A Thread Unbroken (5 page)

Chai pulled the water bottle from the bag beside her and handed it to Josi. Josi couldn’t get sick now. If they were going to get dropped off soon, as the woman claimed, she needed to be strong for the walk home.

“You must get us some food. Josi needs more than a few nibbles of rice cakes,” she told the woman, but she got no reply.

Josi drank from the bottle and wiped the sweat from her face. She handed the water back to Chai just as an old blue work truck came to a screeching stop in front of them, causing both girls to cough at the dust he stirred up. One of the bus drivers looked up from unloading bags to shake his finger and scold the truck driver for his recklessness.

“Come on, girls. Jump in the back. Hurry.” The woman gestured toward the bed of the truck.

“What? I’m not getting in there. That’s too dangerous, and it’s nasty in there.” Chai refused to get off the bench, and she kept her hand on Josi’s knee to keep her down.

The woman grabbed one of Chai’s braids and yanked her from the bench.

“Ouch! Let go of my hair!” Chai twisted, trying to get away from the woman.

“I’m getting tired of your mouth. Get into the truck. Now.” She pulled Chai toward the truck. Josi picked up the two bags and followed. The girls climbed in and settled down behind the rear window, ignoring the creepy stares of the shaggy-haired driver, who had turned around to watch them. The woman went to the front of the truck, opened the door, and climbed in. The truck pulled away from the bus stop, leaving a brown cloud of dust in its wake.

C
hai finished braiding Josi’s hair and twisted the tie around the bottom. The driver’s crazy weaving had made the task more difficult than it should have been, but she hoped it would help Josi cool down a bit if she didn’t have the heavy hair whipping around her face. She had taken down one of her own braids to use the tie for Josi’s hair, and now they looked like sisters—each with a simple single braid down her back. So far it hadn’t helped much, and they were both hot and parched.

After what felt like hours, the truck finally stopped in front of a dilapidated gas station. The woman opened her door and came around to the bed of the truck. The man got out and waved away the attendant, then began pumping his own gas. He stared at them with one hand on the pump as he used the other hand to pick the wax from his ear with a tiny metal pick. Chai shivered in revulsion and turned away from his piercing eyes.

“If you want to use the bathroom, come with me now,” the woman said.

The girls climbed out of the truck on shaky legs. Their ride had so far been unbelievably bumpy, hot, and even painful with all the jarring. Neither of them wanted to use the bathroom
in front of the woman, but they couldn’t wait any longer. She escorted them around to the back of the building, and they squatted to relieve themselves. The woman took them back to the truck and told them to climb in.

Chai climbed in obediently then turned to the woman. “Please, can we have some food? We’ve had nothing but those rice cakes for so long now. We’re hungry.” Being angry hadn’t worked in getting her way before, so Chai decided to act as pitiful as she could to see if that would help.

The woman rolled her eyes then told the man to watch them while she went inside. Chai and Josi sat huddled together, as far from the man as they could get. He watched them silently, his arms folded across the metal side of the truck, his eyes narrowed.

The woman returned with a bag. She told them to wait a minute and went to the front of the truck. She huddled over something and returned with a cup.

“I have a box of steamed rice, but if you want it, you must first drink this.”

“What is it?” Chai asked suspiciously.

“
Yu-jin.
It is only an herb mixed in water to help you sleep. We have a long way to go.”

“No. We won’t drink it.” Chai gave Josi a warning look.

“I can make you drink it.” The woman looked over at the man watching them with a sly smile on his face. The insinuation that he would help force them to cooperate brought a wicked gleam to his eye. “But if you drink it willingly, I’ll give you the rice. It won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Chai hesitated. “Yeah—and we know you keep your promises, right?” she retorted.

The woman turned to go back to the front of the truck. “Fine. We’ll do it the hard way.”

The man came around to their side, about to reach for Josi. The creepy smile he wore sent a chill up Chai’s spine.

“Okay! We’ll drink it. Don’t touch her,” Chai yelled at the two. “Josi, you need to rest anyway, and it’s too bumpy back here. I’ve heard of this stuff. Sometimes they give it to colicky babies. Just drink it, and when we get where we’re going, we’ll be stronger.” She gave Josi a look that Chai thought only she would understand.

The woman came back around and handed her the cup. “Only drink half, and then give the other half to your friend.”

Chai looked at the black liquid and wrinkled her nose. She wanted to appear brave for Josi, so she put it to her lips and quickly drank half of it. Then she passed it to Josi.

“Chai, I don’t want it,” Josi whined, turning her head. Her cheeks were still flaming, and Chai was alarmed by how weak she sounded.

“Please, Josi. You need to eat, and this is the only way she’ll give us the rice. We might not have another chance to eat for hours.”

Josi took the cup from her and, with shaking hands, drank the rest of the sour liquid and handed the empty cup to the woman. She began to heave as if she was going to vomit, but with one scathing look from the woman, she continued to swallow until it stayed down.

The woman scowled at Chai, went back to the cab of the truck, and got the bag. She handed it over the side of the truck and walked away. The two adults climbed in and slammed the doors, and they were on their way again, the quick acceleration slamming the girls back against the glass in their rush to take off.

Chai opened the bag and took out the small square container of rice. She searched the bag but didn’t find chopsticks. “We’ll
have to use our fingers.” She scooped out a bite and then passed it to Josi. The rice was bland, but it would at least fill their empty stomachs, and she hoped it would make Josi feel better.

Josi took a bite and tried to pass it back to Chai.

“No, Josi, eat some more. I can wait.”

Josi took a few more bites and then laid her head back against the glass. She handed the box back to Chai.

“I’ll eat another bite, but then you finish it, Josi. I’m not that hungry.” She hoped she sounded believable.

Josi waved her away. “I feel dizzy. I want to lie down.”

When Chai realized Josi wasn’t going to be forced to eat any more rice, she beckoned for her friend to use her lap as a pillow. Josi obliged, curling up in a ball as close to Chai as she could get. Chai finished the rice and set the box to the side. She pulled the big shirt from the bag and used it as a cover for Josi, shielding her face from the dust flying around everywhere.

“Chai?”

“What, Josi?”

“I’m sorry.” Josi’s voice was so weak that she could barely be heard over the loud motor of the truck.

“Sorry for what?”

“That I got us into this. That I was greedy and wanted a new dress.”

“Don’t even say that, Josi. We decided together, so we’re in this together.”

As they moved farther down the road, Chai wondered what her parents and Josi’s parents were doing to find them. She tried to think if there were any clues left behind that would point to where they’d gone, but she couldn’t think of one.

The driver hit a huge bump in the road, causing both Chai and Josi to fly up in the air and come crashing back down again
on the hard metal bottom. Josi didn’t stir; she was already snoring loudly. Chai wondered how far away they were, and if the woman was really taking them closer to home.
I should stay awake and try to remember the way we’re going.

It was hopeless. She sighed and closed her heavy eyes.

J
un shook his head and muttered under his breath. His third trip to the police station in three days, and they still could not tell him anything new about Chai’s case. He was frantic about his daughter and Josi. They had just disappeared off the face of the earth—at least that was what it seemed like to him. They had been missing for almost a week, with not a single lead as to their whereabouts.

During the last visit the policeman had wasted his time with a long lecture on statistics of kidnappings and runaways. Because Jun was from a village and not the city, the man seemed to think Jun didn’t know of China’s widespread practice of trafficking women and the rare leads that resulted from investigations. Jun tried, but he feared the official still didn’t get it that Chai and Josi weren’t just numbers—they were cherished daughters of parents who wanted them returned.

This time the head policeman had urged him to forget about his daughter and move on with life. Jun would never do that—his Chai brought him too much joy to forget about her. Who would sit and count the stars with him? Who would tell him about the adventures she would take one day? Who would make him laugh
with her stories and lofty ambitions? Chai made his boring existence more bearable, and that was the truth.

His younger daughter was not close to him like Chai—she would rather hang on her mother’s clothes all day. Chai was his confidant and his little buddy. With her unnatural intelligence for a girl, she often made him forget he was a lowly laborer, and he marveled at creating such an exceptional human being. He would find her; he just had to get someone to help him.

“Have you spoken with the shopkeepers on the main road? The girls would have had to pass through town to get back to our village,” he respectfully asked the officer. The official treated him as if he were nothing more than a cockroach—and Jun had to struggle to keep his temper in check. As he waited for the man’s response, he silently repeated his now-frequent mantra:
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow...

“
Dui
—we’ve asked everyone. Shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and even the street sweepers. They say they see many girls, but they cannot determine if they saw
your
girls. This is a lost cause, but we’ve put their pictures out, and our force will remain on alert.”

“What about the children who played at the water that day? I talked to them, but perhaps they’re lying to me. I know that is where the girls were going. Were you able to get anything out of them?”

“
Bushi
, Lao Jun. They did not see your girls that day.”

Jun sighed. “Well, I’ve gotten a mobile phone now, so you can call me if you hear anything.”

The official pushed a pad and pencil across the desk to Jun, and he scribbled his number on it, wishing again that he had gotten the phone long ago so that perhaps Chai would have a way to contact him. So far, his own investigation had resulted in dead
ends. He had spoken to many of the shopkeepers along the walk through town himself, but they all said they had seen nothing. The posters he hung along the main street had cost him a week’s pay but so far had brought no calls, either. He didn’t know what else to do, but he wasn’t willing to give up.

After writing his name under the number, he pushed the pad back across the desk. He stood to go, looking at the clock on the wall. He only had thirty minutes to return to work before his lunch break was over. If he was late again, he’d lose his job, and then they’d all be in trouble. He still had to feed his family—even if it was down to only three of them. Keeping his job was more than a choice, it was a necessity. Jun had been born in poverty and only allowed to go to school for five years, so he knew he was lucky that he had even learned to read. Even so, each year it got harder and harder to beat out competition for work—his body just wasn’t as young or strong as it had once been.

Jun reached in his satchel and pulled out a carton of cigarettes.

“Here’s a gift of my gratitude. If you could please get your men to do another search and investigation, I would appreciate it.” He laid the cigarettes on the grimy desk—another week’s pay gone and one more thing to hide from Wei. She had scolded him to stop spending their money on things that the police were paid to do.

The police official sat up in his chair, taking his propped feet off the desk and setting them on the floor. He reached for the cigarettes and pushed them into a drawer, then reclined back and returned his feet to their resting place.

“
Hao de.
Tomorrow another search.”

Jun said good-bye and hurried out the door and toward the construction site. He didn’t really believe they would make much effort toward finding his daughter, but he still had to try.

C
hai awoke drenched in sweat with a throbbing head and a bitter taste in her mouth. She twisted until she was sitting upright, relief filling her when she saw Josi curled up beside her. She looked down at her hands, puzzled to see that they were bound together with a strong piece of rough twine, knotted tightly and impossible for her to untie. She looked over at Josi, who lay asleep in the opposite corner, her hands also knotted. Chai felt a slight sway beneath her and struggled to clear her foggy mind. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been gone from home, but she was sure it had been at least several days, maybe even a week. Wherever they were, it was hot. She looked around for a window, some way to get some air.

The room was windowless; the only light was a small sliver of white from the large crack underneath the door. The walls were some sort of metal or tin, and the floor beneath was made up of scarred wooden planks. Confused, Chai tried to remember how they had gotten there.

She remembered waking up a few times, but it felt dreamlike, and she had closed her eyes to go back to sleep. Now that she was fully awake, Chai realized that the pieces of memory
coming to her were not dreams; they were real events obscured by the strong concoction the woman had given them. Her last partial memory was of being carried onto a train or a bus; she wasn’t sure exactly which. She had seen the dark face of a man she didn’t recognize and then felt the cushion beneath her when he had thrown her on a bunk, before she’d gone back to sleep. Now Chai had no idea where she was.