Читать книгу Eat a Bowl of Tea - Louis Chu - Страница 8

In the quiet of the early morning, the buzzer sounded sharp and sudden, cutting the silence like the shrill notes of ten thousand cicadas.

But to the sleeping Ben Loy, a bridegroom who had not worn off the luster of marriage, the noise sounded faint and distant. Buzz … buzz … buzz. The buzzing flooded the bedroom like subdued sunlight, tugging at the eyes of the sleeper, enticing him to awake. Still on the fringe of slumber, resisting the powerful influence of reality, he clutched at sleep. By now the repeated sounding of the buzzer had invaded his dreams and saturated them with wakefulness, degree by degree. Finally, like a tired man trying to arise from a swamp, he opened his sleepy eyes and stared at the cream-colored wall.

Next to him, still wrapped in sleep was Mei Oi, his bride of two months. His eyes fell longingly upon her soft, smooth face. He smiled. He would not disturb her. So full of innocence and the purity of youth.

He had mistaken the door bell for the alarm clock, calling him for work. Before his marriage to Mei Oi, it had been his habit to be awakened by a Baby Ben every morning, except on his day off. He would set the alarm for 10:30 in the morning, get up leisurely and, in a matter of minutes, would be in the restaurant where he worked and ready for another day. The hardest part had been the getting up. He had come to detest the alarm clock that was always ticking on the night table next to his bed. Yet, every night before going to bed, he would faithfully and carefully make sure that the alarm lever was pulled out.

Now everything had changed. He was a married man. Marriage opened a new vista of life for him. The apartment had become a home, his and Mei Oi’s. Not just a place to hang his hat.

The apartment, on the fringe of Chinatown, was slumlike. It had hot and cold running water; but there was no central heating and the toilet was outside in the hallway. Ben Loy was not complaining; he was accustomed to it. He had lived here on and off for seven years, since 1942, when his friend Chin Yuen had invited him to share the apartment.

Wang Ben Loy and Mei Oi had been married in China two months ago; but they had been in New York for only a week. Upon Ben Loy’s return to New York with his bride, Chin Yuen had given up the apartment to the newlyweds. He had explained that, since he was a bachelor, he could find himself a bed anywhere. Ben Loy’s father had offered to find living quarters for them; but, in view of Chin Yuen’s generous overture, Ben Loy happily moved into the apartment with his bride.

The neighborhood was not a fancy one. Catherine Street was like many other streets in the lower East Side, which, instead of flying the flag of excellence, flew the multi-colored washes of its inhabitants. The fire escapes protruding from the front of buildings boasted only of mops and brooms dangling precariously on their rails. Garbage cans were left helter-skelter on the sidewalks, as if a gale had just swished through the middle of Catherine Street.

But it was a place to live. It was home to Ben Loy and Mei Oi.

The spring mattress felt good against his back, after many weeks of bed boards in his native village of Sun Lung Lay. Ben Loy turned slowly in bed, away from his wife. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, hating to get even his hands out of the blankets. Turning again, he threw a fond glance at his bride. The snow-whiteness of her face, even when criss-crossed with strands of long black hair, made Ben Loy want to nudge a little closer and kiss her. Her full lips, rosy even without make-up, looked inviting to the bridegroom. But he was afraid he would awaken her.

From his bed, he glimpsed the outside world through the slots formed by the pink-colored blinds. Sunshine flickered through, but it didn’t look like ten o’clock to Ben Loy. It was more like the crack of dawn. He tossed again, turning lazily to look at the alarm clock. Ten minutes to seven! What the … But who said it was ten o’clock?

The buzzer sounded again. This time unmistakably, distinctively. From the kitchen. It buzzed three times and stopped.

Goddamsonovabitch! Ben Loy angrily pulled the cover over his head in a futile effort to escape the noise. His wife stirred. Turning to her husband, Mei Oi said sleepily, “Somebody’s at the door.”

“Never mind that.” Ben Loy stuck his head up from under the blanket. “Sleep some more.”

Husband and wife stirred and tugged at the blankets, trying to make themselves more comfortable.

Buzz … buzz … buzz.

“Goddamsonovabitch!”

Mei Oi didn’t understand a syllable of it. The covers flew off Ben Loy, exposing his black and white striped pajamas. His black hair was like the feathers of a rooster after a fierce battle. He compressed his lips hard. He sat up in bed.

“What did you say, Loy Gaw?” his wife asked sleepily.

“Nothing, oh, nothing.” Ben Loy gripped the corner of the blanket and, with one quick sweep of the hand, flipped the cover back on himself again.

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” he said irritably. “He will go away.”

“Who could it be, ringing door bells so early in the morning?” asked Mei Oi. “Must be a crazy man who has no consideration for others.” She squirmed closer to her husband.

“Yeah, he must be crazy.”

Buzz … buzz … buzz …

“Let me go and see who it is,” said Mei Oi, half getting up.

“No, don’t go. Leave him alone and he will go away.”

Silence gripped the second floor apartment for a moment. You could hear the tiny Baby Ben ticking away on the night table. The sunlight pressed through the pink blinds, flooding the room with a pale brilliance.

Ben Loy turned abruptly to his wife and pulled her toward him. His arms held her like a vise and his legs entwined with hers.

“Never mind the door bell,” he said, kissing his wife full on the lips. Again and again he pressed his lips to hers, each time more fervently than the last. He closed his eyes. It was wonderful, just having and holding Mei Oi in his arms. It gave him a sense of possession, of owning. A husband and wife relationship. It gave him a feeling of dignity. Mei Oi was his wife.

Not like those streetwalkers. Filthy, diseased whores!

Then his pleasure in his new wife gave way to the chill of frustration. His passionate kisses became mere mechanical gestures, the pressing of lips together. In a feeble attempt to hide his disappointment, he mumbled to Mei Oi, “I am tired … so sleepy.”

Ben Loy loosened his grip on his wife’s shoulder and stroked her cheeks tenderly, then her hair. He was spent, embarrassed and hurt.

He hoped the buzzer would not shrill again. The sounding of the buzzer brought back memories to him, memories he would like to forget now. His foolish, impetuous, stupid past. His senseless and reckless youth.… When the buzzer did not sound again, he was relieved to know that the visitor had surely gone from the door by now. It was a long time till ten o’clock. He would get a few more hours of sleep.

But hardly had he turned away from his wife when the buzzer broke the calm like a spark of lightning. Buzz … buzz … buzz. Then there were three light taps on the door.

Ben Loy realized now that he would never get rid of the bell ringer by staying in bed. His arm made an arc and the covers flew off. He leaped out of bed, turned and smiled at his bewildered bride and then gently pulled the blanket back over her. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

As soon as her husband was out of the room, Mei Oi sniffled several times and dabbed at her eyes with her red pajama sleeves. Ben Loy does not love me any more, she sobbed, almost inaudibly. She had been most happy, happy with an ecstatic quality that was beyond expectation or belief. She had had no idea that married love was such a wonderful thing. But this picture of happiness suddenly faded when her bridegroom strangely abstained from any more love-making. At first she had thought Ben Loy was just tired and that he would resume his ardent courtship in a few days. Now it was almost three weeks since he had last charged her body with that wonderful feeling.

Ben Loy walked briskly through the long hall to the door. He unlocked the door and yanked it open. The morning light showed the silhouette of a young woman.

“Let me in, you sleepy head,” she said impatiently. “Where have you been all these weeks?” She was about to step inside when Ben Loy raised his hand.

“I can’t let you come in,” he shook his head.

“Aw, come on, honey,” she pleaded. “Just this once.” The girl began pushing her way in.

“You can’t come in here!” Ben Loy raised his voice. “I have my wife here.”

“Ha ha, I don’t believe it.”

“What’s the matter with you? I said I have my wife here!” Ben Loy excitedly pointed in the direction of the bedroom. “There, in that room. My wife!”

“This I’ll have to see,” she laughed. “You married? Ha, ha, ha … Listen, honey … will you … just this once, huh?”

“No!” Ben Loy almost shouted. The veins on his temples bulged and his face reddened like Quon Gung’s. “I told you I have my wife with me,” he continued more calmly. “What do you want me to do? Kick my wife out of bed and put you there?”

“Do me a favor. I need the money. Let me in … just this once and I’ll never bother you again.”

At this moment Ben Loy’s eyes fell on the clothes line strung along the wall in the hallway and now, for the first time, he noticed his wife’s panties hanging there. “Here,” he said quickly. “Look at these. They belong to my wife!”

The girl stopped short and began backing away slowly. She was a brunette, in her early twenties, whom Ben Loy remembered as one of the girls who had come to his room in his bachelor days. She stared once again at the clothes line. Then she fled down the stairs.

Ben Loy closed the door behind her. A sense of deliverance accompanied him as he tiptoed back to the bedroom.

“Who was that?” Mei Oi asked cheerfully, having recovered from her private eye-drying. “Why did you talk so long?”

“Oh, a crazy man.”

“A man? I thought it sounded like a woman.”

“No, it was a man. He might have sounded like a woman.”

“He must be crazy,” said Mei Oi. “Waking people up so early in the morning. What did he want?”

“Oh … he … he wants to sell me some insurance.” Ben Loy climbed back into bed, greatly relieved.

But the encounter made him uneasy. It brought back memories he wanted to forget. It was like the opening of an old wound. Even staying in this apartment seemed an affront to the purity of Mei Oi.