Skeleton Women (31 page)
Finally Rainbow returned from her private phone call. She sent away all the girls and treated me to a private dinner with expensive wine and gourmet food served to us by two maids. Rainbow was seemingly casual, but somehow questions about Lung kept coming up. I replied with unimportant details such as what he’d had to eat during our visit to Paris, how he took me to Hermès to shop, and the like. I was even more uncomfortable with some of her other questions that concerned his personal habits, such as: what restaurants did he like, when was he home with me, who accompanied him when he went out, and the like. Surely she would not risk publishing such dangerous details in her column. Nor would I risk revealing anything to her about Lung’s usual routines. Whenever such questions were asked, I’d change the subject to something else.
Nor did I like her rather personal questions and intimations about my life. I was sure if she sniffed something unusual, especially if it was sexual, she’d prey on me like a vulture on a corpse.
But I dared not offend her, and so I put up with her advances, even let her kiss me on the lips and squeeze my waist when we said good-bye. My strategy was to keep her curious about me so we could stay friends, and hopefully she’d keep writing good things about me. If unfortunately she did find out something about me, then I guessed I would have no choice but to pay her off or be her mistress or, more likely, both. I was sure she was not supporting her sybaritic lifestyle on her newspaper salary alone.
I had no intention of letting her turn me into a
real
skeleton, either with her pen or with what she said about me behind my back.
real
skeleton, either with her pen or with what she said about me behind my back.
29
The Great Escape
M
y visit to Rainbow Chang’s Pink Skeleton Empire unnerved me. She had an agenda that I could not figure out. Why was Nightingale so sure that Shadow would return? I knew that Rainbow and, I assumed, her assistants, never said anything without a reason. So Shadow must be planning a surprise re-entry into Shanghai, and Rainbow had decided to leak that to me through her assistant. And, while the dinner à deux might have been partly to seduce me, the questions she had asked about Lung were not simply small talk.
y visit to Rainbow Chang’s Pink Skeleton Empire unnerved me. She had an agenda that I could not figure out. Why was Nightingale so sure that Shadow would return? I knew that Rainbow and, I assumed, her assistants, never said anything without a reason. So Shadow must be planning a surprise re-entry into Shanghai, and Rainbow had decided to leak that to me through her assistant. And, while the dinner à deux might have been partly to seduce me, the questions she had asked about Lung were not simply small talk.
During the following days, besides wondering how to deal with Rainbow without getting trapped in some scheme too subtle for me to understand, I was also thinking about Shadow. The dreams about my baby had made me look at this cold world differently. Now that I felt deep love for my little Jinjin, I felt some understanding for the magician’s life, which was as difficult as my own. We were rivals, but I could still have some sympathy for her.
The Chinese say, “Even flying away, a bird leaves its melodious cry; even dying, a person wants to leave a mark on the world.” Doesn’t everyone struggle and work hard so we will be remembered? Shadow and I did, too—but totally alone.
Everyone would prefer to be a magnificent dragon soaring in heaven than a canary in a cage. The small fish in a pond would rather roam the oceans; the hen in the farmyard would rather be a crane spreading its wings. Why had I tried so hard to prevent Shadow from succeeding?
Why had I been trying to destroy this girl who was not so different from me? Both Shadow and I were trying, against the odds, to have some happiness in the lives fate had dealt us.
Though I had been taught to sing as a means for me to lure Lung, I worked hard to improve my voice because I genuinely loved singing. But, much as I enjoyed the adulation of my audiences at the Bright Moon Nightclub, I wanted even more to escape so I could live my own life doing what I loved, out of the control of gangsters and malicious people like Rainbow Chang.
I decided to offer to do another show with Shadow if I could track her down. Perhaps that would generate some merit for myself after years of creating bad karma.
Two days later, I wrote the magician a letter. A day later, she called me.
“Camilla!” Her voice sounded excited. “What a coincidence! I was just about to call you, when I received your letter. It’s been such a long time.”
“How have you been doing, and how’s your finger?”
“It has healed pretty well. Except for a scar, it’s basically recovered.”
“I’m glad to hear that. And once again, I apologize for the accident. I owe you, Shadow.”
“Let’s forget about it, Camilla.” She paused, then asked, “How about yourself? You didn’t show up at the Bright Moon for quite a while. What happened?”
Of course I was not going to tell her the truth, so I said, “I was just generally not feeling well. I guess it was the stress from our last show, my overwork, and my worry over harming you. So I decided to take a break.”
“I wish I had your freedom and luxury,” she sighed.
Freedom and luxury?
A little while ago I would have laughed bitterly, but now I was beginning to feel something like hope and compassion, however slight. Shadow had far less than I, and was completely on her own.
A little while ago I would have laughed bitterly, but now I was beginning to feel something like hope and compassion, however slight. Shadow had far less than I, and was completely on her own.
She sighed. “Even if I’m dying to work, there is no money.”
Because of the failed knife-throwing show, I had insisted that we refund the audience. That had been intentional, so that she would remain poor.
She went on. “Actually I tried to get sponsorship from Master Lung... .”
“Did you go to see him?” I was perturbed that she had done this behind my back.
“Yes. But I was turned away by his assistant, Mr. Zhu. He never even let me talk to his boss, not even over the phone, despite my reminding him that I am your friend. So one day I went straight to Master Lung’s place. But when I saw all the expensive cars parked at his place and the intimidating bodyguards, I felt hopeless and lost my nerve. Moments later I forced myself to be brave and walk back to the gate, but I was stopped by his very muscular guard, Gao. It was very scary. I felt he might shoot me if I refused to leave.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Shadow.”
Some silence passed before she spoke again. “Camilla, since we’re friends ...”
“Yes?”
“I wonder if you could do me a favor.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking, since you’re Master Lung’s favorite woman, maybe ... if you wouldn’t mind asking him for me ...”
I felt sorry for Shadow. She was no fool and must have realized that the “accident” with the knife-throwing was no accident. Yet she was asking for my help, anyway. That could only mean she had no one at all to turn to in her state of desperation. Suddenly it occurred to me that both of us would be better off as allies than as enemies. Fate had dropped us both into a city populated with people who would pay for their own pleasure but not to help anyone in trouble. As the proverb says, “They will add flowers to the rich’s brocade but not send coals to the needy on a frigid day.” They loved me singing in my brocade gown, but what if I were begging from them on the street? Then I thought of little Jinjin’s plaintive cries to me in my dream. Had I been any less heartless than Wang or Lung or Zhu or Rainbow?
Shadow was even more alone than I was. But she had gone to Lung, and who knows what she would have done with him, had she had the chance? Though I felt some sympathy for her now, she might not feel the same for me. And who could blame her, considering what I had done to her? I was still in the dusty world where no one can completely relax their guard.
If Shadow, or anyone, managed to steal Lung from me, Big Brother Wang would have me eliminated sooner rather than later. I realized that it was a mistake to have introduced her to Lung in the first place. But I didn’t have to compound my mistake by asking him to meet her again.
So I said, my tone serious, “Shadow, Master Lung is in a very tense business deal with some Frenchmen, so I don’t think it’s a good time to ask.” I paused, then spoke again. “If the only problem is money, you don’t have to ask Lung. I can ask Mr. Ho to let us use the hall again.” I would tell Mr. Ho that Big Brother Wang wanted me to have the show. Though Ho was certainly not happy about how the last show had ended, he would not chance refusing anything Wang wanted.
There was silence on the other line for a moment, then her voice rose, this time with a suspicious tone. “But why? Since our last show turned disastrous—”
“Exactly. Because I want to make amends to you, to our audience, and to prove that no mistake would deter Camilla, the Heavenly Songbird, or Shadow, the great magician.” I paused again, this time for suspense. “Anyway, our last show was a great one, and you still have all your fingers. The blood made it that much more exciting.”
She replied, her tone tainted with sarcasm, “Hmm ... you might be right. But maybe if you had sliced off my whole finger, the audience would have liked it even better!”
“But I didn’t, and your finger is fine. I feel terrible about what I did. But, Shadow, can we set all that aside and do another show together?”
I sensed hesitation on the other end, but I knew she’d agree. After all, she did not have much choice.
“All right, then let’s meet soon to make plans.”
Good.
The Chinese say, “If you pay enough, you can make a dead man turn a millstone.” It’s always easy to work with someone who desperately needs money. Indeed, what can’t you do if you have enough money? If I were filthy rich, I could do filthy things, like hire an assassin to kill both Wang and Lung, then buy a first-class passage on a luxury ship to America. In a land far from China, I could boss around a slew of servants—maids, cook, drivers, bodyguards—and live like a queen. With enough money, Chinese or American wouldn’t matter.
The Chinese say, “If you pay enough, you can make a dead man turn a millstone.” It’s always easy to work with someone who desperately needs money. Indeed, what can’t you do if you have enough money? If I were filthy rich, I could do filthy things, like hire an assassin to kill both Wang and Lung, then buy a first-class passage on a luxury ship to America. In a land far from China, I could boss around a slew of servants—maids, cook, drivers, bodyguards—and live like a queen. With enough money, Chinese or American wouldn’t matter.
Shadow’s voice woke me from my reverie. “This will be our comeback together. I’ll do my best show—The Great Escape. I submerge myself in chains in a tank of water, then escape in less than the four minutes it would take for me to drown.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Camilla, you think letting you throw knives at me wasn’t dangerous?”
I didn’t like her sarcasm but couldn’t blame her for it, either. “Can you really unlock yourself in time?”
“Trust me.”
So, despite our unfortunate debut show together, we plunged into preparing for our next one. However, one day a complication arose. Zhu called and told me that Lung didn’t want to see Shadow’s face in Shanghai anymore.
Alarmed, I asked, “Mr. Zhu, why?”
“You know Master Lung does everything for a reason.”
I gripped the telephone hard as he continued. “He’s missing a jade dragon statue, one of his favorite
fengshui
decorations, and he knows Shadow stole it.”
fengshui
decorations, and he knows Shadow stole it.”
“Mr. Zhu, why does Lung think she took it?”
Zhu’s voice was cold. “A while ago she came to Master Lung’s residence. So who else besides her?”
But she never got inside. Besides, would Shadow be so stupid as to steal from Lung?
As if he was reading my mind, Zhu’s tone grew even angrier. “As Master Lung said, ‘It must be Shadow. Who else can appear and disappear anywhere like a ghost? If she can make a whole castle disappear, for her to steal a small statue is as easy as flipping her hand!’ If you ask me, we should get rid of her. But Master Lung won’t have her killed if she gets out of Shanghai. Master Lung could have someone push her down from the Customs House tower, but this time she’d become a real corpse, ha-ha!”
I waited anxiously for him to finish laughing.
“But Master Lung said that since you and Shadow are like sisters, he’d spare her life for
you
. However, she has to disappear from Shanghai for good. And Master Lung has decided that
you
must be the one to tell her. Because you caused this by allowing her to meet Master Lung.”
you
. However, she has to disappear from Shanghai for good. And Master Lung has decided that
you
must be the one to tell her. Because you caused this by allowing her to meet Master Lung.”
“But, Mr. Zhu, my new show will be totally ruined! She’s in it, and many tickets have been sold. If it is canceled, no one will come to my acts again. So please ask Master Lung to let me first finish my show with her.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can do.” He grunted, then hung up.
Twenty minutes later, Zhu called back. “Master Lung said you can do the show with her but only on one condition.”
“What is it?”
“That Shadow makes herself disappear after the show—forever. Ha-ha!”
After I finished talking to the gangster, I thought for a few moments, then called Shadow to deliver the bad news. There was a long silence on the other end of the line.
Then Shadow replied, “You know I’d never do anything to offend Master Lung! Besides, none of his people would let me inside his house, so how could I have the chance to steal?”
I remained composed despite her obvious alarm. “Unfortunately no one can argue with Master Lung. Everyone knows that once he makes up his mind, he’ll never change it.”
A long silence was followed by Shadow’s sobbing.
When her sobbing subsided, she said, “Camilla, thanks for telling me. But should I just leave now without doing the show?”
“I don’t think so. Because he’ll think you deliberately disobeyed him to make him lose face, and he will track you down. No magic, no matter how fantastic, can save you from Lung and his men.”
She cried again. So I tried to comfort her, assuring her that by doing the show, at least she could make some money for her new life outside Shanghai.
“Camilla, why are you trying to help me now?”
“We’re friends, remember?” This time, I surprised myself, because I actually meant it.
If Shadow suspected that I’d made up the whole thing, she didn’t show it. Of course even if I did, she still had to leave Shanghai, because the gangster head would get rid of her anyway.
When I told Wang about the show, he agreed right away. Since my boss was still waiting for his rival’s protection star to shift, he was glad that I was doing something to bring in money.
For this show, Shadow would be the star and I her assistant. I would be there mostly for decoration and to attract my fans; the physical work would be done by two male assistants. There were two reasons for me to be in the show: It would bring in some money, even though Wang would take most of it. But also, though I now felt sympathy for Shadow, given Lung’s animosity toward her, for both our sakes I needed to be sure that she really left afterward.
Zhu told me that Lung was not coming, since he didn’t want to give Shadow face, even though he could see her disappear with his own eyes. I didn’t invite Jinying, for this time it was really Shadow’s show, not mine. To my great relief, Rainbow Chang declined my invitation, from what motive I had no idea. So it seemed that, for once, heaven would let me do my job without distraction.
As expected, tickets were sold out. People, especially after the disaster of our first show, were eager to see us again; they would be equally entertained by a thrilling success or an embarrassing flop.
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