Waiting (15 page)
Lin knew it was no use to argue, so he said diffidently, "All right, we'll come again."
As if in a trance, he rose to his feet and turned to the door, Shuyu following. His right leg had gone to sleep and made him limp a little.
While the couple were inside the courthouse, Bensheng and a dozen men from Goose Village had stood outside, waving spades, flails, hoes, shoulder poles. They threatened to create a disturbance if the judge granted Lin a divorce. A large crowd gathered on the street, believing the maddened villagers were going to beat up the unfaithful husband. Nobody wanted to miss such a spectacle. The judge called the county's Military Department, which immediately dispatched a militia platoon to keep order outside the courthouse.
"So he's a big officer or something? Still he mustn't be bigger than the law," a middle-aged woman said to others.
"Even an emperor isn't free to divorce his wife," a toothless crone put in.
"Men are all alike, beasts."
An old man in bifocals retorted, "A woman shouldn't be allowed to divorce either, or else there'll be disorder everywhere. The order of the world is rooted in every family, as Confucius said."
"What a heartless animal!"
"He has no reason to do this to her. "
"The army should send him back and let him scratch a living out of the earth."
"I heard he' s a doctor. "
"Small wonder he has no heart. Doctors are butchers."
To the dismay of some of them, the judge had turned down Lin's petition and therefore precluded the anticipated spectacle. Seeing the husband and wife come out of the courthouse, some spectators whispered that the couple indeed didn't match. The husband looked quite gentle, in no way like an evil, abusive man, whereas the wife was as thin as a chicken whose flesh, if cooked, couldn't fill a plate. If they were so different, they might not be able to avoid conflicts. But that should provide no grounds for divorce, because it was normal for a married couple to have a quarrel or even a fist fight once in a while. A good marriage was full of moments of cats and dogs. It was the uneventful marriage that was headed toward disaster. In a word, the differences between the husband and the wife should only help stabilize their marriage.
Lin's face turned bloodless when he saw so many eyes in the crowd glaring at him. Hurriedly he and Shuyu left the courthouse for the bus stop. All the way home he didn't say a word.
After the couple had left, the militia was withdrawn from the courthouse. But it took half an hour for the crowd to disperse completely. The ground was littered with popsicle wrappers and sticks, bottle caps, cucumber ends, patches of melon seeds.
That evening Lin bolted the door of his room and remained inside alone, smoking, thinking, and sighing. He felt lucky that the angry villagers hadn't done any physical harm to him, and that only two women had spat on the ground and balled their fists when he came out of the courtroom. Had he won a divorce, he might not have gotten home unharmed. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to divorce his wife this year. Evidently his brother-in-law had been prepared to deal with him, and he had played right into Bensheng's hands.
The next day, after lunch, Shuyu stepped in with a copy of the county newspaper,
Country Constructs,
which was merely a hand-written, mimeographed affair at the time. "This just came," she said and handed it to Lin.
Country Constructs,
which was merely a hand-written, mimeographed affair at the time. "This just came," she said and handed it to Lin.
"Where did you get it?" he asked without taking the paper.
"Bensheng gave it to me. He said there was a pile of it in the commune opera house."
She left the newspaper on the short-legged table. On the brick bed Hua was napping, her thick lips puffing up a little when she exhaled. Shuyu unfolded a yellow toweling coverlet and drew it over the child, then went out to wash dishes in the cauldron.
Lin picked up the newspaper and began looking through it. On page three he saw a short article about his attempted divorce. It stated:
The County Court declined a divorce case yesterday afternoon. Lin Kong, an army doctor in Muji City of eighteenth rank, appealed to the court for a divorce on the grounds that he and his wife Shuyu Liu no longer loved each other. But Shuyu Liu insisted that she still had deep feelings for him. Hundreds of people sympathetic to the wife gathered outside the courthouse, criticizing the husband for his change of heart and demanding that the authorities protect the woman. The experienced judge, Comrade JianpingZhou, reprimanded Lin Kong and reminded him that he was a revolutionary officer and a son of a poor peasant. He said to him, "You have forgotten your class origin and tried to imitate the lifestyle of the exploiting class. The court advises you to wake up before you fall into the abyss of misfortune and cannot get out."Everyone was relieved to see the couple come out of the court still married. Some applauded.
Having read the article, Lin was wretchedly disappointed. He suspected his brother-in-law might have been behind its publication. The author, who had not signed his name, using "Defender of Morality" instead, must have been Bensheng's friend. Lin clearly remembered that there had been no applause at all when he and Shuyu came out of the courthouse. Obviously this article was meant to shame him and prevent him from seeking to divorce his wife again.
How he hated Bensheng! He decided not to speak to him during the remaining days of his leave.
"Hello, is somebody home?" a throaty voice shouted from the front yard the next afternoon.
Shuyu went out to see who it was. At the sight of the tall man with a massive scar on his left cheek, she beamed and said, "Come on in, elder brother."
The man dropped on a sawhorse a bundle of sweet sorghum canes, each of which was about an inch thick and two feet long. "These are for Hua, from our field," he said.
"You shouldn't have carried them all the way here," Shuyu said. Yet she was happy to see the sweet canes.
"Is Lin home?"
"Yes. "
The visitor was Lin's elder brother, Ren Kong. He wore a blue jacket with brass buttons and a pair of rubber-toed loafers. He had heard of Lin's court appearance, so he came to intercede for Shuyu, whom he regarded almost as a sister because she had done so much for the Kongs. Also, a few months ago he had written to Lin, asking him to bring home some Tower Candy for his children, to get rid of roundworms in their bellies. His three sons had all looked sallow for months; lately his youngest son had a stomachache every afternoon, and worms like thick noodles had been found in the boy's stool. Tower Candy was a sugary pill in the form of a tiny solid cone with spiral grooves on its side. Children in the country loved it and would eat it as a treat.
The army hospital had several drugs for roundworms, but it didn't stock Tower Candy. In spite of the regulation that allowed no one to appropriate drugs for personal use, many of the hospital staff got what they needed from the pharmacy. That was why the three pharmacists each had a good number of friends in the hospital and would receive a lot of gifts on holidays. But Lin was too shy to ask the pharmacists for any medicine without a prescription. He had decided to buy some Tower Candy at a department store, but before taking the leave, he had become so engrossed in completing an article on the topic of becoming "Red and Expert" that he totally forgot his promise to Ren to bring some back. Now, his brother's appearance reminded him of his word. What should he do? He worried, wondering how to come up with an excuse.
The two brothers were chatting and drinking tea while Shuyu was cooking in the kitchen. Hua was with her mother, working the bellows by the cauldron. Lin overheard his wife order the child, "Girl, don't suck that cane while you're working."
"I didn't. I just keep it here," Hua said.
"I say put the cane away."
"No, I want to have it here."
"Give me it!"
Lin shouted to his wife in the kitchen, "Let Hua have it her own way, okay?" That stopped the exchange between mother and daughter.
Lin had never felt attached to Ren because they had not grown up together. In their adolescent years, Lin had gone to school most of the time while Ren worked in the fields. Yet he was grateful to his elder brother, who had never complained about the arrangement made by their parents, which deprived him of the opportunity of education. Ren hadn't even finished elementary school. Looking at his brother's scarred face, which had been hurt by a rock twenty years ago at a construction site, Lin felt bad for him. Because of the injury Ren had married on condition that he live under the roof of his parents-in-law, who were unwilling to let their only daughter leave home. That was why Lin's wife later had to take care of his parents. Ren was merely forty-five now, but he looked about sixty and had already lost three front teeth. His mouth was sunken.
"Brother, you should've talked to me before going to the court with Shuyu," Ren said, placing his teacup on the wooden edge of the brick bed after taking a sip.
"This is my personal matter," Lin said tersely.
"But our parents chose Shuyu for you. Shouldn't you respect their wish?"
"It's their wish that messed up my life."
"Why so?" Ren dragged on his pipe, the tobacco in the bronze bowl glowing red and sizzling faintly. He would never take the cigarettes Lin gave him, saying they were too mild. Seeing that Lin was reluctant to reply, he added, "A man ought to have a conscience. I can't see where Shuyu is not worthy of you. She's given everything to our family. We should take – "
"Like I said, this is my personal matter. "
"Maybe not. A divorce will affect everybody in our family. Kids in my village have already started calling your nephews names, saying, 'Your uncle has two wives,' or, 'Your uncle is a womanizer.' How can you say a divorce is just your own affair?"
Lin was shocked by the question. How ridiculous people are, he thought. How far-fetched their ideas can be. What does my marriage have to do with my nephews' lives? Why should the boys feel ashamed of me?
The bellows stopped in the kitchen. He overheard his wife say to Hua, "Go tell your uncle."
He wondered why Shuyu had sent their daughter to Bensheng. As he was thinking, the door curtain made of strings of glass beads opened and in came his wife with a plate of fried pork. "Time to eat," she said and smiled at Ren.
Lin took out two wine cups. His brother always enjoyed drinking and was famous in the commune for his ability to hold alcohol. Once chosen to accompany some official guests, Ren had outdrunk the county vice-magistrate, who had gone to the village to present medals but ended up lying under a dining table. "What would you like?" Lin asked Ren, though he had only two kinds of liquor.
"Anything. I really don't feel like drinking today."
"Drink some to refresh yourself," Shuyu said. "You must be tired out, such a long way."
Lin opened a bottle of sorghum liquor called White Flame and poured a full cup for his brother and half a cup for himself. Meanwhile Shuyu placed another three dishes on the table – scrambled eggs with onions, sauteed pole beans, and fried peanuts mixed with a pinch of salt.
As they were eating, Hua returned, announcing with a cry, " Uncle's coming. "
Lin frowned when his brother-in-law entered. In Bensheng's left hand was a package wrapped in straw paper. He grinned at Ren, saying in a familiar tone of voice, "Welcome, elder brother, you came at the right time. " He stretched out his hand to Ren.
After they shook hands, Bensheng turned and called to his sister in the kitchen, "Shuyu, get me a plate."
Lin was amazed that Bensheng seemed to know Ren quite well. Did he arrange my brother's visit? he asked himself.
Shuyu brought an empty plate and put it on the table.
"My goodness, what are these?" she said as her brother opened the package.
"Big worms," said Hua.
"Are these some sort of insects?" Ren asked, pointing at the red creatures on the plate, each about three inches long.
"Shrimp," Bensheng told them proudly. "Haven't you heard of shrimp?"
"I have, but I never saw one," said Ren.
"This is my first time too," Bensheng confessed. "I bought them in the county town this morning. When I saw them for sale, I thought, 'Damn, a man must try new things, or he'll die with regret.' So I bought two pounds. Boy, they're expensive, seven yuan a pound. I was told they came from the South and used to be a kind of export stuff that only foreigners could eat."
Lin was surprised by their ignorance. Then he recalled that he had never seen shrimp at the market in Wujia Town, though it was on the river. Doesn't the Songhua have shrimp in it? he wondered. Probably not.
As Lin was thinking, his brother asked, "Are they still alive?"
Both Bensheng and Lin were amused by the question. Lin tried hard to keep back his laughter, but he blurted out, "Yes, alive."
Ren picked one up. "I'm going to sample it anyway, alive or dead. You know, Hua, I eat anything that has more than four legs except for a table." He put the shrimp into this mouth and began munching. "Ouch, it bit my tongue!" He grimaced and covered his mouth with his hand.
"Uncle, is your mouth bleeding inside?" Hua asked innocently. "Can I see it?"
Lin burst out laughing. "Hua, he knew they were cooked. He just wanted to be funny."
"I don't think that's the right way to eat shrimp, though," Bensheng said. "Am I right, Lin?"
All eyes turned to Lin, who, still laughing, was making a kind of bubbling sound in his nose. He stopped to reply, "Yes, you're right. You should get rid of the shell, the claws, and the head first. Like this, use your hand." He stripped the shell from a shrimp and removed the dark dorsal vein, then put it into his mouth. "Umm, it's good, very fresh."
Following his example, the others, except Hua, started to eat the shrimp with relish. The girl was frightened by the crimson creatures and refused to touch one.
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