The Samurai's Garden: A Novel (32 page)

Just then, someone coughed and Kai Ying looked up. Across the aisle from them sat a pale young girl watching her. The girl’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail and angry red pimples peppered her forehead and cheeks. She wore a soiled, loose-fitting cotton jacket and pants, and her thin hands lay on the rounded bulge of her stomach. She appeared fourteen at most, Kai Ying guessed, just a child. But her watchful eyes seemed older, and there was something about the girl that kept her from turning away. Instead, Kai Ying wanted to lean closer, place her fingers on the girl’s wrist to feel her pulse. Just by looking at her, she knew the girl lacked the iron and nutrition needed for the baby’s health and growth. She would also need a cleanser of rhubarb, phellodendron, skullcap, and sophora to quiet the heat in her body that was causing the acne. It would also help to prevent any future scarring. Underneath it all, there was a pretty young girl.

Kai Ying was suddenly startled by a woman’s scream coming from the hospital corridor, which quickly dissolved into a mournful cry. She sat up straight and her body stiffened as she listened to the consoling voices that followed.
No,
she thought.
No, that won’t be me. Tao will be all right.
Fear rose to her throat. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on finding tranquility the way her father-in-law did, but all she heard was a swell of voices rising in confusion all around her.