The Girl from Harbin

Short story by Julian Hebbrecht

“Come in!” 

The voice of the trade attaché with the British embassy in Beijing sounded irritated. The door opened and a very apologetic embassy employee walked in. The attaché looked at his visitor with surprise. 

“Where the heck have you been, Jenson? We’ve been calling your apartment all week. I even sent Bradhurst over to your place to check on you. What happened?”

“Um…, I’m really sorry, sir. It’s a long story, sir. I… err…”

“Well, what happened?”

“Last week Friday, err…, well, I had only seen Beijing since my arrival here two weeks ago, sir, and I thought of, well, seeing the countryside a bit, and…”

“Go on.”

“Well, just to get out of the city for a day or two….We had a long weekend, and I….”

“A long weekend! You were gone for a whole week.”

“Yes, sir, err…, I can explain this.”

“I hope so.”

“You see, on Friday morning, I was walking to the railway station on Qianmen Dongda‚jie Road, with my weekend bag. It was very nice weather…”

“Get to the point, Jenson!”

“Yes, sir. I…,um…, well, there was this girl…”

“A girl?”

“She was sitting on a bench in the sun, in one of these little parks along Qianmen Dongdajie Road. All dressed in red. She…err… looked like one of those red flowers, an…um…whatyemecallit, an amaryllis, I think.”

“Will you please get to the point!”

“Well, I…I talked to her…”

“You don’t speak Chinese!”

“No, well…I… tried to talk to her, but she didn’t speak English.”

“That must have been a very interesting conversation.”

“Yes, err…no. I said hello… She was very beautiful, you see. She had a little suitcase at her feet. On her way to the station, just like me, I thought…so…

  The attaché took a cigarette out of a wooden box on his desk, lit it and blew a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling. 

“Are you telling me Jenson, that you were absent from work for a whole week without notice because you were with a woman?”

“No, no, sir. Well,“ yes... it was like this. We walked to the station together. I carried her suitcase for a while, sir. Just being friendly.”

“Being friendly. Yeah. And then?”

“Well, she bought a ticket. Since I hadn’t decided where I wanted to go for the weekend, I thought…. Well, I bought the same ticket, you see.”

“Where to?”

“To Harbin.”

“Harbin? HARBIN?” His voice sounded incredulous. “You followed that girl all the way to Harbin? Are you out of your mind? That’s a thousand miles from here, in Heilungjiang province, in Manchuria.”

“That I found out later, sir. I didn’t have a map of China with me at the time, so I didn’t know exactly where I was going or how far it was. When she bought her ticket, I thought the name of the place sounded kind of interesting. Harbin. All the people living there must be harbingers, I thought, ha ha.”

“I am not amused, Jenson. ”

“Sorry, sir.”

“And then? What did you do when you got there?”

“Her folks were there to pick her up. She had ma⁄de several phone calls, you see, during one of those many long stops of the train. They were very happy to see her. She introduced me to her parents. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand a word of what she told them, but they were very friendly. We drove to a small village, just outside Harbin. That’s where she lived.”

“Why didn’t you telephone the office to tell us where you were?”

“Yes, um…, I thought of that, sir. But I didn’t have our phone number with me…, and…, you see, since I had been here only for two weeks, I couldn’t remember…”

“OK. OK. Go on.”

“Well, I must have been the first foreigner, the first westerner they had ever seen there. People were curious of course. They all came to have a look at me. They were all very nice, wanted to shake hands, brought lots of small presents, took pictures. I felt like a celebrity. It was wonderful. We arrived there in the morning, and in the afternoon they took me to the city hall. Her family and lots of her friends and neÊighbors were there, wearing their Sunday clothes.” 

“Maybe it was Sunday, Jenson?”

“You’re probably right, sir. It took the train a while to get there. It must have been Sunday. But still, there was some special celebration, just because I was there, I think.”

“What makes you think so?”

“They had made me into a guest of honor, first foreign visitor ever to their village, you see. At least, that’s what I think. The mayor, um…, I think that he was the mayor, held a long speech of which I understood nothing at all, but since they were all so nice to me, I sat through their little ceremony nodding and smiling. Can’t go wrong with nodding and smiling, I thought.”

“What about the girl?”

“Oh, she was sitting next to me. She was part of the celebration of course because she was the one who had brought me to their little village, all the way from Beijing. She was really beautiful. All dressed up as well. They also asked me to sign the village visitor’s book, which I did of course, like Áa movie star. The girl did too. Afterwards they gave me some kind of certificate, honorable visitor, honorary citizen or something like that, I guess.”

“How did you communicate with the people there? Did anyone speak English?”

“No, sir. Not a word, but they treated me like a king. After their little ceremony, there was a party. Great food, and Chinese wine or whatever it’s called. More handshaking, and pictures with everybody. I got rather drunk, I’m afraid.”

“Where did you stay? Was there a hotel?”

“No, sir. I stayed at the girl’s parents’ place, in the guest room. They had it all decorated with flowers and dragons, very colorful. The night after the party was a bit embarrassing though.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Well, as I said, I got quite drunk that evening, so the girl’s brothers had to take me to my room, you see. They brought me some strong coffee, so I recovered a bit. The embarrassing thing was that, after her brothers had left, the girl sneaked into my room  and, well…, s"he…um…started taking off her clothes, you see….”

“Jenson, you didn’t…”

“Well, I didn’t want to, sir…. After all the kindness and hospitality I had received from her folks, I didn’t want to…you see…. But, I’m afraid we did, sir.”

“You could have gotten yourself killed, you know that?”

“Yes, no. I… err, couldn’t think very clearly, sir. She was really very beautiful and um…very persuasive if I may say so. I didn’t want to be rude….and….”

“Didn’t anybody notice that she was in your room that night?”

“I don’t know, sir. I guess not.”

“So what happened next?”

“Well, the following morning, after breakfast, I made it clear that I had to leave. I said: ‘Beijing, Beijing’ a few times, and ‘Work, job.’ I think they understood. They took me to the railway station in Harbin and, well, here I am.Œ”

“And the girl?”

“Yes…., um…., that is a bit of a problem, sir”

“Why?”

“She came back to Beijing with me, you see, and….err…., I can’t get rid of her.”

“What do you mean, you can’t get rid of her?”

“She keeps following me around.”

“Where is she now?”

“Here, in the waiting room, I’m afraid, sir.”

“Oh, well, If you bring her in, I’ll have a word with her.”

Jenson left the room and came back after a few moments with indeed a very beautiful Chinese girl of about twenty-five in tow. She started talking in rapid Chinese to the attaché whose eyes widened in disbelief.

“Do you still have that honorary visitor certificate they gave you in Harbin, Jenson?”

“Yes, sir, here it is.” Jenson answered, taking a »folded paper from his pocket. “I think I’ll frame it, sir, and hang it in my room.”

The attaché took the paper and started reading it, shaking his head. When he finally put it down, he was laughing. Then he looked at the Chinese girl in front of his desk, put out his hand and while they were shaking hands, he said in Chinese: “Zhù he ni men.”

“What did you say to her, sir? Why….why did you shake hands?”

“I said to your wife: ‘Congratulations on your marriage,’ Jenson.”

“My….my….wife?!”

“Yes, Jenson, your wife. And the same to you, Jenson, my congratulations on your marriage. You dumbskull.”

After looking at the beaming girl again, he mumbled to himself: “Lucky bastard.”

End.