The Garlic Ballads

4.

The long-bed Jeep bumped and jolted along the edge of the jute field, until Deputy Yang tapped the driver on the shoulder and said, “Stop here, lad.”

The driver slammed on the brakes; the Jeep screeched to a halt.

Deputy Yang jumped down and said, “Want to stretch your legs, Number One?”

Opening his door, Elder Brother jumped down, stumbled briefly, then stood and stretched.

Second Brother nudged Jinju. “Get out,” he told her. Gao Ma was sitting on the other side of Jinju. “Get out!” Elder Brother shouted.

Gao Ma jumped down in a crouch; Second Brother nudged Jinju out of the Jeep.

The sun was directly over the chili-pepper crop that lay on the Pale Horse County side of the road, a virtual sea of blood-red. On the Paradise County side, fields of jute, broad and deep, seemed to go on forever; birds noiselessly skimming the tips of the plants made Jinju feel uncommonly at peace, as if she had already dimly envisioned today’s events. Now everything had fallen into place.

Her hands were bound behind her with hempen cords; her brothers had relented slighdy by tying them at the wrists. With Gao Ma it was a different matter, for he had been hogtied so the ropes would dig deeply into his shoulders and force his neck out unnaturally. It broke her heart to see him like that.

Deputy Yang took a couple of steps into the jute field and relieved himself with casual immodesty. When he had finished, he turned his head and said, “Number One, Number Two, you Fangs are worthless trash!”

Elder Brother gaped at Deputy Yang with his mouth hanging slack.

“Anyone who lets his little sister get tricked into running off with some man is a dumb bastard. If it had been me… hmph!” He glared menacingly at Gao Ma.

Without waiting for Deputy Yang to say another word, Number Two charged Gao Ma and drove his fist straight into his nose.

With a loud protest, Gao Ma took three or four rocky steps backwards, trying to keep his balance. His shoulders lurched as if he were trying to touch his face: knocked senseless by the punch, he had apparently forgotten that his arms were bound.

“Number Two… don’t hit him… hit me,” Jinju pleaded as she shielded Gao Ma’s body with her own.

With one kick, he sent her flying into the jute field. She took some plants with her as she tumbled head over heels. The rope around her wrists loosened as she rolled, so she immediately wrapped her arms around her knees; the sharp pain in her leg indicated a broken bone.

“Dont expect any mercy from us,” Number Two shrieked, “you shameless, stinking slut!”

Trickles of blood oozed from Gao Ma’s ashen nose. It flowed and flowed, black at first, then bright red. “You- against the law-to hit people,” he stammered, his cheeks twitching, his mouth twisted in a grimace.

“You tricked her into running away with you, and that’s against the law,” Deputy Yang said. “Not only did you steal a man’s future wife, but you destroyed the marriage prospects for three couples. They ought to put you away for twenty years.”

“I did nothing illegal,” Gao Ma defended himself, snapping his head to the side to launch the blood from his nose. “Jinju never registered as Liu Shengli’s wife, so she’s not legally married to anybody. You tried to coerce her into marrying Liu Shengli in violation of the Marriage Law. If anybody should be put away, it’s you people!”

Deputy Yang curled his lip and said to the Fang brothers, “That’s some sharp tongue he’s got.”

Second Brother drove his fist into Gao Ma’s gut. Oof! Gao Ma grunted as he doubled over, stumbled forward a couple of steps, and crumpled to the ground.

The brothers wasted no time. Second Brother began kicking Gao Ma in the ribs and back, and since he practiced martial arts nightly on the threshing floor, every kick sent his victim rolling and screaming for dear life. Elder Brother tried to get in a few kicks of his own, but his gimp leg would barely support his weight, and by the time his good leg was cocked and ready to go, Second Brother had already sent Gao Ma rolling out of the way. Eventually he landed a lack on target, but with hardly any steam behind it; worse, he fell down, and lay on the ground for the longest time before climbing to his feet.

“Stop hitting him! I begged him to take me away!” Jinju pleaded as she struggled to her feet by grasping a jute stalk. But when her weight settled on the injured leg, searing pains shot up to her brain, and she fell again, dry shrieks emerging from her throat. She was finally reduced to crawling from one jute plant to the next.

Meanwhile, Gao Ma was rolling in the dirt, his face streaked with blood and mud. Second Brother kept kicking him mercilessly, as if he were a sandbag, and each kick was met with shouts of “Kick him again!” from Elder Brother, who leapt in the air as if he were on a trampoline. “Harder! Kill the jackass bastard!” Elder Brother’s face was twisted; tears clouded his eyes.

After crawling to the roadside, Jinju propped herself up and took a couple of halting steps forward, only to be met with a flying drop kick in the belly, delivered by Second Brother. She groaned as she hit the ground and rolled back into the field.

Gao Ma, now bereft of the power of speech, was still able to roll, which was just fine with the sweaty Second Brother, whose kicks kept thudding into him.

“You’ve killing him!” Jinju had crawled back to the road.

Deputy Yang ran up, placed himself between Second Brother and Gao Ma, and said, Okay, Number Two, that’s enough!”

Gao Ma had rolled to the edge of the road, and he burrowed his face in the mud of the pepper field, his bound arms twitching above purple fingers that looked like toadstools. A worried Deputy Yang walked up, rolled him onto his back, and stuck a finger under his nose to see if he was still breathing.

They’ve killed Gao Ma! Jinju saw thousands of golden spots, which changed color to form a lovely green string arching in the air above her. She reached out, but couldn’t catch them. Sometimes she thought she had one, but when she opened her hand it flew off. A sickening sweet taste floated up from deep in her throat, and when she opened her mouth a red clump emerged and landed on a withered branch in front of her. I’m coughing up blood! At first she was scared. I’m coughing up blood! Then she felt blessed: her fears, her worries, her troubles, all evaporated like dissipating vapor, leaving a single honeyed sorrow encircling her heart.

“You’re a fucking avenger!” Deputy Yang cursed Second Brother. “You were supposed to teach him a lesson, not kill him.”

“You called me and my brother worthless trash.”

“Because you don’t know how to watch over your own sister. I didn’t mean you could kill him.”

“Is he really dead? Is he?” Elder Brother asked in a panicky voice. “Deputy Yang… it wasn’t me who kicked him.”

“Just what are you saying?” Second Brother asked his brother, glaring through bloodshot eyes. “The whole idea was to get you married.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“Cut out the squabbling,” Deputy Yang cut in, “and move him onto the roadway.”

The brothers went into the pepper field, picked Gao Ma up by the head and feet, and carried him out to the roadway. They no sooner had him laid out than Elder Brother plopped down on the ground, panting breathlessly.

“Hurry up and untie him,” Deputy Yang ordered.

The brothers exchanged glances, neither saying a word, though they seemed disposed to. Second Brother rolled Gao Ma over, facedown, while Elder Brother hobbled over and tried to loosen the knot. Through the encircling green spots, Elder Brother’s large hands, with their gnarled, bony fingers, looked to Jinju like ribbed fans. He was too shaky to untie the knot. “Use your teeth!” Deputy Yang screamed at Elder Brother, who looked up with a pathetic expression on his face before kneeling next to Gao Ma and trying to loosen the stubborn knot with his teeth, like a scrawny mongrel gnawing on a bone. When he finally managed to work the knot free, Deputy Yang pushed him out of the way and jerked up on the rope, as if trying to rip a tendon out of Gao Ma’s body. Once the rope was removed, he rolled Gao Ma onto his back and again stuck a finger under his nose.