Waxing Moon (8 page)

12

Halfway to Mistress Yee’s quarters, Nani suddenly turned around and went back to the maids’ quarters. She didn’t think Mistress Yee would be up. Besides, she wouldn’t be interested in the welfare of her household members. She would reprove her for making noise so early in the morning.

Nani slipped into the kitchen, out of breath. Her heart was still pounding violently. She drank water in the kitchen, dripping it all over her chest. She stood there, lost in thought, reviewing what had just happened in the storage room. Min’s body had felt like a perfect rock by a creek, smoothed over eons, where everyone would want to sit and listen to the sound of the cascading water or to lie down and find a million flecks of golden light dancing through the branches high above which would make one’s head spin as fast as the earth rotated. For as long as she could remember, Min had loved her. He cared about her as if there were nothing else in the world, but why didn’t he covet her like a normal man? She sucked her cheek, puzzled, dissatisfied, but strangely happy too.

“Big Sister!” Soonyi said, coming into the kitchen.

Nani whirled around. “You startled me!”

“I am sorry, Big Sister. I was looking for you because I needed your help to get started with breakfast,” Soonyi said, on the verge of tears. She was tired. While Nani was out, Mirae had woken up and screamed about the cloth she found in her mouth. “Are you trying to choke me?” she had asked.

“How is Mirae?” Nani asked.

“Oh, she is fine. After yelling at me, she fell back asleep as soon as she put her head on the pillow,” Soonyi explained.

“If she has the energy to yell, she will recover in no time,” Nani said.

“What do I do with the soaked mung beans?” Soonyi asked.

“Go and rub them between your hands until they are hulled. And then you know what to do. I don’t need to explain how to grind the beans, do I?”

“No, Big Sister. That’s always been my chore,” Soonyi assured Nani.

“When you are done, go to Mistress Yee and tell her that Mirae is sick. Very sick. Tell her she is as hot as an iron on the stove,” Nani said, beginning to chop vegetables.

“I can’t go see Mistress Yee,” Soonyi whimpered.

“Child, what is the matter with you?” Nani asked, frowning. Half of her mind was elsewhere. Min had shoulders like . . . what?

“Mistress Yee doesn’t like me,” Soonyi said, turning pale.

“That’s no news. She likes no one,” Nani said, slicing summer zucchinis as thinly as she could.

“Should I talk to her when I take breakfast to her?” Soonyi asked.

“No,” Nani replied, and placed her knife on the cutting board. “You don’t bring up problems before breakfast. You do that when the mistress is done with breakfast, so that at least she won’t have a table full of food to turn over. Besides, if she gets upset before breakfast and refuses to eat, you will be pleading with her to eat all day long.”

Soonyi looked thoughtful. She definitely didn’t want to spend all day begging Mistress Yee to take her meals.

“Of course, if we could get a chance to speak to the master, that would be the simplest way out of trouble. But we might have to talk to Mistress Yee. After all, Mirae is her favorite maid. And she is going to look for Mirae any minute anyway,” Nani said. “Don’t stand there like a scarecrow. Will you go get me some eggs? And wake up, will you?”

“Yes, Big Sister. How many?” Soonyi asked, widening her eyes.

“Please,” Nani drawled. “Don’t get my blood boiling so early in the morning. You go and get however many eggs you see in the basket. Don’t you know that eggs are delivered every morning by the boy down by the creek?”

“Yes, of course,” Soonyi said quietly and fled the kitchen.

Nani crushed garlic with the heavy wooden handle of the knife. After putting it aside in a little bowl, she began to chop onions, which made her sniffle. Suddenly, she turned around. Nani often thought that she caught a glimpse of her late mother. She sat down by the stove and cried a little, thinking of her. Sometimes at night, she would look at the door, thinking that at any moment her mother would come in and lie down next to her. And sometimes she would see her mother in her dreams; afterward, she would feel lonely and distracted all day long. Min made her feel good, but no one would ever be able to take her mother’s place, she knew. She blew her nose. She tightened the string of her apron and began to cook zucchini in a pot, stirring the vegetable intermittently.

“Big Sister, here are three eggs,” Soonyi said as she came in.

“Good,” Nani replied.

“What is the matter?” she asked, seeing Nani’s red eyes.

“Nothing. Now I want you to get a scoop of bean paste for the soup,” she said.

“Sure,” Soonyi replied, looking at Nani blankly.

“Get going. Don’t stand around,” Nani chided Soonyi.

A few minutes later, Soonyi came in with bean paste on a spatula.

“Get a strainer. And press the paste through it into the water,” Nani ordered.

Soonyi did as she was told.

In the meantime, Nani broke the eggs into a bowl. She swirled them with a spoon, adding chopped scallion and gingko nuts and sea salt. She was going to poach them in a double boiler.

In an hour, there was a hot meal on a low table. Nani and Soonyi carried it to their master and mistress, who sat close to each other, smirking about something like kids. Nani was relieved to find her superiors in a good mood.

The maids wished them a very good appetite and left. On the way back to the kitchen, Nani lectured Soonyi about how she had put her face too close to the food as they took the low table in. This was what her mother had said to her some years before.

Soonyi denied having done so, just as Nani had vehemently argued against her mother’s accusation.

They walked back to the kitchen. Nani was upset. She wanted Soonyi to acknowledge her own shortcoming and say that she wouldn’t do it again.

In the kitchen, Soonyi took a gulp of water and dropped a piece of fried zucchini into her mouth.

“Soonyi, let me teach you something. Don’t eat standing,” Nani snapped. Her mother had also said this to her often. At the time, Nani hadn’t understood. But now she did. It wasn’t proper. It was something a maid would do. And a maid didn’t have to live the life of a maid, her mother had emphasized.

Nani set the table for three in the middle of the hardwood floor in front of the maids’ shared bedroom. Then she told Soonyi to go out and get the male servants for breakfast.

It was already getting hot.

Soonyi first went inside to see if Mirae was feeling any better and if she would like to eat a little.

“Big Sister!” Soonyi shouted from inside the room.

“Calm down, child,” Nani said, employing her mother’s tone of voice.

“Big Sister, Mirae is so sick!” Soonyi rushed out of the room.

Nani got up and hurried in. Mirae was indeed very sick. Her body was burning and her skin was erupting with a strange-looking rash. Nani thought for a moment and ran to Mistress Yee’s quarters.

There was laughter from the room. Nani hesitated. No matter how serious the problem was with a maid, it seemed inappropriate to break up her superiors’ happy moment.

She cleared her throat and smoothed her hair, feeling nervous, as if she had already done something wrong.

“What is it?” Mistress Yee asked, sensing movement behind the latticed door.

“It is Nani, Mistress Yee. I am here to let you know that Mirae is burning with a fever and her skin is developing a rash. She needs a doctor,” Nani managed to say.

Mistress Yee rolled her eyes theatrically.

Nani stood in the hallway like a puppet with broken strings, frozen, expressionless.

“Should I buy the fish or not?” Mistress Yee asked. Obviously, she and Mr. O must have been in the middle of a conversation.

“It doesn’t matter, my dear. What counts is not your deed, but your intention, your heart. If you have the intention to do good things, then you have done good things.”

“You are my inspiration,” Mistress Yee said brightly, laughing.

“Don’t flatter me. It doesn’t suit you,” Mr. O replied.

“Are you still there?” Mistress Yee called out in her high-pitched voice, irritably.

“Yes, Mistress,” Nani replied nervously. Her mistress might accuse her of eavesdropping.

“You should be taking care of Mirae if she is really sick,” she said curtly.

“Yes, Mistress. She needs more than my care, it appears,” Nani said timidly.

“If you can afford it, go get the doctor. You don’t need my permission,” Mistress Yee said, half amused, half tartly.

There was a pause. How long would Mistress Yee play out her little game before Mr. O stepped in to give his order?

“What are you thinking about?” Mistress Yee asked her husband.

“Oh, nothing,” he replied.

“Of course, nothing. How could you think of anything else when I am in your presence?” Mistress Yee said, amused.

“Why don’t you tell her to go fetch the doctor?” Mr. O grumbled.

“We can’t get a doctor every time a maid gets sick. We will soon run out of money. We need to reserve some for the likes of me,” Mistress Yee said in her nasal voice, laughing mischievously.

“Let her go. I need to talk to you,” Mr. O said.

“Go and get that midwife, whatever her name is,” Mistress Yee said sharply.

“What can a midwife do for a maid with a fever?” Mr. O complained.

“Maybe it is not just a fever,” Mistress Yee muttered, giggling like a girl.

“Now, let her go and tend to the matter,” Mr. O ordered gently.

“Leave us,” Mistress Yee snapped.

Nani returned to the kitchen. She saw male servants leaving for their work. She stopped Min and explained the seriousness of Mirae’s state. “We need to go and ask someone, a doctor, to find out what to do about the fever,” she said, looking worried. “Let’s go to the marketplace. I know an herbalist. He is as good as a doctor, I hear.”

Min hesitated. He knew how awfully Mirae had treated his girl, and only the other day, Nani had said, “She drives me crazy.” So he produced a groan of displeasure.

Nani retorted, “If we don’t, we will have another funeral in this house. That would be two funerals within a year.”

They hurried to the marketplace and found the herbalist perched with at least fifty huge standing hemp sacks displayed, their open mouths spilling out their contents.

Nani explained Mirae’s symptoms. The herbalist said, “Sounds like chicken pox to me. If it is, it will run its course and go away. But you need something to help her with the fever.” He picked a few roots and leaves from here and there. “Make sure to stay away from the sick one until the fever is reduced.”

He divided the herbs into six portions, wrapped each in rice paper, and handed them to Nani. “Cook one for half a day. Divide the brew into three portions. Let her drink one with each meal. Do the same for the following five days. Remember to stay away from her while she has the fever. Especially anyone carrying a baby!” he advised her, winking at Min.

Nani blushed. Then she realized that she had to tell her mistress, not that Mistress Yee would go near Mirae while the maid was sick.

When she arrived back home, Mr. O was leaving with a part-time male servant whose hunting skill surpassed all. They would visit the gravesite of Mr. O’s parents. The servant would trim the grass, and Mr. O would serve his parents rice liquor and some food and tell them his wife was pregnant.

In the kitchen, Nani emptied one packet of the herbs into a clay brew pot. She measured water and poured it into the pot and placed it on the stove.

While watching the pot simmer, she wondered if she should tell Mistress Yee what the herbalist had said about a pregnant woman needing to stay away from Mirae. She wasn’t so worried about the cost of the herbs. She could take the small amount of money from the weekly grocery shopping money. But if Mirae’s illness affected Mistress Yee’s health in any way, then Nani would be in big trouble.

In the afternoon, while letting Soonyi tend the pot so that it wouldn’t boil over, Nani went to Mistress Yee with a plate of fruit. Mistress Yee was reading a picture book and humming a familiar tune. She was in a good mood.

“Mistress Yee, Mirae is taking medicine for her fever. It looks as though she will recover in a few days, if not before,” Nani said.

“Such a silly little thing. I didn’t ask you a question. Didn’t your mistress teach you not to speak unless you were spoken to?”

“I am sorry, Mistress Yee. Silly was my nickname by my mother, but I dare speak because Mirae suffers from chicken pox. Of course, we will keep her away from you until she is completely recovered,” Nani said.

Mistress Yee dropped her book on the floor, turning pale and looking urgent, as if she had a fishbone caught in her throat. “Are you sure it’s chicken pox?”

“Her skin is breaking out with blisters, and the herbalist in the marketplace thought so,” Nani replied, kneeling in the far corner of the room without breathing.

“I should believe a dog? Go get the doctor!” she ordered.

“Yes, Mistress,” Nani said. She got up with a tray and left. In the yard, she kicked a pebble and grumbled about Mistress Yee’s temper.

Before sunset, the doctor came and took a look at Mirae. Then he reported to Mistress Yee that while it looked like chicken pox, it could very well be a combination of boils and a nasty cold. He turned around and asked Nani how Mirae had been lately. Nani said that she couldn’t think of any anomaly; Mirae had behaved like her usual self. The doctor pondered for a moment and said that he couldn’t rule out chicken pox entirely, but the rash was too severe for the usual case of chicken pox. And who in the world catches a cold in the summer?

Mistress Yee didn’t want to hear another word from the doctor. She would stay at her father’s house until Mirae was well.

Four days later, Mirae was feeling a world better. Her fever was gone, and she was eating again, but no one spoke about her dreadful skin. Her body was still covered with purplish rashes. A part-time maid simply commented, “Better to be alive than dead, though.”