Free Mulberry and Peach by Hualing Nieh Page B

on my chest.’ Lao-shih and I beat on his chest with our fists.
    He suddenly lets go and rolls over to Peach-flower Woman. He stretches up his hands to her, fingers curled like claws and moves closer and closer to her, saying, ‘Now, I am going to settle with you!’
    She laughs, her blouse still unbuttoned, straggling hair on her breasts. ‘What do you want? Take all the money I’ve won?’

    â€˜Me? I want you!’
    She points a finger at him. ‘Let me ask you, are you man enough to deal with me?’
    â€˜If he isn’t, I am,’ chuckles the old man.
    Refugee Student doesn’t say anything. He rips open her blouse and jumps on her, grabs one of her breasts and begins to suck on it. The old man jumps over and grabs her other breast.
    She laughs, her full breasts shaking. ‘Do anything you want with my poor old body. Just don’t take away my baby’s food. My milk is almost gone!’
    The baby on the bunk starts to cry.
    She shoves them aside and goes to pick up the baby.
    â€˜I have an idea. I still have two cigarettes. Be my guest.’ Refugee Student gropes in his pocket and pulls out two cigarettes - The Dog with a Human Head brand - and steps over to Peach-flower Woman.
    She is lying on the bunk nursing her child. Refugee Student lights a cigarette, grabs Peach-flower Woman’s right foot and sticks it between her toes. He presses his face against her sole and smokes, his two hands holding her foot.
    The old man does the same with her left foot.
    She lies flat on her back, her limbs flung out as the child clutches her breast and sucks loudly and the two men hold her feet and suck on the cigarettes.
    She laughs and jerks back and forth. ‘You devils, you’re tickling me. You sex fiends. When you die, you’ll get what’s coming to you.’
    â€˜Listen, listen. The bombers are coming back.’ I hear the droning of aircraft.
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    We sit up stiffly in our bunks.
    The roar comes toward us.
    It’s twilight in the Gorge, the time when day can’t be distinguished from night, or clear dusk from a cloudy day.
    The captain and the crew are in the bow.
    â€˜Hey, the bombers are coming. Come and hide in the cabin. Don’t endanger everybody’s lives!’ shouts the old man.
    No response.
    â€˜Look at that,’ says the captain, ‘three planes in each formation. Nine altogether.’
    â€˜Motherfuckers, those traitors. Only traitors aren’t scared of bombers.’ Refugee Student gnashes his teeth.

    A boat comes downstream. People on board are yelling. Gongs are crashing.
    The bombers are overhead. We sprawl on the bunks. I cover my head with the quilt, the rest of my body exposed.
    The yelling, the gong, the roar of the planes get louder.
    â€˜I can’t hear you,’ the captain is shouting to the people on the other boat, ‘say it again.’
    Shouting, gongs, bombers.
    â€˜The Japanese have surrendered!’ the captain finally yells.
    We rush to the bow. A flame shoots up in the sky, bursting into colourful fireworks. A huge lotus flower opens above the Gorge.
    The airplane sprinkles coloured confetti and flies off down the river.
    The boat, separated from us by the churning rapids, glides downstream to the sound of cheering and gongs.
    â€˜Victory, victory, vic ... tory ... tory ...
    The echoes of their cheers, the confetti swirl around us and disappear into the river.
    â€˜There are thunderheads on those mountains,’ shouts the captain. ‘It’s going to rain. We’ll float away.’
    Dark clouds appear overhead.
    Refugee Student, still dressed as the flower drum girl, snatches up a drumstick and pounds on the drum. The drum is thundering.

PART II

ONE
    Peach’s Second Letter to the Man from the USA Immigration Service
    2 February 1970
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    CHARACTERS
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PEACH, she tells the Immigration Service agent the story of cannibalism among a group of pioneers trapped