Chapter Eighteen

Five and a half months later

Early April, 1879

The first rays of the sun had started to scatter the early morning mists as Charity reached the General Mercantile Store. She hurried straight through to the rear of the shop, pushed aside the curtain and went into the back room.

At the sight of Chen Fai standing by the centre table, holding a large structure made of red silk and kindling sticks, she stopped short. She glanced at Su Lin, who was standing next to him. Then her focus went to the object in Chen Fai’s hands. Her face broke out into a smile and she went up to him.

‘It’s a kite, isn’t it?’ she said, lightly fingering the red silk which had been pulled taut over the wooden frame. ‘What’s it for?’

‘Kite is part of very important festival for Chinese people,’ Chen Fai said, his face solemn. ‘Today is Cing-ming Zit, Chinese name for Festival of Pure Brightness. This is day we sweep graves of our ancestors. It may be most important of all festivals. This is why we ask you to come to us this morning. Today you come see how we celebrate our ancestors and show respect for them.’

She took a step back. ‘But I haven’t got any ancestors.’

‘You Chinese girl, Charity,’ Su Lin said. ‘Must learn what Chinese do. One day you sweep graves of ancestors of husband.’ She beamed at Charity. ‘Dai lou has willow branch for you. We sweep graves with willow branch and this send away evil spirits that hide near graves. We like you come to cemetery and sweep graves with us and put gifts for ancestors. You come?’

Charity shrugged. ‘I guess so. That must be why all the Chinatown shops are still closed – everyone’s gonna be sweepin’.’ She paused, and frowned. ‘But most Chinamen haven’t got people buried in Carter, have they? Their ancestors are in China, so there can’t be many graves here to sweep.’

Chen Fai nodded. ‘Grave markers stand for grave of ancestor. Family in China sweep grave with ancestor in. Here in Carter we sweep in front of grave marker. All Chinamen go to cemetery today, and then have meal as family. We eat cold food at meal. We not cook on Festival of Pure Brightness. You come back here and eat with us.’

‘You will come with us, yes?’ Su Lin repeated, her voice pleading.

‘Okay.’

‘Give willow branch over there to Charity,’ Chen Fai told Su Lin. ‘We each have willow branch, Charity. First we sweep graves of Chen family; then we sweep grave of your family. Su Lin say you have Chinese mother in cemetery. Today we celebrate Chen ancestors, and we celebrate ancestor of Charity,’ he added, and he smiled.

Charity’s heart jumped. She stared at him, the blood draining from her cheeks.

‘My ma is there,’ she whispered, clutching the branch to her chest. ‘But you said she hadn’t got a reputation.’

‘I think I wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘I not know what happened to your ma, Charity, but I know many bad things happen to women who come in boats from China to Gold Mountain. It is not fault of women; it is fault of bad men. I know this. I think your ma is very nice woman as you very good girl. You are her reputation, and she deserve to have honour and respect from us. Is good day today – is day of happiness that we help the dead by driving out wicked spirits, and is day of sadness they not with us any longer.’

Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

‘So, we go to cemetery now?’ he asked gently.

She nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

‘Come then. You bring basket, Su Lin; Charity bring willow branches, and I carry kite.’

Using his shoulders, he pushed away the curtain separating the back room from the shop, stood aside to let Charity and Su Lin pass in front of him through the doorway, and then followed them through the empty shop and out into Main Street. Joining the straggle of Chinese men who were making their way along the street, laden with kites, food and willow branches, they headed towards the piece of wasteland on the outskirts of Carter Town where the Chinese had set up a graveyard next to the town cemetery after being forbidden to bury their dead with the whites.

When they reached the cemetery, they went first to the patches of ground where small wooden markers indicated the members of the Chen family. Chen Fai and Su Lin took their branches from Charity, and began to sweep in front of the graves. Charity stood for a few minutes, watching how they did it, then she went to Su Lin’s side and started sweeping next to her.

When all of the graves had been swept, she stood back as Su Lin and Chen Fai carefully set bean-curd cakes, rice dumplings and an orange on each grave, then lit incense sticks and wax candles and placed them around each grave marker.

When the last grave had been honoured, Chen Fai straightened up. ‘We go now to your mother’s grave, Charity,’ he said. ‘We sweep there and leave her gifts of food. We then fly kite in honour of all of our ancestors. You show us her grave.’

Her eyes filling again, she turned and led them to the patch of stony ground at the far edge of the cemetery where her mother lay.

‘Charity!’

Sam’s voice reached her from outside the general mercantile.

Still holding aside the curtain as she went to follow Su Lin and Chen Fai into the room at the back of the store, she stopped.

‘Charity!’ she heard him shout again, a note of panic in his voice. ‘I saw you go in there just now. Pa’s hurt. You gotta come.’

She exclaimed sharply, dropped the willow branches, spun round and sped back through the shop and out on to the boardwalk.

Sam was standing in front of the store, covered in coal dust.

‘Ma wants you,’ he said, drawing his breath in jagged gasps. ‘There’s bin an accident in the mine. Pa’s hurt real bad. You gotta come.’ He turned and ran towards Second Street.

Picking up her skirts, Charity raced after him, her heart beating fast, desperately wishing Joe was there.

‘Sit down, Charity,’ Martha said, her voice tired. ‘You’ve not stopped since you got back. And I think I’ll do the same. Hiram’s in bed. His leg’s splinted and bandaged, and he’s got the remains of a bottle of whisky on the table next to him. There’s nothin’ more we can do for him right now.’ She sat down at the table opposite Sam. Charity went and sat next to her. ‘You can tell us now what happened, Sam,’ Martha said. ‘Your pa’s always so careful.’

‘It happened when he was lettin’ a loaded car out of the room we’d been workin’ in. We’d gotten a good room for once, so we’d been diggin’ extra hard to get out as much coal as we could in the time we had. We’d only gotten the room ’cos the Chinee weren’t workin’ today. The white teams never get the good rooms now. We reckon the Chinee pay the foreman for them,’ he added bitterly.

‘Get on with the tellin’, Sam,’ Martha said impatiently.

‘Well, it was near the end of the shift. Pa was real tired after workin’ so hard all day, and I guess he must’ve bin careless about the rope. I feel real bad about that, Ma,’ Sam said, despair in his voice. ‘I told him to stand back; I said I’d deal with the loaded car instead of him, but he said no, it was his turn. He never lets me take his turn.’ He put his hand to his head in anguish. ‘I should’ve tried harder.’ His voice broke.

‘Don’t blame yourself, Sam. Your pa’s a stubborn man,’ Martha said. ‘When he’s set on somethin’, he’s gonna do it and there’s no stoppin’ him. So how’d he catch his leg, then?’

‘It was the coil of rope. You let the car down by a rope. The rope’s coiled twice around the prop, and then whoever’s lettin’ the car down holds the loose end. That was Pa. Somehow or other his leg caught in the coil while he was lettin’ the car down, and it was trapped between the car and the prop. He’ll’ve bin careless ’cos he was tired.’

‘Your poor pa!’ Martha exclaimed. ‘That must’ve hurt real bad. He didn’t deserve that, whatever tomfool things he’s done in the past.’

‘Oh, it hurt all right. You should’ve heard him as they tried to free his leg. It fair broke my heart. Well, you saw how torn and mangled it was between his knee and his ankle. We didn’t need the doc to tell us his bones were broken in a dozen places.’ He paused. ‘You’re not to worry, Ma. Doc did a real good job of puttin’ his leg back together. Sure, Pa’s not a young man and his bones won’t knit as readily as they would in a younger man, but you heard the doc – he don’t think Pa’s gonna lose his leg.’

‘It’ll be awhile afore he can walk on it, though, and I’m guessin’ he’ll never be able to go down the mine again,’ Martha said. ‘He may not have liked minin’, but I reckon he’ll like bein’ helpless even less, and watchin’ you earn and not him. And what about our house?’ She sat up sharply. ‘Without his money, it’ll be harder to pay the rent and with your pa not workin’ in the mines, the company might throw us out. What’ll we do then?’

‘You can rest easy about the money, Ma. I’m gonna work extra hard to make up for what Pa’s not able to bring in. And there are no worries about the house – I’m in the mines, too, aren’t I, so we’re entitled to a house.’

She gave him a tired smile. ‘You’re a good son, Sam, and I’m grateful to you, but I don’t want the next mangled leg to be yours. You might not be as lucky as your pa about keepin’ it. And I’d forgotten when I spoke that we’ve got Joe’s money now, and that means we’ll manage.’

Charity leaned forward, her eyes hopeful. ‘You know the herb store next to the laundry, the one run by a Chinese doctor? All the Chinamen go there when they’re ill. I could ask Chen Fai to get us some herbs that’d make bad legs better. I reckon they’d have herbs for that – they’ve got them for everythin’ you can think of.’

Sam thumped the wooden table in anger. ‘Don’t you let Chinaman Doc near him, or any of his so-called medicine. If it wasn’t for those heathen rice-eaters, Pa would be goin’ down the mine tomorrow, not lyin’ sick in bed.’

‘I don’t know, Sam,’ Martha said slowly. ‘It might be worth a try. I’m thinkin’ of that time when Caroline Oakland’s baby wouldn’t stop cryin’. It cried for more than two days – we could hear it through the walls – and she became real fearful for it. Jeb got the white doc in and the doc said the baby would settle down. But it kept right on cryin’. Real early on the third mornin’, Jeb had had enough and he sent for Chinaman Doc. The Chinaman went to the house, looked at the baby, said it was colic, rubbed a kind of peppermint oil around the baby’s mouth and navel, and it stopped cryin’ at once. He said the baby would be all right, and it was.’

‘What are you sayin’?’ Sam asked testily.

‘That if the Chinee have got somethin’ that’ll take away pain and ease your pa, then maybe we should ask for it.’

‘I ain’t askin’ them for anythin’,’ Sam said stubbornly. ‘And you ain’t either. What’s more, with what’s happenin’ in the mines, I’ve bin wonderin’ again lately why Charity’s still livin’ here. We’re a minin’ family and yet we’re—’

‘One moment, Sam,’ Martha said, hastily interrupting him. She turned to Charity. ‘We’ll need more water, gal. I want you to go to the well and fill four pails. You’ll find some pails by the door.’

Glancing nervously at Sam, Charity swiftly got up and went to the door. She picked up two of the pails, opened the door and went out.

Martha leaned forward. ‘Now you listen to me, Sam,’ she began. ‘Charity’s stayin’ with us.’

‘She isn’t really with us, though, is she? She’s always with her Chinese friends,’ he said, his voice a sneer. ‘I’m thinkin’ she’d do better to move in with them. The whites in the mines are wonderin’ aloud when I’m near them why the Walkers are puttin’ a roof over the head of one of the Chinee. They don’t like it. The Chinese are takin’ the food right out of our mouths, yet we’re givin’ food to one of them. It’s not right.’

‘We’re not givin’ Charity anythin’, as you put it,’ she said sharply. ‘She’s paid for her place in this house. She’s gone out and found work from the moment she could, and she hands over everythin’ she earns.’

Sam opened his mouth to speak. ‘But—’

Martha cut through him. ‘There’s no but, Sam. Apart from anythin’ else, three men make a lot of work, especially when two of them go down the mines, and many’s the time over the years I’ve been real grateful for her help. Are you suggestin’ that now, with your pa unable to lift a bucket to help me or himself, and with the extra chores caused by him bein’ ill, I should get rid of Charity and do all the work myself?’

Sam shifted in his seat. ‘I can see it wouldn’t be easy, but—’

‘Charity stays. She stays for reasons I already said, and she stays ’cos I promised Joe. The last thing he made me promise was that she’d always have a home with us. I’m gonna stick to my promise, and you’ll have to accept it.’

‘Joe’s bin gone a year. Things are changin’ real fast around here and it’s not like it used to be. There’s reason enough to forget such a promise.’

‘That so?’ she said, her tone sarcastic. ‘It’d be real good for Joe to quit his job, would it? He’d come home like a shot if he thought Charity wasn’t with us, and you know it. Is that what you really want – Joe back here, mad angry, and no longer able to give us much money? He’s doin’ a lot better where he is than he’d do at Culpepper’s. No, I reckon—’

The door opened and Charity came in, a heavy bucket in each of her hands. She put the buckets on to the floor in front of the sink, glanced from Sam to Martha, and went back to the door for the last pails.

‘I’ll fill these,’ she said, ‘and then do anythin’ else you’ve got.’ And she started to go through the doorway.

‘You do that, gal,’ Martha called after her. ‘And first thing tomorrow, you can go to the mercantile and ask Chen Fai to get us those herbs you were talkin’ about.’