You and your family need to evacuate right away!”
“What are you talking about, Mr. Yee?” Absalom stared at him.
“Where do you suggest that we go?”
“Home, Master Absalom!”
“We are home.”
“No! I mean your home in America!” Papa began to stutter. “Sir, your life is in danger!”
“I’ll be going nowhere.” Absalom responded firmly. “My home is China.”
Pearl watched the evacuation of all her Western friends. Laborers worked day and night carrying cases and bags toward the river, where steamboats waited. The last American family to depart was the embassy doctor’s. When their boat pulled away, Pearl lost her composure.
“What if Carol gets sick?” she cried to Absalom. “What if you fall off your donkey and break a leg?”
Absalom replied, “Chinese people have survived thousands of years without Western medicine.”
“What if surgery is needed?” Pearl asked.
“God will take care of us.”
“Please, Father, this is a practical matter.”
“I am talking about a practical matter.” Absalom became impatient. “You must have faith in God.”
“I have a sick child, Father, and I can’t do without a doctor.”
Absalom spoke without looking at Pearl. “God’s work requires sacrifice.”
“God’s work?” Pearl became angry. “It’s your work! It’s Absalom’s glory, Absalom’s obsession! Why should the rest of us sacrifice for you?”
Grace joined Pearl, begging her father to reconsider.
“What’s wrong with you all?” Absalom yelled. “By all means go ahead and evacuate! Get going before the steamboats are gone.”