28
THE SOUND of crying woke Dessa from a fitful doze. Opening her eyes, it took her a moment to spot the source of those tears. They came from a small figure in the corner of the porch, who sniffed with shaking shoulders as if to hold back yet a deeper torrent of tears.
“Nadette?” Dessa looked around the dimly lit porch. Only half a moon reflected any light tonight, but it took no more than that to see Nadette was alone. “What’s happened?”
“Got caught.” She wiped at her nose with the back of her hand, but more tears followed.
Dessa stood, holding out a hand for the child. Thankfully, Nadette didn’t resist. Dessa led her into the kitchen, where she turned up the gas lighting.
“Nadette!” One look at the girl and Dessa turned her to face her fully. One side of her face was bruised, and there was blood on the hand Dessa held. “What happened to you?”
“Aw, nothin’. Not to me. But to Liling . . . If they guess what we were really tryin’ to do, she’s done for.”
Dessa eyed her closely, turning her face toward the light attached to the wall. “Don’t tell me nothing happened to you. Your face is bleeding.”
“So’s my knee. I fell on some stones back of the China Palace.”
“Let me see.”
Nadette sat in one of the kitchen chairs and pulled up her ragged skirt. It wasn’t just her knee; the girl had shredded her skin from knee to ankle. Speckles of dirt dimmed the shine of the blood spattered from top to bottom of her shin.
Without a word, Dessa returned to the porch for the large metal tub she and the other residents of Pierson House used for bathing. Filling the tub in the curtained corner of the kitchen was easier than hauling up water to any one of the bedrooms since the water closet upstairs didn’t have hot water.
“I don’t need no bath—”
“Yes, Nadette, you do. And I’m going to throw away that dress you’re wearing while you’re soaking. I’ll find something upstairs, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
Before long Dessa had enough warm water to fill the tub and pulled the curtain to provide the girl with some privacy. “Don’t soak too long, though,” she instructed from the other side of the curtain. “And I want you to come back tomorrow so we can give that leg a salt bath, once the skin has a chance to heal a bit. It’ll help, but would hurt too much tonight. Now give me that dress.”
Nadette handed over the remains of the dress, and Dessa threw it on the porch before hastening upstairs to the charity box. The dress closest to Nadette’s size was a drab shade of brown, but it was a vast improvement over what she’d been wearing.
“Oh, that’s a fine dress, Miss Caldwell!” Nadette called from the bath, once Dessa had draped it over the rope holding up the curtain. A few moments later Dessa heard the girl emerge from the water and dry herself. Nadette soon stepped out from behind the curtain. The gown was too large, the sleeves too long and a bit baggy, but she was modestly covered, cleaner and neater than the way she’d looked before.
“Sit down, and I’ll braid your hair,” Dessa said.
“I been thinkin’,” Nadette said as she plopped onto a chair. “If I can find out where they took her, we can try again tomorrow.”
Dessa wasn’t so sure. “I admire that you want to help, Nadette. But if it’s dangerous, I don’t think you should do anything. Perhaps Liling is the best person to help, on her own.”
Nadette turned her head so quickly Dessa dropped the girl’s braid. “Ya ain’t changed yer mind, have ya? ’Cause I haven’t! And what’s more, I think I’m gonna need yer help to get her away.”
Dessa resumed the braiding, ignoring very real and increasing misgivings. She wanted to help; it was no less than her duty. But to get involved in sneaking the girl away . . . That was something she hadn’t intended doing.
“It woulda worked tonight if I’d a had somebody to keep the guy busy who’s watchin’ her. They let Liling in to see her, but soon as they tried to get out, the guy nabbed her. Only good thing is they might not know Liling was going to take her away, really away, and not just back to her room like she said.”
“They didn’t see you, then?”
“Oh yeah, they did. The one who’s guarding Mei Mei’s door scared me right good with all kinds of yelling when I come by. I don’t know what he said, but it weren’t nothin’ I’d like to know, I guess. He looked ’bout to bite me before he hit me. That’s why I ran, and that’s why I fell.”
“Why do you think they’ll move her, if they haven’t guessed what Liling is up to?”
“’Cause they already moved her once, when somebody tried sneakin’ into her room to get at her ahead a time, not two hours after they brought her back from the train. She’s awful pretty. Enough to make them Chinamen crazy.”
Dessa sighed. “If they’re going to illegally import women, why don’t they do it for wives instead of . . . well, instead of this? That’s the trouble—there just aren’t enough respectable Chinese women here. If there were, none of this would be happening.”
Nadette laughed. “Ya think so? Then why are there so many gals at places like Miss Leola’s? The railroad brought plenty a white families out here from back East, but there’s still men who just want a wife for a night. Them Chinamen ain’t no different.”
So, this child had something to teach Dessa, after all.
“If they ain’t moved her, or if they done that and I find out where, will ya still help? Do more’n just takin’ her in? I can’t get too close, or they’ll think right away somethin’s up. We hafta send in somebody they don’t know. Like you.”
Some small voice inside told Dessa to go to the authorities, to seek help and handle this wisely. But how could a city that turned its back on the obvious ills of prostitution and opium dens, even the wide practice of gambling, possibly be of any help? She already knew there was a shameful lack of concern when it came to whatever went on in the Chinese neighborhood called Hop Alley.
But it was one thing to harbor the girl, quite another to steal her from those who must consider her their property. And yet that very thought quelled some of Dessa’s fears. What was the right thing to do? Let the girl be offered up for the sake of someone’s profit?
“Yes, Nadette. I’ll help.”