The Secret Mother by Victoria Delderfield Read Free Book Online Page A

rest.”
    She wouldn’t tell me what was bothering her. That evening, as we huddled together beneath her coat, dovetailed inside a shop doorway, I lay worrying. I felt sure that Mrs Nie, my figurine, was urging me to keep an eye out for Cousin. Long after Zhi had fallen asleep I watched the streets empty around us. I promised my figurines that I’d keep Zhi closer than my shadow. It was the early hours of the morning when finally, I let sleep take me. A shallow sleep stippled with questions – like why, if Zhi was so successful, could we not afford to sleep somewhere warm?
    Outside The Dragon Hotel, the boy arrived late with the fake documents that would help me secure work.
    “So where are they?” said Zhi.
    “Cash first,” he replied.
    “Only when she gets the documents – I want to make sure it’s not a photo of some northern girl who looks nothing like her.”
    “
Sssh
. Keep your voice down, lady, the cops are everywhere this time of year.” He marched us away from the hotel entrance, into a nearby alley.
    The boy gripped Zhi’s arm. She tried to brush him off.
    “Let go of my cousin, you’re hurting her!” I yelled.
    “Ah, so the
manglieu
can speak? Your boss will soon have that knocked out of you.” He took an envelope from inside his jacket and dangled it above me, just out of reach. “This what you’re after, eh? Ask politely, eh?” The boy’s teeth were yellow and uneven. His breath smelt of rice vinegar. He gave a thin snigger.
    I punched out, flattening him to the wall.
    Zhi grabbed the documents. “Run!” she screamed as we bulleted into the thronging street.
    We didn’t look back until we reached a square where I knelt, panting on the pavement.
    “Well done,” Zhi wheezed. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
    The factory buses were all blazoned with a green arrow. Zhi told me the arrow was Forwood’s logo. She gave a sardonic laugh, “It’s supposed to represent the company’s
progressive and dynamic ethos
.”
    Voices ricocheted down the workers’ bus as the girls talked.
    “Will there be enough work for us all, Cousin?”
    Zhi examined her red, newly painted nails. “Don’t ask me! The gates open at midday. You stand as good a chance as any of this lot, because I work there.”
    “What? You mean there’s no guaranteed work? But you said – I ran away because you promised there’d be a job for me at your factory. What will happen if they’ve all gone? Mother and Father will never speak to me again.”
    “Mai Mai.”
    “Don’t call me that, I’m not a child any more.”
    “You ran away because you didn’t want to marry a coffin maker’s son, not because of anything I promised.”
    I grew angrier then, but a voice whispered in my ear. “We stand a better chance than the girls on the next bus.” An ashen face, as narrow as a sunflower seed and with grey eyes, peered through the gap between our seats. “Personnel usually dole out the jobs quickly,” she said. “My advice: keep your head down, show them your hands and let them see they’re nimble. It doesn’t matter if you’re a child, so long as they can put you on the line.”
    “And if they don’t?”
    “They will. I’ve been around. After a few years in the city, I’ve seen it all.” The girl’s smile faded and she held out a hand. I locked fingers with her, nervous that she might not let go.
    “It’s her first job,” Zhi interrupted, “We’re Hunanese. She wants to know everything about everything.”
    “Ah, so she’s sky eyes.”
    Sky Eyes.
The name fit me well, like a new winter coat.
    I was about to ask where she was from when the bus swung into the factory compound. A group of women were already gathered at the factory’s metal gates. A uniformed guard blared into a megaphone,
“Get off the bus, get into line!”
    We surged towards the gates and I squeezed my way as far forwards as possible, thinking Zhi would follow, but when I glanced round she was gone.
    Two women in suits were