The Headmaster's Wager Read online

  Before departing, Chen Kai paid his son’s school fees for the next year. He had noticed that his son liked eggs, and promised to leave enough money that the boy could eat an egg every day.

  “Must you leave again, Father?” Chen Pie Sou asked.

  “I must go back to earn money. For your eggs.”

  “But I don’t need so many eggs. And you have bought two li already. We are wealthy landlords now.”

  “You think so because you’ve never seen wealth, real wealth.” He tousled Chen Pie Sou’s hair. “Son, amongst the Annamese it is so easy to make money. We Chinese are smarter than they are and can get rich from them. It would be foolish for me to stay in Shantou.”

  “But when you have enough, you will come back.”

  “Yes, yes, I will, but … I don’t have enough just yet.”

  “How much is enough?”

  In his father, Chen Pie Sou now sensed a hunger for something that he could not understand. Perhaps his father could not express it. When he had first left Shantou in 1930, Chen Kai had been desperate to find a way to feed his family. He had been agitated by a need that Chen Pie Sou knew in the gnawing feeling in his belly each morning, in the careful rice portions and small pieces of bony meat that they sometimes ate. Now there was enough money to eat eggs every day, but his father wanted something more. Chen Kai had an empty space that needed to be filled, but Chen Pie Sou could not understand what must be obtained to satisfy that void and bring his father home.

  “I’ll know when I have it. Then I will return to China for good.”

  Now, staring at the ceiling beams of Chen Hap Sing, Percival remembered Dai Jai as a small boy. Percival had often sat at his son’s side at bedtime. Even after Dai Jai no longer needed someone to be at his bedside, Percival would sometimes sit listening for Dai Jai’s breathing to slow. After the breaths became deep and measured, the boy’s limbs would shift. Arms and legs relaxed into sleep, the alertness of day drained out of them. On some nights, particularly if he and Cecilia were not talking, Percival would then go out to fill his eyes with light, his hands with money, his lap with a girl. He consumed all of these voraciously, because they promised to fill a void. But then after these fleeting ecstasies, he emerged more empty.

  It occurred to him that he could get out of bed, go find a game and a girl. This thought came like a sign on a road, to a place that he had no wish to visit just now. All of those distractions which had been so enticing in their moment felt like nothing, not even their promise of satisfaction could be summoned. If only he could sit at Dai Jai’s bedside, watching him fall asleep.

  PERCIVAL OBTAINED ADVANCES ON TUITION FOR the next semester. He went to money-lending circles, took as many shares as he could, and then used this cash to buy gold. His monthly repayments would be huge, but he would worry about that later. The Peugeot went to a garage as guarantee on a loan. Percival visited the Teochow Clan Association treasurer and was able to borrow two hundred and fifty taels, though only by signing a promissory note on Chen Hap Sing. This was a worry, for the head of the association had always admired the old trade house. Even with Percival and Cecilia’s combined efforts, it was not easy to find so much gold on short notice. His nightmares—of Dai Jai’s splitting skull, or of falling towards the Gold Mountain—woke him nightly in a panic. Daytime was the painful daze of sleep deprivation, as he desperately traded everything, anything, for more gold.

  Three weeks after the meeting in the shack, and over a month following the arrest, Percival obtained the last few taels one evening by pawning his Tissot wristwatch. He called Mak. He had accumulated five hundred and ninety taels. He phoned Cecilia, who he knew had raised four hundred and ten, and went to her house. She had her portion wrapped in two cloth bundles. She handed them to Percival. “I’m counting on you to get our son back.”

  “I’ve sent word to Mak, to arrange a meeting.”

  Cecilia embraced Percival, but when he put his arms around her, she pushed him away, tears in her eyes. “Go.”

  The next morning, Percival ate his breakfast on the balcony. Below, on the pink stone steps of St. Francis Xavier, the Catholic priests and Buddhist monks chatted amiably. Percival wondered if he should donate to the church. He had already given especially generous alms to the local temple and lit one of the gigantic incense coils in prayer for Dai Jai. Percival had never been interested in the white man’s faith, but perhaps he should give the church something, just in case it might help. He ate without tasting. Foong Jie was putting a sliced boiled egg in his noodles every morning. She must have noticed how little he was eating. He picked at the egg. He stared at Dai Jai’s vacant chair. Foong Jie had tried to put it away when Dai Jai was arrested, but Percival stopped her from tempting such bad luck. Each morning, he willed himself to sit across from the empty chair. Mak arrived early, well before the start of classes. The fortune in gold sat on the table, two briefcases, two cloth bundles. Percival did not dare let them out of his sight. Mak glanced at the hoard, sat down, and said, “The meeting is today. In the same place.”

  “In the countryside? How will I get there?”

  “I’ve borrowed a car for you—Chief Mei’s. It has a police plate, so they won’t search it at checkpoints. Safer for the ransom. I told Mei it was the least he could do for you.”

  “You think of everything, friend.”

  “Get that gold off your hands,” said Mak. “All of Cholon knows what you have here.”

  Percival pulled the small pistol out of his pocket and checked the two rounds.

  Mak said, “Hou jeung, leave it with me.”

  “I have to be sure to get Dai Jai.”

  “You will. That won’t help you.” When Percival did not reply, Mak said, “Just do as he says. He could easily turn the gun on you, old friend. Have you ever shot one?”

  “No,” said Percival, searching Mak’s face. He wanted to ask, Who is he? Why do you trust him?

  Mak realized the question in Percival’s eyes. He said, “A friend of a friend.”

  Percival opened one of the cases. He looked at the gold, the smaller leaves tied together in ten-tael bundles, the bars glistening and cold, a fortune in metal, about seven and a half million piastres’ worth, most of it borrowed. He was trusting Mak with this, and more importantly with Dai Jai’s return. “You are sure that he will give me Dai Jai?”

  “Have I ever led you wrong?”

  Percival closed the case, clasped it shut. To pay for its contents, he would have to return more than he had borrowed. That was the nature of debt. These were sums that his own father could only have dreamed about when he left China. It did not matter, as long as Dai Jai was safe.

  “Mak, will you take a few thousand piastres to the church for me? I’ll pay you back.”

  “But you’re not religious. Don’t worry, you’ll be safe at the meeting.”

  “It’s not my safety I’m thinking about.” He handed his friend the gun.

  After breakfast, with the gold in the spare tire well of Mei’s Citroën DS with police plates, Percival set off and drove northeast out of the city. He nodded to the soldiers, only slowing at the checkpoints, which is what a district police chief would have done. They saluted. When he arrived at the bamboo grove, he turned from the main road, drove past the graveyard, walked through the bamboo to the concrete shack, and found that the door was already open.

  He called out, “Dai Jai?”

  A voice, not his son’s. “Come into the centre of the room.” It was the same man as before.

  He went in. He hesitated, his eyes slow to adapt to the dark.

  “Please walk forward, Headmaster Chen. Where is the gold?”

  “Where is my son? ”

  “This is not your school. I ask. You answer. The gold?”

  “In the car.”

  “The keys.”

  “I want to see my son.”

  “Do you suppose, Chinaman, that you are in a position to make demands? Walk forward three paces,” said the man.

&n
bsp; His orders had military precision, thought Percival. He still could not make out a face. It figured that the ransomer was a soldier, for how else could he get to Dai Jai? All of the South Vietnamese Army could be bought, thought Percival scornfully, gratefully. Percival walked into the middle of the room, his feet nervous on the uneven ground. Emerging from darkness, the bench, the oil drums, the stocky figure. Where was his son? There was only one silhouette.

  “Put down the car keys.”

  “I want my son first.” Percival heard his voice rise.

  Quick footsteps, and then from behind an arm curled like a snake around his neck. Cold metal pressed into Percival’s ear, a metallic click. The arm tightened, choked.

  “Let’s not complicate this,” said the man, squeezing. “Where in the car is the gold?”

  “Under the spare tire.” Lightheaded, almost fainting, Percival felt the keys snatched from his hand.

  “You Chinese always find money. Just like rats find garbage. Sit down on the ground.”

  He half-fell down. “Where is Dai Jai?”

  “Put your hands on your head.” The man backed away from him towards the door.

  “I have brought you the gold.” Percival could not keep himself from pleading. “Where is my son?”

  “Go home.” He stood at the door, blotting out the light. “My advice is that the best thing for you is to go home.”

  There was a clang of metal. The door slammed shut, and then darkness. Percival was alone. He heard the man doing something to the door, and then a rustle in the grass going away from the shack. He rushed to the door. He pushed on it, but it did not open. It was blocked from the outside. Booby trapped? He pounded it with his fists. But even if it was wired with a grenade, why should he care, if he did not recover Dai Jai? Percival took a few steps back and ran into the door with all his weight. It shifted a little. He felt a cold sweat, furious with himself. He had been cheated of a fortune and did not have his son.

  He cursed in the Teochow dialect, then in Cantonese. He struck the corrugated metal with his shoulder, and heard a slight crack, felt a little give. From farther back, he ran at the door again. There was the sound of wood splintering, and the door opened enough to allow a crack of light. He backed away, ran at it once more and struck it with his other shoulder. Again and again, each time rewarded by the sound of wood splitting, until something snapped and the door sighed open. It had been blocked from the outside by a rod of green bamboo hung on hooks.

  Through the leaves of the grove, the Citroën shone white hot. He stumbled towards it, batting away the heavy growth. The trunk was open, the spare on the ground. Only now, his limbs ached with the effort of his escape. Percival felt empty. His hands bled. Then, as he saw the car better through the shafts of bamboo, he noticed that the passenger-side rear door was ajar. He heard a plaintive sound, a muffled voice, and ran towards the car, ignoring the sharp leaves which drew quick lines of blood on his forearms. He shouted, “I’m coming!” Dai Jai was on the floor, blindfolded and bound. “You are here!” Percival rushed to pull his son up and helped him sit on the back seat. Dai Jai was dirty, and he stank. Percival fumbled to pull off the blindfold. Dai Jai’s right eye was swollen shut, a shining dark egg of bruised eyelid. His head was shaved, but not split open. He wore the same school clothes in which he had been arrested, now stained with blood and torn into rags. There were bruises on his arms and body, some older and some fresh. As he had years ago on the beach, Percival embraced his son with relief and happiness at having him back. He seized him in his arms, pressed his face to the boy’s stubbled scalp. The hard lump of gold was at his neck. Percival whispered his thanks to the ancestors’ spirits, to Chen Kai’s ghost.

  “I’m so happy, son. I thought you were …” He must not say it. He thanked the ancestors’ spirits again, for he had feared that he would next see his son in their world. The strength of his fear now transformed itself into joy. “I didn’t know when I would see you again. You are safe now, I will keep you safe.”

  “Oh, no,” said Dai Jai. “They arrested you, too, ba?”

  “No, I have ransomed you.”

  “I don’t understand.” Dai Jai looked around wildly.

  “I’ve bought your freedom.”

  “Then I am not going to be shot? Where are we?”

  Percival clawed at the cords on Dai Jai’s hands. They were loosely tied, easy to unwind, not meant to hold him for long. “We are near the rubber plantations, outside of Bien Hoa.”

  “Where is the guard?”

  “We are alone. We are halfway to Cap St. Jacques,” said Percival, smiling through his own wet eyes. He said hopefully, “Should we go there? Should we go and have your favourite, sea emperor’s soup?”

  Dai Jai stared at his father with his left eye as if he were a stranger. Then he began to shake. “They said they would kill me today. They took me from the cell, yelling, hitting, and said it was my turn to die.” Dai Jai cried, tears flowing freely from his left eye and welling out from between the swollen lids of his right.

  Percival embraced the boy again, held his shoulders. “It was just to scare the other prisoners.” If only they were with their own people, in China, none of this would have happened. Here in Vietnam, they were vulnerable, made to suffer and then to pay for relief from it. “It was an act for the other prisoners. To make it look like you were being killed, not freed. You are safe. Your father is here. I paid a huge ransom.” He would have paid any sum.

  Dai Jai looked around, crazed. “We are in a graveyard, Father. We are two ghosts in our graveyard. They said I would die today.”

  “No, don’t say that, it’s bad luck,” he whispered, shushing the boy as if someone might hear. For an instant, his own joy swung back to terror. Then he calmed himself and said to the boy, “I think you are hungry, yes, so hungry that you can’t think clearly. No one is dead. There are no ghosts here. You will feel better after eating and resting. It will be as if you were never arrested.” If only they could go back, to a favourite soup, a villa near the sea.

  After a moment, Dai Jai said, “Yes, of course, Father. Eating and resting. You’re right.” He nodded mechanically, obediently.

  Percival helped his son lie down in the back of the car, settling him in a way that was least painful for his wounds. He began the drive back to Saigon. Soon, Dai Jai fell asleep. Percival saw the wisdom of this car. The soldiers saluted him at checkpoints, and he drove through. Even if he had been stopped, they wouldn’t think twice about a beaten prisoner in the back of a police chief’s car. He would bring a doctor and make sure that Dai Jai received the very best care. He would have Foong Jie pamper the boy and nurse him around the clock. Once Dai Jai regained his strength, and once his scars faded, Percival assured himself, it would be as if none of this had ever happened.

  CHAPTER 8

  THE NEXT MORNING, PERCIVAL SENT Foong Jie to fetch Dr. Hua, the most expensive doctor in Cholon. He arrived in a short-sleeved shirt of fine white cotton, open at the neck, pressed white trousers, and excellent sturdy brown shoes in the fashion of an old French plantation manager. He carried his heavy leather bag and stopped short in the doorway when he saw Dai Jai’s condition.

  “Do everything you can to mend him,” said Percival to the doctor.

  The doctor looked skeptically at the boy’s bruised face. “Yes, hou jeung, I shall do the very best.” He extracted a starched white lab coat from his bag, pulled it on with a flourish, and buttoned it up the front. He pried open Dai Jai’s swollen right eyelid, shone a flashlight into the bloodshot membranes, and made a clucking sound with his tongue. The physician opened Dai Jai’s shirt, prodded here and there with his stethoscope, and flitted over the boy’s abdomen with his hands. He pulled Dai Jai up from his bed into a seated position, seemed not to notice the boy’s gasp of pain, and continued his examination. Finally, he held his stethoscope in his hand and proclaimed that beneath Dai Jai’s bruised face, the eyes and brain were intact. He said that the boy’s nose had been broke
n but was straight, that several ribs were fractured but the lungs beneath were breathing, and that the three teeth which had been knocked out would never give him cavities. He alone laughed at this joke. Foong Jie glared at the doctor as she gently helped Dai Jai to settle back into bed.

  The Cholon-born, Paris-trained, Chinese doctor recommended an American medication that he had conveniently available for sale in his bag. He wrote a prescription in Chinese for a herbal infusion, and requested payment in American dollars.

  “I will have it sent to you tomorrow,” said Percival.

  “I’m so sorry to be a bother,” the doctor bowed, “ah … I have obligations that I must pay today. Might I impose upon you to settle up now? ”

  Percival felt his face redden. His credit was no longer any good. In Cholon, it was impossible either to gain wealth or owe it without it being widely known. Perhaps his stature remained—the doctor was at least being polite. Percival went to his room, retrieved his last few American dollars, and brought them to pay the bill. As the doctor was leaving, Percival looked at the American medication. He wanted to call down the hallway, And he will be as he was before?

  As if he had heard Percival’s thoughts, the doctor turned and bowed. “Hou jeung, time never reverses itself, but he will heal if you allow him to.” At the top of the stairs, the doctor was nearly knocked over by Cecilia rushing up. She stopped for a moment and put her arms around Percival, then, as if she did not want to be caught doing this, she let go of him and hurried into Dai Jai’s room.

  Percival stood alone in the hallway. From the doorway, he saw Cecilia leaning over their son, holding him silently, stroking his forehead. Dai Jai’s tears flowed freely, and he clung to his mother, who reassured him with a steady, calm voice. She must have hurried over as soon as Percival had called to say that Dai Jai was home. Her hair was hastily tied back, and there were dark circles under her eyes, which she must have carefully hidden with powder for their recent meetings at the Cercle Sportif. She, too, had been losing sleep during their son’s absence, Percival realized. He felt as sheepish and unsure of himself as when he had once admired Cecilia from afar at the Christmas dance on Queens Road. Without makeup, her naked face betrayed its creases and lines of worry, the years and troubles that had passed. They had been Dai Jai’s age when they met, and not much older when they married.