A Thread Unbroken (11 page)

“I heard her talking to Baba, and she said she wishes they had not sold Josi—that she was so good with the boys, and she needs help with the new son coming.”

Chai sat straight up. She felt tingles start at her wrists and travel up to the hairs on the back of her neck.

“Tao, what else did they say? Are they going to get her back?”

“No. They can’t. Baba told her he already spent the money they got for her on the new cages and netting for the winter. Obviously, it wasn’t much because of her leg.” He sat back and ran his fingers distractedly through his hair.

“Well, can’t you get the money, Tao?”

“Me? From where? I only work for Baba, and he doesn’t pay us. I work from sunup until sundown; when can I work for someone else?”

They both sat in silence, staring at the floor. Chai unconsciously flicked the flashlight on then off then on again.

“Tao! I have an idea.” She reached up and pulled her necklace from underneath the heavy work shirt she wore. The oval-shaped green gemstone sparkled in the moonlight. She turned it over and studied her initials her father had carved on the back.

“Where did you get that?” His eyes widened with surprise and awe.

“From my father. It belonged to my grandmother and was passed down to me. He made me wear it for luck, though so far, it has proved useless or I wouldn’t be sitting here now. Maybe now is the time it was waiting for. Can you sell it?”

“I don’t know. I can take it to the mainland and see what I find. But what about Mother? If she finds out you were hiding this, she’ll be angry.”

“We’ll have to come up with a plan. You can tell her you’ve been asked to help chop wood or something. Then a few days
later you can present her with the money and tell her you want her to get Josi back so she can get off her feet and rest for the coming of the baby. In the meantime, I’ll start doing less and being slower at it so she gets frustrated and wants Josi back even more.”

“Hmm. It might work—if I can find someone to buy it. I’ll need to see if I can also find out how much they paid for Josi so I know what I need to get for it. I’ll go by tomorrow and see if their son is there. He’s my age, and if he knows, he’ll tell me.”

Chai jumped up and threw her arms around Tao’s neck, making his cheeks flame with embarrassment. She pulled the necklace over her head, and thinking of her father and the day he had given it to her, she hesitated.

Then she thought of how alone Josi probably felt, and she put the necklace in Tao’s hands, covering it with her own as she smiled at him.

“Tao, if you can do this and get her back, I’ll owe you forever.”

“We’ll see, Chai. Don’t get your hopes up, but we’ll see.”

He got up and put her necklace around his own neck, tucking it discreetly under his shirt. He turned and quietly left the room, sneaking back into the house to go to bed.

“C
hai! Hurry up and get dinner ready and get these boys bathed! What is wrong with you? Why are you moving so slowly?”

“I’m doing the best I can, Mother.” Chai smirked under the camouflage of the hair hiding her face as she peeled potatoes to fry with peppers. For the last two weeks, she had gradually gotten slower and more incompetent, much to the frustration of Mother, who couldn’t understand what was wrong with her.

“Your best is not good enough. I’m almost seven months pregnant. What am I going to do when the baby comes? You’ll have to do much more, and you can’t even keep up now!”

Chai sighed as dramatically as she could muster. “I guess you’re going to have to give up on the old tradition of a month of bed rest. I’m not a machine, Mother. I can’t take care of four boys, a baby, and
your
husband all by myself.”

She rinsed the potatoes and left them sitting in a pot of cold water, then moved on to slicing a green pepper into thin strips. They’d have their dinner—but darn if they wouldn’t have to wait for it. Just like for the last few days Lao Chan had gotten his fishing socks washed, but not in time for them to completely dry
before morning. The thought of him wearing damp socks in the chilly mornings brought a twinge of joy to Chai’s heart.

Tao had come to her room the night before and told her he was ready to make the move. He’d sold her necklace to a Gypsy on the mainland and had been taking off early from fishing every night to pretend he was chopping wood for one of the farmers. He told his father he wanted to earn some money to buy his mother a present; he just didn’t tell him the gift was in the form of one shy crippled girl. His plan today was to stop by and offer the family double what they had paid for Josi. He told her he had no doubts they would accept, especially because Josi had also conveniently come down with an extended case of laziness, making them just as perturbed with her as Mother was with Chai.

Mother passed behind her and swatted the back of her legs with the broom, not enough to hurt, but enough to say she was at the end of her patience. Chai stepped it up a bit—after all, she didn’t want Mother telling Lao Chan she was causing problems. Chai had no fear of the woman, but Lao Chan was another story altogether. She was already feeling a bit shaky after an encounter with a girl at the neighboring floating house and her fear that their conversation would be repeated back to Lao Chan.

Chai had been out scrubbing the deck when she had seen a young woman hanging clothes at the house floating next to theirs. She’d seen her before, but that was the first time both of them had been alone. The woman appeared to be about twenty or so, and probably an
ayi
from what Chai could tell.

“
Ni hao
,” she’d called.

The woman had lifted her face briefly and waved, then gone back to her work. Her face was chapped and ruddy from the cold and wind, and she worked fast to hang the wet clothes.

“
Qing wen
, excuse me. Can you come closer?” Chai had beckoned the woman to the edge so that she didn’t need to raise her voice so much. She didn’t want Mother to hear her.

The woman came near, her brow wrinkled curiously.

“I need your help. I don’t belong to this family, and I want to go home. Can you tell me what cities the buses go to from here?”

The woman gave her a blank look and went back to hanging her clothes.

“
Qing wen!
Did you hear what I said?” Chai couldn’t believe the woman’s outright rudeness.

The woman turned back to her and nodded her head. “I know who you are. And you won’t be getting any help from around here. Don’t make trouble for the rest of us. Just do your work, and before you know it, you’ll learn to like this life.”

Chai stomped her foot. “But I will never like this life—I already have a life and a real family. I need to get back to them. What’s the name of this place? Can you just tell me if there’s a way to catch a bus from here?”

She waited another moment. As far as she could tell, the young woman wasn’t going to be helpful, and she wasn’t even alarmed to know that Chai was there against her will. Even though Chai didn’t know which direction to take to get home, she still relished the thought of climbing aboard a bus and leaving; even heading out to the unknown was better than staying and being a slave. They should have left before Josi was sent away, but they hadn’t had a plan, and until recently, it had never occurred to her to sell her necklace to get money. Now she couldn’t go anywhere because she wouldn’t dare leave without her best friend.

Finally the woman across the way spoke. “Talking to you about our situation will get me a beating, and it’ll probably get you one, too. So go back to work and let me be.”

Angrily, Chai had turned away and gone back to scrubbing the deck. At least a week had passed since then, and she was still hoping the woman would not tell Lao Chan of their conversation.

Finished with chopping the green pepper and cabbage, Chai began to clean the tall pile of fish for their dinner. She eyed the stack of chili peppers in the wire basket. That night their meal would be spicier than any of them would be able to stand. Even with the anticipation of
accidentally
ruining another meal and watching Lao Chan’s face turn red as a beet, nightfall could not get there fast enough, for she didn’t know if Tao would be successful or not, and she wondered if she would see Josi again.

C
hai sat alone at the table, eating her dinner. She was brimming with anxiety. She had finished cooking the meal, cleaned everything up, and even bathed the kids; still Tao had not returned home. She had gotten a tongue-lashing about the ruined meal but had begged for another chance to try to do better—
quite a convincing and dramatic act
, she thought.

Even though Chai had saved herself a less-than-spicy share of dinner, she didn’t feel like eating. But she knew in the morning she would have a full day of chores ahead of her and would need her strength, so she slowly ate her portion.

“Zhongfu, why is Tao out so late again?” Mother raised her voice so that her husband would hear her from the bedroom, where he lay sprawled across the bed.

“
Wo bu zhi dao.
He’s still chopping wood, as far as I know,” Lao Chan mumbled from his pillow.

Bo grunted his disapproval. “I don’t know why he wants to work for someone else when Baba gives us all we need.”

Just then the front doorknob rattled, and in walked Tao. Chai jumped to her feet but her anticipation was doused when he shut the door behind him. She didn’t see Josi with him, and her heart
dropped. She sat back down, stared into her bowl, and fought back tears. He had failed.

Tao didn’t even look at Chai. “Mama, you know how you have said that you need more help, and now that the baby is coming you’re going to be so tired? I’ve done something for you.”

“Tao, what have you done? Have you made me something? I thought you were supposed to be chopping wood?”

“I
have
been chopping wood, Mama. But listen—I wanted to do something really big for you. Not only because you need it, but to show my gratitude for the good mother that you are to all of us.”

Chai looked up and watched the door, wringing her hands and hoping.

“Well, tell me what you did, you fool son!”

Tao went to the door and opened it and gestured for someone to come in. First a moment of nothing, and then Josi’s slight frame filled the doorway.

“
Josi!
” Chai jumped up from the table and ran to Josi, almost knocking her down with her uncontainable glee. She wrapped her arms around her and together they rocked back and forth, laughing and crying tears of joy.

Lao Chan quickly returned to the living area, his footsteps thunderous. Bo went to stand next to his father, the two making a formidable pair.

“What have you done, boy? Did you help her run away?” Lao Chan’s eyes narrowed as he stared down his son.

Mother looked from son to husband to the girls and back again. She didn’t know what to say—it was obvious that she wanted her best worker back, but not enough to defy her husband.

“Baba, she did not run away. I’ve worked hard to earn the money to buy Josi back for the family. I wanted to show you I can be a man and accomplish something on my own. Mother’s
too tired to keep up the heavy workload she’s carrying, and Chai cannot do it all for her. Josi is the better worker of the two—and I only wanted to do right by our family.” For just the right dramatic flair, Chai saw him bow his head to be humble.

“You imbecile, you cannot buy her back without permission from Baba,” Bo said, his hands perched on his chubby hips. He looked toward his father for confirmation.

Before the man could answer, Mother stood up.

“Tao, you are a good son, no matter what your father’s decision. Thank you for thinking of me, so tired and swollen from this baby. Now we must wait for his answer,” Mother said quietly, then lowered her eyes and sat back down.

Chai and Josi stood still, waiting to hear if she would be allowed to stay. The entire room became quiet, everyone watching for Lao Chan’s response.

Lao Chan cleared his throat, looking from the girls to his wife and back to his son. “She can stay through the birth of the baby and the recovery time after. Then we’ll see if she is doing enough to earn her keep.”

Chai and Josi began to laugh again, jumping up and down in celebration.

“And shut that cackling up and get to work. Do something.” Lao Chan stomped back to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

Chai caught Mother smiling, unable to hide her moment of happiness for them and for herself that her life just got a bit easier again. But then Chai saw Mother look at the bedroom door and put on a stern expression.

“Chai, come over here and rub my feet. Josi, you clean up her dishes. Tomorrow, you girls are going to clean this place from one side to the other.”

The girls scattered to do her bidding, knowing they’d soon be able to catch up. Chai passed Tao and gave him a wink as he turned his head to hide his shy smile. She knew that he’d be knocking at their door later to share in their celebration. She hoped he brought with him some of the fresh fruit she had seen Mother buy earlier that day from a passing vendor.

C
hai finished her work on the netting and set it aside. She shook the cramps from her chapped fingers and stood and looked around the sparse room. She was hungry and restless—and tired of mending nets, shelling peanuts, and doing everything else she had done that day. She wanted to get away for a bit and think.

Even though Mother had given them some items to hang on their wall to make their room more comfortable and fitting for two teen girls, Chai felt claustrophobic and needed to get completely off the vessel. She had been waiting for months and was ready for her first attempt.

She crept out of the shed and around the side of the house. Through the walls of the wooden shack, she could hear the hushed laughter of Josi and the small children.
Mother must be taking her afternoon nap already. It’s ridiculous how the lazy woman thinks being pregnant makes her totally incapable of anything.