Journey Across the Four Seas by Veronica Li Page A

corpses of the homeless littered the streets. It was as if the heavens were mimicking the disaster we humans had created on earth. Life was hard for everyone, and not being a relative, I felt I shouldn’t overstay my welcome.
    The solution arrived in a letter from my brother in Thailand . Since the Japanese takeover, Hong Kong had been cut off from the rest of the world. Services to Macau, however, continued because Portugal had managed to stay out of the war. I was very happy to hear from Brother Kin, even happier to see the enclosed money order for four hundred dollars. I decided to use the money to travel to China .
    Miss Chung was of the same mind, and we agreed to make the trip together. Sam-Koo got me in touch with a friend of hers, a small, wrinkled man who looked like a piece of laundry that had shrunk in hot water. I called him "Eighth Brother," for he was the eighth son of the family with whom Sam-Koo and I had stayed while on holiday in Canton many years ago. He’d escaped to Macau when the Japanese invaded Canton and was now organizing a group to slip across into Free China. Miss Chung and I decided to join him.
    A lorry took about thirty of us to the banks of a river. China lay on the other side. Our guide told us that the strip of land immediately across was bandit country. To guarantee our safe passage, he collected several hundred dollars of "toll" money from each traveler. I was dressed in coolie pajamas, my face smeared with soy sauce. Eighth Brother also taught me some mannerisms to go with the disguise, in addition to a few cusswords to use to insult the other person’s mother. I mustn’t have made a convincing study because I overheard several of my companions discussing me. "She’s got to be a fake," one of them said.
    We were told that we couldn’t cross the river yet. A Japanese gunboat was patrolling the area, and it was known to shoot on sight. We had to wait till the gunboat sailed around the bend. The afternoon passed, but instead of moving away, the Japanese ship dropped anchor. We spent the night, and then another. The lorry driver, who was wasting time and money sitting around, gave us an ultimatum: he was leaving that morning. Either we went back with him or stayed at our own risk.
    While people were debating what to do, I took out my rosary, closed my eyes, and prayed fervently to Mother Mary. Never had I prayed so hard, nor wanted something so much. Barely had I finished my beads when somebody shouted that the gunboat was moving upriver. "Hurry! Hurry!" the driver cried. "You have to cross before the gunboat returns!" We ran down to the rowboats that had been prepared for us. Eighth Brother, who was supposed to be my guardian, put Miss Chung and me in one boat.
    "You women are too slow. I’m going with the men," he told us. You can see what kind of gentleman he was!
    I forgot to mention that Miss Chung was a teacher of physical education at Yeung Jung. She was an athletic person and much stronger than I. You’d think that it was an advantage to be paired with a strong person. Well, I quickly discovered that it wasn’t. The imbalance made the boat go round and round in circles. Others had reached shore already and we were still chasing our tails in the middle of the river. If the gunboat returned, we’d be dead. Miss Chung yelled at me to row faster, but I was already rowing my fastest. Out of desperation, the experience of past boating trips with my brothers came back to me. Whenever I rowed with Ngai, we always counted out a rhythm.
    "One, two, three! One, two three!" I chanted. Our oars began to pull in unison. The boat advanced, albeit in a crooked line. When we finally reached shore, Eighth Brother’s face was black as a thundercloud. "Why are you two so slow? You’re holding everyone up!" he barked at us. Can you imagine such a man!
    From there on, the group dispersed. People were headed for different towns and villages. The destination of my party, consisting of Eighth