Inheritance by Lan Samantha Chang

Author:Lan Samantha Chang
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393344769
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

EVEN IN ITS BLEAKEST DAYS, THE WARTIME CAPITAL WAS A city of reunions. From its fog-filled valleys to the hilltop lanterns lit to warn of imminent attack; from mud huts near the river to mansions on the heights; all over the city, there were meetings between people who’d been separated. Owners of factories and mills that had been carried piece by piece away from occupied cities reassembled their machinery and reopened their doors to those workers who had followed. Former neighbors found each other in new restaurants named after provinces departed. Classmates, brothers, friends, and lovers, sundered by the enemy, sought each other in this last, great stronghold in the west.

And so we reunited with my father. I still remember my first sight of him after two years. Seated next to Hwa, I leaned forward in the jouncing chair and glimpsed him on the hill. He stood waiting in his uniform, lit up by light and fog. He looked like pure qi, poised to leave the ground, and in that moment I believed that with his energy and courage he could keep our family—and the entire country—safe from the confusion that besieged us. I was filled with gratitude for his lightness and his strength. I knew he wouldn’t fail me when I placed so much hope in him. He couldn’t fail to love me when I loved him so much.

But everywhere we went we saw the signs posted by those who hadn’t been so lucky.

LOST ON 9/14 NEAR THE OLD ELEPHANT ROAD:

HUANG DAI, MALE CHILD, 7 YRS. ONE METER, 20 CM,

TWO LARGE MOLES ON LEFT ANKLE. REWARD.

SEARCHING FOR MY MOTHER, HWA NEIBU OF JIANGSU

PROVINCE, LOST IN 2ND ATTACK ON CHANGSHA. REWARD.

MEIMEI, MEIMEI, WHERE ARE YOU? I AM WAITING AT THE GATE CONNECTING WITH DISTANT PLACES.

Chongqing was also a place of chaos and separation. From my high window I could see the steps below filled with survivors of wartime dislocation: men and women sagging under the weight of ragged bundles holding everything they owned; filthy, hungry children and stray dogs. The swollen city was divided into factions. The waves of refugees had flowed beyond its walls, but the original residents remained, contemptuous of the newcomers. At first my mother thought the street signs were being rendered unintelligible in the local dialect. Then she learned the native residents called the streets by their former names, creating an unnavigable palimpsest of the geography.

Soon after our arrival, a jagged crack split the newly whitewashed mud wall of the kitchen. An earthenware steamer threw itself against the floor. Weiwei patched and swept, but the breakage couldn’t be repaired. Too much had been lost. Hu Mudan and Hu Ran were somewhere in the city, but my mother wouldn’t speak of them. Also, something was the matter between my mother and my father. They were together once again, but I missed the palpable joy that had surrounded my mother upon every past reunion. The two of them had never been talkative but they now conversed in disconnected phrases, pausing often, waiting for a third person to speak.

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