A Thread Unbroken (19 page)

“So what is the matter? Hard day at work?”

Jun opened one eye and looked at the girl. She had moved back in front of him and sat on the stool in front of his chair. She picked his left foot out of the bucket and wrapped it in a steaming towel and set it in front of her. Then she did the same with his right. She stood up and gently laid a steaming towel around his neck. Then she returned to her seat and unwrapped his foot and began to massage it.

“I always have a hard day at work—but that’s not why I’m so tense.”

“So talk.” She expertly massaged his foot, using her middle knuckle to find the pressure point in the center of his sole.

“
Aiyo
...too hard.” Jun pulled his foot toward himself, and the girl yanked it back and laughed.

“Wife troubles?” she asked.

“For such a young girl, you are very nosy, do you know that? What happened to just letting me relax?” He leaned his head back and shut his eyes, thinking of Wei and how far south their marriage had gone since Chai’s disappearance.

“You are my last customer, so I can talk. And I’m nineteen—not a young girl.” Her forehead wrinkled, then cleared. “Oh, I know. The girl in the picture. You’re upset because you cannot find her. Who is she?”

Jun sighed. “My daughter, Chai. She disappeared and I’m trying to find her.”

“How old is she?”

“She’s thirteen. Wait, she’s fourteen now.” His heart lurched when he remembered that an entire year plus some had passed.

“Where was she last seen? I hear there are a lot of girls disappearing from around here—probably taken to the big cities or something.”

“She and her best friend were walking home from my work site. They would’ve had to pass within a few blocks of here. But I doubt they would have ventured too far off the path, because her friend has problems walking long distances.”

“Oh? What kind of problems?”

Jun rolled his eyes. Every time he answered the girl, she popped out another question. He was much too tired to dissect this again with someone who couldn’t help him.

“Josi was born with one leg much shorter than the other. It puts pressure on her hips, and she walks with a very pronounced limp. She tires easily.”

The girl instantly stopped rubbing his foot.

Jun looked up at her. “What?”

“Did you say they were together when they disappeared?”

“Yes, that’s what I said. Why?”

The girl started rubbing his foot again. “Oh, never mind. Probably just a coincidence. It’s nothing.”

“What’s nothing? Something is not nothing. Anything is something.” He sat up and jerked his foot out of her grasp.

“What? You’re talking in riddles,
lao ren
.” She reached for his foot again but he put them both on the floor, out of her reach.

“Tell me what you just thought of. Let me decide if it’s nothing.”

The girl sighed. “Okay, fine. Many months ago, my grandmother came home and told me that she saw a couple of girls being led into an empty apartment building not far from here. She said one of them was limping along, looking pitiful.”

Jun was instantly alert. “Where was this? What did the other girl look like?”

“I don’t know what they looked like! And it was at the apartment complex that hired my grandmother to sweep their parking lot. She doesn’t work there now. Her arthritis has gotten too bad.”

“Where? Take me there! Take me to your grandmother.” Jun jumped up and quickly crossed the room to look for his shoes in the cabinet.

“Wait! I have to finish your massage, or I will have to stay for one more customer.”

Jun opened his wallet and threw a fifty-yuan note at her. “Here. Take me to your grandmother.” He stood waiting, shifting from foot to foot impatiently.

The girl stood up and grabbed the pail of water and towels. “You’re going to have to wait until I clean my station. Then I’ll get my coat and take you to speak to my grandmother, but it was probably nothing.”

Jun put on his socks and shoes and then watched her impatiently, tapping his fingernails on the doorframe and silently urging her to hurry. He felt a ripple of hope, and he wanted to hang on to it as long as possible.

The girl, Ruju, poured him another cup of green tea and sat down with him at the small table. Jun wrapped his hands around the mug, relishing the warmth. The room she had led him to was over the massage shop and was bitterly cold.

“So, this daughter of yours, why was she running around town, anyway? You said she was seen not far from here. This isn’t a good area, you know?”

“I didn’t say she was seen around here. I said she was
near
here. She came to see me at work to ask if she could go swimming.” Jun didn’t like her insinuation that he was a negligent parent. “If it’s so bad, what are you doing working down there?”

The girl hesitated. She lowered her eyes and began picking at her nails. “I don’t have much choice. My parents left me with my grandmother when I was three. They went to work in Ningde and never came back.
Nai Nai
says they sent money for a while, but
when it stopped coming, we had to find a way to survive.
Nai Nai
used to live downstairs, but when the businessmen started opening their massage shops on the street, I talked her into doing the same. Except ours is legitimate—we only offer foot massages and none of that other creepy stuff.
Nai Nai
will shut us down before she allows any of that in her house.”

Jun frowned. The girl obviously was a smart one. He felt sorry that she had been forced into an industry she wouldn’t have chosen if life hadn’t dealt her an unfair hand. But then he knew many families who participated in unsavory careers just to survive. It didn’t always mean they were bad people, after all.

His thoughts were interrupted by stomping on the stairs. An old woman stumbled in, a flurry of gray in her long dress and scarf. She pulled up a stool and sat in front of Jun.

“What is it you want?” she asked, looking from him to her granddaughter.

“Your granddaughter—Ruju—was telling me that many months ago you saw a strange encounter with two girls. They were being led into an apartment or something? Can you tell me about that?”

Ruju smiled at him as she picked at her cuticles, as if she knew he was speaking slowly and more patiently than he actually felt, just for the benefit of her old grandmother.

“Nah. I don’t know what you are talking about.” The old woman chugged her tea down and held the cup out for Ruju to fill it again.

“
Nai Nai
, remember, you told me that it was strange, because a woman took two girls up to an apartment in a building that hadn’t been finished yet. Yet you said she left without them.”

The old woman squinted her eyes and looked at the ceiling, as if her memory were located up there amid the cobwebs. “When?” she grumbled.

Jun waited. He felt like shaking the old woman but knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere.

“The place you were working at,
Nai Nai
. Remember, you said one girl limped really badly. You said it reminded you of your niece.”

Jun reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He pulled fifty yuan from it and laid it in on the table.

The old woman smiled as she grabbed the bill and stuffed it in her pocket. “Oh, yeah...I remember now.”

“
Nai Nai!
” Ruju’s cheeks flushed until they matched the scarf around her neck. “He already gave me—”

Looking intensely at the grandmother, Jun held his hand up to interrupt the girl. “Can you take me there?” He stood, unable to sit quietly any longer.

The old woman shook her head stubbornly. “No, I’m not going anywhere else in this cold tonight, but if you have a phone, I can call the man who owns the building. My granddaughter told you I used to work there. I even know what apartment that was—I remember, you see, because later that night I saw those girls tapping on the window at me. I can even tell you what they were wearing. You see? I’m not senile. I still have my wits about me.”

She cackled at her own joke, showing a mouth full of darkened teeth stained with tobacco. Jun had no doubt she had a memory like an elephant and could probably tell him what she’d had for breakfast way back in the Cultural Revolution.

“You saw them tapping at the window, and you didn’t call the police?” Jun threw his hands in the air. “Why?”

The old woman gave him a stern look. “When you are old like me, you mind your own business, that’s why. Now do you want me to call him, or do you want to leave and let me be?”

Jun groaned and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

“C
hai, stop pulling so hard!
Aiyo
, you are killing me.” Mother struggled to loosen the bandage gouging into her sore abdomen as Chai pulled the end of it even tighter.

“You heard what that old hag said. If we don’t pull it tight enough, your belly won’t be flat; instead you’ll have a jelly belly like Lao Chan. Is that what you want?”

“No. Pull it.” Mother sighed as she once again planted her feet wide apart to try to be ready for Chai’s tugging. “I should be used to this; I’ve sure had to wear it enough over the years.”

I can tell it, too
, thought Chai as she grimaced at the ragged and stained material in her hands. They ought to at least invest in a new one after each child.

Together they worked to get the bandage just right, a difficult accomplishment considering it was more than ten meters long and at least forty centimeters wide. Chai couldn’t erase the mischievous expression from her face as she gave it one final jerk just for good measure.

Josi watched from the doorway, a small smile on her lips at Chai’s antics as she waited to be called in to brush and braid Mother’s hair.

“Maybe we should let you stay fat so you’ll stop making babies.” Chai stood panting from her exertion, hands on her hips. She really didn’t think the woman was fat, but it was fun teasing her.

“Don’t be silly, Chai. Lao Chan will still want to make babies whether I am fat or not. I have a few years left to give him another son or two.”

Chai rolled her eyes at the back of Mother’s head as the woman slowly waddled over to her bed to sit down and waved Josi over to start on her hair. Since her mother-in-law had canceled her visit a week before, she had gotten even more dependent on them.

“Josi, you can come do her hair now. Good luck.” The hair was another source of bickering between Chai and Mother, for it hadn’t been washed in weeks. Chai refused to touch it.

Josi quietly went to the bed and sat down behind the woman. She began brushing the hair back to pull it together for a braid.

Chai wasn’t quite done giving Mother a hard time. “If I’d have known you were going to go weeks without clean hair, I wouldn’t have suggested you grow it out long.”

Mother wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Okay, Chai. Enough. I’m so hot today—and I feel a bit nauseous. I think I may be coming down with something.”

“You’re fine, Mother, I told you—you are just too fat. Anyway, I don’t understand how you can have all these babies; isn’t it against the law?” Chai wanted to bring up the possibility that Mother might produce even another daughter, but she didn’t
want to get her too riled up before asking her if she could have a few hours off to go to the mainland. She was hoping to sneak a visit in to see how Zee was doing. So far, since asking her to take the baby away three weeks before, Mother was giving Chai a lot more freedom without questions, but Chai had only been able to make one other trip to see Zee. Though Chai wished she could see her more often, she was pacified by the fact that at the visit Zee looked to be strong and happy—and was being totally spoiled by everyone around her, especially her new
jie jie
, Lin.

“We don’t register all the children—only Bo and Tao are documented and have a
hukou
. The family planning office also gives us villagers some flexibility. They know we need to have extra hands to bring in the farming or fishing. It just depends on what official is currently over the area and if they are willing to work with the people to smooth the way. If we get unlucky, we just give more money until the wheels are oiled enough for them to forget. The ones that come after the older boys will not be able to attend school, but that’s a fair exchange for building our family line. What good is school anyway for a bunch of fishermen? They learn everything they need to know from their father.”

“Well, where are you going to put more children? This house is already too small for your family. I hope you don’t think they’re going to bunk down with Josi and me. Oh, never mind, old man Chan would never let his sons freeze in our tiny shed. They must be coddled like princes.”

“Chai, you’re getting way too mouthy for your own good. You’d better be thankful to have a roof over your head and food in your belly. And one day, you’ll be married to my finest son.”

Chai bent her face to hide the fire in her eyes as she mumbled to herself that she had once had a better roof and tastier food in her belly before she had been stolen.

Mother pretended not to hear.

“O
h, oh! I’m dying.”