Brothers (11 page)

Song Fanping walked out with the director, who not only agreed to let Li Lan go to Shanghai to see a doctor but repeatedly told her, "Don't worry about anything after you get to Shanghai. Just get better. If you encounter any difficulties, let us know, and the factory will solve them for you."

Song Fanping then took his impressive gift of gab and worked the same magic at the hospital. He and a young doctor there chatted about everything from astronomy to geography, jumping from one topic to another and somehow finding agreement on everything. The two chatted until their spittle flew and their faces were flushed while Li Lan sat to one side, dumbfounded, forgetting even the pain of her migraines. She gazed upon Song Fanping with delight, having had no idea that the man she had lived with for the past year had such talents. After giving them the referral, the young doctor followed them all the way to the front door, gripping Song Fanpings hand and saying he had finally met his equal. He said they had to find time to get a jug of wine and some snacks and shoot the breeze all night long.

All the way home Li Lan was filled with joy. She would gently tug at Song Fanpings hand, and when he looked over at her, he saw that her eyes were blazing like hot furnaces. When they got home, Li Lan pulled him into the inner room and shut the door. She gripped him tightly, her head on his broad chest and tears of happiness soaking his shirt.

After her first husband had drowned in the latrine, this timid woman had become accustomed to living in shame, all alone. Now Song Fan-ping was giving her a happiness that she could not have dreamed of. She had someone to depend on, and what a wonderful mountain of support he was! She felt that she no longer had to walk with her head down. Song Fanping allowed her to raise her head proudly and face the world.

Song Fanping didn't understand why Li Lan had become so emotional. Laughing, he pushed her aside, asking what was the matter. Li Lan shook her head and didn't say a word. She just held on tightly, not loosening her grip until they heard Baldy Li and Song Gang hollering outside, "We're hungry! We're hungry!" Song Fanping asked her why was she crying, but she bashfully turned away and walked quickly out of their room.

Li Lan took the bus to Shanghai the next afternoon. The whole family put on clean clothes and set off at noon. Song Fanping was carrying a gray travel bag that he had bought in Shanghai during his first marriage. On one side of the bag was the word
SHANGHAI
in dark red. A year earlier, on the day after their wedding, Song Fanping had wanted to get a family portrait, but since his face was swollen at the time, they didn't take the photo. He had forgotten all about it, but now that Li Lan was going away to Shanghai to get treatment, he thought again of getting the portrait, so they set off for the photography studio.

When they arrived there, Song Fanping again exceeded his wife's estimation of him. He seemed to know everything, directing the photographer to adjust the lights until no shadows would be cast on any of their faces. The photographer followed his orders, shifting the lights about and nodding at his directions. After the photographer had finished setting up the lights, Song Fanping went over to the camera to take a look and then had him adjust the lights a bit more. Then he directed the boys on how to tilt their heads and how to smile. He had Baldy Li and Song Gang sit in the middle, with Li Lan next to Song Gang and himself next to Baldy Li. He told them to watch the photographer's raised hand, then even did the counting himself: "One, two, three, smile!"

The photographer clicked the shutter, and their bright smiles were preserved in a black-and-white photo. After paying, Song Fanping carefully folded the blue receipt and placed it in his wallet. He turned to the boys and told them that they would be able to see the photo in a
weeks time. Then he took up the gray travel bag and led his wife and children to the bus depot.

In the waiting room, they sat in a row. Song Fanping described over and over again to Li Lan what his sister looked like. He told her that his sister would be waiting by the left exit of the Shanghai bus depot and that he had asked her to be holding a copy of
Liberation Daily.
As he chattered on, a man came by hawking sugarcane, leading Baldy Li and Song Gang to look up to their parents pleadingly.

Li Lan was usually so frugal that she was loathe to spend even a cent to feed herself. But thinking that she was about to leave the boys for a while, she bought an entire sugarcane stalk for them. The children watched as the man shaved off the outer layers of the stalk and chopped it into four segments, then didn't hear a single thing their parents said after that, so absorbed were they in gnawing on the sugarcane.

When it came time to board the bus, Song Fanpings gift of gab was again displayed in all its splendor. He persuaded the ticket collector to allow the entire family to accompany Li Lan onto the bus. Once aboard, Song Fanping had Li Lan sit in her seat and then placed the gray travel bag on the luggage rack. He even asked a young man to help Li Lan get it down once they reached Shanghai. Song Fanping then got off with Baldy Li and Song Gang, and they stood together under Li Lans window. Li Lan lingered over their three figures, nodding at everything Song Fanping said. Finally he asked her not to forget to bring the boys something when she came back. Their mouths full of sugarcane, Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately hollered out, "White Rabbit candy!"

Their parents assured the boys that there were still some White Rabbits left at home. Baldy Li and Song Gang were so terrified, they stopped chewing on the sugarcane, but fortunately just then the bus started up. As it was leaving the station, a tearful Li Lan turned to look at them once more. Song Fanping waved at her, smiling, not knowing that this would be the last time he would ever see his wife. His last impression of Li Lan was of her in profile, wiping away her tears. Baldy Li and Song Gang remembered only the billowing dust as the bus pulled away.

CHAPTER 9

A
FTER LI LAN
left for Shanghai, the Cultural Revolution arrived in Liu Town. Song Fanping left the house early for school and returned late. Baldy Li and Song Gang also left early and came home late, spending the whole day wandering the streets, now filled with crowds of spectators. Every day there would be parading troops, and more and more red sashes appeared on people s arms, Mao badges on their chests, and copies of Mao's
Little Red Book
in their hands. More and more people walked along the main streets singing and barking like a pack of dogs, yelling revolutionary slogans and singing revolutionary songs. Layer upon layer of big-character posters thickened the walls, and when a breeze blew, the posters rustled like leaves on a tree. Some people started appearing with paper dunce caps on their heads or big wooden placards around their necks. There were even people who clanged on pots and pans, shouting, "Down with ourselves!" as they walked along. Baldy Li and Song Gang knew that these dunce-cap-wearing, placard-sporting, pot-clanging folk were what everyone called class enemies. Anyone could reach over and slap their faces, kick them in the stomach, throw snot at them, or piss on them. They were tormented but didn't dare say a word and were afraid to look up. Some passersby demanded that these class enemies slap their own faces and yell out slogans condemning themselves, and after they were done with themselves they should curse their ancestors. This was an unforgettable summer for Baldy Li and Song Gang. They didn't understand that the Cultural Revolution had arrived or that the world had changed around them; they only knew that now Liu Town had become as festive and rowdy as if every day were a holiday.

Baldy Li and Song Gang wandered through town like a couple of stray dogs. They followed one brigade after another, repeatedly yelling "Long live!" after one and "Take down!" after another. They shouted until their tongues were parched and their throats were raw and swollen. Meanwhile, Baldy Li seized the opportunity to violate each of the town's wooden electrical poles several times over. Whenever this barely eight-year-old boy happened upon a pole, he would pleasure
himself until he was red in the face, all the while enthusiastically watching the parading crowds on the street. While his body rubbed up and down and his little fists pumped up and down, he wouldn't stop yelling, "Long live!" and "Take Down!"

When passersby happened to spot Baldy Li humping a pole, they would snicker to each other. They knew what he was up to, and though they didn't say anything aloud, they would be laughing secretly inside. There were, of course, those who didn't get it. When the woman who had started a snack shop next to the bus depot walked by and saw Baldy Li vigorously rubbing away, she asked him with surprise, "What are you doing, kid?"

Baldy Li glanced over at this woman, whom everyone called Mama Su, but didn't answer. Preoccupied with trying to hump the pole and shout slogans at the same time, he was simply too busy to respond. At that moment, the three middle-schoolers walked by. They pointed at him humping the pole, then up at the wires overhead, and exclaimed, "The kid is generating electricity."

Everyone who heard them broke out into guffaws. Song Gang, who was standing to one side, was also giggling away, though he didn't quite know why. Baldy Li was displeased, so he stopped his rubbing, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said dismissively, "You wouldn't understand."

Then he turned proudly to Mama Su and announced, "I'm feeling my sex drive."

Mama Su turned pale. She shook her head and muttered, "Bad karma, bad karma…"

At that moment, the longest parade in the history of Liu Town wound its way over. All the way down the street, red flags as numerous as the hairs on a cow flapped in the wind. The large flags were as big as sheets, and the small ones were as tiny as handkerchiefs. Flagstaff clanged against flagstaff, and flag knocked against flag, whipping this way and that in the wind.

Liu Town's Blacksmith Tong raised his hammer, shouting that he wanted to be a righteous revolutionary blacksmith, smashing the beastly legs of the revolution's enemies until they were as flat as sickles, until they were reduced to scrap metal.

Liu Town's Yanker Yu raised his tooth extractor, shouting that he was going to be a judicious revolutionary dentist, pulling out all the good teeth of the revolution's enemies and all the bad ones of his class brothers and sisters.

Liu Town s Tailor Zhang hung his leather measuring tape around his neck, shouting that he wanted to be a clear-eyed revolutionary tailor, making the most beautiful clothes in the world for his class brothers and sisters and the lousiest funeral clothes for the revolutions enemies. No! He would make the lousiest corpse shrouds for the revolutions enemies.

Liu Town s Popsicle Wang hoisted his icebox onto his back, shouting that he would be a never-melting revolutionary popsicle—"Popsicles for sale! Popsicles only for class brothers and sisters and not for the revolution's enemies!" Popsicle Wangs business was red-hot, since each popsicle he sold was like a revolutionary certificate—"Come quick, come quick. All those who buy my popsicles are class brothers and sisters. Those who won't buy them are class enemies."

Liu Town s two Scissors Guan, father and son, both raised their scissors, shouting that they were going to be sharp revolutionary scissors and cut off the dicks of the class enemy. Old Scissors Guan was not yet finished, but Little Scissors Guan couldn't hold in his pee any longer and dashed out of the parade to relieve himself against the wall, shouting "Snip snip snip" and "Dick dick dick" even as he unfastened his pants.

Tall, strong Song Fanping marched at the very front of the parade. He held a giant flag with both arms stretched straight out. This red flag was as wide as a couple of bedsheets, perhaps with a few pillowcases added in. As it flapped in the wind, undulating like cascading waves, it made Song Fanping look as though he were hoisting a sheer wall of water above his shoulders. His white shirt was soaked through with sweat, his shoulder and arm muscles twitched like little squirrels, his bright red face was covered in freely flowing rivulets of sweat, and his eyes shone like bolts of lightning. Spotting Baldy Li and Song Gang, Song Fanping yelled out, "Sons, come over here!"

At that moment Baldy Li was hugging the electrical pole and curiously asking various passersby why Mama Su had cursed him as having "bad karma." When he heard Song Fanping's cry, he immediately abandoned the pole and ran over with Song Gang. They both grabbed Song Fanping's white shirt, and he lowered the flagstaff to allow them to hold on as well. In this way, Baldy Li and Song Gang held Liu Town's largest red flag and walked at the front of Liu Town's longest parade. Song Fanping strode forward with giant steps, and the two kids scurried along to keep up with him. Many little children drooling with
envy and admiration ran alongside them clustered on one side of the street. The three cocky middle-schoolers also followed along, similarly crowded to the side. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed Song Fanping like two puppies keeping up with an elephant, their lungs, throats, and eyes all on fire from exertion. When they reached a bridge, Song Fanping finally paused, as did the rest of the procession.

Clumps of people crowded the streets and alleys below the bridge, with everyone looking up at Song Fanping. All the flags on the bridge, large and small, were unfurled. Song Fanping lifted the giant red flag over his head and began waving it back and forth, making it crackle like fireworks as it flapped in the wind. With their eyes Baldy Li and Song Gang tracked the path of this giant flag as it billowed left to right, flipped over, then back again. It flew over the entire bridge, and the wind from the flag blew the boys’ hair back and forth. As Song Fanping waved the flag, the crowd below started to roar. Baldy Li and Song Gang saw waves of fists and heard their slogans booming like cannons.

Baldy Li started to howl, as if he were humping a pole. Flushed and hoarse, he said to Song Gang, "I feel my sex drive."

He saw that Song Gang was also flushed and hoarse and was shouting at the top of his lungs with his eyes closed. Baldy Li was delighted and, nudging Song Gang, asked, "Do you feel your sex drive, too?"