Wild Ginger Read Online Free PDF Page A

to rob us. They beat Friendly and broke his left leg."
    "Is that why he is limping?"
    "Yes. Next time when they come Friendly will be hanged, cooked, and eaten."
    "No. They won't do that."
    "Oh yes. I heard them talking about it."
    The thought chilled me. I was silent.
    Wild Ginger sat motionless for a while, and then she slowly slid the photo from the frame and lit a match.
    "What are you doing? You aren't burning the picture, are you?"
    "Stay where you are."
    Squatting down, she put the photo over the flame. I drew in my breath but dared not move. The image of her father curled, turned brown, then black. The flame then ate up her mother. The corners of Wild Ginger's mouth tilted into an ironic smile.
    The ashes snowed down on the concrete floor.
    "Are you afraid, Wild Ginger?" My voice was thin.
    "I can't afford to be afraid." She got up and went to the sink. Unpacking a bag of medicinal herbs, she began to wash and prepare them.
    "What did your mother do before she met your father?" I asked, trying to distract my fear.
    "She worked at the Shanghai People's Opera House. She was their leading singer. She was doing well until my father went to see her play. They fell in love and started their journey to misery."
    "Will she perform again?"
    "Of course not. She is considered an enemy. She has to
be reformed through hardship. We both have to be re-formed—'The daughter of a legend gets to be a heroine and the daughter of a rat gets to dig the dirt,' as the saying goes. The interesting thing is that I am guilty and she is not. What I bear is a birth defect. It took me a long time to realize that. But Maple, I am not a fatalist. I'm trying to change the course of my life."
    I wished that I could tell her that it seemed impossible.
    "Watch me, Maple." As if reading my mind she continued. "Someday, I will be a revolutionary. A Maoist star. I will prove that I am just as good and trustworthy as the bravest Maoist. I have made that a promise to myself. No one will stop me from being who I want to be. Not Hot Pepper, not my mother, not the ghost of my father."
    Wild Ginger's eyes stared through the kitchen window to the cement wall of her neighbor's house. The wall was painted with a huge smiling Mao head with red rays shooting out from the center. Mao was wearing an army cap with a red star on the top. The sunlight bounced off the paint and onto Wild Ginger, tinting her face red. Her eyes shone brightly. Her hands, which had been washing pots, stopped moving. The tap kept running, the sink was filled. The water began to spill. She was not aware of it. "No one," she uttered.
    I felt a deep admiration rise inside me. I reached out my hand and shut off the faucet.

4
    It was the end of the class. We were on Mao's "On Protracted War." The noises of other rooms dismissing classes were heard around the campus. Wild Ginger signaled me with her eyes that I should be ready to run. We quietly fastened the straps of our school bags.
    The bell rang. I jumped out of the bench and ran to exit the classroom. Wild Ginger followed me. It took her a couple of turns to cut across the seats. She was caught by Titi.
    "The reactionaries are slipping away!" Titi screamed.
    "Block them!" Hot Pepper ordered. The gang chased. I ran back to assist Wild Ginger. Fists, woodsticks, and blows from an abacus rained down on my head and shoulders.
    "Maple!" Wild Ginger pulled me over. Back to back, we punched. We were moving toward the gate successfully.
    We were by Chia Chia Lane now. Hot Pepper and the gang had lost sight of us. I gasped hard. Wild Ginger was limping.
    "What's wrong with your leg?"
    "Hot Pepper got me with her abacus. The sow!"
    "She almost poked my eye with her pencil. But I got her too. I broke her pencil in half."
    "She threatened to send her three brothers, 'the Dragons.' They are vicious."
    "I've heard of them. They work at the Number Seven Lumber Factory and it's said they beat five people to death."
    "We must find help, Wild