The Woman Warrior_ Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts - Maxine Hong Kingston [66]
But no, she mustn’t spoil the surprise by giving any hints. She had to get away before he came out into the corridor, perhaps to go to one of the locked rest rooms. As she walked back to her sister, she noted corners and passageways, broom closets, other offices—ambush spots. Her sister could crouch behind a drinking fountain and wait for him to get thirsty. Waylay him.
“I met his second wife,” she said, opening the car door.
“What’s she like?” asked Moon Orchid. “Is she pretty?”
“She’s very pretty and very young; just a girl. She’s his nurse. He’s a doctor like me. What a terrible, faithless man. You’ll have to scold him for years, but first you need to sit up straight. Use my powder. Be as pretty as you can. Otherwise you won’t be able to compete. You do have one advantage, however. Notice he has her be his worker. She is like a servant, so you have room to be the wife. She works at the office; you work at the house. That’s almost as good as having two houses. On the other hand, a man’s real partner is the hardest worker. You couldn’t learn nursing, could you? No, I guess not. It’s almost as difficult as doing laundry. What a petty man he turned out to be, giving up responsibility for a pretty face.” Brave Orchid reached for the door handle. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“To go up there, of course. We’re at his office, and I think we ought to be very direct. There aren’t any trees to hide you, no grass to soften your steps. So, you walk right into his office. You make an announcement to the patients and the fancy nurses. You say, ‘I am the doctor’s wife. I’m going to see my husband.’ Then you step to the inner door and enter. Don’t knock on any doors. Don’t listen if the minor wife talks to you. You walk past her without changing pace. When you see him, you say, ‘Surprise!’ You say, ‘Who is that woman out there? She claims to be your wife.’ That will give him a chance to deny her on the spot.”
“Oh, I’m so scared. I can’t move. I can’t do that in front of all those people—like a stage show. I won’t be able to talk.” And sure enough, her voice was fading into a whisper. She was shivering and small in the corner of the seat.
“So. A new plan, then,” said Brave Orchid, looking at her son, who had his forehead on the steering wheel. “You, she said. “I want you to go up to his office and tell your uncle that there has been an accident out in the street. A woman’s leg has been broken, and she’s crying in pain. He’ll have to come. You bring him to the car.”
“Mother.”
“Mm,” mused Brave Orchid. “Maybe we ought to put your aunt in the middle of the street, and she can lie down with her leg bent under her.” But Moon Orchid kept shaking her head in trembling no’s.
“Why don’t you push her down in the intersection and pour ketchup on her? I’ll run over her a little bit,” said her son.
“Stop being silly,” she said. “You Americans don’t take life seriously.”
“Mother, this is ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous.”
“Go. Do what I tell you,” she said.
“I think your schemes will be useless, Mother.”
“What do you know about Chinese business?” she said. “Do as I say.”
“Don’t let him bring the nurse,” said Moon Orchid.
“Don’t you want to see what she looks like?” asked Brave Orchid. “Then you’ll know what he’s giving up for you.”
“No. No. She’s none of my business. She’s unimportant.”
“Speak in English,” Brave Orchid told her son. “Then he’ll feel he has to come with you.”
She pushed her son out of the car. “I don’t want to do this,” he said.
“You’ll ruin your aunt’s life if you don’t. You can’t understand business begun in China. Just do what I say. Go.”
Slamming the car door behind him, he left.
Moon Orchid was groaning now and holding her stomach. “Straighten