For the next three days, Tilly hovered between life and death but finally on the fourth day, as her mother sat at the side of her hospital bed, she opened her eyes and gave her mother a weak smile. It was a good sign and they all began to breathe a little easier, although as yet Yung Huan had still not been apprehended.
‘I hope they lock the bugger up and throw away the key when they do catch him!’ Hattie raged. Since the attack both she and Ernie had been to sit by Tilly’s bed every single day, although they knew she was probably unaware they were even there.
‘I could be wrong o’ course but I’ve got a feelin’ our Ernie is more than a little fond o’ the girl,’ Hattie told Flora and Colleen one morning as they were preparing to open the café.
Flora raised an eyebrow. ‘And what makes you think that?’
‘Well, I reckon he’s just realised she’s no longer the little girl as used to follow him about. She’s turned into a pretty young woman an’ though she’s a little slow she’s got a heart o’ gold.’
‘You wouldn’t mind, then, if something were to develop between them?’
‘Oh lordy, no, quite the contrary, I’d be tickled pink. Our Ernie’s had a bad time of it since his girl went down with the Titanic an’ if he can find happiness wi’ someone else, then so be it.’
‘Hmm, we’ll just have to see what happens then, won’t we?’ Flora said thoughtfully. ‘But the main thing is that Tilly gets well.’
Two days later they were all sitting in the kitchen on a cold, frosty evening enjoying a well-earned break when they had another visit from the police that shocked them all to the core.
‘A body was pulled out of the Hudson this morning that we have reason to believe might be the body of Yung Huan.’
They all gasped as the policeman went on. ‘Mrs Yung was taken to the mortuary where she was able to formally identify it as the body of her son, Huan. He’d been badly beaten before being thrown into the river to drown so it appears that this is the end of the case.’
‘It’s good riddance to bad rubbish, that’s what I say,’ Hattie said unsympathetically. ‘But who do you think did it?’
‘Probably a relative of one of the girls he raped from the laundry,’ the officer answered.
‘Then I just hope as they get away with it,’ Hattie said heatedly. ‘The dirty little sod got what was comin’ to him, as far as I’m concerned. At least he won’t be able to bring no more young girls down!’
Of course, the officer was in no position to agree with her but being the father of two teenage girls himself he couldn’t have agreed with her more. ‘It seems that Jia Li wasn’t the only girl who he got in the family way,’ he informed them. ‘One of the girls who worked at the laundry told us that he got her friend pregnant too. The poor girl was so terrified of what her folks would say that she went to a backstreet abortionist and ended up dying from loss of blood. She was just sixteen.’
He took his leave of them then, promising to inform them if there were any more developments and the second he had gone, Colleen, who was up and about again after her illness and who had remained silent up to then, looked at Jimmy and Sam, who had joined them earlier for dinner, and asked shakily, ‘It wasn’t you two who did for him, was it?’
‘Whoa there!’ Appalled, Jimmy put his hand palm up as if to shield himself from her. ‘I swear on my mom’s life that this had nothing to do wi’ me nor Sam. We roughed him up before, sure, but that’s it!’
Colleen visibly relaxed. ‘I thank the Holy Mother for that at least, so I do. Now all we have to worry about is gettin’ young Tilly well again. I reckon I’ll take her a can o’ me home-made chicken soup in tomorrow to build her up a bit, bless her. It certainly did me a power o’ good while I were ill.’
Not one of them had an ounce of sympathy for Yung Huan; he had got what he deserved in their eyes and they were sure the only one who would grieve for him was his own mother.
Over the next week, Tilly made steady progress although she still had a long way to go. She had been almost unrecognisable immediately after the attack and Ernie had openly cried at his first sight of her, and had visited her devotedly every day since while she lay in hospital, her pretty face covered in cuts and bruises. She had lost some back teeth during the vicious attack and when he first saw her, her eyes had been so swollen that she couldn’t open them, and even when she did manage to, she could barely see. Her broken ribs were tightly bound and still caused her tremendous pain if she so much as moved and her broken limbs were in plaster casts. Even so every day now saw a slight improvement in her. The swelling on her face had gone down and the bruises had faded from bright blues and purples to dull greys and yellows. There was nothing that could be done for her missing teeth but the doctors were optimistic that her face would not be scarred once she had healed and because the missing teeth were at one side of the back of her mouth, hopefully being without them wouldn’t spoil her lovely smile. They had warned that her broken fingers might always be a little stiff and because the two fractures in her leg had been very severe it was possible she would always walk with a limp, but even all these things could not detract from the joy they all felt that she had survived.
Jia Li sobbed uncontrollably the first time she plucked up the courage to go and see her.
‘I’m so sorry, Tilly,’ she croaked. ‘Huan must have thought you were me from the back. It all my fault.’
But Tilly had been so gracious and it was suddenly clear to them all that she was actually a lot more intelligent than people had given her credit for. ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ she assured Jia Li, gently stroking her hair with her good hand. ‘Please don’t think that. Huan was a bad man. If it hadn’t been me it would have been some other girl sooner or later so stop blaming yourself.’
Ernie, who had just witnessed the tender scene between the two girls, felt a lump form in his throat. Tilly was truly beautiful both inside and out and suddenly feeling guilty for thinking that, he hurried out into the corridor to light a cigarette.
What the hell am I thinkin’? he scolded himself as he blew a smoke ring towards the ceiling. The girl I loved an’ was goin’ to marry met her end in a watery grave an’ now here I am lookin’ at Tilly in a different light. It was all very confusing.
He admitted as much to his mother that evening when they were both back in their little house and Hattie smiled sadly as she gently stroked his cheek.
‘You shouldn’t turn your back on somethin’ wonderful,’ she told him softly. ‘Your Carol was a lovely girl an’ I’ve no doubt that had she survived you’d have lived happily ever after. But you have to accept she’s gone now an’ what do you think she would have wanted for you? I think the answer is, she’d have wanted you to be happy. She wouldn’t have wanted you to spend the rest of your life mourning her.’
Hattie went off to bed then, leaving Ernie staring thoughtfully into the dying flames of the fire.