The Silver Lotus (16 page)

Lady Yee received a response from her father with a promise to spend his best efforts to accommodate her wishes, but he warned that the particulars were by no means easy to come by. Western-trained Chinese doctors with a competent understanding of Eastern pharmacopeia were about as common as clams' teeth. The rarity alone would influence costs, but if Captain Hammond would send along legally notarized documents stating his financial sponsorship of the people in question, it might go a long way toward greasing the cogs of authority.

Until now, Captain Hammond had allowed Lady Yee to do just as she pleased. He believed in her goals, and since she was financing everything with her own fortune, he saw no reason to insinuate himself beyond the contribution of friendly advice here and there. However, Lady Yee rightly worried that in the present atmosphere of severe immigration restrictions aimed at the Chinese, her husband might not find it politic to be seen as one breaching popular sentiments on the subject. She waited to pose the question, but she needn't have worried, as her husband was quite amenable to the idea. He said that, in the main, he agreed with a policy restricting the import of illiterate Chinese peasants for the purposes of stoop labor. On the other hand, people of education and purpose, who could contribute to the well-being of the whole community, should be welcomed with open arms. He believed it was Cato who had once said that a nation's greatness could only be judged by the accumulated wisdom of its citizens. Sadly, the captain reflected that venal self-interest had a way of eroding the best of intentions for most people. But despite his dark appraisal, the captain stood by his word, and two days later he handed his wife the appropriate papers, countersigned and notarized by Judge Kimmerlin personally.

In the midst of all this quiet chaos, little Macy insisted on being a part of everything her parents did. Though under the ostensive care of
Li-Lee, whom she loved and considered a playmate and sister, Macy far preferred to sit quietly in her father's lap while he read his newspapers out loud. She didn't understand what was being said, but the fact that she was being read to was enough entertainment. She also loved to sit by her mother while she worked out sums on her abacus. Sometimes, when she was feeling playful, Macy would move the beads about when her mother wasn't looking. This caused some problems until Lady Yee purchased a small abacus for Macy to play with. She loved to push the beads back and forth in imitation of her mother, and soon prided herself on being able to copy her mother's every move, though she really couldn't count above her own five fingers. But thanks to her mother's interest and sought-for approval, Macy was soon doing very well at simple math, and by the time she was old enough for formal schooling, Macy could compete mathematically with children twice her age. And thanks to her father's habit of reading to her from newspapers and business periodicals, little Macy had also developed a very interesting and unique vocabulary and a rather sophisticated way of speaking English. However, she far preferred speaking Chinese with her mother and Li-Lee, especially if she was really happy about something, and conversely when she was truly angry. The rest of the time she was content to jabber away in English. It sometimes occurred to Captain Hammond that perhaps his daughter would turn out to be an autodidactic polymath like her mother. Two of the same breed in one family was sure to prove most interesting, if not somewhat daunting.

9

FIVE WEEKS LATER, Mr. Bishop came to Lady Yee with what he believed might be a perfect location for her proposed infirmary. It was a disused sea salt warehouse that stood one hundred yards west of the coastline railroad tracks on the edge of the dunes, and it was a short half mile northwest of China Point. The warehouse complex included three outbuildings and sat on a fair-sized six-acre lot. The land alone was well worth the investment even if the buildings were pulled down, but the location had the advantage of relative isolation, and since it had occupied the same site for twenty-six years, it would hardly draw attention to itself even if slight improvements, like a fresh coat of barn paint, were applied. There were no dwellings of consequence nearby, and therefore no neighbors to complain about who came and went. Mr. Bishop believed that if it were quietly put about that Hammond, Macy & Yee intended to use the property for business purposes, not an eyebrow would be raised either way. And by the time the truth became known, it would be too late for naysayers to object since they'd have no reasonable grounds for opposition. As the proposed infirmary dealt with matters of public health, Captain Hammond was sure he could garner support from the State Sanitary Commission, as there were presently no existing medical facilities available to the local Chinese. He believed he could make the case that
this might present dangerous complications if, as had happened before in 1887, another epidemic of influenza or smallpox should arrive off the deck of some foreign ship. The biased reality might have gone unspoken of in better circles, of course, but it was a sure bet that the county-run hospitals would never open their wards to poor Chinese regardless of the public danger. As in the past, poor aliens would be sequestered under guard, with minimal care offered to alleviate their suffering, and nature allowed to take its heartless course. This too had come to pass before, and the consequences were too shameful to be recounted in refined company.

After long appraisal and consideration between husband and wife, Captain Hammond went to his bank and made arrangements to purchase the old warehouse on behalf of Hammond, Macy & Yee. It would later be transferred to the Macy Trust when the dust settled, but in the meantime Captain Hammond needed a warehouse.

After the Bellini houses had been dressed out to fit future needs, Lady Yee put her craftsmen to work making all the necessary repairs and modifications to the warehouse. Because the carpenters were Chinese, none of the locals ever found out just what their labors implied for the future use of the buildings. For that matter, the carpenters were never informed either. They simply worked from Lady Yee's drawings and recommendations, and every two or three days Captain Hammond would visit the warehouse, inspect the work, and report back the results.

Lady Yee, on the other hand, was careful never to be seen in the neighborhood of any of her projects. She preferred to manage her affairs at a distance by using intermediaries. Then, if called upon, she could publicly feign disinterest. Perhaps the word “public” was slightly misleading, since Lady Yee rarely went out in public for any mundane reasons, and when she did, she traveled veiled and dressed in black. Except for private excursions with her husband to see this or that sight, Lady Yee far preferred her gardens and orchards, her studies, and the
company of her beautiful daughter. However, she was also familiar with the observation that familiarity generally led to contempt, and so chose to remain aloof to social contacts not of her own making. What little power she possessed to influence matters could only be maintained if she adopted a regal and unapproachable bearing. As her husband had humorously pointed out, it would serve her purposes far better to have people be in awe of Lady Yee than to have them believe she was just a uniquely intelligent and beautiful Chinese girl named Silver Lotus who had rebelled against all tradition and, in search of adventure, had married a barbarian Yankee. Lady Yee wasn't sure she liked the texture of her husband's appraisal, but she certainly agreed in principle, and acted accordingly.

Though work on the renovations of the new infirmary was almost complete, Lady Yee was halted in her efforts because she had no doctor to make the appropriate recommendations for equipping the examining rooms or the split ward, and she dared not inquire locally for fear of giving away her plans prematurely. And disappointing news was soon to follow in a letter she received from her father in Canton.

In short, Master Yee informed his daughter that fulfilling her request would be next to impossible for numerous reasons, but the most critical of these was the will of the state. Though the Chinese authorities appeared quite content to feed thousands upon thousands of indigent peasants into an international labor market whence few ever returned, allowing the scholastically elite and privileged elements—specifically well-educated engineers, surgeons, doctors, and foreign-trained military officers—to emigrate at whim was out of the question. Besides, as her father pointed out in his letter, it was next to impossible to convince a Western-trained Chinese doctor, who could command high sums for his services at home, to emigrate to California to care for poor fishermen and laborers at less than a tenth of what he could earn at home. If there were some mission-trained doctors who
were spiritually disposed to such selfless ambitions, and there were a steadfast few, there were still plenty of impoverished peasants in China to look after, and one needn't travel far to find dispiriting want and disease at hand.

Master Yee closed by regretting he was unable to be of any assistance for the present. If, on the other hand, a slim miracle should occur, and a qualified person could be found who was amenable to the idea of bundling up his life and voyaging to California for the foreseeable future, he would send notice at once. Yet he warned her against holding out much hope.

This turn of events, though disappointing, hardly put a ripple in Lady Yee's ambitions. If she couldn't get what she wanted, she would settle for what she needed, which Captain Hammond observed was pretty much the same thing either way. He, in turn, had used his connections with the Three Corporations to try to help find Chinese fluent enough in English to be able to teach it to children, but so far that line of inquiry had come up empty as well. A good deal of money had been spent to feather nests for occupation, but so far the lure had failed to attract the appropriate birds, and the captain began to worry that their efforts would come to nothing in the long run. He feared the company would end up owning the best-dressed empty warehouse in Monterey County.

Lady Yee refused to be daunted by her current circumstances. She told her husband that she was confident her efforts would be rewarded, and predicted that one way or another she would get her precious physician and teachers before the new century was a year old. Captain Hammond had his reasons to doubt this, of course, but he'd learned over the years never to underestimate his wife's occasional fits of groundless optimism. She had an uncanny practice of sensing things others couldn't, so he let the matter drift by without comment.

All thought of their own problems melted away in the following days as an unseasonable series of torrential storms came charging in off
the Pacific and caused a great deal of local damage. Giant waves, some forty-five feet high, came rolling into the bay like a herd of stampeding elephants trampling everything within reach. And reliable denizens of Big Sur swore they witnessed breakers eighty feet high crashing into, and carving off chunks of, the sandstone cliffs. They said the spray from the waves, like a winter fog, hung in the air with such density and duration that it made breathing difficult and even painful for a quarter mile inland.

The Chinese fishing villages, because of their proximity to the storm-driven tides and crashing surf, suffered most, but the whole county could point to fresh scars caused by some tentacle of the storm's ferocity. Luckily there were but few fatalities, though a great deal of damage had been caused to everything afloat. Many fishing boats had been broken and sunk, or deposited like beached whales high onshore. Piles of torn and tangled nets were mixed with glass floats, broken spars, sweeps, buckets, and all manner of maritime debris. Whole trees, roots and all, which had been torn from some local cliff in tenacious resistance to wind and erosion, occasionally punctuated the homogenous waste and destruction. The violent expressions of the storm's tumultuous passing littered every beach on Monterey Bay as well as shores far to the north and south.

As fate would weave circumstances, Captain Hammond was in the company of the harbormaster, Mr. Campion, at the height of the storm. The captain had gone to call on the harbormaster at his office to see if he could be of any assistance in helping vessels still in distress. When he arrived he discovered seven other boat captains eager to do the same thing.

It had been odd, considering how protective of his person Lady Yee had become since the birth of Macy, but the captain's wife had been the one to suggest that he volunteer his services. There were people's lives and livelihoods to think of, and she said he would be glad of it later. So
there he was, with the gale pounding at the office windows, standing with seven rain-soaked seamen and waiting for Mr. Campion to come out of his office and suggest a course of action. However, from the height of the seas, and the gusting force of the winds, all present secretly doubted that anything afloat in such conditions could be reached for rescue to begin with. There was no ship in port large enough to do battle with the elements as they stood at the moment, and the weight of the surf and gale-driven waves precluded launching shore-based rescue boats should a floundering vessel require assistance. The situation smacked of forlorn hope and frustration, and several men voiced the opinion that perhaps they were wasting time on improbabilities, and they decided to return home to their families.

Captain Hammond and two other men remained behind warming themselves near the iron stove. Over time the captain had become well acquainted with Mr. Campion, and they shared similar interests in harbor and wharf improvements. In that vein, though he agreed that his presence was most likely of little use, he stayed behind as a gesture of friendship and support more than anything else. Suddenly a man dressed in dripping oilskins entered the office with the gale at his back. He carried a message to Mr. Campion's office, and then quickly returned and departed back out into the storm without a word to anyone else. The clerk delivered the note and a moment later the harbormaster came out of his office with a distressed expression and the posture of a man who has gone without sleep for too long. Mr. Campion looked somewhat surprised and pleased to see his friend Captain Hammond standing among the men in the outer office.