The Garlic Ballads

his driver, “bring the canteen.”
    The driver climbed lazily out of the Jeep and walked up holding an army canteen whose yellow surface was peeling. A semicircular rut etched in his cheek showed that he had been sleeping facedown on the steering wheel.
    Deputy Yang poured some water into Gao Ma’s mouth. It reeked of alcohol.
    Then the four men stood over Gao Ma like dark pillars, all eight eyes glued to his face. The chestnut colt ran like the wind, hooves thudding loudly, sparks from its shoes crackling in the air; the circle it described was large enough to embrace Jinju, and as it passed through the field, stalks and branches bent before it like softly yielding willow twigs. Green spots careened off its glossy hide. Little colt… little colt… she wanted to wrap her arms around its satiny neck.
    Gao Ma’s hand twitched.
    “Good,” Deputy Yang exclaimed. “Excellent. That Yunnan medicinal powder deserves its reputation. Damned good stuff.”
    Gao Ma’s eyes opened a crack. Deputy Yang bent down and said in a genial tone, “You’re lucky to be alive, my boy. If not for my Yunnan medicinal powder, you’d be off meeting with Karl Marx right about now.”
    Gao Ma lay with a peaceful, happy smile on his face. He managed a barely perceptible nod to Deputy Yang.
    “Now what, Eighth Uncle?” Elder Brother asked.
    A rumble emerged from Gao Ma’s chest as he pulled his arms back and rested on his elbows, slowly raising his head and body until he was in a sitting position. Frothy, blood-streaked threads oozed from the corners of his mouth. Elder Brother Gao Ma … dear Elder Brother Gao Ma … the chestnut colt is touching your face with its downy muzzle … it’s weeping. Gao Ma’s head fell back. Slowly he raised it again. The chestnut colt is licking Elder Brother Gao Ma’s face with its golden tongue.
    “He can take a beating,” Deputy Yang said as he looked down at the now squatting Gao Ma. “Do you know why this happened?” he asked with a ring of genuine appreciation.
    Gao Ma smiled and nodded. He’s looking at me. There’s a smile on Elder Brother Gao Ma’s face. The chestnut colt is licking the traces of blood from his face.
    “Are you going to try to trick our sister in going off with you again?” asked Elder Brother, limping in place.
    Gao Ma smiled and nodded.
    Second Brother cocked his leg to kick Gao Ma again.
    “Number Two!” Deputy Yang shouted. “You stupid bastard!”
    Elder Brother picked up Gao Ma’s bundle and loosened the knot with his teeth, spilling the contents, including the envelope, onto the ground. He got down on his knees and held the envelope down.
    “Number One, don’t do it.”
    After wetting his finger in his mouth, Elder Brother began counting the bank notes.
    “Number One, you shouldn’t be doing that.”
    “Eighth Uncle, he corrupted our sister and used up your costly medicine. For that he must pay.”
    Elder Brother then dug through Gao Ma’s pockets with his damp hand, fishing out some crumpled ten-fen notes and four shiny aluminum one-fen coins. The chestnut colt reared its head and knocked the coins from his hand. Elder Brother scurried after them, tears filling his eyes.

C HAPTER 9

    In the old society the people paid for official lawlessness,
In the new order justice is supposed to take root and grow.
County Administrator Wang thought he was above the hw;
Driver Zhang slipped through the net after a fatal accident…
.
—from a ballad sung at police headquarters by Zhang Kou
on behalf of Fourth Uncle, who had been struck down on the road after trying to sell his garlic

1.

    It was noon. A dazed Fourth Aunt lay in bed, vaguely aware that someone was tugging on her arm. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and was face to face with a young policewoman in a beaked cap and white uniform.
    “Why aren’t you eating, Number Forty-seven?” the guard asked. She had big brown eyes and long, fluttering lashes in a face that was as white and round as a goose egg. Fourth Aunt was instinctively drawn to this lovely girl, who removed her hat to fan the air. “We expect you to behave yourself in here and own up to all the charges. Remember, ‘Leniency to those who confess, severity to those who refuse/ Now it’s mealtime, so eat.”
    Fourth Aunt’s heart was saturated with warmth, and tears pooled in her aging eyes. She nodded spiritedly. The guard’s glossy black hair, parted on the side, tomboylike, highlighted her soft white complexion.
    “Miss …”