Dragonfly Dreams Read online

  “Do you think Mei-mei will get well for him?” asked Sun with a smile.

  “I bet she will!” Then a dreadful thought came. “What will Amah say? We don’t have enough food for us. She will never let us keep a pet.”

  “I’ve already thought of that too. I have some bones and meat scraps with me, and I’ll bring more. Now, let’s take the little fellow to meet his caretaker.” Sun shifted the weight of his bag to the other shoulder, and we entered the house.

  Mei-mei was sitting up in bed and grinned when Sun walked in the room. I stayed at the door and held the pup out of sight. Mei-mei obviously recognized Sun this time, but she didn’t say anything. She was still weak and looked pitiful. Her hair was thin and wispy, and when Ma had tried to brush it, most of it had come out in the brush.

  “Well, that’s more like it,” Sun said. “I’m glad to see you smiling. You need to keep getting better now. Do you think you can do that?”

  Mei-mei smiled and nodded. Sun asked her to stick out her tongue. He held it and tugged on it a little to see how it looked and felt. Then he looked at her eyes and pulled down the skin below her eyes. “You look good to me,” he said. Then he asked, “Are you able to take care of something for me?”

  She spoke this time. “Yes, Sun. I’m much better now.”

  “I’m glad to hear it because this one needs you.”

  With that he motioned to me, and I let go, and the Pekinese pranced into the room. Sun picked him up and put him on Mei-mei’s bed. The pup shook with joy as Mei-mei scooped him into her arms and hugged him.

  Amah objected, just as I thought, but Sun spent some time alone with her in the kitchen and it was settled after he promised to bring the food. Even Ma and Da were willing to accept a pet if it meant seeing Sun more often.

  Sun also had something for Ma. He went into the kitchen and soon came back with a bowl of hot dark liquid and handed it to Ma.

  “Whew!” she said when she got a whiff of it. “It smells like something a donkey left behind.”

  Sun laughed. “It’s liver tonic. I’ve been working on it for two days, boiling liver with herbs. It’s good for your eyes and will give you energy too.” He grinned.

  Ma took a sip and scrunched her lips and squeezed her eyes together. “Anything that tastes this bad must be good for me, right? This is the first thing you’ve made that I didn’t just gobble up.”

  Sun stood over her, watching to be sure she kept drinking it. “You have to get your strength back. As soon as you finish the whole bowl, I have some news for you.”

  Ma kept drinking but kept her eyes on Sun.

  Has he heard something about the end of the war? I wondered. Maybe he had seen the airplanes!

  Ma took the last sip and sighed with relief.

  “Now, what’s your news?”

  Sun took the bowl from her and replied, “Nini told me you were teaching English.”

  “Yes, but I had to stop when Mei-mei got sick. And I haven’t had the strength to start again.”

  “Well, you will have another student soon and she will pay handsomely for the service. She speaks English, but she wants to talk like you.”

  Is he talking about Madame Lu? I couldn’t believe he would bring Madame Lu here!

  “But—” I tried to warn Ma.

  Sun went on. “She wants to start right away. What do you think?”

  “You can’t, Ma!” I blurted out. “You can’t bring Madame Lu here.”

  “It’s all right, Nini,” said Sun.

  Da spoke. “If she wanted to cause us harm, Nini, she would have already acted. I think we have to trust Sun.”

  “All right then,” said Ma. “It is agreed—I will teach her. Thank you, Sun. Your news is just the tonic I needed.”

  When I walked with Sun to the door, he stopped and reached into his bag. “Here,” he said. “You left this when you came to see me, but it belongs to you.” He handed me something wrapped in cloth, but I knew what it was.

  Time passed, but Madame Lu didn’t come, not right away. I didn’t realize how much I wanted her to come, for someone to come, something to happen. I was always waiting and wanting. Waiting for Madame Lu to come. Waiting for Zhao Ren to return. Wanting to see Chiyoko. Wanting to hear news that this war would end. I felt restless like Da.

  One night I had a dream. I lay in a lush, green, grassy meadow looking up at a wide blue sky. A dragonfly landed on my forehead, then flew away. Others came, making no sound and not landing anywhere. I reached out to catch one, and they all vanished. Then I caught sight of one in the grass. I sat up and scooped the lone dragonfly in my hands. It was cut open right down the middle and inside was a shimmering jewel, sparkling like the rainbow. I reached for the jewel, and the whole thing disappeared.

  CHAPTER 25

  August 1945

  The sky turned dark in the middle of the day. I was alone on the edge of the field, walking home, when I first heard a whirring in the distance. The sound grew louder and filled the air with a deafening beat. A line of darkness moved across the field as locusts filled the sky. Their brown wings and long legs, the little green eyes, buzzing, diving, were all around me. I swatted and swiped and ducked.

  The locusts descended on the field, and in an instant the noise changed to a quieter, crunching sound. When they lifted again, the field lay bare. Not a blade of grass, not a weed or flower, not a shaft of wild millet remained—only bare, dry stalks stood like dying soldiers in a field of destruction.

  Amazed and terrified, I ran home. Had anyone else witnessed it? Ma opened the door, a solemn and fearful look on her face.

  “Where have you been, Nini? We’ve been looking for you.”

  “What is it?”

  Just then Isabella came flying down the stairs. “Hurry, please. I need you. I don’t think we have much time.”

  I followed Isabella up the stairs, Ma right behind me.

  “Oh, Nini, I’m so glad you’re here. Mother keeps saying your name. I think she wants to give you something.”

  Isabella rushed me to Auntie Boxin’s room. Amah was by the bedside, talking quietly and gently patting down the blankets. Auntie Boxin lay against her pillows the way I had seen her so many times. Isabella took my hand and led me to her bedside. Auntie Boxin’s eyes were shut.

  “Mother, she’s here . . . Nini’s here.”

  Auntie Boxin’s eyes opened, but she didn’t speak. Her hand moved, and Isabella took my hand and moved it toward something Auntie Boxin was holding. I wanted to pull away fearing it was a bloody handkerchief, but I yielded to Isabella. She placed a leather bag in my hand.

  I felt its weight in my palm. I opened the drawstring and saw inside the coins that Auntie Boxin had saved.

  “She wanted to give you something for your kindness to her. I know these coins have no value now, but they were valuable to her, at least in her memory. She wanted you to have them. It’s her way of thanking you.”

  Auntie Boxin lay still. Ma took Auntie Boxin’s hand and felt the pulse, she stood there for a long silent moment, then Ma turned to Isabella and shook her head.

  Isabella fell across the bed and sobbed, “Oh, no. Please wait, Mother. Please wait. What will happen to me? What will I do?”

  Ma took Isabella in her arms and caressed her, while Amah gently folded Auntie Boxin’s arms across her chest. Then she lifted the blanket and tucked it neatly around Auntie Boxin’s shrunken body.

  These coins, these useless coins! I was angry at Auntie Boxin. Why hadn’t she waited a little longer? If she had waited, the war would end, and Dr. Mori would come. I didn’t want her old coins! I felt guilty for being angry, for being gone so long, for hating to read to her, for yelling at her for hoarding flour. She had kept us alive with her rations, even her hoarded, moldy flour. I hated myself for abandoning her. All of it welled up inside of me. I felt sad and angry and guil
ty and afraid. I couldn’t contain so many emotions at once.

  I threw down the bag of coins and ran downstairs. I ran outside and through the gate. I ran across the barren, dry field as far as Amah had taken us the day we killed the snake.

  There on the edge of the marsh, I stopped, panting and gasping for breath. A few green millet shoots poked their way through the dried mud. I grabbed the shoots in my hand and yanked them out of the ground. They disgusted me. I couldn’t stand seeing one beautiful, peaceful, fresh green thing in all this destruction.

  I was distraught and famished at the same time. My hunger took over and I bit and gnawed the ends of the green shoots, chewed and swallowed them in a furious rage. My stomach turned, repulsed by the bitter taste. I choked and gagged. My stomach turned inside out. All my anger and terror turning and knotting inside of me spewed out. I bent over the wasted field and vomited all that had happened to me that day, and all that had happened in those four long years.

  Wiping my mouth, I stood. A dull sound buzzed in my head. I heard the buzzing from beyond the field. I looked up at the sky to the east. The buzzing grew louder.

  In the sunlight, the airplanes were blue and green and silver—beautiful, shimmering and glorious. The planes flew in formation low over my head, their engines roaring.

  I stood there alone, just me in the field on the edge of the marsh, watching the planes with the star on their wings flying overhead. I waved with the millet in my hand, hesitantly at first, then frantically. I dropped the shoots and ran toward home, hope shimmering like a jewel in my heart.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This book is based on the story of the Liu family. When I was just out of college and on my way to Japan to teach English, my Aunt Mary in California told me that her cousin Grace had married “a Chinaman” and moved to China with him years ago. China was closed at the time I learned this, but I set my heart on finding her one day. But, as it turned out, she found me.

  Grace McCallie Divine (1901-1979), went to New York City from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to study music in 1928. There she met and married Liu Fu Chi, “F. C.,” (1904-1955), a Chinese engineer who had just graduated from Cornell University and taken a job at New York’s public works. They had a daughter named Ju-lan, whose nickname was “Nini.” The Depression hit, and Mr. Liu returned to China to work for the water works in Tianjin. Grace and Ju-lan soon followed.

  In 1937, the Japanese invaded mainland China, but the coastal cities had territories, called “concessions,” owned and governed by European nations. The water works was located in the French Concession. Therefore, at first the Lius were shielded from the turmoil of the Japanese invasion. They had two more children, a daughter in 1937 and a son in 1941.

  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops took control of the foreign concessions in China. The remaining Americans and Europeans were rounded up, forced to register as enemy aliens, and removed to internment camps until the end of the war.

  Grace narrowly escaped internment for unknown reasons. She lived in hiding with the family until the war ended in August 1945. Her family back home did not know if Grace was alive until a Marine from Chattanooga, private Giles Brooks, found her, weighing barely eighty-six pounds, and sent word home that she had survived.

  Grace Liu and her family continued to live in China after the war. Her husband died of lung cancer in 1955. Grace Liu taught English at Nankai University where she was arrested during the Cultural Revolution and accused of being a spy and counter revolutionary. After President Nixon and Chairman Mao established diplomatic relations between the two countries, she wrote to her family in Tennessee and returned in 1974 with her son, William. She had lived in China for forty years.

  I had a chance to live with Grace the last year of her life and become very close to her. Her son William worked at UC Berkeley. Grace began to write her memories. With a diagnosis of cancer, her two daughters came from China to help with her care. This is the way I came to know my remarkable Chinese cousins. After Grace died in Berkeley in 1979, her two daughters returned to China where they both had families. William became the director of English language programs for Chinese interpreters at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

  The full story is told in two books: Grace in China: An American Woman Beyond the Great Wall, 1934-1974 (Black Belt Press, 1999) and Grace: An American Woman in China, 1934-74 (Soho Press, 2003) by Eleanor McCallie Cooper and William Liu.

  In Dragonfly Dreams, the family (Chinese father, American mother, and three children) and the historical dates and facts form the structure of the story, like an envelope; but the content of the story, the letter that goes inside the envelope, is fictional.

  PHOTOS

  A photographer in Tianjin, China, captured the two sides of Ju-lan Liu as a child, dressed as an American girl and dressed as a Chinese girl.

  F.C. Liu, holding his daughter Ju–lan, with their amah, Wang nai–nai, in Victoria Park, British Concession, Tianjin, China, 1935.

  Ju-lan in 1942, age 10

  Photo courtesy of Vivian Kwan

  The Liu family, 1945.

  From left: Ju-lan, Ellen, Grace, F.C. holding William. The photo was taken by Pvt. Giles Brooks, US Marine from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who sent word to Grace’s family that she and her family had survived the war.

  Passport picture of Grace McCallie Divine Liu with her three children, Ju-lan, William and Ellen, 1946. It was important for Americans with mixed-race children to be able to claim their children should they need to leave China. Grace never used this passport and did not return to the US until 1974 with her adult son William.

  The three Liu children, William, Ju-lan, and Ellen, after the end of World War II. Ju-lan is holding their dog, Budgie. Photo was taken by US Marine Jimmy Lail from Chattanooga, 1946.

  View of British Concession, Tianjin, China, during the Japanese bombing of the city of Tianjin, 1937. The Japanese did not take over the British Concession until after the bombing of the US Naval fleet in Pearl Harbor in 1941.

  HISTORICAL TIMELINE

  1842First Opium War. Britain defeats China, gains treaty ports, called “concessions,” in key coastal cities in China

  1858Second Opium War. European nations gain greater control of territories in China

  1895First Sino-Japanese War. Shifts power in Asia to Japan, led to Japanese occupation of Korea in 1910

  1900Boxer Rebellion. Anti-foreign rebellion in China was defeated by Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Austria, and the US, forcing China to pay indemnity

  1908 Indemnity Scholars. US returned the remainder of the Boxer indemnity payments ($17 million) as scholarships for Chinese students to study in the US

  1937Japan invades China, takes control of coastal cities, except for the concessions under European control in those cities*

  1939Germany invades Poland Britain and France declare war on Germany

  1940 Tripartite Pact between the Axis Powers: Germany, Italy,and Japan

  1941Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, takes control of European concessions in China

  US declares war on Japan

  Nazi Germany declares war on US

  1942Nazis deported Jews to concentration camps

  Japan deported Westerners in China to internment camps

  1945Germany surrenders May 1945 US burns Tokyo, drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  Japan surrenders August 1945**

  * Britain, France, and other European countries had established territories in China. When Japan occupied China in 1937, Japanese troops did not move into these foreign-held territories, waiting until after the start of war in Europe and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After December 1941, the Europeans remaining in these territories were forced to register and were sent to internment camps until the end of the war.

  **The occupation of China by Imperial Japan required enormous number
s of troops and civilians to support the troops. Dr. Mori is a fictional character who represents one of those civilians.

  AUTHOR’S BIO

  Eleanor McCallie Cooper is drawn by her deep roots in the South to stories that have been hidden or forgotten. She captures her own family stories on the edge of traumatic historical events that portend personal and social turmoil.

  She co-authored, with William Liu, Grace in China: An American Woman Beyond the Great Wall, (Black Belt Press, 1999) and Grace: An American Woman’s Forty Years in China, 1934-74, (republished by Soho Press in 2003). The Chinese translation was published by SDX Joint Publishing Company in 2006.

  Before taking up writing, Eleanor worked for non-profits both in California and Tennessee, addressing community and social issues. She has been a consultant for civic engagement and community-wide visioning. Eleanor earned a doctorate in education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a focus on community learning and leadership.

  Eleanor lived in Japan for two years, taught English at Kinjo University, and was a guide for the US pavilion at the World’s Fair, Expo ’70, in Osaka. Leaving Japan, she traveled around the world by herself. She has traveled extensively in Korea, China, India, and many places in Europe.

  She lived in New York and San Francisco before returning to her home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she now lives with her husband and family.

  STUDY GUIDE

  Questions for classroom or group discussion:

  Why does Nini feel that the foreign girls at school treat her as if she is the foreigner in China?