Bitter Winds (24 page)

Ivy blinked her eyes rapidly. The room was pitch-black. So black she had reached up more than a few times just to make sure her eyelids were really open. Now she could understand possibly just a tiny bit of what Lily saw most of the time. Knowing her sister lived it every day made it a little easier, and though Ivy couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face, she decided she would not cry. Instead, she spent her time doing what Lily would do. She explored the room with her hands. But in every corner she found the same thing—nothing.

Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her she’d missed dinner. She thought of Mo. And wondered where they’d taken her.
So much for getting back to their room safely
. One minute she was standing under the hum of the washing and drying machines, arguing with the woman who’d given her life; the next minute the orderly had rung the alarm bell and accused Ivy and Mo of trying to escape the hospital. Then all hell had broken loose. And not surprisingly, her birth mother had done nothing to try to save her, just scurried out of the laundry room like a panicked rat once the head nurse came rushing in with her gorillas in tow.

Ivy leaned back against the padded wall and slid down until she was sitting.
Her mother
. What were the odds after all these years she’d see her again and, of all places, in a mental hospital? But then, she thought, it made sense from that angle. Maybe the woman really was crazy, because how many mothers tried to set their own children on fire?

She reached over and rubbed at her left shoulder. Moving around on the thick padding released a swirling smell of urine that reached her nose. The mat felt dry but must have had many patients lose their bladder on it over the years. It was an overwhelming and stomach-turning stench—so much that it almost made her forget her aching shoulder. If she wasn’t mistaken, the orderly had dislocated it when he took so much glee in dragging her down the hall and throwing her in what he called the Dark Room. With one shove from him, Ivy had landed on her knees, palms slapping the mat and her sunglasses flying from her head. She hadn’t even had time to look around before the light had disappeared with the slamming and locking of the door behind her.

Most of all, the head nurse’s parting statement still burned in Ivy’s ears. When her Ye Ye found out, he’d be so disappointed in her. Even in the dark of the tight room, she felt her cheeks flame for the additional strain she’d surely brought onto her family. The nurse had tried to hide her small smirk as she’d scribbled on her clipboard and led the way to Ivy’s punishment room. Just before they’d tossed her in, she’d given one last sucker punch.

You, little blind mouse, have just added another ten thousand reminbi to your fine. Your family will never be able to afford to get you out of here.

T
he taxi stopped and Sami climbed out, then held the door for Li Jin. Immediately a dark-skinned fellow lounging on his bike in the line of
sanlun ches
—bicycle taxis—tried to wave them over.

“Wu kuai,”
he bellowed, specifying a price, then spat a long, black stream of tobacco sailing across the walkway.

Sami shook her head. The locals in Wuxi were so irritating.
Didn’t he just see them get out of a taxi?
Why did he think they needed another one before they’d even taken a step away from the last one? What an idiot. She waved him away and the others around him chortled at the brush-off. Sami turned back to Li Jin.

“Just let me handle everything. Did you bring the papers?”

Li Jin followed her out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, then patted the bag slung over her shoulder. “I’ve got it. But I still don’t understand why we had to come after dark.”

Sami laughed. Li Jin was spooked. You would think she’d never spent any time on the streets. She was getting soft.

“How many loan sharks or gang members do you see conducting business in the light of day?”

“I don’t know, Sami. I’ve never been around loan sharks or gang members. You tell me.”

Sami could hear Li Jin’s fear hidden under her sarcasm. She reached over and squeezed Li Jin’s arm. Sami hadn’t even told her they were meeting with the Bamboo Boys, who were rumored to have close ties to the famous United Bamboo Gang in Shanghai. The less she knew, the better. “It’ll be fine. I know how to handle these kinds of people and I got your back. Just remember we aren’t here on a social call. At least the scar on your face gives you a harder look. Try to match it with your expression. Don’t look so blasted nice.”

Sami led the way down the street, checking her map as she went. Li Jin kept pace with her, babbling on and on about leaving Lan with a dripping nose and the hacking cough, nagging her that the baby needed to see a doctor. Sami found herself biting the inside of her mouth so hard she tasted blood. She was so tired of hearing about Lan—Lan—Lan.

“
Anjing
. I need to concentrate,” Sami said. She’d been told to turn down the alley between the Wuxi Noodle Shop and the shoemaker. She looked ahead and didn’t see it, then back down at the scribbled notes. “Come on, the taxi didn’t go far enough. We’ve got to go to the end of the street.”

As it was late, and it wasn’t a popular part of town, there weren’t many people out and about. They continued to walk, passing a few open shops scattered among those closed for the day. A block down, a gap-toothed old man came toward them, carrying a chubby-cheeked toddler over his shoulder. Sami grimaced at the boy’s round bottom protruding through his red split trousers.

“Gei wo qian?”
the man said, asking for a few coins.

“Meiyou
.
”
Sami shook her head, telling him she didn’t have any. Before she could stop her, Li Jin was digging through her bag and had come up with a ten-yuan bill and held it out. Sami tried to slap her hand down. “Li Jin, stop it! You’ll have every beggar on this street following us and we’ll have to turn around and go home. We can’t be leading them to the money house.”

The man’s hand shot out like a striking snake and grabbed the bill; then he nodded a few times and backed away, his grandson never moving a muscle as he slept through the exchange.

“I know, Sami. But look at him. His grandson is fat but the old man looks as if he hasn’t eaten in a week.”

Sami shook her head and grabbed Li Jin’s arm, pulling her along faster. They passed more closed shops until she saw one with a large sign hanging in the window with an amateurish drawing of a bowl of steaming noodles.

“This is it.” They turned and found themselves in a labyrinth of alleys between the buildings, fire escape ladders hanging around them like unattached streams of a spiderweb. Sami looked down at the paper, then turned around in a circle. “I don’t know which way to go next.”

Li Jin clutched her bag closer. “Sami, I thought you had the directions already down? Maybe we should just go and come back tomorrow.”

Sami stopped and turned to Li Jin. “If we don’t show tonight, we can’t come back here. Is that what you want to do?”

Li Jin hesitated, then shook her head. “No. I really want to get the money we need to bring Ivy home. It’s tearing at my parents that she’s in that place.”

Sami started walking again. She knew Li Jin wouldn’t give up. She just needed to be able to make the decision. Sami pulled out her cell phone and began to punch in the number she’d been given. She was going to have to get some better directions.

Suddenly a man stepped out of the shadows, and both she and Li Jin jumped.

“Ni hao
.
”
He nodded, looking them both up and down from head to toe.

“Ni hao
.
”
Sami figured there’d be one of them waiting to lead them in. She checked him out just as closely as he did her, and she wasn’t impressed. His flat haircut and the soiled tank top he wore did nothing to improve his looks. His stout arms were heavily tattooed and Sami could see the symbol of a Shanghai street gang, and wondered how he managed to leave there and end up in Wuxi. He was what was typically called a bruiser.

“You come to see the boss?”

“Dui
.
”

The bruiser jerked his head and turned. “Follow me.” He swaggered down the alley, obviously assuming they were right behind him.

Sami looked at Li Jin and raised her eyebrows. Li Jin shrugged, and they began to follow as he led them through more dark, smelly lanes piled high with discarded junk and trash. There was evidence of people living there, as they also ducked under several lines of clothes left out on lines stretched from window to window.

A few minutes later he led them straight to a set of wooden doors centered in a concrete wall. He knocked two sharp knocks, then three slow ones, and the doors opened. He waved at them to come through.

Sami squared her shoulders and erased the expression of uncertainty from her face and walked through the gate, Li Jin close behind her. The doors opened onto a large, well-kept courtyard—worlds away from the slummy look on the opposite side of the wall.

They looked around and the bruiser stood talking with another guy dressed identically as he was with a soiled white shirt and the same haircut. In hushed voices they talked and shot Sami a few interested looks.

“Where to now?” she asked.

The bruiser held his hand up, silencing her from more questions. Sami sighed impatiently. She hated his type—men who thought women were beneath them and could be silenced with just a look.

“Just hold on,” Li Jin hissed at her. “Don’t be so testy.”

The bruiser grunted in frustration, seeming to have lost the battle to hoist them off on the other guy. He returned to them. “Mobile phones.” He held his hand out.

“What about them?” Sami asked.

“They stay down here.” He pointed at his buddy and Sami looked to find the other guy smirking back.

She sighed and dug in her bag, pulled out her phone, and put it in the beefy outstretched hand. Li Jin tossed hers in, too. The bruiser threw them both to his buddy and the guy caught first one, then the other in midair, and slipped them into his pocket.

“I hope we get those back,” Li Jin muttered.

“Oh, we will. If I have to, I’ll take ’em from the guy myself.”

The bruiser pointed at the bags. “Let me see inside.”

Sami held her bag open wide while the guy looked in, then stuck his hand down and felt around. He grunted in satisfaction and did the same with Li Jin’s bag. Then he turned and beckoned for them to follow once again.

He led them inside the house and they entered a big room, empty except for a few randomly strewn couches and chairs. In the corner of the room was a huge, winding wooden staircase, almost like something Sami might see in an old movie. They went to it and followed the bruiser up to the second landing that overlooked the first floor they’d left behind.

Unlike the courtyard and the bottom floor of the house, the landing was outfitted in classic teakwood furniture and even an antique emperor’s bed loaded with lavish silk pillows, taking up the far wall. Next to the bed was a table and much to Sami’s astonishment, it was covered in pink stacks of reminbi. Sami had never seen so much money in her life and marveled at how trusting they were to leave it unattended.

Scattered around the room were other bruiser-type fellows,
as well as a few more studious types perched on the couches hunched over laptops or their mobile phones. Everyone appeared busy and until they walked farther into the room, no one even looked up. Sami saw one fellow had a row of colorful credit cards lined up next to his laptop and he thumped one with one hand as he used his finger pad to scroll the computer screen with the other.

Their guide cleared his throat and a few men looked up, a buzz going through the room quickly until most eyes were on them. Sami saw their gazes flicker from her to Li Jin and back to her. She knew she and Li Jin were probably the best-looking women the men had seen in those parts, as most likely they were accustomed to street girls tending their needs.

She held her hands up. “What are you looking at? Have you never seen women before?”

The men answered with laughs and guffaws, obviously surprised at her spunk. Sami looked at Li Jin and saw by the stiffness of her spine and the paleness of her face she was even more nervous now that they were in the house.

The bruiser gave her a not-so-gentle nudge and pointed to a small group of chairs near the balcony. “The boss man will be here in a minute. You sit.”

Slowly, to show him she wasn’t afraid of him, Sami led the way to the sofa and gracefully sat down, crossing her ankles as she leaned back and pretended to savor the softness behind her.

“Sami, this is making me really nervous,” Li Jin said, and Sami saw her nod just a tiny bit toward the corner of the room where the money was stacked up.

“We’re here now. Let’s just get it over with.” She’d already explained to Li Jin on the way over that money lending was only a small part of the racket this gang had going. The nerdy types proved her prediction, as it was clear they were engrossed in some sort of online activities. If what Sami had heard was true, this gang had their hands in everything from credit card fraud to online phishing endeavors.

As they waited, a girl who looked to be in her late teens wobbled into the room, carrying a tray of plastic cups. Despite the short red dress and spiked heels she wore, the girl was timid, barely attempting to peek out from the fringe of bangs that hid most of her delicate face. As she moved, the long black curtain that was her hair swayed along in rhythm with her hips. She came to Sami and Li Jin and set the tray on the table in front of them.

“Cha?”
she asked them.

“Tea would be great.
Xie xie,
” Li Jin answered first, picking up a cup and wrapping her hands around it.

Sami grabbed one and held it to her nose, hoping it was jasmine tea or another famous type, but the ugly green leaves had a putrid smell and Sami knew it was cheap everyday tea. She returned the cup to the table untouched.

The girl set one more cup down and turned to leave. Sami watched her and just before the girl scooted out the door, she glanced back. Their eyes met and Sami saw the naked vulnerability the girl closely guarded. It brought back one of her most deeply buried memories and as though seeing a shuffle of photographs in her head, Sami was taken back to the night her uncle had sent her to an official’s promotion party. Years ago, she’d been obedient and that night she’d served men tea and food. As the hours had passed she’d felt a relief she wasn’t there for more—until the guests began to leave and one by one, men bid on a night with her. Still no more than a child, she’d stood horrified while the top official had bantered back and forth with the men, selling her for the highest price as if he owned that right instead of her uncle. She’d learned that night that evil came in every package. Rich, poor, insignificant, important, dirty, and clean. The night had been one of many she was ashamed of—a collection she kept inside her just waiting to spring up and give her courage when she finally got her day of vengeance.