FOUR SHORT STORIES

An elderly, tall lady, from the best society of Macao, she looked taller with her wide dress of black brocade, covering her feet, buttoned down the front by a thousand buttons starting at the collar, held by an expensive gold chain with a cameo, which caressed her small chin.

Slanted eyes revealed her ancestry. Straight silky hair, buckled in the neck, still black despite her seventy years; an austere ivory face with almost no wrinkles, nhim Hermelinda imposed respect, almost fright, to whoever saw her for the first time. Her grey eyes looked into Second Lieutenant Morais's eyes when she invited him to take a seat close to her on a chair near the table.

-"Sir, please do take a seat; please..."

Nhim Hermelinda tried to speak a flawless Portuguese when speaking with a European. And specially with this one, who aspired for her daughter Lita's hand.

Second Lieutenant Morais stumbled against one of the table legs, causing the vase of flowers to sway dangerously, but everything quickly returned to normal.

-"Sir, never mind", said the hostess with a wide gesture of the grande-dame she was and which made the diamonds sparkle on her long beautiful fingers.

Second Lieutenant Morais could not find the words to speak. He guessed that Lita, nhim Hermelinda's daughter, would be listening to everything from a nearby room. Turning his gold trimmed cap in both hands, with an embarrassed look, he did not seem like the young man with Don Juan pretensions used to frequenting the best society of Lisbon. Actually, it was his signet ring that had eased his way into that old fortification where Europeans were not always welcomed.

'Portugueses de Portugal, comem bem e pagam mal' ('Portuguese from Portugal, eat well and pay evil') was a old saying that nhim Hermelinda had not forgotten.

And more, the ngâu [sôk]2b) were gossipers and ill-mannered!

That Second Lieutenant, however, was polite and nhim Hermelinda waited, with some well hidden emotion that the ngâu would speak out, despite of her knowing quite well what his business was.

Second Lieutenant Morais finally spoke. He caressed his mustache, placed the cap on his knee, putting in prominence his signet ring, and started talking, using the banalities of the rather stupid man he was.

-"Madam Hermelinda, I am very sorry to disturb you... and quite grateful for your having seen me."

-"Never mind, never mind". Answered nhim Hermelinda with a smile, the first since entering the room.

- "Madam must know you have a beautiful daughter..."

Nhim Hermelinda interrupted:

- "All the nhum3b) and the Portuguese never tire of lusting after my Lita. But Lita is educated, has a good dowry, studies in the nuns school, and has never had a boyfriend. She deserves to marry an educated man..."

The dialogue proceeded for a while in the same banal way until Second Lieutenant Morais asked for Litaís hand. The maid came with tea and cookies and Lita appeared with a big smile dressed in a white dress with two large dancing frills and a big red flower on one shoulder.

-"Garridona. t! 4b)

§2

Lita's brother, nhum Jezico lived isolated in the big house.

Since his childhood he had loved Betty. He had met her in school. Betty was a pretty Macanese girl, daughter of a poor nhonha5b) and whose father, a "soldier in passing" left her behind with her single mother.

Betty was indeed a pretty girl who would please any Macanese man, who appreciated blond, blue eyed women.

For some time nhum Jezico had lived with Betty in a modest house, modern and tastefully furnished, near Formosa Street.

They had a daughter, Tina, also pretty but dark like her father and with the grey and piercing eyes of her grandmother Hermelinda. However, everyday or almost everyday, nhum Jezico had to go for dinner or to sleep in his mother's house.

Nhim Hermelinda had been peremptory:

- "While I am alive you will never marry that woman! People of such low condition Batxo-Monti, Batxo Guia! 6b)Catchivatchi.! 7b) Never!!!"

And nhum Jezico, trapped in the family tradition and in the mother figure's magic power, saw his daughter grow while he still remained single.

One day, nhum Jezico fell seriously ill. It was Betty who looked after him and succeeded in saving him, but Nhim Hermelinda as ever opposed to the marriage Jezico so much wished for, asked again for her permission.

- "Never!", repeated nhim Hermelinda. -"Never!"

She even refused to have her grand-daughter in the house.

- "You can live with her, but marry her... Never! Marry a Chinese like that. Never!"

The servants commented:

- "Ch'ám pât yân mân... ch'ám pât yân mân..."8b)

Jezico's daughter grew into a woman, married and went to live in Canada.

Jezico and Betty remained alone in the small house, from where they could see St. Francis Garden with its old bandstand.

Limping, leaning on his cane and on his companion's arm, Jezico went for walks, and stood hours by the window looking at the comings and goings of the junks in the [Praia Grande] Bay, while Betty went to work.

Time passed by. Betty's hair became white yet her face retained a youthful look.

She retired so as to keep Jezico company. The letters of their daughter and the promise of a visit in the coming year, for them to meet their grandson, enlightened the lives of those two mandarin ducks. 9b)

One night, Jezico had another crisis. The doctor was called. Another thrombosis. The case was serious. Jezico, still lucid, did not want to go to hospital. He asked for his mother to be informed and called for a priest. The priest came. He asked for the last sacraments and his marriage to Betty, the mother of his daughter, his constant companion for more than twenty years.

And so Jezico married, in the sixties; one of the last nhons, the son of a traditional rich Macanese family.

-III- A'LIN

A'Lin was a small woman with lustrous brunette tresses, who lived in Toi San Estate.

Toi San knew poverty, living in low income houses where sometimes two or three families lived in small and dark rooms, sleeping on canvas beds or beds made from old wood planks covered with faded straw mats.

A'Lin dreamed of working in the homes of the Portuguese, but not the local Portuguese. Rather those who came from Portugal, for they paid better and did not know how to scold... because they did not know the language.

This was what A'Lin thought. But she was married, with six small children. Her husband drove a trishaw, barely earning enough to fill nine bowls of rice.

At home, everybody worked in the firecracker factory to earn a little more. Even the grandmother, more than eighty years old, looked after the grandchildren and still worked in that trade, in which she had started as a child.

A'Lin was from Macao. Her grandparents had come from China a long time ago, when civil war transformed the villages in torches and people fled anywhere, dying by the thousands along the way.

A'Lin met Mr. Lam, her husband, in the Mercado Vermelho. 1c) He used to go there to sell his bosses vegetables.., poor bosses who tilled the lands, themselves also refugees from a China in convulsion. Mr. Lam was a casual labourer and worked in a garden, as he had since his tender years. He was skilled but was fired because one day two relatives of his boss swam across Canal dos Patos. 2c) They were two men who needed shelter and could help in the work of the garden. Mr. Lam had no other choice but to rent a trishaw and carry behind him the city people, for fifty cents a ride.

When the clients were few, he played long games of tin kau3c) or threw mandarine stones to make bets with his colleagues, to pass the time.But do not think that, though poor, they would not gamble for money. Always for money, no matter how small the bet would be. Remember that gambling only for the fun of a game, with no excitement, emotion or profit, is not a game for a Chinese.

On that day, A'Lin went out in her husband's trishaw together with her six children, all very clean and wearing their best clothes -from the last New Year. The youngest girl, with her three tresses held with a red silk spun looked like a doll with shining and pink cheeks. And the youngest, the only boy in the family, the pride and joy of the whole family, was sitting in a mé tai4c) on his mother's back. During the journey, he fell asleep, rocking his small head with sparse and frizzy hair, while a cap with fur ears and a small, cheap 'Sau Seng Kong'5c) jade had been removed because of the heat.

A'Lin was happy. Someone had told her there were some Portuguese ladies who met in a house near Tanque do Mainato, where, if they had many children, they would register their names and receive later some gifts. She was going there together with her offspring in Mr. Lam's trishaw, with a small paper flag from Taiwan still stuck since the 10th of October.

Great was A'Lin's surprise when she arrived at the small house she had been informed about but which she had imagined to be a big palace like those of the benevolent pou sat. 6c) The mistress of A'Lin's sister who belonged to the group had registered and recommended her and that day A'Lin was going to collect the gifts promised and dreamed about during long and sleepless nights. A new tunic? New shoes for the oldest girls to wear to school with more deco rum? A small mandarin suit for sai lou7c)to wear in the New Year? Noodles, rice, peanut oil, fish fins.., ham ü8c) who knows?.., sweets for the children...

When A'Lin arrived at Republica Avenue there was already a long queue in front of the house where those ladies met. Women. old men, children... a long queue assembled there since morning.

This was the second deception for A'Lin. The long wait.

All waited patiently for the ou tôk fu ian9c) arrival in order to start the handout of donations.

Inside, the European and local ladies moved, rivals in expensive dresses and flashy hairstyles. Outside, the queue of the poor Chinese waited, talking, gesticulating, while some still found some reason to laugh. Some were already sitting on their heels with a tired look. A woman still young, wearing trousers and a worn-out cheap cotton tunic breast-fed a child. An old woman wearing a shabby velvet black cap, smoked something unrecognizable. Would it be a mere sheet of paper with some dry leaves rolled in a cone?

Meanwhile, the big black Mercedes arrived from the Palace. The Governor's wife came out in a hurry and entered the house, shouting some thing the Chinese did not understood. The queue undulated and compressed. The handout was going to start. It looked like the dragon undulation dancing during the New Year, but the undulation of a dragon disrobed of its gala dress, a dragon dressed in rags.

A'Lin's turn was approaching. Her heart beat strong in her chest. It seemed to want to jump from inside. She felt like running away. But to where?

Where were her children? There, very near, obedient. The little boy had woken up and looked surprised at the new people around him. An old woman beyond started teasing him, playing with his little chubby hands waiving above his mother's shoulders. She was rocking him with her hip movement, trying to make him sleep while slowly patting him in the bottom of the mé tai, from where emerged his two little legs with small bare feet and stretched little toes.

At last, her turn arrived. She climbed the stairs and received a parcel. A cloth truss, tied at the top, a little heavy for the size. The outside cloth was wool, and looked like a pullover. And inside? What would it be?

She also received some money! Ten patacas. 10c) Very good. Maybe it had been worth going there. One of the ladies pulled a tuft of the little boy's hair; others, distracted, talked and laughed, saying something. One of them, a local one, asked A'Lin's name and address and went through a list placed on the table. She asked about her husband, asked what was his trade, how much he earned... things about which she was not sure. Lastly, she advised her to register herself and also her mother for the next time.

Still living a dream, A'Lin with her offspring and the big truss in her hand walked until the Government Palace and waited for her husband, as arranged, near the Jorge Silvares statue. It was almost dark when Mr. Lam arrived. The children were hungry. As A'Lin had received the ten patacas, they sat around a food stall, enjoying tripe with lemon, pickled roots and cookies. The little one also ate some rice, chewed first by the mother. He licked his little mouth with joy. But A'Lin was anxious to arrive home, to unwrap everything and see the beautiful gifts she had received.

They returned excitedly to Toi San, in Mr. Lam's newly painted green trishaw. Three of the girls fell asleep during the journey, lying in the bottom of the trishaw, legs and arms entangled over their mother legs. The smallest girl had her hair already ruffled and had fallen asleep sucking her thumb, like any other child in the world.

Toi San seemed far way, at the end of the world, despite Mr. Lam's strong pedals pushing.

They finally arrived; it was already dark.

At home, the grandmother was impatiently waiting by the door; she had lighted candles and sticks of incense close to the sidewalk and was waiting for her family's arrival, dreaming also of the beautiful gifts they were bringing.

When A'Lin placed the truss she had received on the dining table, a table the grandmother had already opened in the middle of the room, there was a stunned silence. Almost simultaneously, Mr. Lam and her mother-in-law asked:

- "Is that what they gave you?! Siu y si!"11c) Did you wait for so many hours to bring so little?"

The string was untied. The parcel contained a worn pullover, that might fit the oldest daughter. Inside, there was another pullover, with a darned hole; three pairs of shorts, socks, a pair of used children's shoes with the caps worn-out; a pack of noodles, another pack of sweets and a quite strange thing that A'Lin did not recognize. It looked like tofu. But it was not tofu. Moulded like a bar, a little hard, yellowish, with a green spot in a comer, it was packed in a can. What was it? No one knew how to read the words on the can. What could it be?

Some neighbours, attracted by the commotion in the house, hurried to see what was going on. All gave their opinions and they reached the final conclusion that the mysterious object was neither more nor less than a beautiful bar of soap. Just like the Chinese soap... Indeed, without any doubt, it was soap. Hó nan chi iâu? Hó kin tak! 12c) A'Lin felt like crying... Soap!? What was she going to do with so much soap? Next day, she was going to try that soap of the ngâu pó13c) and would wash the entire clothes of the house. Well, it was already an economy!

However, she was unable to sleep, excited with the evening's events and thinking about the strange smell of that soap; she was anxious to try it.

Early in the morning, she drew water from the well, filled the wooden tub and got ready to wash the clothes, squatting on the wet floor. With a big knife she cut a thick slice of the strange foreign soap and started to scrub.

At that moment, a young boy passed by, the son of a Chinese woman and a Portuguese policeman, who lived close by and who was hurrying to school. When he saw A'Lin so confused with her soap dissolving and staining the clothes, he stopped and started laughing wildly, in a crystalline laughter, like only children know.

A'Lin raised her head:

- "Nei I cá siu yeók mat ié?" 14c)

And the young boy, choking with laughter, all entangled in his school satchel full of books and exercise-books, was saying amid hilarious hiccups:

-"Aunt A'Lin you are washing the clothes with cheese!? That is cheese. I already ate some like that. My father brought it from the police station... It stinks, is not good.... Chi si! Nei sêk mí sêk ták?"15c)

And he walked away, laughing along the dusty road, leaving behind him A'Lin mixing her tears with the dirty water tub, in which she had washed the clothes.

-IV- ESMERALDA

Manuel was a sturdy young man, used to the sun and the smell of the land he voluptuously burrowed, in his remote Transmontane village. He was enrolled for military service, was recruited and served as a soldier in Leiria. 1d) One sunny morning he appeared in his village with a long face. He had been mobilized to go to Africa!

-"Good heavens!" wailed his mother. -"To Africa?! Why should my son go to Africa?! Good God!."

Esmeralda, the girl Manuel chatted with and whom he had promised to marry, started to cry when she learned of his mobilization.

- "Manuel, I will never see you again..." she whimpered.

And the next day she went with him to the church to promise the Holy Mother of Christ her black tress, the strong and lustrous tress of a healthy young woman, if she would bring Manuel safely back to her.

One month after, Manuel embarked in a gray vessel, in a harbour also gray and ochre. However, in the end Africa was not Africa, but Macao, even farther from his home. But for him there was no difference. Near or far, Manuel had to go, leaving behind his home, his friends, his mother and his Esmeralda, the prettiest girl in his village. Clinging to the rail, he saw many people waiving white handkerchiefs, he saw his comrades, tears running down their faces, fixed eyes saying farewell.

The land became further and further behind, separated by blue water, so blue, green or even black with whirlpools of white foam that Manuel, sitting astern the ship enjoyed gazing upon the spectacle. The wake of the vessel was a new experience for him, even if it would prove repetitive, a wonder to the mountaineer Manuel, more used to rocky places. To see the shoals of fish, some of them flying, so close, was his favourite pastime. However, the solitary vessel sailing between the sky and the water, day after day in a row, filled Manuel's heart with nostalgia and melancholy. What would his mother be doing? And Esmeralda? Would she go to the kermess, to the village dance? No! He knew well that she would not go. Esmeralda was his sweetheart; pretty and honest as nobody else. And Joaquim, his younger brother? He had already dressed the vines?

He never got seasick. He was brave, because many of his comrades got very sick during the journey, as he wrote in the first letter he sent home. In that letter, even if he was not very good at writing, he described as best he could his long journey and what had impressed him most. Each paragraph finished with words of longing, with vows to return as soon as possible.

Egypt, Suez, Aden, Goa, Singapore, Hong Kong, all in passing and finally when he had started to get used to that life of constant rolling, eating, sleeping and playing the "31", cards or an improvised malha, 2d) Manuel arrived in Macao.

- "What a darned land!" was his first opinion on what he saw.

Ravaged a short time before by a typhoon, the graceful city of the sixties presented a desolate image. Thick walls destroyed, pigs dead and abandoned by the waters along the piers and, in the road by the seaside, huge uprooted trees...

- "What a darned land!"

And then he went to the barracks. A sweltering heat and mosquitoes did not let him sleep for nights on end.

- "What a darned land!" he repeated.

When he went out for the first time with older comrades who already knew the city, he went to Oscar's tavern, walked around Praia Grande3d) and Bairro China4d) and did not dislike it. But it was difficult for him to get used to the illuminated inscriptions written in Chinese and that guttural language he did not understand and which puzzled him. It was impossible to talk with those people, always smiling, but when they wanted to speak Portuguese no one understood. He started to like it. In fact, he liked it so much that finally he asked to stay in Macao when his commission expired. He was transferred to the police force.

Stay in Macao! And marry his little slanteyed Chinese with an incredibly slit cabaia?5d)No! That delicate woman, despite being very quiet and humble, would not be the mother of his children. No one was so precious as his Esmeralda. To marry, only to the one he solemnly had promised to marry in the church of his village, and she had promised to cut her tress. The sacrifice the poor girl would make for his Manuel. And she was going to do it. He was sure. Only her! Only her!

And he sent for her. Marriage by proxy, and after in Macao, a wedding in St. Anthony's Church with the other policemen present, almost all of them with their Chinese wives; and as best man, one of the corporation officers and the subchief of the police station where he was posted, married to an attractive Macanese.

At first, it had been a problem to find a house. His salary was small and it was difficult to find accommodation for a small price in Macao. His Esmeralda, however, had asked for little, used as himself to having very little. He knew that in Aterro Novo, 6d) the Chinese refugees from Maoist China had clandestinely occupied some parcels of land; they had built wood huts there and tilled the land to subsist. There were already many vegetable gardens with good results.

It was where he chose his plot of land, in Chácara do Leitão7d) lowland. With some companions, some Portuguese, some Chinese, all policemen, whom he paid very little, he built his palace, with a vegetable garden to linger in during the weekends, and he even planted two pink swordlilies close to the door.

Manuel and Esmeralda were happy in Macao, despite owning very little. Their children were born there. Their only problem was money, which was never enough. When everything seemed to be improving, another child was born. Ricardo, the youngest of their five children, was already at school; the oldest was already at high school and was the pride of his father who never tired of praising his aptitude:

- "He will never fail a test!."

He had done well by staying in Macao, Manuel pondered. In his village, his son, so gifted; would never be a doctor. He had done well... No, he was not sorry, as some others were.

His wife, an unaffected village girl, soon started to breed chickens and pigs in the plot attached to his hut, like the Chinese did. One day, she decided also to breed dogs, when she learned that, like pigs or chickens, they were quite appreciated in Chinese restaurants and food stalls. Héong-iôc 8d)is a very expensive famous dish.

If she well thought, better did. But the problem was that her Ricardo loved the litter, specially Tó Lei; 9d)that little dog all black, tongue, tail, nails, as black as a sloe, with sparkling eyes and silky muzzle. A little black potato shining in the muzzle's place.

Tó Lei was the dog Ricardo liked most; it was his dog, his friend. Tó Lei knew it and loved his master. When he arrived from school there he was, waiting for him by the road. It jumped, barked and Ricardo voluptuously caressed the abundant silky hair, taking it home snuggled in his arms.

One night, Manuel came home very late. The children were already sleeping. He had a long talk with his wife. He needed money because he was going to start a lucrative business together with a Chinese man and another comrade, but urgently needed money. Esmeralda gave him her gold chain to be valued in the Chinese pawnshops. She sold chickens and pigs, anything that would make money, that would be converted into dollars to be sent to America. It would provide wealth for the whole family - only a little more was needed.

Then, one day, when Ricardo arrived from school Tó Lei was not waiting for him as usual. In the yard not a single bark was heard. The house was strangely silent. The mother came to the door, also silent.

- "Mother, where is Tó Lei?"

Ricardo ran through the yard that was also the garden of the hut where he lived.

- "Mother, where is Tó Lei?" he repeated.

- "How do I know? It ran way, disappeared, I don't know..."

Ricardo felt embarrassment and anguish in his mother's voice.

- "Mother, Tó Lei...?" he moaned more than spoke.... - "And the others?"

Esmeralda remained silent.

Ricardo dropped the school bag, leaned his arm against the threshold of the half open wooden door, hid his face in his arm and started to cry.

Only then, Esmeralda, who had quickly got used to the place, felt her Transmontane's heart pulsate again.

- "I will be damned if I will ever breed dogs in this house again!."

She cleaned her hands on her apron and entered the kitchen while arranging the dishevelled hair sticking to her wet face.

All Four Short Stories translated from the Portuguese by: Manuela Ribeiro.

1a)Pei pá=琵琶(pipa). A Chinese mandolin.

1b)Nhim = Little girl, in Macanese dialect.

2b)Ngdu, abbrev, for ngâu sôk =牛叔 Lit.: uncle ox. Pej.: who smell bad, like oxen; derogative of a Metropolitan Portuguese man, in Guangdongnese.

3b)Nhum or nhom = Youngman or master, in Macanese dialect.

4b)Garridona = Lit. Port.: very brightly coloured. Pop.: showy and flirtatious girl adorned to attract, in Macanese dialect.

5b)Nhonha = Single girl, young married lady, mademoiselle or miss, in Macanese dialect.

6b)Batxo-Monti = Port.: Baixo Monte, or lit.: Low Hill.Batxo Guia = Port.: Baixa Guia, or lit.: Low Guia.Names of old Macanese poor quarters with decayed houses and tin huts, in Macanese dialect.

7b)Catchivatchi = People of low social position, in Macanese dialect.

8b)-"Ch'am pât yân mân.., ch'am pât yân mâm..."-真系野蛮... 真系野蛮... (-"Zhen xi ye man... Zhen xi ye man...") (-"How inhuman... How inhuman...")

9b)Symbol of conjugal happiness, of the perfect marriage. When one of the pair dies the other stops eating, and also dies.

1c)Lit.: Red Market. Name of one of the most popular food and vegetables markets in Macao, so-called because its brick structure is painted bright red.

2c)Lit.: Ducks' Channel. Name of a channel adjacent to the Border Gates, separating Macao from the People's Republic of China.

3c)Tin kau =三九(tian jiu). Chinese dominos cards game, quite popular in Macao, in Guandongnese.

4c)Mé tai =褙带(beidai). Cloth baby carrier used by Chinese women to carry the children on their backs, in Guangdongnese.

5c)Sau Seng Kong 壽星公(Shou Xing gong)= Daoist spirit, symbol of life, in Guangdongnese.

6c)Pou sat = 菩萨 (pusa). Benevolent Budhist spirits that protect human beings, in Guangdongnese.

7c)Sai lou =细路 (xilu). Little boy, in Guangdongnese.

8c)ham ü =咸鱼(xian yu). Salted fish, in Guangdongnese.

9c)ou tôk fu ian =澳督夫人 (Ao du fu ren). The wife of the Governor, in Guangdongnese.

10c)Macao currency.

11c)- "Siu y sit "-小意思 (- "Xiao yisi"). (- "Trifles!").

12c)-H`'o nan chi iâu? Hó kin tak!" -可能似样？好简单(Keneng si yang? Haojiandan!) (What difference did it make? It was obvious!)

13c)ngâu pó =牛婆 (niu po). Lit.: woman ox, in Guangdongnese. Pej.: ox's wife, or simply, cow; derogative of a Metropolitan Portuguese woman, in Guangdongnese.

14c)"Nei I cá siu yéok mat ié?" - 你笑也? (-"Ni xiao ye?") (-"Why are you laughing?")

15c)- "Chi si! Nei sêk mí sêk ták?" -芝士。你知唔知得?

(-" Zhishi! Ni zhi wu zhi dei?") (-"Cheese! Don't you know?")

1d)Town SSW of Coimbra, in the Province of Estremadura, in Portugal.

2d)Metal disk game resembling quoits.

3d)Lit.: Big Beach. The Outer Harbour's wide seafront promenade bordered by banyan trees.

4d)Lit.: The Chinese City.

5d)Cabaia = From the Arab kabaya, is a long tunic slit on the side and used in China and other Eastern countries.

5d)A person born in Macao of Portuguese-Chinese parents.

6d)Lit.: New land reclamation.

7d)Lit.: Suckling Pig Farm. Name by what was then known a certain rural area.Chrcara = Small farm, in Macanese Dialect.

8d)Héong iôc =香狗 (xianggo). Lit.: Fragrant meat. Name given to cooked dog's meat, previously seasoned with lemon and garlic, in Guangdongnese.

9d)Tó Lei =多利 (Duo Li). Homophonous of "great profit." Name commonly given by the Chinese to their dogs.