Wild Ginger - Anchee Min [25]
It was eight o'clock in the evening. We found Jung sitting on her tricycle sobbing. She had been accused again. She was afraid of losing her job if the mysterious mistake kept repeating itself. Accountant Choo was firm that there had been no fault on his part. Jung's fellow fishermen were upset, but they were unable to prove Jung's innocence.
The baskets filled with seafood were distributed to each booth. The market employees came and began to sort the fish. I was hungry and wanted to go home. But Wild Ginger insisted that I stay. She was spying on Mr. Choo. She moved her stall toward the east corner where she could keep Choo in sight. She pretended that she was sharpening her scissors.
"It looks like he is getting ready to take off." Wild Ginger quickly pulled me to her side. "I want you to follow me, Maple. Keep at a distance but keep me in your sight."
"You're not going to do something dangerous, are you?"
"Of course not," Wild Ginger replied without looking at me. She quickly put down her scissors and closed her stall.
I watched Accountant Choo. He locked his abacus away in a cart and pushed the cart into a storage space next to a booth. Out he came carrying a black plastic bag. He crossed the street and entered a public restroom. After a short while he came out, followed by men with familiar faces. They were the discount seafood seller, the cigarette seller, and the liquor seller. They were pulling up their zippers and looking around at the same time. They walked separately but toward the same direction heading north. I backed a few yards from Wild Ginger and pretended that I was passing by.
The group of men formed a triangle with Accountant Choo at its head. After they passed the neighborhood they began to walk faster. We followed them across a construction site, a waste site, an abandoned plastic-tube factory, and onto the grounds of the cigarette factory, which seemed to be closed for the day. The doorman let the group in after he was thrown a pack of cigarettes.
"They are hitting the factory's storage area." Wild Ginger waved at me. Together we began circling the building. Finally we arrived at the back of the factory where tobacco was heaped high.
"How do you know?" I was watching Accountant Choo and his group disappear behind a wall.
"I have been following them but I have never gotten inside the storage area. I want to see what they are doing. Would you wait here?"
Before I could say anything Wild Ginger was gone. She had climbed the fence and leapt to the other side.
I was nervous. My stomach gnawed at me with fear. The sky was now very dark and Wild Ginger was nowhere to be seen. There was no light. The area looked so desolate that it seemed the perfect place for a crime. Suddenly Wild Ginger reappeared. She ran toward me but didn't cross the fence.
"Let's go," I urged.
"Maple, I want you to notify the police immediately."
"What?"
"They are distributing the money that they have stolen!"
"Are you sure, Wild Ginger?"
"Sure! Go now!"
"What about you?"
"I need to keep an eye on them."
"But—"
"Hurry!" She turned and ran back into the darkness.
I tried to envision what she would do. If they caught her they could murder her right here, easy, I thought.
I left quickly. For a moment I was disoriented, too nervous to recognize directions. Finally I managed to get