The Garlic Ballads

“Pick her up off the floor!” the jailer commanded.

Fourth Aunt’s cellmates did as they were told, quickly if not very efficiently. Then the jailer called for the camp doctor, who gave Fourth Aunt an injection. Her mouth twitched, and murky tears spilled out of her eyes as the doctor bandaged a cut on her head. Right after breakfast, the jailer said, “You can take the day off, Number Thirty-eight.”

Fourth Aunt was speechless with gratitude.

After the other inmates had formed ranks in the compound and marched into the fields to begin the day’s labors, a hush fell over the cellblock, amplifying the sound of huge rats scurrying about the prison yard and chasing hungry sparrows away from food crumbs in the dirt. Some of the birds took refuge on the window ledge, where they cocked their heads and fixed their black, beady eyes on Fourth Aunt. All alone, and overcome by sadness, she wept; then, once the need to cry had passed, she murmured, “It’s time to join you, Husband.

She removed her trousers, slipped the waistband around the metal frame of the bunk above her and rehooked the top button. Another sob, a final thought — Husband, I cant take any more of this — before slipping the loop of trouser cloth over her head and falling forward….

But Fourth Aunt did not die, not then. She was saved by a passing jailer, who, with a resounding slap across the face, cursed, “What the hell were you thinking, you old skunk?”

With a loud wail, Fourth Aunt fell to her knees. “Be a good girl and let me die, please.

The jailer hesitated for a moment, her face transformed by a gende femininity, and as she helped Fourth Aunt to her feet she said softly, “Old Mother, don’t tell a soul what happened here today. It’ll be our secret. If you’ll stop carrying on all the time and work at being a model prisoner, I’ll try to get you released early.”

This time, as Fourth Aunt fell to her knees again, the jailer stopped her. “You’re a good girl,” Fourth Aunt said. “But someone has to pay for the death of my husband.”

“Now stop saying things like that,” the jailer counseled. “Leading a mob to destroy government offices is a serious crime.”

“I lost my head. I promise I will never do it again….”

A month later, Fourth Aunt was released for medical treatment, and not long afterwards she was back in her own home.

3.

New Year’s Day, 1988, was a holiday for the several hundred inmates in the labor-reform camp. Some observed it by sleeping in, others wrote letters home, and still others packed the yard outside the dayroom window to watch a variety show on a black-and-white TV set.

Gao Ma and Gao Yang sat on a large marble slab in the yard, stripped to the waist as they deloused their jackets. Sunbeams warming the dirt around them fell on their tanned skin. Here and there other small groups of prisoners sat in the sun conversing in hushed voices. Armed guards manned the towers beyond the inner gate, keeping a wary eye on the men below. The main gate, covered with steel mesh, was securely locked. Some camp officers were giving the inmates haircuts, bantering lightheartedly.

Gigantic rats scurried in and out of the open-air latrine. In the area between the two gates, a large black cat had been treed by a swarm of rodents.

“When the rats get this big, even cats stay out of their way,’* Gao Yang remarked.

Gao Ma smiled.

“I told my wife to bring you a pair of shoes after the first of the year,” Gao Yang said.

“Dont go to all that trouble on my account,” Gao Ma said, obviously touched. “She has her hands full with the two children. A bachelor like me doesnt need much.”

“Bear up, Cousin, and make it through the coming year the best you can. Then when you get out, find yourself a wife and settle down.”

Gao Ma smiled wanly but said nothing.

“You re a veteran, after all,” Gao Yang went on. “The camp leaders have their eye on you. I know you can get an early release if you do what you’re told. You could be out of here before me.”

“Early or late, what difference does it make?” Gao Ma replied. “What I’d rather do is serve your time for you, so you could go home and provide for your family again.”

“Cousin,” Gao Yang said, “we were fated to have bad luck. For men to suffer like this is no big deal, but think of poor Fourth Aunt….”

Anxiously, Gao Ma asked, “Didn’t they release her for medical reasons?”

Suddenly hesitant, Gao Yang said, “My wife said not to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” Gao Ma demanded anxiously, grabbing Gao Yang’s hand.

Gao Yang sighed. “She was your mother-in-law, after all, so it wouldn’t be right to keep it from you.”

“Tell me, Cousin. Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“Remember when my wife visited me?” Gao Yang said. “That’s when she told me.”

“Told you what?”

“The Fang brothers are no-good bastards. They don’t deserve to be called human!”

Gao Ma’s patience was wearing thin. “Cousin Gao Yang, it’s time to pour the beans out of the basket. Get it ail out. You’re driving me crazy the way you ramble.”