The Orphan Master's Son_ A Novel - Adam Johnson [102]
It was a tremendous gaffe. The Pubyok just shook their heads. We had just given our subject more information than he’d given us. We dismissed both interns and asked Commander Ga to please continue.
“Were her students transported?” Ga asked. “Had Mongnan outlived them at Prison 33?”
“Please continue,” we requested. “When you’re done, we’ll answer one question.”
Commander Ga took a moment to digest this. Then he nodded and continued. “There was a pond in which the guards raised trout to feed to their families. The fish were counted every morning, and if one went missing, the whole camp would starve. I followed Mongnan to the low wall of the circular pool, where she crouched and reached over to snatch a fish from the black water. It took a couple tries, but she had a net rigged from a hoop of wire, and the fabric wrapped around Mongnan’s hands gave her a good grip. She held a trout behind the pectoral fins—so healthy, so perfectly alive. Pinch it here, just up from the tail, she said. Then massage it here, behind the belly. When you feel the egg pocket, squeeze. Mongnan lifted the fish high and then milked an apricot-colored stream of eggs into her mouth. She tossed the fish back.
“Then it was my turn. Mongnan snatched another fish and showed me the slit that marked it as female. Pinch hard, she cautioned, or you’ll get fish shit. I squeezed the fish, and a shot of eggs sprayed my face, surprisingly warm. Gelatinous, briny, unmistakably alive, I smelled it on my cheeks, then, wiping, licked my palms. With practice, I got the knack. We milked the eggs of a dozen fish, stars crossing the sky as we sat there, stunned.
“Why are you helping me? I asked her.
“I am an old woman, she said. That’s what old women do.
“Yes, but why me?
“Mongnan rubbed her hands in the dirt, to get the smell off. You need it, she said. The winter took ten kilos from you. You don’t have that to give again.
“I’m asking, why do you care?
“Have you heard of Prison Number 9?
“I’ve heard of it.
“It’s their most profitable prison mine—five guards run a prison of fifteen hundred. They just stand at the gate and never go inside. The whole prison is in the mine, there’s no barracks, no kitchen, no infirmary—
“I said I’ve heard of it, I told her. Are you saying we should feel lucky we’re in a nice prison?
“Mongnan stood. I heard there was a fire in Prison 9, she said. The guards wouldn’t open the gates to let the prisoners out, so the smoke killed everyone inside.
“I nodded at the gravity of her story, but said, You’re not answering my question.
“That minister is coming here tomorrow to inspect our mine. Think how his life is going right now. Think how much shit he’s been eating. She grabbed me by the shoulder. You can’t be talking to your hands and feet at self-criticism. You can’t be throwing the guards stupid looks. You’ve got to stop debating the old man in the infirmary.
“Okay, I said.
“And the answer to your question is this: why I’m helping you is none of your business.
“We made our way past the latrine benches and leaped the piers of the gravity sewer. There was a pallet where people who died in the night were stacked, but now it was empty. As we passed it, Mongnan said, My tripod gets to sleep in tomorrow. Still and clear, the night smelled of birch trees, which a detail of old men had been cutting into cane strips. Finally we came to the cistern and the ox that turned its great pump wheel. It had kneeled down on a bed of birch bark, very pungent. When the beast heard Mongnan’s voice, it stood. She turned to me, whispering, The fish eggs, that’s once a year. I can show you where the tadpoles arrive in the streams, and when the trees by the west tower give their sap. There are other such tricks, but you can’t count on them. There are only two constant sources of nourishment in the camp. One I’ll show you later, when things get difficult, for it is quite distasteful. Here is the other.
“She touched the beast on the nose, then patted the black plates between its horns. She fed him a piece of wild ginger—it breathed sharply