Spring Pearl: The Last Flower

Roots

At first, Spring Pearl thinks it’s a thunderstorm. Then, she hears distant explosions and feels the ground shaking faintly. She shivers as she pulls on her shoes and pads into the hallway. As usual, the maids are panicking. Miss Oriole is already in her doorway. When Miss Emerald and Miss Willow come to the hallway, Spring Pearl announces to everyone that she’s going to see what’s happening.

Back in her room, Spring Pearl begins to change into her good jacket and trousers. But then, she notices the jail rags in the corner, and decides to change into those instead. She braids her hair into a man’s queue. She’s hoping she’ll pass for a boy. Girls are always doing that in the kung-fu novels.

Mistress Sung herself is downstairs in the front courtyard listening to the explosions. There’s a faint smell of gunpowder in the winter air. Without looking at Spring Pearl, she says that the British and French ships are bombarding the city. Spring Pearl turns to see where Mistress Sung is pointing. She can see smoke rising from the river and spreading across the sky. She hopes her fellow Rats are all right.

Spring Pearl tells Mistress Sung that she’s going to see what’s going on. The rest of them have to go down to rooms where the shells can’t get to them. Mistress Sung hesitates, but simply says that Spring Pearl is right, and that she shouldn’t go too far.

Doggy is waiting by the gates. He comments that he thought Spring Pearl might be coming outside. He scratches his cheek and says he better tag along to keep Spring Pearl out of trouble.

The streets are deserted as they make their way to the city walls. As they walk, Spring Pearl begins to feel a lump to make her left foot ache. She must be wearing a pair of shoes that she made. The thundering grows louder as they get closer to the gates. When they round the last corner, they’re just in time to see the disaster.

A pack of troops break from the tower, but there’s no orderly march. Spears and swords clatter against the stones as they throw them away as they run. An officer roars at them to stand fast, but Spring Pearl doesn’t even think they hear him. Panic is spreading.

The street beneath the wall is filled with troops. The troops have been swaggering about the city for months, bragging about how they’re going to chase the British away this time. But instead, they flee.

The fleeing troops sweep Spring Pearl and Doggy through the city as if they are pieces of driftwood. Several times, Spring Pearl trips and almost goes down. She is sure she will be trampled, but each time Doggy’s strong hand grabs her arm and pulls her back to her feet. The hardest part is when it’s time to leave the human river. Getting out of the crush of people is like fighting against a strong current of rocks and tree branches. Doggy and Spring Pearl use their elbows, and she even sees Doggy butt heads a few times. But they finally break free into one of the cross streets not far from the Sung mansion.

They stand there, gasping for a moment. Spring Pearl had lost her hat, and her hair tumbles loosely down her back. Doggy shirt is torn and he lost a shoe. They see more people trying to flee, and not just soldiers. Some of them have baskets on poles. Others seem to have thrown what they could into quilts they have bundled on their back. Children cry as their parents drag them along. One man is so busy saving his prize fighting rooster that he almost forgets to hang on to his son’s hand.

They thread their way through the crowd, and Spring Pearl can feel her stomach tightening with fear. It is a relief to finally see the walls of the Sung mansion, but they also see the gates of their neighbors open. Half-dressed servants carrying a dozen sedan chairs lurch toward them like a flock of drunken birds. Behind them, servants stagger under the weight of chests and boxes.

When they get to the Sungs’ gate, they see that the gatekeeper has stayed at his post. They hear the crossbar sliding off the holders and the gate swings open. Spring Pearl quickly tells the servants that the Chinese lost. The Army is deserting the wall. Spring Pearl demands to see Mistress Sung immediately.

Spring Pearl leaves Doggy to deal with the servants’ questions while she goes inside. She runs around the house trying to find Mistress Sung. Finally, Miss Emerald finds her. Miss Emerald says that her mother is in the garden.

Miss Emerald leads Spring Pearl down to the garden where the family is standing, staring at their mother as she sits on a drum-shaped porcelain stool under a quince tree next to some jasmine. Mistress Sung is dressed in one of her best robes and her hair is as neatly coiffed as ever. But when Spring Pearl gets closer, she sees Mistress Sung has taken off her shoes.

Mistress Sung is thrilled to see Spring Pearl back again. Spring Pearl explains that it’s all bad. She hears gasps as she fills everyone in. When Spring Pearl says they can still escape through the north gate, Mistress Sung shakes her head. She promised her husband they would be there waiting for him, and she intends to keep that promise. They will all be safe inside their locked gate. Now, it is time for breakfast.

Before she leaves, Spring Pearl offers to bring a bucket of water for Mistress Sung to wash her feet. At that question, Mistress Sung, wriggling her toes in the dirt, says that she used to love feeling the earth on her bare feet. As she lived here, she was so busy trying to be the rich matron that she ignored the plants. But that was silly. Spring Pearl has done wonders with the garden. Suddenly, in a surprising moment of silliness, she announces to the children to take off their shoes.

Glancing at each other skeptically, the children take off their shoes. Then, Mistress Sung begins to take out the remnants of Spring Pearl’s braid. She has Blessing get some jasmine, and she uses her fingers to comb the tangles out of Spring Pearl’s hair. Mistress Sung then begins to entwine the jasmine into Spring Pearl’s hair. And then, she begins to work on her daughters’ hair, too.

As the sun warms Spring Pearl’s face and the cool moist earth embraces her feet, Spring Pearl begins to feel like she’s become a flower herself.