Wild Ginger - Anchee Min [38]
Mother was very interested. She copied the woman and twisted her legs from side to side. "I failed a couple of times trying to brew my own bean sprouts." She twisted her shoulders. "I'll try again, keeping your advice in mind."
"It saves you a lot of money if you figure out how to do it. It is the cheapest way to provide protein for your kids."
"Here, attention, everybody," Wild Ginger called. "'Enthusiastically we dance and sing to you, our great helmsman, Chairman Mao.' You must really show your expression! Like this, watch me! Like this, smile!"
Mother showed her teeth and quickened her steps.
"Do you know shortages are coming?" The woman put a hand over her mouth and bent toward Mother. "The government is running out of oil, salt, and matches. My son told me—he works for the national storage department. The warehouses have been emptied to keep the supply line alive to poor countries like Vietnam and Tanzania. We are drained but we can't afford to lose face. Chairman Mao has to look good to the world. But the soil doesn't understand this. It doesn't produce more just because we need it."
Mother shook her head, moving her limbs absent-mindedly.
"It's going to be terrible," the woman went on. "I have been stocking up."
"I have no use for my coupons, because I don't have money. It takes money to spend the coupons, you see, big sister," Mother said worriedly. "It's not that I don't need it. I need it badly. I have six kids. Six bottomless wells to fill. Seven ounces of oil per person per month has never been enough, yet I can't even afford to spend the oil coupons. We eat rice with plain salt, but still—"
"I have a trick for you, big sister..."
"You!" Wild Ginger's patience finally ran out. She pointed at the woman. "You have been talking since you got here. Not only do you show no loyalty to Chairman Mao, you have been distracting others! Would you like to be sent to a mind-brushing school?"
"I'm terribly sorry!" The woman quickly moved away from my mother.
But Mother was not ready to give up the conversation. She was eager to learn the trick about stocking up. She tried to get closer to the woman.
"Attention!" Wild Ginger yelled loudly. "Now we are coming to the end of the dance. We are making a shiplike form. We will have the front with One-Eye Grandpa holding the national flag, the back with all of us holding Mao books, and a 'smokestack' in the middle with a Mao picture held high." She began to make arrangements by moving people around. "Listen, everyone has to fit into the formation."
My mother's friend was placed to be a "frame" of a "Mao picture holder." She and another woman were instructed to bend their knees to form a "ladder."
"We need someone to get up on their knees to hold the Mao picture." Wild Ginger turned to the crowd.
"How about me?" Mother volunteered. She must have seen the possibility of hiding her face behind the picture.
Wild Ginger hesitated.
"I am light," Mother added. "I'd like to show my loyalty toward our great leader by holding his very picture!"
"Are your limbs strong enough?"
"Chairman Mao's teaching will certainly strengthen me."
I was surprised at Mother's quick wit.
"Wonderful, aunt! You've got the job!"
Before Wild Ginger gave the instruction, Mother climbed on the "ladder."
Evergreen came and passed Mother the Mao picture. "Be careful, aunt!" He turned around and told the two women who were holding my mother's legs to keep her still. "Stabilize yourselves first. Let her down once she gets up there."
"No," Wild Ginger corrected him, "the pose has to be held for at least forty seconds so the stage will seem to freeze. That's how we'll make the most powerful impression!"
"You've got the right soldier for the task," Mother yelled.
"Move on." Wild Ginger went to arrange the other parts of the "ship."
"So what's the trick, big sister?" Mother finally resumed the conversation.
With her knees and arms trembling trying to hold my mother, the woman replied as her breath shortened, "Secretly sell your