Forbidden City (25 page)

We sat down on the bank, each of us propped against a poplar so that we faced each other, our outstretched legs almost touching. Xin-hua leaned her
head back against the smooth bark and closed her eyes.

You’d never have known that we were on the edge of a city of almost eight million people. Sunlight flooded from behind a cloud onto the river. The water murmured through the tall reeds, and in the trees birds sang to one another. I closed my eyes.

It would have been a nice peaceful rest, but my mind was buzzing like a transformer on overtime. Would I get to the airport? Would Dad be there? What would happen to Xin-hua
then?

The distant rumble of a jet taking off startled me. A troop truck roared across the bridge.

What should I do? I opened my eyes and looked at Xin-hua. I knew that if I asked her, she would take me all the way to the airport — if we could get past the
PLA
, which we couldn’t. The lower the danger level for me, the higher for her. She had been responsible for me since Tian An Men Square. At least, I knew that she felt responsible. Now I felt responsible for her.

What I wanted to do was separate from her right there. She had come far enough. I could take my camcorder and the unused batteries and throw them into the river, dump the box, and send her back home on the
che
. She’d be safe on her own as long as she was careful.

I got up quietly and limped up to the
che
. I took the last two bottles of green pop down to the riverbank and laid one in Xin-hua’s lap. Her eyes opened.

“Thank you, Shan Da.”

She closed her eyes again. I chewed my pop open and sucked the sticky sweet stuff out of the container. It didn’t quench my thirst at all.

Xin-hua sat up and rubbed her eyes. She bit a hole into the top of her pop and started to drink it.

“You must be tired,” I said.

“What time is it?”

“Four o’clock.”

“We should go,” she said, tossing the plastic container into the river.

“Um, I’ve been thinking of that, Xin-hua. I think I can go on my own from here. I can walk. And maybe I can hitch a ride from a taxi or a tour bus.”

I didn’t really believe that and I guess she didn’t either. She shook her head without even thinking about what I had said.

“No, no. We go together.”

I tried to explain my thinking to her, but she wouldn’t listen. The only part she agreed with was that we probably wouldn’t need the camcorder anymore, and therefore the battery packs, and she shouldn’t have them on her, so we should do as I said and throw them in the river. But that was it.

“You can’t go alone,” she insisted. “When
PLA
stop you, you can’t speak Chinese and they can’t speak English. You need me interpret for you if trouble.”

So I tried to make a deal with her. “Okay, I’ll let you stay with me till we get to the foreign hotel compound.”

“No, still too far from airport. I stay with you until Airport Guest House. Then I back to my house.”

We talked some more, but trying to get her to change her mind was like taking the Great Wall apart brick by brick. So we tossed the camcorder and the battery packs out into the river. After a few moments’ thought I threw the audio cassettes into the river too. I knew there was no way I’d forget what was recorded on them. I put the video cassettes and the two rolls of film into my pants pockets. Then we untied the box, tipped it off the
che
, and stamped it flat. We pushed the
che
out onto the road and away we went.

The tall poplars along the road cast long shadows ahead of us. Xin-hua had left her coat on the back of the
che
but she kept her cap on against the sun. I had to keep on my coat so my white arms wouldn’t show. The breeze at our backs had picked up and seemed to push us towards the roadblock we knew would be waiting.

Two troop trucks were parked at the gate to the foreign hotel compound and four
PLA
stood outside the gate house. We got past without being challenged. There was some local traffic on the road here — a few bikes, a couple of donkey carts. They must have been from the farms, coming back empty from the free markets in the city.

We saw the roadblock long before we arrived at it. It was set up at a “Y” in the road. The road to the airport curved to the left and just past the “Y” there
were enough
PLA
to storm a small village. Two troop trucks blocked the road, leaving enough room between them for one vehicle to squeeze through.

As we approached, three shots rang out.

Xin-hua flinched. I felt that cold hand of dread again, pinching my spine and squeezing my chest. I could hardly breathe. The thudding of my heart resonated in my skull.

“Xin-hua! Stop and turn around!”

She kept pedalling, head down. “Remember, Shan Da. Don’t talk.”

I reached into my pockets and took out the 8mm cassettes. I opened my pants and jammed the cassettes down the front, inside my underwear. The rolls of film I tucked into my shirt pocket buttoned my coat to the neck.

There was no use lying down and doing my sleepy worker impersonation. Nobody would believe I could sleep through the sound of gunfire. So I sat with my legs dangling over the side of the
che
. I wanted to be able to get down fast if I needed to.

A taxi passed us just as we drew near, so we waited behind it while the soldiers checked it out. The four passengers and driver handed over their papers. There were a dozen or so troops sitting smoking and talking on either side of the road. Two lean, hard-looking guys were doing the checking. On the right side of the road an armoured personnel carrier was parked in the trees. The hatch was open and a soldier manned the machine gun on top.

Off in the trees to the left I could see a couple of tents. Next to one of the tents three men in civilian clothes lay on the ground. I couldn’t see them very well through the trees, but I could tell they wore light shirts and dark pants.

And I knew by the way they lay, arms and legs tangled, that they were dead.

“Xin-hua!” I hissed, “we’ve got to —”

Just then the taxi was waved through the slot between the front bumpers of the trucks. One of the guards barked at Xin-hua. She pedalled up closer and stopped when the second soldier held his hand up.

The two guys here weren’t like the men we had seen in the city. Both were wiry, with cold eyes and straight faces. They had their AK 47s slung on their backs and, in spite of the heat, they had their helmets and coats on. They had four pockets on their coats. They were officers.

The first one snapped a question at Xin-hua. She answered him, probably spinning out the story she had dreamed up, that we were from one of the nearby brigades and were on our way to the Airport Guest House to see if we could drum up a little hauling business with the
che
. She forced a little laugh but the soldier’s face was like a slab of stone.

He said something else and she talked some more. She was going on and on about something that I couldn’t follow at all. But I could see the soldier was getting impatient. He turned to the troops sitting at the side of the road and snapped out an
order. Three of them jumped up, threw down their cigarettes and ran over to the
che
.

I could hear the panic creeping into Xin-hua’s voice as she started explaining again. Two of the troops stepped forward and hauled her bodily from the
che
, gripping her arms. The third started going through her pockets. One of them said something and the other two laughed. I hopped off the
che
, wincing when I landed on my right leg. I had taken only one step towards Xin-hua before the second officer swung his machine gun from behind his back in a lightning move and jabbed the barrel into my stomach. I gasped, unable to move. The pain was incredible.

One of the soldiers yanked the green ID from Xin-hua’s pocket and spoke to the officer. I heard her name in the rush of words.

The officer clipped out another order and the soldier with the gun barrel in my stomach lifted it, pushing off my glasses. He uttered an exclamation of surprise when he saw my eyes, then brought the gun barrel higher to flick my cap off my head. He said something to me.

Xin-hua spoke up. I heard
bu hui
, not able. She was telling them I was deaf and dumb. The officer in front of me just laughed. Lowering his gun he reached out one hand and yanked at the front of my jacket. Two buttons popped off and fell onto the road. Then he ripped my shirt open.

“
Ta shi wai guo ren!
” he crowed. He’s a foreigner!

I knew we were sunk now. And I knew Xin-hua was in deep trouble. I looked over at her. The two troops still held her with her arms pinned to her sides. Her eyes were wide with panic and she breathed in short, quick gasps.

A storm of talk followed. The two officers and Xin-hua all spoke at once. I heard the word
foreigner
a few times and Xin-hua said
Jia na da ren
several times. She was telling them I was a Canadian, so I figured she was trying to cover for me. The talk stopped for a second.

“Ni shi xue sheng, dui bu dui?
” The officer interrogating her asked. You’re a student aren’t you?

“
Bu. Gong ren.”
No. A worker.

Her head snapped back when he slapped her. If the two soldiers hadn’t been holding her the force of the blow would have knocked her down.

“Wait! Leave her alone! She isn’t —”

The officer drove his gun barrel into my stomach again and I dropped to my knees, gasping, hands to my stomach.

The officer with Xin-hua barked an order and the two troops began to lead her off towards the trees.

“Shan Da, don’t fight them! Do as they say!” she yelled over her shoulder. One of the soldiers slugged her on the side of the head and she fell to her knees. The other kicked her in the back. Then they hauled her to her feet and dragged her into the trees.

I turned to the officer who had been talking to
her. “Please, she has nothing to do with this! Please don’t hurt her!”

He pointed between the troop trucks, towards the airport, with his gun barrel. “You go.” He shouted. “Now!”

I took a limping step towards him. “Please,” I pleaded, “please don’t hurt her. Let her go. Please!”

“Go!
Kuai!
” Quickly!

I tried to calm my voice. Maybe I could get to him if I could sound more reasonable. “Look, is there anybody here who speaks English?” I asked.

I heard a car pull up behind me as I tried again. “Please let me talk to your commanding officer. I just want to —”

Crack!

The sound of a single gunshot. I turned to look into the trees where they had taken Xin-hua.

“Oh god, no,” I moaned. “No, no, noooooo!” I heard my own voice rise to a scream. I flew at the officer, fingers tearing at his face. “You bastard! You bastard! You bloody bastard!”

Iron hands clutched me from behind and tore me away from him. He swung the AK 47 around and up, catching me sharply under the chin, sending a shock wave of pain along my jaw and knocking me backwards into the man behind me. He pulled back the action of the machine gun. A rapid-fire flow of words burst from behind my head. The man in front lowered his weapon, scowling, turned and shouted to the troops from the side of the road
who had moved towards us. Three of them grabbed me roughly, one on each arm and one behind. The one behind grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked back.

The troops dragged me bodily away. There was a lot of furious yelling. A car door opened. The three troops manhandled me to the taxi that stood there, engine running. There were two men in the front seat staring straight ahead. The back door was open. The soldiers bent me over and shoved me into the cab so hard I smashed my head on the window crank of the opposite door. Someone bent my legs towards the small of my back, sending a searing spear of pain into my right calf. The car door slammed and the taxi roared away.

The taxi careened along the road for about five minutes, then swung up the long curved ramp to the airport terminal and screeched to a stop. Both men jumped out of the cab. I lay there, dazed, trying to shake some sense into my head. The door at my feet opened and the taxi driver tapped my leg, saying something. I struggled slowly into a sitting position. I winced when he took my legs and swung them out the cab door. Once my feet were out and on the pavement, it was easy for him to reach in and help me out of the car and onto my feet.

I stood swaying a little and turned to see the
other passenger rushing through the glass doors with a big suitcase in his hand. I think I said thank you to the cab driver, then limped towards the door myself. Once inside, I felt like I was swimming in a soup of noise and confusion. I just couldn’t take it, couldn’t get my bearings. People rushed past, some pulling suitcases on wheels, this way and that. Voices in three or four languages blasted over a loudspeaker.

I took a few steps and stopped again.

I’m not sure how long I stood there in the chaos but I slowly came to my senses. Sort of. I looked around at the crazy house of the airport. There were ticket check-ins straight across from me. The milling crowd collected in thick clots at each wicket, pushing and pressing, waving tickets and shouting. I limped to a counter with a sign above it:
INFORMATION
.