Free Pearl of China by Anchee Min

is a foreign god, who is his patron in China?”
    “I was invited by the Dowager Empress of your country,” Pearl began to speak in Chinese. “I was escorted here by the Imperial Minister-in-Chief Mr. Li Hung chang . . .”
    Before Pearl ended her sentence, Bumpkin Emperor fell down and kowtowed, hitting his forehead on the ground. “Your Majesty, I mean no offense! I . . . I deserve to die three thousand times! Please, forgive me!”
    Again, Pearl closed her eyes.
    “Please don’t leave! Grant me a chance,” Bumpkin Emperor begged. “Your Majesty, I am asking for a last chance!”
    “Release Carpenter Chan and his lady,” Pearl spoke with an imperial tone. “And leave Chin-kiang right away.”
    “Yes, Your Majesty, I shall depart instantly.”
    “Well, let us have no doubt that God sent Pearl to save you,” Absalom said to Carpenter Chan and Lilac. “My daughter is no angel, but she is a good Christian.”
    Later, Pearl told me that she didn’t like what her father said, although she was happy that the trick worked.
    “I am sure your father loves you,” I comforted my friend.
    Pearl shook her head. “To tell you the truth, I am jealous of those whom he baptizes. He offers affection to strangers, to you, NaiNai, your papa, Carpenter Chan, Lilac, and almost everyone in the town. He will never spare affection for his own children. He is always cold with me.”
    “Absalom loves you, Pearl.”
    “I don’t feel it. My mother doesn’t feel his love either. Absalom shuts himself in the study so that he can be with God without any distraction!”
    “Your father is proud of you, or he wouldn’t say that you were a good Christian.”
    “Absalom cares about Chinese people so much that he’s willing to risk his life for them. In the meantime, he believes that they are heathens and he is their superior. He lives to convert people. He even wants a chance with the warlords.”
    “Absalom wants to convert Bumpkin Emperor, General Lobster, and General Crab?” I laughed.
    “Yes, and their fish wives, shrimp siblings, and snail concubines.”
    “That’s impossible!”
    “Oh, yes, God works miracles, hah, hah, hah!”
    “Papa will believe whoever saves his ass.”
    “My father is a nut and your father is a crook.”
    We laughed and put our fathers out of our minds.
    We walked to the outskirts of town, where someone was getting married. We joined the children who had been invited to the wedding to help inspire fertility. We were given nuts and seeds to throw at the new couple. The groom was a young peasant who was already drunk. He meant to thank the guests but instead he threw up. The bride was dressed in a bright-red embroidered costume. Her face was covered with a piece of silk. Pearl and I admired the costume and the bride’s glittering hair ornament. When the band started the wedding song, we joined in.
    Buddha sits on a lotus pad,
Beautiful fingers orchidlike.
Sun goes down and moon comes up,
May your life be peaceful and tranquil.
    Mud walls and straw pillows,
Fruits, seeds, and many sons.
Happiness and longevity,
May you have the spring and all its fair weather.
     

C HAPTER 7
    The Boxer Rebellion hadn’t hit Chin-kiang until the first years of the new century. It had spread like a wildfire. Peasants from inland came wearing red turbans. They believed that foreigners were destroying China. It didn’t occur to me that Pearl and her family were foreigners. Pearl didn’t like Westerners. She had witnessed opium addicts in our town and had criticized the white folks and their opium trade. As far as she was concerned, the Boxers’ fight would have nothing to do with her.
    But times had changed. There had been incidents where foreign missionaries had been murdered in the northern provinces. Carie made sure that Pearl dressed like a Chinese girl and wore her black knitted cap at all times.
    Pearl came to me one day and told me that Carie had been talking about their departure. “Mother said that a