Madwoman On the Bridge and Other Stories Read Online Free Page B

she
retracted her hand and said to the tailor, ‘Measure my
shoulders . . . my shoulders! Hurry up and measure
them.’
    ‘I’m trying to but you keep squirming around, you’re
not making it easy for me.’
    Wenqin took a sidelong glance at the curtain and
lowered her voice. ‘Don’t frighten her. Can’t you tell she’s
not right in the head?’
    The tailor looked a little ashamed and said, ‘I noticed,
yes. Too bad.’ Still shamefaced, he began to work faster.
Then he sighed deeply. He took the tape measure and slid
it around her. ‘Here, at the waist – I haven’t really got it
right yet. The waist is the hardest part of a cheongsam so
don’t blame me if it’s wrong . . .’
    ‘If it’s not right I’ll only pay you half your fee.’
    The tailor didn’t respond to that but stood sideways
on to her and measured every detail of the way Wenqin’s
body corresponded to the cheongsam’s measurements.
Identifying a problem, he suddenly took hold of
something; it was one of the frog fastenings of the
cheongsam.
    ‘I almost forgot – I’m going to have to take off one of
these lute frogs. They’re really hard to make. If I don’t have
one for the pattern, I can’t make them from scratch.’
    This immediately made Wenqin anxious, and she
rolled her eyes, warning him to bear in mind that the
madwoman was behind the curtain. Then she lowered
her voice to confer with him. ‘You can draw, can’t you?
You can draw it now and make it from that.’
    ‘What a great idea!’ the tailor responded. ‘And then I’ll
draw an aeroplane and make that too, shall I?’
    This retort struck Wenqin dumb momentarily and she
twisted her hands and said, ‘Then what are we going to
do? I couldn’t bear to take one off. If she was normal,
we could discuss it with her. But her mind’s gone and,
besides, she’s petty; she’d never agree to it. What if you
didn’t make lute frogs but some other nice ones instead?’
Before the tailor could even answer yes or no, Wenqin
shook her head. ‘No, no. I really love these frogs. If I’m
going to go to all this trouble to make a cheongsam, I
can’t have just any fastenings.’
    ‘Well then, what should we do about telling her? Shoot
first, ask questions later? Tell her after we’ve already gone
through with it?’
    Wenqin looked at the printed curtain, then at the
tailor, gritted her teeth and said, ‘Take it off. In any case,
we’ll sew it back on when we’re finished.’
    The tailor picked up the razor blade near him and
was about to cut the frog off when he hesitated and said
quietly, ‘I don’t know. I’m a bit nervous about this. I
mean, not only is her mind gone, this cheongsam is her
life. If we take off a frog, don’t you think she might make
a scene?’
    Wenqin put one hand to her mouth. ‘My heart’s
beating like mad,’ she said. ‘A beautiful thing like that
. . . obviously it’s hers, but we’ll never get anywhere by
asking her.’
    The tailor blinked. He thought it over for a moment,
then he found a safety pin and gave it to Wenqin, saying,
‘I’ll take the frog from the collar, it’ll be less noticeable.
In a second you’ll have to fasten it for her with the safety
pin. If we just keep talking, maybe we can get away with
it.’
    Wenqin was staring directly at the lute frog, her expression
wavering between fear and resolve. I want this frog.
I must have it, she thought, and in the end she said, ‘It’s
not as if it’s important. I’m just borrowing it for a few
days. Whether she notices or not, we’ll have to do it. Take
it off.’
    As evening approached, Wenqin and the madwoman
were seen walking down The East is Red Street. The two
women attracted attention in different ways. Naturally
people noticed the white velvet cheongsam the madwoman
was dressed in, and the sharper-eyed among
them soon observed what was different about the madwoman’s
collar. The safety pin totally ruined the elegant
effect and made people burst out laughing. But