Hour of the Rat

CHAPTER NINE

SO IT IS THAT Mom, Andy, and me end up the next day at the Yangshuo Ancient Village Artist Retreat Inn.

I pitched it to them like this: “How would you guys feel about moving to a place that’s more out in the country? It’s, like, this converted farmhouse. In the middle of some rice paddies and… stuff.”

“Like where we were today?” my mom asked Andy. “With that big banyan tree?”

Andy seemed to consider. Then he nodded slowly. “The countryside is much more peaceful.”

A Yangshuo taxi takes us there, after the driver has sworn that he knows the place and still gets lost a few times, bumping over axle-busting dirt roads where the ruts are almost as jagged as the crazy mountains surrounding us. We go through what definitely looks like an old village: blond and grey bricks, tiled roofs in various stages of collapse, a few open-air stalls selling bottled drinks and snacks, a “farmers’ restaurant” advertising beer fish, a ragged basketball hoop where a couple of would-be Yao Mings practice their jump shots. For a while we get stuck behind a farm tractor called a “mosquito” whose engine sounds like a banging hammer on a sheet of tin, until at last it turns off into a rice-paddy path and we continue on.

“Women daole!” the cabbie says proudly. We’ve arrived.

If this is the Ancient Village, I figure we’re in the suburbs. There’s a tumbledown clump of houses, scattered clotheslines, a woman leading some kind of cow-or an ox, or a water buffalo, like I know the difference-and a baby one of the same variety down the rutted path, copper bells around their necks. Beyond that, rice paddies, surrounded by magician’s-hat mountains.

Our cab pulls in to a gravel drive, leading to a complex that might have been a rich peasant’s farm once. Maybe even a landlord’s.

Several buildings look like they’ve been restored: a central hall with a Qing-dynasty roof that has the swooping angles of a fishhook, flanked by plain lower wings. Mountain bikes lean up against a railing and a big tree in a courtyard out front. A half dozen Westerners wearing yoga pants hold wooden staffs and do some mutant tai chi routine there. Another group cluster around a potter’s wheel. Several more sit at a rustic wooden table with ink brushes, watching a Chinese dude with chin whiskers and long straight hair demonstrate how to draw bamboo. I swear I spot some tie-dye.

“Oh, how cute!” my mom says.

I’m ready to slit my wrists, and we haven’t even checked in yet.

“WELCOME TO YANGSHUO ANCIENT Village Artist Retreat Inn.”

The person behind the minimal counter is a young Chinese woman-I’d say girl, but she’s probably older than she looks. Her name is Heather, according to her name tag, and when I go up to check my mom and me in, she’s texting someone on her cell.

“If you want to rent bicycles, go on Yulong River for rafting, take painting class, study Chinese cooking, all other activities, I can arrange for you,” she says after handing me back our passports.

“Great. Thanks.”

What I really want to do is pull out my photo of Jason and talk to her about it, but I figure I’d better get Mom and Andy settled weaving baskets or whatever before I start playing Nancy Drew.

The wings are mostly two stories high, built of yellow brick, curved charcoal roof tiles, and old wooden doors and windows. We’re on the second floor, in two rooms. They’re both pretty big, with double beds and, in one, an extra twin.

“Look,” I say to my mom, “if you want to share a room with Andy, I mean, that’s fine.”

My mom blushes a little. “I don’t know if we’re really at that point yet.”

Great. The one time I want her to sleep with some weirdo and she’s getting all Purity Ring on me.

SO AFTER LUNCH AT the local “farmers’ restaurant” (including beer fish, because Andy’s on a mission to find the best beer fish in Greater Yangshuo), Mom and Andy decide they want to try the mutant tai chi class. “Wow, great,” I say. “You guys go ahead. I’m going to just hang out for a while.”

What I do is, I go up to the front desk. Heather sits behind the counter, going over receipts.

“Is Alice around?”

“She comes later today.”

“Oh.” Thinking, Okay, on to this Russell guy, then.

“I can help you, though. You want to maybe take river raft?”

“Actually, I’m looking for a guy named Russell. He’s… he’s the friend of a friend of mine.”

“Hmmm. A foreigner? Maybe British?”

“Sure. Yeah.”

“I think he is working on art space today.”

“Great! So where is that?”

Turns out the art space, whatever that is, is a couple rice paddies and a mountain over from the Ancient Village Artist Retreat. “Can I walk there?” I ask.

“Sure! Maybe take you a little while.”

“How long?”

“Maybe… three-quarters hour?”

What I end up doing is renting a mountain bike.

It takes me a while to get the hang of it-I haven’t ridden a bike for fun in years. Lately it’s all been about PT, strengthening the fucked-up leg, and my one leg is still way weaker than the other, and it doesn’t take long for it to start hurting. But I keep riding, on rutted dirt paths that run along rice paddies tucked among the hills, and I can almost forget the pain, part of the time. It’s so beautiful out here that it comes over me like a rush-the crazy mountains, the deep blue sky, the air that smells like… well, air, instead of exhaust and chemicals.

I pedal down the dirt road that winds among the fields, through another tiny village, following the directions the girl gave me. It’s cool out but I’m sweating like crazy. The path turns abruptly to the right, through a narrow pass, the mountains rising on either side of me, and it’s so quiet, I think, this can’t be China. No one out here but me and the wind.

I come out the other side to more fields, pedal a little further, past a cluster of ramshackle farm buildings, and then I see it.

If this isn’t the art space, then I don’t know bad contemporary art. Or, I’ve entered some weird parallel-universe China where it’s normal to see a huge deconstructed farmhouse surrounded by some crazy Zen garden with giant sculptures made out of crushed soda cans out in the middle of a rice paddy.

The house itself looks like pictures I’ve seen of traditional wooden buildings in southern China, except it’s like the whole thing was taken apart and buffed and polished and put back together again. It’s as big as a barn, with a steep shingled roof, a carved door and window frames. There are a few Chinese workers carrying buckets of stones and two-by-fours, a young European woman sitting on the stoop wearing a gauzy scarf and, I swear, a beret, smoking a cigarette. Maybe she’s supervising.

I pedal up to the zigzag wooden walkway, which is framed by smooth stones, and get off the bike. And practically fall over, my leg spasms so bad. I lean my bike against a tree and limp up the path. I wish I had a Percocet. Or at least a beer.

The bottom floor of the house is open in the middle. Maybe it was originally a barn. I hear hammering, an electric drill.

“Ni hao,” I say to the European woman.

Her eyes drift up in my direction, like it’s almost too much effort to raise her head.

“I’m looking for Russell,” I say in English.

“Inside.” She indicates with a languid wave of her cigarette.

All righty, then.

Inside, it’s light and airy and smells like sawdust. The walls and floors are mostly blond wood, with one end framed in painted white wallboard. An exhibition space, I figure. On the other end, one of the Chinese guys is working on a wooden staircase to the second floor. And back in the corner, there’s a slight white guy crouched by a workbench, bolting some piece of electronic equipment onto a shelf built into the wall. He straightens up, retrieves an electric drill from the workbench.

Interesting thing about Russell. He’s limping. As I hobble closer, I see that he has a bandage wrapped around his right hand.

“Hey, Russell,” I say. “Can I talk to you a sec?”

He looks up. He’s got sandy brown hair, already receding, a bony face, a prominent Adam’s apple. Which bobbles up and down as he gets a look at me.

He doesn’t say a word. He drops the drill and bolts, pushes past me and heads for the exit.

I don’t say anything either. I take off after him.

Okay, I’m pretty stupid. Here’s a guy I’m reasonably sure attacked me, I don’t have any weapons, and it’s not like I’m some kind of action hero.

On the other hand, he’s freaked out enough by me to run, which feels oddly cool.

I get to the double doors, see him fleeing back the way I came. “Hey!” I call out. “Hey, I just want-”

He keeps running.

I head for my bike, passing the European woman, who hasn’t moved and doesn’t bother to. Just sits there, smoking her cigarette.

“Nice meeting you, too,” I mutter. I haul my sore ass up onto the bike seat and start pedaling.

Russell has a pretty good head start on me, and I’m not that fast on a bike. But he has bruised balls and a bad foot, and maybe he’s one of those Westerners who come to China and think it’s so cool that you can smoke anywhere you feel like it, because he’s in crappy shape and it doesn’t take long for him to tire. We’re on the path going through the pass that leads back to the Ancient Village, and if he had any sense, he’d run off the road, because even with a mountain bike I’m not going to be able to follow him if he hoofs it up the hill. But he’s not thinking clearly, I guess, because he just runs on the path like it’s a train track and he can’t get off it.

When I’m almost on top of him, we pull a hard left out of the pass and into the next patch of rice paddies and farms, and all of a sudden there’s this peasant girl wearing a T-shirt that says TOO SEXY! outlined in rhinestones, driving two of those cow/water-buffalo things, a gigantic one and a half-grown version. And the baby one sees the two of us hauling ass in its direction and just loses its shit and charges at us.

“Fuck!” I yell, swerving around it, barely keeping my balance.

Russell isn’t so lucky. I think my front wheel clips his heel, but even if it doesn’t, he’s already windmilling his arms, stumbling forward as though he’s going to take off into the air like some awkward fledgling bird.

Instead he does a header off the path, crying out in a shriek of pain as he lands hard in the ditch.

I hop off my bike, letting it fall on the side of the road.

“Oh, sorry!” the girl says, her hand to her mouth. “So sorry!”

“Not your fault,” I say in Chinese.

Russell rolls over onto his back, pulls one leg to his chest, moaning.

“Can I help?” the girl asks, whipping out what I’m pretty sure is a shanzhai iPhone, a counterfeit.

“Mei wenti,” I assure her. “Your xiaoniu is running away.”

“Aiya!” And she hustles down the path, trying to catch up to her calf.

Meanwhile the big cow stands in the middle of the road staring at me with its placid brown eyes.

“Hey,” I say to Russell, who still lies flat on his back, pressing his thigh into his chest. “You okay?”

“What the fuck do you care?” he says between clenched teeth.

“Hello? You’re the one who attacked me. What the fuck’s your problem anyway?”

I scoot down into the ditch next to him. He backs up to get away from me, his shoulders pushing into the dirt and gravel. But aside from whatever’s going on with his leg, he’s holding his left arm against his chest, like he’s splinting it, and as I get closer, I see that his wrist has already started to swell.

“Get the fuck away from me!”

“Fine.” I shrug. “You wanna lie in the ditch with the cow, go for it. Seriously, does your paranoia go to eleven? If this is because I was asking questions about… about David-”

“He said they’d send people,” he spits.

“Who’s ‘they’?”

His face twists. “You think I’m stupid?”

Well, yeah, but I’m not going to say that.

“Look, the only ‘they’ who sent me is David’s family. They’re worried about him.”

That’s when he reaches behind his hip with his good hand. I back away. Especially when I see that he’s reached for a knife. It may be a cheap Chinese knockoff of a Ka-Bar that he fumbles out of its sheath, but it looks sharp enough to do some damage.

I lift my hands. “Okay. Whatever.” I scramble up to the road. “Because, unlike you, I’m not a crazy psycho, I’ll let someone know you’re here.”

I pedal back to the Ancient Village Artist Retreat.

When I get there, I turn in the bike to the same Chinese guy who kitted it out for me. “Hao wan?” he asks with a grin. Good time?

“Hen hao wanr.” Yeah, dude, it was really fun. If you have a weird definition of fun.

I limp into the reception area. I seriously need a beer.

Sitting at the desk is a Chinese woman who looks even younger than Heather. Slight and short, with big eyes and straight hair that cups her chin. She looks like a freakin’ elf. Or an anime character. She puts an English textbook facedown on the counter as I approach.

“Ni hao. Are you Alice?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes, Alice.”

“So I was visiting the art space, and this guy, I think his name is Russell? Do you know him?”

“Yes, Russell.” The way she says his name, I can’t tell what she thinks about him.

“Well, he had an accident on the road back there.”

“Accident?”

“Yeah. He… ran into a cow. I mean, he’s not hurt badly or anything, he just can’t walk very well. So I told him I’d let someone know.”

“Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.” She manages a polite smile before she picks up a cell phone.

“When you’re done, can I talk to you?” I point toward one of the wooden tables they have set up for indoor dining. “I’ll just be over there having a beer.”

By the time she comes over, I’ve drunk half my Liquan and am already thinking about the next one. It goes down like water. Delicious, beer-flavored water.

There’s a couple of guests sitting at the tables, checking email on their laptops, drinking coffee. I’ve found a seat in the corner, away from the others, so it’s relatively private. No sign of my mom or Andy. I figure they must be done with tai chi by now. Maybe they’ve moved on to brush painting.

“Hello,” Alice says, standing with her hands clasped next to the empty chair. “Thank you for telling me about Russell. I call the art space. They send someone to go and help him.”

“Great.” I indicate the chair. “Do you have a few minutes?”

She hesitates. Glances back at the reception desk. No one is waiting there. The few guests in the dining area have their drinks and dumplings and pizzas.

Finally she sits.

“So Russell…” I say. “Is he, uh… I don’t know, a little nervous, maybe?”

“Nervous?”

“Well, he acted like he thought I was trying to hurt him or something.”

“Oh.” Her eyes get anime big. “He is maybe, how do you say… just a little strange.”

“You yidianr duoxin?” I ask. A little paranoid?

She giggles. “Oh, you speak Mandarin. Yes, he maybe you yidian duoxin. Very good with building things, though.”

“Okay.” So maybe Russell is just a nut and I haven’t stepped in some big pile of shit. And if Jason is off his meds, who knows what kind of joint delusion they could have cooked up between them?

“I don’t know Russell,” I say. “But I heard he’s a friend of David’s. I’m a friend of David’s family. He worked here for a while, right?”

She nods, a small, smooth movement, like her neck’s been oiled.

“Do you know where he is?”

She tilts her head to the side. A hitch. Shakes it no.

There’s something she’s not saying, I’m pretty sure.

“Look, like I’ve told everyone else, I’m a friend of his brother. I can show you pictures. We just want to make sure he’s okay.”

“I really don’t know,” she says, and that part I believe.

“What about Daisy?”

“Daisy?”

“Your friend,” I say, and I’m starting to get a little pissed off at this innocent-pixie routine. “She’s David’s girlfriend, right? They left together?”

She tilts her head the other way. Actually puts a finger on her chin. “I think so, maybe.”

“Come on,” I say. “You know if they left together or not.”

“Okay. They left together.”

“How long ago?”

“Maybe… almost two months?”

“Are they together now?”

“Maybe not.”

“Would she know where he is?”

She gives a fractional shrug. “Don’t know.”

“Do you know where she is?”

Alice takes a moment to toy with the Hello Kitty charm dangling from her cell phone.

“I don’t know why I should tell you,” she finally says.

Well, shit, how am I supposed to answer that? “Because… it won’t hurt anything? Because David’s brother isn’t healthy, and knowing that David’s okay would make him happy?”

At that point a couple of Westerners come in and take seats close by-a man and a woman, my age, except all healthy and glowing, wearing yoga pants and groovy eco-spiritual T-shirts.

I switch to Mandarin. “I won’t cause Daisy a problem.”

“It’s not so simple,” she mutters.

“Okay, so the complicated part, what is it?”

“Who told you about David and Daisy?” she asks abruptly.

Now it’s my turn to hesitate. “Some people in Yangshuo.”

“Was it Kobe?” she demands in a rush. “Did he talk to you?”

And that’s when I put it together.

“You really like Kobe,” I say.

She blushes. “We’re friends.”

“But he thinks Daisy is a better friend.”

“Daisy is foolish. She’s not the right girl for him.”

“And you think you are.”

She looks up at me, her dark eyes flashing. “We want the same things. To build something, here, in China. We could have our own guesthouse, our own bar, but he is so stupid about Daisy. He can’t please her. She wants a car, a house, he can’t give her those things. So she runs off with David. And Kobe still wants her back.”

I’m thinking, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble here, but there’s no way David… Jason… can give her those things either.

“And if she stays away, maybe you have a chance with Kobe,” I say.

All this is making me think, after years of obsessing over a guy who didn’t want me anymore, that it’s a fucking huge relief to be single and not give a shit.

“You say you’re her friend, but you don’t want her to come back. I think you’re not a very good friend.”

Now her eyes brim with tears. “Daisy is my friend,” she says quietly. “I want her to be happy.”

“Wo mingbai,” I say. I get it. “But if she wants to come back, she comes back. I talk to her, I don’t talk to her, it doesn’t matter.”

She bats around the Hello Kitty charm some more.

“If you really are her friend, you want the best for her, right?” I ask. Twisting the Hello Kitty, as it were.

She lets out a sigh, and then she tells me.