Read Online The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Camilla Trinchieri
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light. I felt I was underwater, swaying with the current, in a place without time.
“The garden has many spaces that catch you by surprise,”
An-ling said, without a trace of an accent.“Hidden views.Like in our hearts. Places where we go to be quiet, or places full of secrets which we don’t show even to our best friends.”
The green light flickered on her face with the movement of the bamboo leaves. Her face was expectant, waiting for some revelation. I walked out of the courtyard to follow a path that led me through a round opening in a wall. On the other side, beyond a shallow stepped bridge, a smaller pond rippled under a gentle waterfall.
“Listen to the water. Like the sound of the wind.”An-ling offered me a smile and the quickness of it, its easy radiance, triggered suspicions. An-ling too had secrets.
A lawnmower started chewing loudly on the grass outside the garden.
“How long have you really lived in this country?”
An-ling shrugged and walked away. I followed her to the Moonviewing Pavilion, with its view of the surrounding greenery. She dropped down on a bench and leaned her head on the wooden railing.The mower was right below us, unbearably loud, pushed by a shirtless man, his tanned chest oiled with sweat under the relentless sun. An-ling followed the man’s movement, a bird watching a cat.
“How long, An-ling?”
“Two sisters lived on the moon,” she said.“They were too shy to accept so many lovers’ eyes staring at them every night, so they asked their brother who lived on the sun to change places—”
“Tell me the truth. Please.”
“He said many more looked at him”—the mower’s infernal noise looped back, exploded below us—“but the sisters had a plan.”
“An-ling, I want to know.”
She waited until the mower moved away. “When I was fifteen I passed the teachers’ exams and was sent to the college in Guangzhou to become a middle-school teacher.A Peace Corps teacher came to my school to teach us English. His name was Tom, like your husband.Tom had such a flat rear end we joked that he must have been a very bad boy for his father to hit him so hard. He was my first crush.Tom Owens.” She paused while the mower churned past us again.
“After I graduated, I was supposed to go back to teach in my village and earn what for you would be thirty-five dollars a month. A classmate wanted me to go with her to work in a factory in Shenzhen, which was not too far. Near Hong Kong. The pay is very good, starting salary over eight-hundred a month, but the city is fenced in. No one can leave without permission, and you must work seven days a week and sleep only a few hours.
“I wrote to my aunt in San Francisco to bring me to the United States. I signed a promise on paper to work in her Chinese restaurant until I paid off my debt.
“Once, I called Boise, Idaho.Tom had left me his parents’ address. His mother told me he was married and was a teacher in Seattle.” An-ling brushed a lock of hair against her jawbone. “His wife was going to have a baby in two months.”
She continued to brush her hair against her jaw. Her face betrayed no emotion.
“It must have been hard for you.” I said.“All of it.” I wondered if she had cut her wrists for love of Tom Owens.
“A year and half I worked for fourteen hours a day. For two hours a night and on my one day off I studied English, read the books out loud over and over to get rid of my accent. When I paid my debt to my aunt I came to New York.” She attempted a breezy smile, as if to say her life had been easy, then bowed her head low, her hands joined on her lap.A penitent’s pose.
“I saw the ad for your class in Chinatown. Free lessons. I was curious. Maybe I’d find another Tom to teach me more Shakespeare.When I saw your students, all new immigrants, I was ashamed for them, for what they didn’t know, for how hungry they were for American words,American life.
“I put on a strong accent and pretended to
“The garden has many spaces that catch you by surprise,”
An-ling said, without a trace of an accent.“Hidden views.Like in our hearts. Places where we go to be quiet, or places full of secrets which we don’t show even to our best friends.”
The green light flickered on her face with the movement of the bamboo leaves. Her face was expectant, waiting for some revelation. I walked out of the courtyard to follow a path that led me through a round opening in a wall. On the other side, beyond a shallow stepped bridge, a smaller pond rippled under a gentle waterfall.
“Listen to the water. Like the sound of the wind.”An-ling offered me a smile and the quickness of it, its easy radiance, triggered suspicions. An-ling too had secrets.
A lawnmower started chewing loudly on the grass outside the garden.
“How long have you really lived in this country?”
An-ling shrugged and walked away. I followed her to the Moonviewing Pavilion, with its view of the surrounding greenery. She dropped down on a bench and leaned her head on the wooden railing.The mower was right below us, unbearably loud, pushed by a shirtless man, his tanned chest oiled with sweat under the relentless sun. An-ling followed the man’s movement, a bird watching a cat.
“How long, An-ling?”
“Two sisters lived on the moon,” she said.“They were too shy to accept so many lovers’ eyes staring at them every night, so they asked their brother who lived on the sun to change places—”
“Tell me the truth. Please.”
“He said many more looked at him”—the mower’s infernal noise looped back, exploded below us—“but the sisters had a plan.”
“An-ling, I want to know.”
She waited until the mower moved away. “When I was fifteen I passed the teachers’ exams and was sent to the college in Guangzhou to become a middle-school teacher.A Peace Corps teacher came to my school to teach us English. His name was Tom, like your husband.Tom had such a flat rear end we joked that he must have been a very bad boy for his father to hit him so hard. He was my first crush.Tom Owens.” She paused while the mower churned past us again.
“After I graduated, I was supposed to go back to teach in my village and earn what for you would be thirty-five dollars a month. A classmate wanted me to go with her to work in a factory in Shenzhen, which was not too far. Near Hong Kong. The pay is very good, starting salary over eight-hundred a month, but the city is fenced in. No one can leave without permission, and you must work seven days a week and sleep only a few hours.
“I wrote to my aunt in San Francisco to bring me to the United States. I signed a promise on paper to work in her Chinese restaurant until I paid off my debt.
“Once, I called Boise, Idaho.Tom had left me his parents’ address. His mother told me he was married and was a teacher in Seattle.” An-ling brushed a lock of hair against her jawbone. “His wife was going to have a baby in two months.”
She continued to brush her hair against her jaw. Her face betrayed no emotion.
“It must have been hard for you.” I said.“All of it.” I wondered if she had cut her wrists for love of Tom Owens.
“A year and half I worked for fourteen hours a day. For two hours a night and on my one day off I studied English, read the books out loud over and over to get rid of my accent. When I paid my debt to my aunt I came to New York.” She attempted a breezy smile, as if to say her life had been easy, then bowed her head low, her hands joined on her lap.A penitent’s pose.
“I saw the ad for your class in Chinatown. Free lessons. I was curious. Maybe I’d find another Tom to teach me more Shakespeare.When I saw your students, all new immigrants, I was ashamed for them, for what they didn’t know, for how hungry they were for American words,American life.
“I put on a strong accent and pretended to
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