Precious MaMa,
With gladdened hearts our brothers Ah Mee and Fon Yim start their journey home. General consent and £2 is paid to the cemetery employees to re-open their graves. The diggers wear somber faces and leave in haste, not wanting to witness the opening of the caskets.
A woman shouts from the gate, “No bone scraping” and “You will burn in hell.”
Hell is an earth prison far from home, MaMa.
We used a pick to pry the lids. Ah Mee waited longest for his journey home. His bones are clean. We bleached them one by one. His queue was beautiful even in death and we placed it with the bones. It took seven hours.
Fon Yin died in the last blizzard. It took from sunrise to sunset to scrape and boil the flesh from his bones. Brandy and carbolic proved useless against the smell of the hungry ghost.
It took three days for the bones to dry. Chong Tam provided boiled fowl, cooked rice, and a paper of lollies. Too Fong brought drinks of grog and tea. Jin Lee burned joss paper so our brothers have spirit money for their journey. I worry that my fate is that of my brother and save for my passage if I die here. The gold is gone, and only Chong Tam brightens my day.
I bow in hope my brothers reach the soil of their birth, and prosperity rains upon their wives and daughters.
Faithful First Son,
Wing Lun