Bitter Winds (15 page)

Ivy licked her lips. Her mouth was as dry as the Gobi desert.

“Um, I’m here to see my sister, Zheng Lily. I was here a few days ago and forgot to leave her walking cane. She can’t move around without it.” Ivy held the cane up so they could see it.

The nurse looked down at her watch. “It’s not visitation hours right now.”

“But, if I could just see her for a minute.”

The other nurses watched her and Ivy thought she saw a flash of sympathy in the eyes of one of them. She looked closer and discovered it was same nurse who was there the night Lily had been admitted. She directed her attention to her.

“Remember me? The official named Delun said I could visit her in the mornings. You heard him, didn’t you?” She stared deeply into the woman’s eyes, silently appealing to her.

The nurse squinted at Ivy. “Hmm
. . . I do remember you. You two are twins, that’s hard to forget.”

Ivy decided to gamble. “If you don’t remember him saying that, you can call him.”

Nurse Guo, as her tag read, shook her head and looked to the first nurse.

“Yes, it
was
Official Delun. He works the afternoon shift, so I don’t think he’d appreciate being woken up at the break of dawn, but you’re in charge, so that’s your decision. I do remember him saying something like that, though.”

The elderly nurse tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips.

Ivy held her breath, waiting for the woman to answer. Finally she pointed at the smaller nurse.

“Fine. You take her in and watch her closely, Nurse Guo. But I’m not going to allow the walking stick. It can be used as a weapon and I’m not letting anything happen on my watch. We can guide the girl around where she needs to go.” She pointed at the stick in Ivy’s hand. “You take that back home with you.”

Ivy let out a shaky laugh. “I can understand that. And thank you, I’ll make our visit short. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

The old nurse snorted and went back to scribbling on her clipboard. “As okay as you can be in a loony bin like this one, I guess you could say.”

“Follow me,” the nurse said, coming around the desk and heading toward Lily’s room. “I don’t know what’s going on with her transfer—her paperwork is a mess and Official Delun needs to get it straightened out.”

Ivy followed closely behind, almost running into the woman when she stopped abruptly.
Thirty-seven paces from the nurses’ station to the door of her room.

She noticed the farther they got away from the nurses’ station, the stronger it reeked of urine and other putrid smells around her. She wrinkled her nose and put her hand over her mouth.

Nurse Guo turned to her and chuckled when she saw what she was doing.

“Sorry about that—mornings are rough on the senses around here until we can get all the pans emptied and the patients cleaned up. You’d be surprised how many grown-ups are not potty trained.” She turned back to the door.

“Can my sister and I have a few minutes alone?”

The nurse shook her head, then held up the key that hung around her neck. “That’s against regulations.” She opened the door and swung it wide.

The scene in the room filled Ivy’s eyes with tears. Lily was sitting on the bed next to a tray with an empty bowl, picking at her nails like she did when she was the most nervous. Gone was the threadbare hospital gown and in its place her sister wore a pair of blue-striped oversized hospital pajamas, with their Ye Ye’s jacket still layered on top. Ivy’s first thought was how tiny she looked. And frightened.

“Lily, I’m back.” She walked toward the bed.

At the sound of her voice, Lily’s face lit up.

“Ivy!” She quickly moved off the bed, knocking the entire tray to the floor.

The noise was like a gunshot in the small room. Lily froze and a look of terror Ivy had never seen before crossed her sister’s face. In that moment, Ivy knew she’d come to do the right thing. Now she only had to somehow get the nurse out of the room so she could convince Lily.

Benfu sat at the table and sipped at his tea, watching Calli bounce little Lan on her knee. The baby girl was always her most cheerful in the mornings. He and Calli were first up as usual and had heard her fussing down the hall. Calli had peeked in to see no one paying her any attention, so had scooped her out of her cradle and brought her with them. One dry diaper and a full belly later, Lan was happily gurgling her gratitude.

Benfu tried to muster up a smile for the two of them. It was a sweet moment but soon the kitchen would come alive with Li Jin and whoever was scheduled as her helpers to get breakfast ready. Because they were currently housing over a dozen residents, in addition to their own family, meals were a huge production every day. So far though, Li Jin had kept it all running smoothly. He wondered if her knack for organization came from living an institutional life. He wasn’t sure what scars she carried from her life in and out of the orphanage, but he knew it hadn’t damaged her spirit of compassion. Li Jin was loving and giving to everyone under their roof. Even when she looked ready to drop from exhaustion, he never heard a cross word from his daughter. In that, Benfu thought, she took after her Mama.

“And what did Lao Gong say to do next? Can you tell me again?” Calli asked as she balanced Lan with one arm on her lap so she could take a sip of her own tea. Benfu was fine with explaining everything over again, as Calli wasn’t able to come to the last few meetings. They still hadn’t made any progress to free Lily, but this morning he was determined to make some headway or he just wouldn’t leave the hospital. He put his cup back on the table and reached over for the child. Calli handed her off and Benfu laid her over his shoulder.

“He still thinks Lily is safer in the hospital than in the reeducation center, but if we sign the papers, she’ll forever be marked as Falun Gong in her private citizen file.” Under the table he jiggled his leg up and down, trying to burn away his nervous energy.

Calli reached up and rubbed at her forehead. Benfu wished he could take her fear away and carry the burden alone. They were so unsure of what would happen to Lily. It was always a big question mark when trying to predict what the local government would or wouldn’t do.

“Are you taking Ivy up there with you this morning?” she asked.

“Yeah, I need to go wake her. Poor kid—she was a wreck. I thought I’d let her sleep in a little.” Benfu had thought she looked sick with worry before she’d gone to bed. They’d all been up late the night before, the family coming together for an update on the situation. Even Linnea had come over and pledged to do anything she could. He had hoped whatever Lily was doing at that moment, that she had felt all of them gathered and sending good thoughts her way.

He heard footsteps and Li Jin popped through the door, already looking fresh with her hair pulled back neatly and a clean white apron tied around her middle. Jojo trailed behind her, his face puffy from sleep. He crossed the room and came to stand beside Benfu’s chair. With one arm holding Lan and one wrapped around Jojo, Benfu felt blessed. If he could only get Lily back home and out of the clutches of those in power, he would once again be at peace.

“Hey, Jojo. You don’t look too awake yet.” He squeezed him tighter.

Li Jin began pulling her large metal pots off the hooks and setting them on the stove top. Calli got up and went to the counter to start gathering ingredients for the congee.

“He sure is grumpy. He crawled in between Sami and me early this morning. He said he couldn’t sleep,” Li Jin said. “Sami will be mad as a hornet when she gets up, so thank you, Mama, for getting Lan. At least Sami will get to sleep in some with the whole bed to herself.”

Benfu snorted. “Seems to me like she sleeps in every day. I see this baby on your back much more than I see her in her mother’s arms.”

Li Jin stopped moving for a moment. “Baba, I know. But you have to understand. Sami’s had a hard time of things. She’ll get on her feet. We just have to help her until she finally releases all the anger she’s holding.”

Benfu held his tongue. He didn’t turn around but if he had, he knew Calli would be shooting him a look that told him to hush it up. Talking about Sami never went well; their daughter was just too loyal to the girl. But he did hate to see Li Jin taken advantage of so much. Sami was getting free room and board without lifting a finger. And now Li Jin was practically a full-time nanny to her child! But he didn’t have the time or energy to worry about it right now. He needed to focus on Lily and how he was going to get her home.

“Calli, Lao Gong said it would be best if we go ahead and work on getting some money together for when they set Lily’s fine. There’s a small chance we can pay it and possibly just bring her home.”

Calli came back to the table and sat down. “How much money are you talking?”

“A lot more than we have at our fingertips, that’s all I know.” He gave Jojo a gentle nudge to the chair beside him.

Li Jin came to stand behind Jojo as he laid his head on the table. She stroked his hair while she talked. “I’m so sorry, Baba. You’ve put most of your money into this place along with mine.”

Benfu held his hand up. “No, Li Jin, don’t even think like that. This place is a blessing—not only to us, but to a lot of other people. No one knew when we started this that we’d run into an emergency. We just have to figure out another way.”

Calli put her head in her hands. “I just don’t know how, Benfu. We’ve been blessed with a lot of kindness lately, but when it comes to paying the bills, we’re still just living month to month.”

“Don’t worry so, Calli. With the allowance they started giving us last year and the stipends we’re receiving for some of the girls, it’s stretching enough to get us through. But first things first. I’m gonna go wake up Ivy and we’ll go back to the hospital. I promised her I wouldn’t go without her. We need to hurry—maybe something has changed.”

Jojo looked up quickly. “Ivy’s not here, Ye Ye.”

“What do you mean, she’s not here? She’s asleep,” Benfu said.

“No, she’s not. When I came to Mama’s room this morning, I saw her leaving.”

“Oh dear,” Calli said, wringing her hands. “Benfu, you know she’s on her way to the hospital. I hope she doesn’t cause any trouble and get herself arrested.”

Benfu got up quickly. What was his daughter up to? She was capable of just about anything when it came to protecting her sister. He needed to get there, and quickly. “She’d better not. These officials don’t play around. We sure can’t afford to have two girls in their clutches. I need to go. I’ll call you when I get there.” He didn’t wait on a reply as he stood and headed for the door.

“It’s me. I’m here, Lily.” Ivy crossed the room, set the cane on the bed, and enveloped Lily in a tight hug. She felt her sister trembling under the coat. She turned around to face the nurse.

“Can’t you turn some heat on in this place? You treat people like animals in here! I think this is considered cruel and inhumane treatment.”

The nurse chuckled and moved around her. “Not quite, dear. Cruel and inhumane would have been if I’d left her in here for hours until she finally wet herself, like the other nurses would have done. Tell her, Lily. Tell her I come for you early every morning.”

Lily nodded. “She does, Ivy. She even brought me these pajamas. I’m a lot warmer than I was before. It’s freezing in here at night.”

The nurse closed the door behind her. “Listen, we need to talk. Maybe you can help prepare your sister for the reeducation center. I’m on your side, but there’s nothing I can do other than warn you of what to expect. You think sleeping in a cold room with no covering is bad? Wait till she gets over there. It’ll be hard—especially since she can’t see.”