Good Chinese Wife by Susan Blumberg-Kason

Author:Susan Blumberg-Kason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2014-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

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The moment I spotted Cai at the Wuhan airport, I ran into his arms. He hugged me as if we hadn’t seen each other in years. Nothing on Cai’s face showed any sign of guilt or wrongdoing. This joyful, loving man was the Cai I’d fallen for two years earlier. Instead of driving straight to Hidden River, he took me to a midrange hotel for the night. Cai held my hand as he opened our room door, as if we were newlyweds. “I wanted us to have some alone time after everything you’ve been through.”

I felt grateful for a night alone with Cai and, as crazy as it sounded, also felt closer to him than ever. But before I could enjoy my time with him, I needed to hand over his medication. “You have to take one of these every day until the bottle is empty. You’ll probably feel like you need to throw up.”

Silent, as if I’d given him change for bus fare, he packed the bottle away in his overnight bag. I then pulled out a box of condoms. “We have to use these until you finish the medicine and I test negative.”

Cai held me tightly. I figured he’d go back to being the old Cai and would treat me as kindly as he had in my dorm room during our tutoring days.

And it seemed very possible that he would. Unlike my last two trips to Hidden River, this week passed without incident. Cai was just as thoughtful as he had been back when we first met, and refrained from going to those marathon card games at his friends’ homes. Without knowing anything about my ordeal, Mama had even lightened up about my eating habits.

On my last full day in China, Cai and I stayed at his Wuhan apartment so we wouldn’t need to wake up too early for my morning departure the following day. As we strolled down Liberation Road near the Conservatory, Cai stepped into a small bookstore. Ever since the missed opportunity in Shanghai, I cherished any chance to browse through books in China, even if they weren’t in English.

“Come here,” he beckoned after several minutes. In his hands, he held a Chinese-English Merck Manual. Cai opened it to a page and thumbed down until he found what he was looking for. He pointed to the English and Chinese entry for chlamydia. “Is this what you had?”

“No.” I gently took the book from him and flipped through the bulk of the STD section until I got to trichomoniasis. I placed my finger on the passage for trich. “This is it.”

Cai slowly brought the book closer, my finger still in place, and read the Chinese. Then he started laughing. “This isn’t a sex disease. It’s called ‘women’s disease’ in China.” He chuckled. “All women get it.”

I had never heard anyone in the United States speak of a women’s disease apart from urinary tract infections. But even those weren’t limited to just women. Perhaps I really had caught it from towels or a toilet seat.

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