King Rat

“I felt no shame from that day on, and a softness filled my life. Only at night the dreams came, dreams all mixed up with starving children—can children be evil?—arms outstretched, clawing, begging for food, always food, and Angus, fat and rosy beside me, outside the fence, and all the starving rapacious child-eyes on him, tearing down the fence to get at him. And then always the fence would be torn down and we would run, Angus and I, with the talons of the children rending at his rosy flesh. Most times, I awoke before the children fell on him, and I heard his screams.

“When Nobu was born, my Colonel said that I would always be in his house. Always. He told me, now that the Japanese had conquered Australia and had already landed on the California coast, that soon the global war would be over. Then we would go to live in California where he was to be a governor.

“Once I asked him why he had picked me and why he had taken me into his house, for such an important man could, like other of the Japanese officers, have brought their wives from Japan to live with them in their new colonies. And he told me simply, that he believed that the Samurai—the elite—of which he was from time beyond history—had responsibilities over and above wives and war and life and death. He said, and his voice always gentle and calm, ‘It is our duty to have children of mixed races and to adopt, as I have adopted your white son to be my son. In the new world, the Samurai will have two families, one pure and one impure—but just as important—for the future peace of the world.’ He smiled his soft smile and continued, ‘How could my sons in Japan war with your son who is white but brought up to speak our language and brought up as pure even as my own son. Angus-san will be half Samurai, he will share my name and prestige. And Nobu, the girl child, she will marry another Samurai and her children will be of the world ruling class under the Samurai who will rule. You and I, Mem, are living, and I hope loving, for the future peace of the world.’

“It seemed a simple and true solution, and I did not want to lose my Colonel, and he promised, ‘you will live in my house in peace, forever.’

“I said once—and only once—that you, my husband, might be alive. He was angry, so very angry, and said that he had told me it would be impossible for you to be alive—hadn’t he gone to considerable trouble to find out? So you Mac, my first husband, are dead, but one day when we are all dead, perhaps I’ll see you again and tell you this story of what happened to your lucky wife.

“Oh yes, really, I am happy now. My Colonel is gentle, and a good man, and your son Angus will grow up to be a fine man and with my Colonel as his guardian, why, who knows to what heights Angus may aspire in the new world. And Nobu, surely she will have a wonderful husband and perhaps when she is old enough, why, perhaps, we can all visit England and I will be able to show her where I was born. My great grandmother was German, so the Colonel feels I will be accepted as Aryan by the Germans who conquered England last year. Another two or three years and the world will be stabilized, Germans ruling the west, the Imperial Japanese ruling the East—Asia, Australia, and America!”

Mem was drifting into thought waves, caught by the tale she told her past. But dear Mac wasn’t there to be told the tale. Abruptly, Angus stirred in his sleep, crying softly. She listened for a moment with all the concentration of a mother, mind critically alert, interpreting the cry. Sickness? Dream? But it was just a child cry and meant no danger, and soon the cries were no longer disturbing her.

It was so nice to sit quiet, drifting. “I’m so lucky,” she said softly, aloud. And the strangeness of the words held her a moment, for she had said them in English, even though she had been thinking in Japanese, for now, she always thought in Japanese.

Then once more the real words, the Japanese words, came back to her and she said aloud, just to make sure that she was truly awake—“Hai, koun desh’ta.”

First light met the blackness of the night far on the horizon. Cool air and the promise of another glorious day. She was half awake, half asleep. She did not hear the Colonel pad softly onto the veranda.

The Colonel watched her happily, his woman, the light of his life, the mother of his children, and his children to be. Gravely he saw she was awake.

“Bad dreams again, Mem?”

“Oh, no thank you. I was just sitting and thinking.” She got up automatically for it was wrong for her to sit while he stood. “I didn’t hear you come out, have you been there long?”

“No. Just a moment. Come along. I do not want you to catch a chill.” His words were gentle and softly chiding.

So Mem allowed herself to be led back into the bedroom and into the gossamer cage and she lay on the bed beside him. He sighed, resting. Now she was ready to sleep, but before she closed her eyes she smiled at him and touched his back, caressing him.