Free A Superior Man by Paul Yee

air and onto the bench. He giggled with delight, but the same brat had fled the store today. “Can you watch him?”
    â€œWe have pencil and paper and stones for woy kee . He can watch himself.”
    â€œPeople play that?” Coolies played chess but never woy kee , which used two bags of pebbles, one for each side. Who needed more deadweight on his back while tramping through snags and swamps?
    The cook came by, hands at a grubby apron, cleaver tucked into a leather belt that gleamed like a strop. I named two dishes and then added a third.
    â€œYes, build your strength for a night of bliss!” Soohoo was peering at the boy. “This one fell into the river?”
    I nodded and reached for a candle in my bag but yelped at the touch of cold flesh. A dog with a wet nose sniffed at our legs. I kicked it hard.
    A man oozing whisky fumes patted the boy’s head with a grimyhand. “A Yin-chin doi eating rice! Didn’t I say that Chinese food is best of all?”
    â€œHe’s no Yin-chin doi .” Soohoo’s voice rose. “He’s jaap jung , Chinese and Native. Call him Best-of-Two!”
    â€œThat’s so, that’s so.” The drunk nodded to excess and poked at the boy’s face. “Be good, Best-of-Two, hear? Listen to your father. Always obey him.”
    When the drunk lurched away, Soohoo asked if Peter had been given a Chinese name.
    Who the hell had time to waste? Choosing a name required thought and study. What did the brat need with another name? Whenever I called him, he ignored me.
    Two men in overalls sauntered up. One removed his hat and dipped his head in respect. “Boss, need some wood chopped?”
    When Soohoo shook his head, the man planted a foot on my bench and pointed. “Too bad the redbeards saved your son. You’d be laughing if he had gone under.”
    â€œI take him to his mother.”
    â€œWon’t anyone else spread her legs for you?”
    â€œShe’s a married woman.” I raised my fist at him. “She has land and a house.”
    â€œCan’t dump the boy now, can you?” The man chortled. “Heaven protects him.”
    The cook shoved him aside and slammed my food onto the table. “We chop meat cake here. Want to add something to the stump?”
    One hand hung over his cleaver. Firewood in his stove popped and crackled. The diners fell quiet as the pair crept away.
    â€œThose monkeys enjoy yanking their own tails,” said the cook.“Are you really taking the boy to his mother?”
    I filled my mouth with rice to avoid talk, wary that this one wanted to impress Soohoo by acting nice to me.
    â€œWhat if the mother doesn’t want him?” the cook asked. “You’ll have wasted time.”
    â€œWon’t matter.” Soohoo spoke for me and gave the worst of answers. “This one, he’s a superior man.”
    â€œSuperior man?” The cook’s bellow of doubt caused his customers to snicker. “Superior men stay in China. They don’t come here!”
    â€œThat railway worm heard wrong,” I said to Soohoo.
    â€œIt’d be quicker to find a needle in the ocean than to track down someone in that wilderness.” The cook smirked. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”
    â€œNo woman turns away from her own son.”
    â€œThere’s trouble up north. Redbeards are angry, looking for work.”
    Soohoo raised his bowl. “ Better to have a beggar mother than a magistrate father , isn’t that what they say?”
    The proverb silenced the cook and sent him scurrying. No doubt he had crossed the ocean in a tight little group, a pot of mice and ants. If one of those men made a move of his own, his friends were sure to scoff. Back home, a fellow in a nearby village decided to take candles and sell them where prices were higher, across mountains and bandit territory. Everyone, even his wife and brothers, called him a fool,