“When will you return to China?” Wang Ah-ma wanted to know. “Before the New Year or after?”
“What’s the difference?” everyone asked.
“The fortune-teller predicted that I will expire soon after the New Year,” Wang Ah-ma replied.
“Grace and I would like to prove that you wasted your money on the fortune-teller,” Pearl said.
Wang Ah-ma smiled, cupping Pearl ’s face with her hands. “My child, promise that you will come back as soon as you can.”
“I promise.” Pearl gently kissed Wang Ah-ma’s cheeks.
“On board now or never!” the captain of the American warship yelled through a loudspeaker.
Wang Ah-ma let go of Pearl and Grace as she broke down.
The family got on the smaller boat that would take them to the warship. Absalom went to stand in the bow with his back to shore. Looking out across the water, he seemed frozen.
The horn blasted.
The Chinese Christians moaned, “Old Teacher, Absalom!”
Carpenter Chan and Papa sobbed like two abandoned children.
“May the wind blow in your favor!” the crowd chanted.
Absalom was no longer at the spot where he had been standing. It was as if he had suddenly vanished.
“Father!” Pearl and Grace called.
Papa was stunned. “Oh, dear God, Old Teacher has changed his mind!”
Running along the gunwale, Absalom moved quickly. Like a mountain goat, he jumped into the water and began to swim toward the shore.
“Old Teacher!” the crowd cheered. “Old Teacher!”
“Absalom has decided to stay with us!” Papa cried.
Carpenter Chan waded into the water and swam toward Absalom.
“Captain, help!” Grace cried. “Please, stop my father!”
The crowd received Absalom with happy tears.
A few minutes later the American captain arrived from the warship on another small boat. He talked with Pearl.
I could guess exactly what Pearl said to the American captain. She would have said, “Let the fighting angel be.”
When Pearl, Grace, and the children went aboard the ship, Absalom smiled. He waved good-bye to his daughters and grandchildren. His long arms rose like flagpoles in the air.
Pearl waved back. I sensed that she knew that she had made the right choice in letting go of her father.
What Pearl did not know was that she would never see her father again. Absalom would continue to do what he loved all the way to the end. One day Absalom would deliver his sermon. Afterward he would tell Carpenter Chan that he would take a break. Minutes later Carpenter Chan would find him in his room, lying on his bed as if sleeping. But he would be dead. Before that moment, Absalom had lived his dreams. With the help of Papa and Carpenter Chan, Absalom had built the largest Christian community in southern China.
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 25
I felt lonely and alone after Pearl left. Living in Nanking became difficult. In order to rid the country of the Japanese and the Communists, the Nationalist government increased taxes. To buy a bag of rice, one had to bring three bags of paper money to the store. Dick wrote repeatedly from the Red Base in Yenan, urging me to join him. Finally I made my decision. I let him know that I was ready to be a “bandit’s wife.” Dick was elated. He prepared me for the hostile, unfertile land and the hardship in Yenan.
“Try to look on the bright side,” Dick encouraged. “After all, the first emperor of China was born here two thousand years ago.”
I told Papa that I would worry about him. He told me not to. Before my departure he went back to Chin-kiang. Even Absalom agreed that Papa was a changed man. To redeem himself, Papa had become absorbed in church work. His devotion enabled Absalom to take longer trips inland. During Absalom’s absence, Papa asked Carpenter Chan to build a stained-glass window featuring Jesus Christ for his church. When the work was completed, it delighted everyone. Every morning the sun shone through the glass. Christ looked as though he was floating on top of clouds.
The stained glass boosted attendance. People loved the “Moving Foreign God.” Sunday-morning service became Papa’s showtime. People told Papa that they liked and felt closer to the image of this particular Jesus Christ. Papa was pleased. He had slightly altered Christ’s features. The stained-glass version of Christ had slanting eyes, a flatter nose, and full lips. The Christ also had large earlobes and browner skin.
“This goes to show you that ideas spring fastest from a well-furnished mind!” Papa said proudly.
My daughter was born in a Yenan cave on a snowy day. I tried to find a good name for her but nothing satisfied me. Dick was filled with joy when he held the baby for the first time. “What a beauty!” he exclaimed. “Instead of my lizard eyes and crooked nose, she has her mother’s features: a Chinese princess’s bright almond eyes, a delicate, straight nose, and fine pink lips! What good fortune!”
Dick had been working with Mao’s inner circle. Mao called Dick his secret weapon. Because of Dick, Mao’s image had slowly changed from that of a guerrilla leader to that of a national hero. Through his propaganda, Dick had convinced the masses that Mao, not Chiang Kai-shek, had been fighting the Japanese.
In 1937, Dick’s agents successfully infiltrated Chiang Kai-shek’s organization. Dick was able to persuade several generals of the Nationalist army to join Mao. One general even arrested Chiang Kai-shek. In history this came to be called the Xian Incident.
Mao’s name began to appear regularly in the headlines. Chiang Kai-shek was pressured to invite Mao to talk peace. Dick turned the occasion into a publicity opportunity. The stories he created about Mao made him into a myth.
Dick worked through the night. He composed Mao’s speeches and set up interviews. He often stayed inside a bomb shelter printing leaflets till dawn. Dick put my English to good use. I translated Mao’s articles and mailed them to outside news agencies. These attracted the attention of Western journalists, who came to Yenan seeking private interviews with Mao.
The town of Yenan was no longer a spot on the map no one could find. Yenan was now the headquarters of the nation’s war against Japan. Mao had become an equal to Chiang Kai-shek.
Mao was so pleased that he wrote a poem and dedicated it to Dick. In Chinese tradition, this was the highest honor. Mao’s poem was titled
“In Contrast to Poet Lu You.” As all know, Lu You, born in 1172, wrote the famous lines “With a mountain-high aim, but an old mortal frame.”
Lake Tongting
Lake Green Grass
Near the mid-autumn night
Unruffled no winds pass
Thirty thousand acres of jade light
Dotted with the leaflike boat of mine
The sky with pure moonbeam overflow
The water surface paved with moonshine
Drinking wine from the River West
Using Dipper as our wine cup
Felicity to share with you my friend
No more talk of the bitter Poet Lu You
Brightness above
Brightness below
While life meant hardship for most people in Yenan, Dick and I lived like royalty. We were given one of the best caves for our home. It had two rooms and faced south and was warmed by the sun. We had meat once a week, while the rest ate yam leaves mixed with millet. At first I enjoyed the luxury and Dick’s new status. People came to him at all hours for instructions. But soon I began to resent the intrusions. Sleep was difficult with so much coming and going. I also had trouble reading and writing by candlelight. Dick’s eyesight was so bad he had to wear thick glasses, which enlarged his pupils to the size of mung beans. When Dick took off his glasses at night, his eyes looked like pigeon eggs bulging from their sockets.
Dick didn’t care about his eyes. He wanted me to be more conscientious about his comrades’ political sensibilities. He asked me to hide my bourgeois habits. My desire for privacy, for instance.
“It is ridiculous to call privacy or basic hygiene and love of nature bourgeois habits,” I protested.