Waxing Moon Read Online Free Page A

concerned that no one has ever come to see how the baby is doing. What if they don’t take her back when she is done nursing? Are we stuck with her? I would like to know. What if another baby comes along? I can’t care for this baby long unless—” She stopped her speech there.
    “I will deliver your message. I just didn’t know I was here for that mission.” Mrs. Wang scowled.
    “No, Mrs. Wang. That’s not why we invited you. Please sit down,” begged Jaya.
    She brought more food to the table and then sat down across from Mrs. Wang, encouraging her to please take the chopsticks. When Mrs. Wang finally succumbed to tasting the food, Jaya pulled out her large breast to give to the whimpering baby girl.
    “Do you like my scallion patties?” Jaya asked, a grin spreading across her face.
    “Heavenly,” Mrs. Wang replied as she picked up her third one. Right now, a bowl of mud would be delicious, she thought to herself.
    After devouring half a dozen scallion patties, Mrs. Wang gulped down a large bowl of milky white rice wine. She was in an excellent mood. She burped and then she wanted to take a look at the babies. Jaya brought them close and Mrs. Wang examined them. Like his mother, the boy was double-chinned, twice the size of Mr. O’s daughter. She was alert and staring at Mrs. Wang as if she understood what was being said.
    “She sucks blood out of me all night long, and then when my baby boy wakes up, there is hardly any milk left for him.” Jaya laughed superficially.
    “When the mother of the poor thing finds her way to a good place, she will remember your effort. Even though I saw her only after she was dead, I knew she had been a good soul,” Mrs. Wang said.
    “Oh, we knew of her excellent reputation. A few years ago my husband was hired to escort her to her grandfather’s funeral in her hometown. He said that Mistress Kim was more queenly than the queen of China,” Jaya said.
    Mrs. Wang got up, leaving a few coins on the table.
    “What is this, Mrs. Wang?”
    “Buy something for your son. What’s his name?”
    “Sungnam is his name. Star of the South,” Jaya said self-consciously.
    “A good name that is,” Mrs. Wang said.
    Dubak got up from the yard, where he had been mending his straw shoes. He put the sack of potatoes on his shoulder and a towel around his head.
    “Are you sure you want to walk back with me with that on your shoulder?” Mrs. Wang asked.
    “When you bite into one of my potatoes for dinner, you will be happy you let me carry this for you.” He smiled, showing his horsey, square front teeth. He was already sweating. The blazing sun was still fastened in the middle of the sky.
    Mrs. Wang led the way, thinking of the name of the boy, Sungnam. Southern star or northern star, he is a peasant. And a peasant is a peasant, she said to herself.
    By the time she arrived home, the sun was heading west, and her animals were not excited to see her. The heat had been too much for them. She should have left more water, she thought, looking at the bone-dry bowls in the yard.

3
    Dr. Choi arrived at Mr. O’s house to examine Mistress Yee. She was sure she was pregnant. This wasn’t the first time she had thought she was pregnant. The other two times, Dr. Choi’s diagnoses had put the household in a somber mood for a few days.
    Mr. O was in his room, tapping his thin brass pipe on the ashtray and fidgeting a little.
    In the hallway outside Mistress Yee’s room, the maid stood behind the latticed door while the doctor felt Mistress Yee’s pulse. A few seconds later, the doctor nodded.
    “What do you think?” Mistress Yee asked impatiently.
    “Mistress Yee, you are indeed pregnant,” the doctor announced dryly.
    “Of course I am,” she said. I didn’t need an old frog like you to tell me that, she thought to herself. “Now you go and tell my husband what you’ve discovered,” she ordered him, without looking in his direction.
    The doctor was amazed by her