29
THE OPIUM smelled strangely sweet in Hop Alley, almost enticing in its fragrance. Dessa had never passed through this end of Market Street before. The scent stirred her heightened senses. It came from behind small, plain doorways that led, Nadette had told her, to the bowels of certain buildings known to be opium dens. City maps referred to them only as “Chinese dwellings.”
It was through one such door that Nadette had instructed Dessa to go, at precisely two o’clock Saturday afternoon. The door was more a gate than an entryway—a shaft of sunlight revealed the sky up above between two close buildings. The scent was stronger here compared to out on the street, as if it were trapped despite the narrow slice of sky. Perhaps, to some, it was an enticement that even the dankness of rotted railings and old puddles along the passageway couldn’t quell.
They had only a few short hours before Mei Mei’s auction was to take place. For the first time in days Dessa wasn’t preoccupied about Mr. Hawkins’s dinner party, just a day away. She merely hoped to get through the next hour so she could attend the party at all.
Nadette surprised Dessa with a thoroughness of planning that seemed well beyond her years. Since she would be recognized by anyone standing watch over Mei Mei, she’d devised a plan that required Dessa to go inside and help with a diversion so Liling could spirit her sister away. Once outside, since Nadette wouldn’t be able to meet them at the correct door in time, Dessa would have to take the lead.
Nadette made sure Dessa was prepared. She took her to the place she was to bring Liling and Mei Mei afterward, a borrowed crib only a few twists and turns outside Hop Alley. Nadette told Dessa she’d need to know the spot even if she was chased all the way there.
That thought had seemed almost funny at the time, but now, stepping into the recesses of Chinatown’s most notorious quarters, Dessa couldn’t summon a single lighthearted thought. In fact, the very surroundings weighed her steps.
She took the smallest of breaths, fearing if she inhaled too much of the deadly bouquet it would deaden her brain the way she’d heard opium did. Nonetheless, she followed the dark gangway. The steep downward slant felt like a descent from all society, even from its very dregs.
Was this where they’d hidden Mei Mei . . . or worse, had they brought her here to prepare the innocent girl for what was ahead?
Dessa became aware of curious eyes that stared out at her from the shadows and windows above. She refused to meet the glances. In fact, she hoped not to be identified at all. In that hope, she’d tied a scarf around her head, fastened beneath her chin, and over that she’d placed a brimmed hat. Over one of the oldest dresses from the charity box she’d added a shawl that was hardly necessary for the warmth of the day. Even so, what she wore seemed extravagant in comparison to a beggar she passed on his way up the ramp. He was dressed in what appeared to be tattered layers; what one stringy jacket did not cover, another beneath strove to hide.
But he did not speak or try to stop her—though the look of surprise, then warning, then pity crossing his ancient features nearly sent Dessa running back home.
Instead, she withdrew a handkerchief from her handbag and covered her nose and mouth. Perhaps it would help protect her against the scent. That, and the steady prayer she sent up with each and every step.
Scriptures came to mind, bidden by her quivering heart. Fear thou not; for I am with thee . . . I will strengthen thee . . . I will help thee . . .
How she depended on those promises now!
At last Dessa came to another door, this one taller than the first. Opening it slowly, stopping at the first creak, she slipped through the wedge without pushing it any farther.
The air was somehow different here, still sweet, but lighter, cleaner. A set of lanterns—gas, not electric, and behind cloudy glass plates—hung close to the tall ceiling, revealing an obscure cloud floating above in an expansive room. Dessa thought the vaulted ceiling likely accounted for the somewhat fresher air around her. The height of the room reminded her of the style and durability of an angled—though dark—cathedral. Brick surrounded her, as if she’d been swallowed by it—it was beneath her feet, above her head, and beside her on each of the four wide walls.
And yet they weren’t walls at all. They were shelves . . . no . . . they were beds, if she could judge by the mats spread out on those she could see. Some were heavily curtained, closed against prying eyes, leaving just enough of a transom at the top of the cubicle to release a steady puff of smoke that found its way to join other puffs in the vapors above.
In the very center of the room was a tall, cast-iron stove. She could see through its slats that it was lit, but the stovepipe did not extend so far up that it reached the ceiling and beyond, outside. Rather, the pipe rose just above the upper bunks at the sides, dividing in two and coiling downward like two snakes to disappear into holes embedded in opposite walls. She guessed they must be connected to the pipes at each bed.
Her pulse sped up because she knew she ought not be here, in this secret and most deadly spot of the city. She could go back—she should run before anyone knew she was here. Anyone except Nadette.
Her feet and fingers tingled, as if prepared for flight.
But how could Dessa go? How could she fail not just Nadette, but more importantly, Mei Mei? If God was with Dessa, she had nothing to fear, even if her heart said otherwise.
“You want smoke?”
Startled by the nearness of the voice, Dessa turned—only to see little more than a shadow among all the shadows of the room. The man was small, dressed in a high-collared dark silk tunic and Chinese cap, from which ran a long, dark braid hanging over one shoulder.
“No . . . that is, I’m looking for Gum Sing. Can you tell me where I can find her?”
Now the man peered up at her, and she saw through the thin veil of smoky air that he wasn’t as old as she’d first thought. Although the lines along his mouth and eyes were set, they disappeared when he offered the hint of a smile.
“You want work for Gum Sing?”
She shook her head.
“That good. She no hire wide-eye like you, anyway. Come back when Gum Sing not so busy.”
Nadette had warned Dessa she might not gain easy access, but not to give up. Gum Sing was not busy with a customer today, because she was preparing Mei Mei for the auction. If Nadette’s sense of timing was correct, Liling was already looking for Dessa—if they’d allowed Mei Mei’s sister to stay with her at all. Even now, Nadette herself waited nearby to set in place more confusion than this den of altered reality had likely ever seen.
“I have something for Gum Sing. A gift.”
He looked down at her bag, then held out his hand. “You give to me. I give to her.”
Dessa shook her head. “I must place it in her hands myself.”
The man stared at her again, this time suspiciously. “Why you here?”
“I told you, to give Gum Sing a gift.”
“From who?”
Dessa’s heart continued its downward spiral. She’d been hoping whoever took her to Gum Sing wouldn’t ask so many questions. “Yin Tung.”
He repeated the name, slowly and with a touch of awe—just as Nadette had predicted he might. There were few names in Denver everyone listened to, on either side of the law. Until today, Dessa had heard only rumors of such names. People who dealt in payments to government officials to avoid arrest and had the power to straddle the line between legal and illegal. Yin Tung represented the Chinese in just such a position, or so it seemed from what Nadette told Dessa that morning. And it was only Yin Tung who dealt with those of Dessa’s race.
God forgive her for the lie that Yin Tung had sent her.
“You come.”
The little man turned and led her from the chamber.
The black wooden door opened first to a dimly lit hall—as if purposely designed to prepare the eyes for the coming difference in lighting. Soon they passed into another room, this one brightly lit and more traditionally decorated. A round rosewood table sat in the center, and off to the side were a pair of chairs boasting bentwood backs that resembled a type of hat Dessa had seen worn in Chinatown. Beyond, on the far side of the room, stood a tall cabinet lacquered in black and accented with the image of a bamboo grove. Beneath them, their steps were softened by a woven silk rug, decorated with peacocks and a symmetrical design along the edge.
This lovely, inviting room was a sharp contrast to what went on in the cavity attached to it. And to any dealings concerning an innocent young girl named Mei Mei.
Just past the room was a two-story staircase, polished and fine, brightly lit by a pair of windows, one atop the other. At the top was an open hallway showing a number of doors, each one closed.
The man led the way, going to a door not far from the top of the stairs. He tapped just once and the door opened. Dessa looked to see a young Chinese girl emerge, dressed in a long apricot robe that was meticulously embroidered with flowers and cuffed with a row of butterflies.
The man spoke sharply, but the girl—surely not Mei Mei since she seemed free to leave the room behind her, but perhaps Liling?—didn’t heed what he said. She looked past him without concern, focused on Dessa. As the man left them to speak to someone still inside the room, Dessa saw the girl—standing so still on Dessa’s side of the doorway—raise one small hand to beckon Dessa closer. Surely she was Liling.
In three small, silent steps, Dessa neared her. “You follow me,” the girl whispered, so that only Dessa could hear.
With little more than a glance toward the room behind them, Dessa waited to see what Liling would do. She quietly closed the door, then tore down the corridor to the farthest room opposite. From beneath a generous sleeve, she withdrew a key and inserted it into the lock before Dessa had caught up to her.
Frantic whispering followed. A small whimper. Then Liling emerged, tugging a smaller girl behind. Dessa rushed to follow—only to stop abruptly at the sound of a shout behind them. Not from the man who’d shown her here, but from another, bolder voice at the base of the stairway.
A glance over her shoulder sent her heart skating with terror. A man three times her own width, half again taller than Dessa, yelled wildly. He held a tray, but just as he looked about to set it aside, a crash erupted behind him and the tray fell to the floor in a clatter of broken porcelain.
Something had come through one of the windows from the street. A candle that started an instant fire. And yet—not a fire. All smoke, but no flames. Then a moment later, a crash at another window, and another smoke candle spewed a cloud of gray. The man downstairs coughed and sputtered, going from one to the other, attempting to quench the bellows of fog.
For one blurry moment Dessa stood immobile, until Liling spoke into her ear.
“Follow!”
Dessa turned to join the fleeing girls as more voices erupted—that of the man who’d shown Dessa the way, along with a woman’s voice. Dessa paid no heed. Liling pulled Mei Mei, who stumbled once and then again.
Liling opened yet another door, this one to a narrow, nondescript stairway. When Mei Mei tripped, Dessa grabbed for her tunic. It ripped, but the girl did not fall.
New clamor met them in what appeared to be a kitchen, but Liling neither hesitated nor answered the cries around them. She ran as if the devil himself were behind them—and Dessa was nearly convinced that he was.
Outside, the sun was blindingly bright, and Dessa could barely make out the shapes in front of her, with Liling leading the way to an alley. She heard rapid steps behind them and more yelling in a language she was glad she did not understand. With Mei Mei stumbling yet again, Dessa picked up the girl’s other arm, and together she and Liling pulled Mei Mei along at a frantic pace.
Dessa knew the way and knew, too, that Liling depended on her to take the lead now that she’d gotten them out of the opium house. The wisdom of the route quickly made itself apparent: there might have been a more direct path to their destination, but taking gangways and extra turns made it easier to lose their pursuers.
Around one last corner and through one more gangway, then Dessa let go of Mei Mei long enough to throw herself at a familiarly scratched and scarred wooden door. Thankfully it opened as easily as she expected, and the three of them piled into the smallest parlor Dessa had ever seen.
Slamming the door behind them, Dessa put a finger over her mouth, willing the two girls to be quiet.
All three of them were breathing so heavily Dessa knew she couldn’t have spoken if she wanted to, and she guessed the others felt the same. She looked around. She’d never been inside a crib before, not even to help with a delivery. Any girl that far along in a pregnancy would’ve had to give up such a place, even one as shabby as this.
The parlor held two chairs and a small table, leaving room for little else. There might have been a window once, judging from the outline of unmatched brick on the front wall. That was the only design on any of the otherwise-unadorned walls. Behind them was a plain, colorless curtain—bleached with age and wear to a sort of gray-white—that divided this room from another. It was hooked aside so Dessa could see the other room was empty but for the inevitable bed.
Dessa regained even breathing first and left the locked door without a word. She passed through the curtained partition, searching beneath the bed for the parcel Nadette said she would leave there—a parcel Dessa herself had provided from the charity box. Two petite dresses designed for Western women.
The girls received them silently, as if still too afraid to make a sound. Liling pulled off her far finer apricot robe and donned the larger of the two plain cotton garments. A moment later, Mei Mei did the same. But before letting Dessa take their Chinese robes to fold them inside the paper sack, Liling pointed to the design on Mei Mei’s, saying something to her sister.
Then they both burst into tears and clung to each other.
“Can you tell me what you said?” Dessa gently inquired when the sisters parted. “If it isn’t too personal?”
Liling raised a shaking hand to wipe away the tears on her smooth cheeks. “Personal? Yes. But I share with you.” She pointed again to the design on the blue robe Mei Mei had worn, of expertly sewn leaves entwined in a way Dessa would enjoy replicating. “Sacrificial robe. The waterweed—seaweed—means purity. Now Mei Mei will not be sacrificed because of greed.”
No matter how many moments of fear and horror Dessa had endured that afternoon, each one was worth it to see the happiness on the faces of the girls in front of her. Both of them were indeed striking. Pure creamy skin, shiny black hair, each with a long and slender neck. And their faces, though different—Liling’s was softly rounder, her forehead not so high—both had brows that gently curved above eyes that were dark yet bright with an unfathomable depth.
The change of clothing for the girls helped to disguise them but was not enough. “Do you mind if we change the style of your hair?” she asked Liling.
The girl elbowed her sister to pull down her hair from its traditional bun, as she herself was doing. Without a comb, the new styles were anything but perfect, but with Dessa’s help Liling fashioned her hair and her sister’s into more Western fashions: Liling with a braid pinned just above her forehead and Mei Mei with two braids, each looped at the side, as befitting a girl so young.
Finally Dessa removed her hat and untied her scarf, wishing she’d thought to bring along two. She handed the scarf to Mei Mei and the hat to Liling.
“Your crib?” Liling asked as she put the hat on.
Dessa shook her head.
“How you know it empty?”
“Nadette delivers laundry here,” Dessa said with a burst of unexpected admiration for the young expert who’d devised the escape. “She knows the girl and asked to use it this afternoon. She probably thinks Nadette wanted to make some money for herself. I suppose you know it was Nadette who threw in the smoke candles to help us escape. She knew she couldn’t be at the windows and then reach the kitchen door in time to guide you here. That’s why I came to help.”
Dessa then looked at Mei Mei, who appeared so tired that Dessa wished they were already back at Pierson House. “Do you speak any English, Mei Mei?”
The girl shook her head.
“She understands,” Liling answered, “but is afraid to speak.”
Dessa patted Mei Mei’s hand. “I hope you won’t be afraid anymore. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
Liling studied Dessa. “You were in great danger today. Why did you do this? Two people not even of your kind?”
Dessa smiled. “What is my kind? I’ve never quite fit anywhere my whole life. I don’t think I have a kind, but I will, in heaven.”
“So you do it for your God?”
Dessa nodded.
“Then I thank you,” Liling said.
“And your God,” Mei Mei added.
They needed to leave the crib before sunset, when the girl who rented the two rooms was expected to return for her usual working hours. Before setting out, Dessa gave the sisters detailed directions to Pierson House should they somehow become separated, quickly adding she didn’t think that likely. She assured them they didn’t have far to go.
Just as the sun slipped behind the mountains, Dessa sneaked the girls into Pierson House by way of the back door, only to see Nadette with Remee in the kitchen—both of them sullen with tension over what had likely been a harsh and recent exchange of words.
Nadette was the first to her feet, a smile bursting through whatever vexation she’d felt a moment earlier. “You made it just fine!” She hugged both the girls, welcoming them as Remee looked on in disgust.
Remee appeared about to speak, her lips opened with an accompanying scowl, but Dessa aimed a censuring look her way. “Will you help me with dinner, Remee? It must be something quick; we haven’t time to cook. It’s been a trying day, so I want an early dinner to let the girls get some rest.”
The truth was, she hoped to get them upstairs to the middle bedroom as soon as possible. It was small, private—and offered only a single, heavily curtained window overlooking the side of the house. No one would see them up there, from the front or the back, particularly if they kept the curtain drawn.
Remee told her Mr. Dunne hadn’t been around since noon, that he’d said he was going to try for a new job tonight and likely wouldn’t be back for dinner. Dessa took that as confirmation that she’d done the right thing; she wasn’t yet sure they should trust Mr. Dunne.
No one spoke after that, not even Nadette, who was the only one to show any happiness. Remee stayed sulky, and when Jane joined them she was cautious around the newcomers, making no attempt to lift the cloud of concern that hovered. The girls themselves looked fearful, and Liling jumped when Remee dropped a plate. Liling let her sister sit close enough to hang on to her hand, both of them glancing often at the door.
Dessa wished she could convince them they were safe, but even as she drew the curtains that hung over the windows on each side of the door to the porch, she knew any promises of security would be hollow. How could she share with anyone else what she did not have?
One thing she did know for sure, and took comfort in: the hours of this night would be far different for Mei Mei than they would have been had Nadette not come forward.
But the satisfaction did not settle in Dessa’s breast for long. After dinner, Nadette left, taking with her the only smile to be found. Everyone else seemed eager to go upstairs. Remee went first, and Dessa guessed Jane wished she could follow, except she’d volunteered to do the dishes since she hadn’t helped with the preparation. Dessa didn’t blame them for wanting to disappear. Perhaps they sought another escape, this one from that lingering cloud of fear permeating the room.
“I’ll take you upstairs, girls,” Dessa said to Liling and Mei Mei. “Come along.”
Dessa provided sleeping gowns and filled the water basins in their room. Then she went to her own room to pray, but, feeling alone instead of comforted, her fears only multiplied.
Dessa returned downstairs. She helped Jane with the rest of the dishes, afterward watching her go up the stairs. Then Dessa walked from room to room. She made sure the doors were locked tight and all the curtains drawn. She peered out from a corner of each window just to be sure all was quiet. Finally, she took up a vigil in the dark at the parlor window. And she prayed.