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Everyone stared at me, including Precious Auntie. Tell them, she signaled. But I turned to Mother, nodded, and said, "I heard." Precious Auntie ran out of the ink studio with a choking sound that twisted my heart and made me feel evil.
For a while, it was very quiet in the studio. Then Great-Gra
"He's in the courtyard," Mother answered. And Great-Gra
My uncles' wives began to cluck their tongues. "Still crazy from what happened," Little Aunt muttered, "and that was almost fifteen years ago." For a moment, I did not know if they were talking about Great-Gra
Big Aunt added, "Good thing she can't talk. It would be a terrible embarrassment to our family if anyone knew what she was trying to say."
"You should turn her out of the house," Little Aunt said to Mother. And then Mother nodded toward Great-Gra
A month later, Great-Gra
When Mr. Chang delivered the coffin, Precious Auntie stayed in her room and cursed him with her banging pail. I was sitting on a bench in the front courtyard, watching as Father and Mr. Chang unloaded the cart.
I thought to myself, Precious Auntie is wrong. Mr. Chang didn't look like a thief. He was a large man with friendly ma
Though it was a cold day, Mr. Chang was sweating. He wiped his brow with his sleeve. After a while, he noticed I was staring at him. "You've certainly grown big," he called to me. I blushed. A famous man was talking to me.
"My sister is bigger," I thought to say. "And she's a year younger."
"Ah, that's good," he said.
I had not intended for him to praise GaoLing. "I heard that you had pieces of Peking Man," I then said. "What parts?"
"Oh, only the most important."
And I, too, wanted to seem important, so I blurted without thinking, "I once had some bones myself," before I slapped my hand over my mouth.
Mr. Chang smiled, waiting for me to continue. "Where are they?" he said after a while.
I could not be impolite. "We took them back to the cave," I answered.
"Where's that?"
"I can't say where. My nursemaid made me promise. It's a secret."
"Ah, your nursemaid. She's the one with the ugly face." Mr. Chang stiffened his fingers like a crab and held them over his mouth.
I nodded.
"The crazy person." He looked toward the sounds of the banging pail. I said nothing.
"And she found bones from this place you can't talk about?"
"We found them together, she took them back," I answered quickly. "But I can't say where."
"Of course. You shouldn't tell a stranger."
"Oh, you're not a stranger! Our family knows you very well. We all say so."
"Still, you shouldn't tell me. But surely you've told your own father and mother."
I shook my head. "No one. If I did, they would want to dig them out. Precious Auntie said so. She said the bones have to stay in the cave or she would suffer the consequences."
"What consequences?"
"A curse. She'll die if I say."
"But she is already quite old, is she not?"
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"Often women die at all sorts of ages and it's not because of a curse. Illness or accident, that's often the cause. My first wife died ten years ago. She was always clumsy and one day she fell off a roof. Now I have a new wife and she's even better than the last. If your nursemaid dies, you can get a new one, too."
"I'm too old for another," I said. I did not like our conversation anymore. Soon Father returned with Mr. Chang's money. They chatted a few more minutes in a friendly ma
A few days later, we had a proper funeral for Great-Gra
But she did not, and this was why.
Mother believed Great-Gra
So the paper auto went up in flames, and Great-Gra
And only I worried about what would happen to Precious Auntie.
I remember the day Mother received a surprise letter from Peking. It was the period of Great Heat, when mosquitoes were their happiest and fruit left outside rotted in less than an hour under the sun. Great-Gra
We all knew the letter writer, Old Widow Lau. She was a cousin, within eight degrees of kinship on Father's side and five degrees on Mother's side, close enough to follow the mourning rituals of family. She had come to Great-Gra
Since Mother could not read, she asked GaoLing, and I had to hide my disappointment that she had been chosen for this important task. GaoLing smoothed her hair, cleared her throat, licked her lips, then read: " 'Dear Cousin, I send greetings from all those who have asked after you with deep feeling.'" GaoLing then stumbled through a long list of names, from those of brand-new babies to people Mother was sure were already dead. On the next page, our old cousin wrote something like this: "I know you are still in mourning and barely able to eat because of grief. So it is not a good time to invite everyone to come visit in Peking. But I have been thinking about what you and I discussed when we last saw each other at the funeral."