Wah’s bed, hoping the sudden activity would hide the emotion I felt.
“Suey Wah, I would like to ask you some questions.” When Fei Yen would have left the room, I stopped her. “No, please stay if you can spare the time, Fei Yen. If Suey Wah cannot help me, maybe you would be willing to ask some of the other girls if they have the information I seek.” To Suey Wah I said, “Suey Wah, I seek a little girl like you. I knew her in China for many years and her mother before her, and recently I believe I saw her on a dock in this same city to which you were brought. I fear for her. I fear she has been treated as cruelly as you, only—”
“Only no kind Qing has come to rescue her. Poor girl.” Suey Wah’s eyes, dark and yet bright in the beautiful way of the Chinese, looked at me sadly. “I will help you if I can, Qing,” she reached out one small finger to my cheek, “but why do my words make you weep?”
Why, indeed, I asked myself, and did not try to explain.
When I said Mae Tao’s name, I watched Suey Wah’s face carefully, trying to catch even a glimmer of recognition. “She is small in stature like you,” I continued, still hopeful, “but with a round little face and two rosy cheeks, plump like a pigeon. And she was not shy, Suey Wah, she was a bold, talkative little girl. Full of advice. Very sure of herself. Does she sound familiar to you?” Suey Wah’s forehead wrinkled in concentration.
“At first it was hard for me to remember the trip across the ocean, Qing, but now I see things in my mind more clearly, like the boat and the men on the boat.” Her voice faltered before continuing. “There was a girl among us as you describe. She liked to talk. Oh, she talked a great deal and she was very brave and she said she was going straight back to China as soon as she got off the boat. She said her mother would miss her. But I do not remember her name.” She looked at me in apology. “I am very sorry, Qing. Perhaps her name was Mae Tao, but I cannot say. Somehow the name sounds familiar, but I can’t say for sure. Many girls were on the boat all together and we were not allowed to talk very much. Then, after the two girls died, we became very quiet and spoke only in whispers so the men would not hear us. It was dark where we were kept, too, and after a while we thought only about food and light and being free from the boat.”
“Did a man meet you on the dock when you got off the boat?”
“More than one man. We were separated and each man took some of the girls. The man who took me told us to hold hands and follow him. The brave girl I told you about was with me and I remember that when she tried to look around, he scolded us all. He was very fierce. We held onto each other and he led us to the house of that woman Dow Pai Tai. Oh, she was a very bad woman, Qing. Very bad. She made some of the girls cry.”
“Did you see what happened to any of the other girls, especially the girl who liked to talk? She sounds exactly like the Mae Tao I remember.”
“A man took some of the littlest girls away from Dow Pai Tai. He bought me, too, and then sold me to Wing Chee. I can’t be sure but he may have taken your Mae Tao and he may still have her. He was a turtle man, they said.”
I repeated the phrase, then asked, “What is a turtle man?”
“He led a tong. I heard someone call him a black dragon.” Without thinking, Suey Wah lowered her voice when she said the last words. For her, just the name of the tong held power and menace. “At Wing Chee’s I heard about this tong. Very bad, very bad, Qing. You must stay away from the black dragons. They are fearsome. Even Wing Chee was afraid of them. The look on his face when he said their name was the look of death. You must stay away from that tong!”
I squeezed her hand in assurance. “I will certainly stay away from those bad men, Suey Wah.” I noted the high color in her cheeks and decided she had had enough excitement for one day. Looking
“Suey Wah, I would like to ask you some questions.” When Fei Yen would have left the room, I stopped her. “No, please stay if you can spare the time, Fei Yen. If Suey Wah cannot help me, maybe you would be willing to ask some of the other girls if they have the information I seek.” To Suey Wah I said, “Suey Wah, I seek a little girl like you. I knew her in China for many years and her mother before her, and recently I believe I saw her on a dock in this same city to which you were brought. I fear for her. I fear she has been treated as cruelly as you, only—”
“Only no kind Qing has come to rescue her. Poor girl.” Suey Wah’s eyes, dark and yet bright in the beautiful way of the Chinese, looked at me sadly. “I will help you if I can, Qing,” she reached out one small finger to my cheek, “but why do my words make you weep?”
Why, indeed, I asked myself, and did not try to explain.
When I said Mae Tao’s name, I watched Suey Wah’s face carefully, trying to catch even a glimmer of recognition. “She is small in stature like you,” I continued, still hopeful, “but with a round little face and two rosy cheeks, plump like a pigeon. And she was not shy, Suey Wah, she was a bold, talkative little girl. Full of advice. Very sure of herself. Does she sound familiar to you?” Suey Wah’s forehead wrinkled in concentration.
“At first it was hard for me to remember the trip across the ocean, Qing, but now I see things in my mind more clearly, like the boat and the men on the boat.” Her voice faltered before continuing. “There was a girl among us as you describe. She liked to talk. Oh, she talked a great deal and she was very brave and she said she was going straight back to China as soon as she got off the boat. She said her mother would miss her. But I do not remember her name.” She looked at me in apology. “I am very sorry, Qing. Perhaps her name was Mae Tao, but I cannot say. Somehow the name sounds familiar, but I can’t say for sure. Many girls were on the boat all together and we were not allowed to talk very much. Then, after the two girls died, we became very quiet and spoke only in whispers so the men would not hear us. It was dark where we were kept, too, and after a while we thought only about food and light and being free from the boat.”
“Did a man meet you on the dock when you got off the boat?”
“More than one man. We were separated and each man took some of the girls. The man who took me told us to hold hands and follow him. The brave girl I told you about was with me and I remember that when she tried to look around, he scolded us all. He was very fierce. We held onto each other and he led us to the house of that woman Dow Pai Tai. Oh, she was a very bad woman, Qing. Very bad. She made some of the girls cry.”
“Did you see what happened to any of the other girls, especially the girl who liked to talk? She sounds exactly like the Mae Tao I remember.”
“A man took some of the littlest girls away from Dow Pai Tai. He bought me, too, and then sold me to Wing Chee. I can’t be sure but he may have taken your Mae Tao and he may still have her. He was a turtle man, they said.”
I repeated the phrase, then asked, “What is a turtle man?”
“He led a tong. I heard someone call him a black dragon.” Without thinking, Suey Wah lowered her voice when she said the last words. For her, just the name of the tong held power and menace. “At Wing Chee’s I heard about this tong. Very bad, very bad, Qing. You must stay away from the black dragons. They are fearsome. Even Wing Chee was afraid of them. The look on his face when he said their name was the look of death. You must stay away from that tong!”
I squeezed her hand in assurance. “I will certainly stay away from those bad men, Suey Wah.” I noted the high color in her cheeks and decided she had had enough excitement for one day. Looking
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