'Come in – come and get warm,' he said. He gave her rice wine. He had a new little clock of which he was very proud. Mae relented, and toasted the New Year as her brother's prosperous little clock chimed.
She ignored the sounds of a party at Kwan's, and very slightly tipsy went back down Lower Street. Maybe it won't happen. There's a good chance it won't happen, she thought.
She got home. Siao was still not there. She pulled herself up into her loft and dragged a heavy trunk over the trapdoor. She opened up the connection.
More mail.
____________________
audio file from: Lieutenant Chung Lung
21 February
So what has happened now is even worse. I think Dad has gone back to you. I went to his room, and he was not there. Mum, Balshang is a mess, the place has roads and pipes for a million people, and no one knows how many have come here, between nine and sixteen million. I had not seen his place before. Mum, there was a lagoon of sewage behind it. All his things were gone. There was no sign of breakfast, just one very old dirty plate with hard food on it. That may mean he has been gone some days. He has no money, so must be hitching. He may think he will be able to get back to you through the snow. He is beside himself with despair. I don't think he even cares about getting through the snow. I think right now he probably wants to die. I thought I should warn you. If he turns up here with me or my sister, I will let you know. Try under the circumstances to have a good New Year.
What else? thought Mae.
Her spirits and her body sagged. What else can possibly happen? She turned off her machine. She pulled out the mattress and laid it on the plywood sheet that rested between the slats of her floor. The roof was the thinnest part of the house.
If the Flood came, she would hear it, and if it did not – thank God. She turned out the light.
CHAPTER 23
Sweat woke Mae up.
She sat up in the dark, suddenly wide-awake and gasping for breath. She had been dreaming of the Flood; she had heard it, the spreading crash of water and stone.
She listened. Everything was silent and still, but she was soaked with sweat.
The air! It was hot, hot as summer, as hot as those nights when you have to sleep outside. She heard a rustling in the eaves, like something breathing.
Erjdha Nefsi.
Mae threw off the covers and stood up, listening. Very faint under the sound of moving air, was a sound as if the hills were being tickled.
She switched on the light, and looked at the TV.
Forty-five degrees Centigrade.
'Wake up,' Mae told the TV. She threw on old jeans, rubber boots, and a light coat. She strapped on a rucksack filled with blankets and tins of food. She jerked the trapdoor out of its socket and dropped the bag down to the kitchen floor below.
'Siao!' she called. 'Siao, are you there?'
There was no answer. If Siao had gone down the hill, and was in a house or a cafe, he might be all right. If he was on the road when it hit… Mae did not have time for imaginings. She spun back around and sent an audio file.
'Bedri. It's forty-five Celsius, the Erjdha is breathing, and I can hear the meltdown. I don't know if it's Flood or not, but please tell people: if it is at the worst, we will need help. It's four-thirty a.m. now, and I need to store battery power, so I'm sending this off, and leaving. Don't bother replying, I won't be here. If it's bad, I'll be at Kwan's.'
Mae pushed the machine off, and lowered herself through the trapdoor, badly scraping her forearm. She could hear her breath rattling like gambler's dice. She dropped to the floor, and hauled back the curtains to Siao's alcove.
Old Mr Chung slept, quietly smiling. He smelled of rice wine. Mae called him, and shook him. 'Mr Chung-sir! Mr Chung!'
She dragged him blinking out of sleep.
'It's here, Mr Chung, it's here, the Flood – get up!'
He had fallen onto the bed fully clothed. Mae knelt and jammed his feet into string shoes. 'Come, Mr Chung, come!'
She rattled him out of the house, into the courtyard under the stars. The hot wind had blasted the sky clean; everything was hot and clear. She explained to Mr Chung that Siao was still down the hill, he must get to Mr Wing's Big House.
Then Mae pounded on the door of the Kens.
'Kuei! Kuei! Old Mrs Ken. Get up! Get up! Erjdha Nefsi!'
The window overhead was thrown open, wood clunked against the wall. Silhouetted against the whitewash was Mr Ken's mother, hissing.
'Go away, you madwoman. My son is asleep. Take your fancies and
go.'
'Feel the wind! Feel the air! It's hot; it's nearly fire. It… is… here!' Mae thought: I don't have time for this, or for you. 'Mr Ken. Ken Kuei! Wake up!'
It's come, said a voice. This is what it was like.
Mae began to feel a kind of panic. 'Ken Kuei! You said you would help!'
The air is like fire and the water moves the earth.
Mr Chung suddenly said, 'I'll be back.' The old man trotted away bowlegged towards the barn.
'Mr Chung, we have to go!'
Mr Chung's voice had an unexpected edge. 'I can't leave my tools!'
Oh, no! Mae held her head. She shouted to them alclass="underline" 'We all have to leave here now! Our court is in a very bad position. Both rocks and water will wash here, nobody must stay here!'
And suddenly, Old Mrs Tung spoke, calling Mrs Ken by her childhood name: 'Ting! Do as you are told! No more nonsense! Even as a little girl, all you ever wanted to do was stay inside the house. I've told you and told you what happened last time. The Flood is here. Darling daughter, you… will… have to leave this house!'
At the window, Old Mrs Ken's face fell. Hot wind buffeted the shutters.
Someone touched Mae's arm, bringing her back. 'I'm here,' said Mr Ken.
Mae gasped, recalled to herself. 'She's with me. She's using my voice!'
Mr Ken put an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. 'I will get your father-in-law to safety,' he promised.
'And your mother and the Okans.' Mae swung her bag higher up her shoulder.
Mr Ken smiled, amused. 'Is there anything else?' They started to walk towards the gate.
'Yes. Start yelling.'
' "Happy New Year"?'
Mae saw him smiling, moonlight making him look young and merry. Okay, she admitted. I love him.
Old Mr Chung returned with his bag of tools. He bowed and greeted Mr Ken sweetly. 'Happy New Year.'
Ken swung open the courtyard gate for her. His smile cracked wider and he started to bellow, as if in a child's game: 'Happy New Year! The Flood is here!'
Mae joined in. 'This is no joke! The snows are melting!'
He looked up into her face. 'You know don't you?'
That he loved her.
'Yes,' she said. 'Yes, yes I do. Now, let's go!'
Mae turned left down Lower Street. 'Get everyone up to Mr Wing's!' she shouted again to them both, and began to run.
The air pulsed as if there was something, huge and hot and alive, breathing down the back of her neck. Mae shouted as she ran: 'Dragon's breath! Wake up. Wake up!'
Already, down the cobbled slope of Lower Street, water ran in a current. Her feet made plashing sounds and her thick boots clunked on the uneven stones. She tripped and knocked her wrist against the side of Mr Kemal's house.
Her plan was to get to the mosque, to use the PA to warn everyone. She turned up the slope towards Sezen's.
'Inshallah!' gasped Mae.
In hot starlight she saw: Already the snow from this lower slope was gone.
Mae ran up the hill, slipping on a glossy surface of mud and moss. The ground creaked with water as if it were an overfull barrel. Where her feet did not shoot backwards out from under her, they sank into mud.