Factory Girl Read online




  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Afterword

  Author’s Note

  Singular Reads

  About the Author

  CLARION BOOKS

  3 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10016

  Copyright © 2017 by Josanne La Valley

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  www.hmhco.com

  Cover photograph © Getty Images/Andy Hanson/EyeEm

  Cover design by Sharismar Rodriguez

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: La Valley, Josanne.

  Title: Factory girl / Josanne La Valley.

  Description: Boston; New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2017] | Summary: “In order to save her family’s farm, Roshen, sixteen, must leave her rural home to work in a factory in the south of China. There she finds arduous and degrading conditions and contempt for her minority (Uyghur) background. Sustained by her bond with other Uyghur girls, Roshen is resolved to endure all to help her family and ultimately her people”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016001513 | ISBN 9780544699472 (hardback)

  Subjects: LCSH: Uighur (Turkic people)—China—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Uighur (Turkic people)—Fiction. | Factories—Fiction. | Work—Fiction. | Prejudices—Fiction. | Ethnic relations—Fiction. | China—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.V2544 Fac 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  eISBN 978-0-544-69953-3

  v1.1216

  To the Uyghur people of East Turkestan in their struggle to preserve their language, culture, and religion and to live freely in their own land.

  Uyghur is pronounced WEEgur.

  One

  IT HAPPENS THE LAST DAY of school. A dictate. Delivered to me, personally, by my teacher. It will change my life.

  I tell no one. I try to celebrate Meryam’s wedding as if it is the happiest of times, and it is, for her. Now the three days of her wedding are coming to a close as the bridegroom’s family and friends take the bride from her home to the home of her new husband.

  As we come near, we hop from the donkey carts that have carried us and form a procession. Four attendants are in the lead, and I am one of them, leading the gathering past the policemen and cameraman who have been assigned to attend our ancient ritual—​which is still allowed, though I’m certain that’s only because it’s good for the Chinese tourist website. I try to erase the intruders from my mind as my arms move gracefully in wide waves and my feet keep the pattern of our dance. We approach the opened gate of the silk maker’s compound to the steady beat of the musicians, who now pluck louder and louder on the strings of their instruments while one finger-drums the taut leather of his dap.

  A rush, and Meryam’s brother, Ahmat, and three other male relatives break through our gathering. They carry Meryam, crouched, her head covered, in the middle of a richly colored carpet that they hold by its four corners. A bonfire burns in front of the groom’s home, and they whoosh her through the leaping flames to show how she will endure the hardships of married life.

  I slip inside the house, where her mother and I will provide the familiar hands to help her slide from the carpet to her seat on the floor beside her new relatives. She is expected to cry, to be scared and unsure, but I hear giggles behind the thick white covering that she must keep over her while the musicians play and sing of how the new couple will never part.

  At last the cloth is lifted. A female cousin of the bride dances. Then we spill out into the courtyard for the last rituals of the three-day celebration, during which Ahmat and I have been so busy catering to Meryam’s needs that it has been easy for me to avoid being alone with him.

  He heads toward me now. I pretend not to see him, and with my arms raised I slide in among the dancers. He follows. We will each dance alone. That is the Uyghur way. But we are dancing together, our arms, our feet intertwining, almost touching. We are one. I know that so truly.

  I force myself to think only of the repeated taah-te-ta-tah-tah of the beat—​over and over—​until the high-pitched chant of my little sister, Aygul, breaks through.

  “You will be next. You will be next,” Aygul teases as she dances at our side. Her words are picked up by those around us, even though the others know that Ahmat and I intend to continue our studies, so there is no plan for a wedding yet.

  I lower my head to hide my pain as Ahmat slowly turns his arms and feet away and joins the other dancers.

  There is laughter at our expense. We’ve been caught in our oneness. They must think I’m shy, for I don’t look up.

  How could I?

  In a few days, I’ll be gone. Sent away.

  There’ll be no more schooling. Courtship? Wedding? Those words are no longer meant for me. I’ve been given the honor, my teacher said, of working in a factory far away in southern China. The local cadre will come speak to Father. Wait until after Meryam’s wedding, I pleaded, and the teacher agreed.

  I dance my way to the edge of the crowded courtyard and slip inside the weaving room. Today there is more interest in dancing and eating than in the weaving of ikat. I stand among the idle looms and let my sorrow flow from my eyes.

  If I refuse to go, they’ll deny me my schooling. There will never be a wedding. They’ll take away my registration card and refuse to issue me a marriage certificate. I have no life if I go—​or if I stay.

  Ahmat moves toward me, and I don’t have time to stop my tears. “Roshen,” he says, “it’s a happy event. Meryam has dreamed of this day for years.” He brushes my tears away with his fingers, letting his touch linger on my cheeks. Even as my heart races, I push his hand away. I must not allow it. But my fingers go to my face and touch the place where his have been, for I want to remember the feeling forever.

  He smiles, and for the longest time we devour each other with our eyes. No one can deny us that. Then we dance again, alone but together in our Uyghur way.

  I say nothing about my leaving.

  It is near evening when Aygul comes to tell me we must go home. Grandfather has clapped and sung until his old bones will hardly hold him upright long enough to get to the donkey cart. I spend little time saying goodbye to Meryam, for I do not trust myself to show only t
he joy she deserves. Yet she will not let me go and insists on walking me to the cart. And soon we are an entourage, for Meryam’s mother, her father, and Ahmat all walk out too, to say goodbye to my family.

  When the beats from the drum and the last sounds of music fade from our hearing, Father turns to me.

  “Are you certain you want to keep going to school, Roshen?” Father says, and Grandmother, Mother, and Aygul cluck their tongues and laugh.

  I’m caught off-guard. I pretend shyness, covering my face with my hands, hoping the coming darkness hides my distress.

  Father laughs and prods the donkey to a faster pace. For now, the happy mood of Meryam’s wedding prevails.

  I will speak to him tomorrow.

  Two

  SLEEP HAS COME and gone. I linger on the sleeping platform a moment, storing the memory of Aygul’s warmth next to me. I want to cradle my sister in my arms. Hold her near me forever.

  That’s not to be.

  When I’m finally allowed to return home, will Aygul want me to hold her? She’ll be almost nine years old. Will she think herself too grown up?

  I dress quietly and leave the house unseen. I pass our sheep pens, the chicken coop. I wander through our gardens and fields, verdant with vegetables, corn, and grains. We will do well at market this summer. I stop and gaze in awe at the stark beauty of our mulberry trees, silhouetted in the first soft light of day. There is majesty in the naked branches, stripped of almost all their leaves to feed the thousands of hungry silkworms from which the finest thread will be spun.

  This picture, this memory of our land, I will store and take with me. I’ve worked in these fields. Helped to sow, cultivate, and harvest their bounty. The land brings my family a good life.

  I kick at the ground, stirring up the parched, sandy soil that shows how near our farm lies to the great Taklamakan Desert. I must remember the smell of this dusty place, where every breath is mixed with a bit of sand blown in from the desert. What will it smell like in a factory city? Will there be a patch of earth to kick at?

  “Why am I the one you picked to go?” I cry out. Safe to say this here, where no one can overhear and cart me off to detention for daring to ask such a question. They sometimes arrest women for such talk. More likely they’d fine Father an impossible sum of money or take our farm.

  I try to unclench my fists, for I came here to collect memories, not to rage against a force I can’t control.

  “Allah, help me,” I whisper. I am not good at prayers, not certain how to speak to God. I’m worried about what will happen when I return home in a year. Rumors about the girls who have been sent away disturb me—​some of them never come back. Those who do are often thought to be impure and unworthy of a Uyghur husband. “Keep me one with my home and my people while I am away.”

  I dare not think of Ahmat. Will he wait for me? Father wants us to marry. He has no sons and hopes that Ahmat will take over the farm one day. Both our families have long agreed that our marriage would be a good idea. Ahmat is much more interested in his agricultural and water management training—​and the mismanagement of resources by the Chinese—​than in following his father’s trade as a wood craftsman.

  The pale, shrouded sun begins to rise through the morning mist. I hurry back to the house before Aygul is sent to find me.

  My family already sits around the eating cloth. I fix tea and take my place beside Mother. They’ve been especially quiet since I removed my shoes and came to sit with them. They look at the ground. Mother bites her lip and tries not to smile. It’s Aygul who blurts out, “We’re having a visitor today, Roshen, and we have lots of work to do to get ready. So eat fast.”

  They clap and ooh and aah, and then I know. This is the day Ahmat’s mother has chosen to visit my family. She’ll bring a golden ring, and they’ll talk about whether an engagement between Ahmat and me is a suitable match.

  My heart flies to unite with Ahmat’s. The commitment for us to be together forever is as it should be. My answer, my family’s answer, would be yes, but when I lift my face to them, the clapping slows. Then stops.

  I shake my head.

  “The visitor who comes,” I say, “is one we do not want to see today. Mother, you must go to the wood craftsman’s house and say this is not a good time.”

  Three

  IN MIDAFTERNOON the local government cadre arrives in a car, and he is not alone.

  The cadre and the Chinese man who has come with him stand stiff and formal in their too-big suit jackets, watching Father make his way from the house to the road to greet them. The cadre halfheartedly returns the gestures and words of Father’s assalam alaykum. The Chinese man flicks dust from his sleeve and looks around. He says something in Mandarin that I am too far away to hear clearly.

  I keep watch from behind the half-open door of the house as the cadre, the Chinese man, and Father head toward the sheep pens. Soon they’re walking through the fields, and finally they move out of sight among the mulberry trees.

  “What’s happening, Roshen?” Aygul asks as she and Mother and I go into the yard.

  Mother and I exchange glances and tighten our lips. Neither of us could think of a good way to tell Aygul. Other Uyghur girls have been sent away when they turned sixteen—​the cadres have their quotas to fill. But we never imagined I might be one of them. The people at school had encouraged me to be a teacher. They knew I had passed my tests and was ready to move into teacher training.

  I go to Aygul and fold my arms around her as we stare into the distance.

  “The cadre has come to make arrangements for me to do service to my country.” I turn her around so we are face-to-face. The innocence I see scares me. I’ve coddled her when I should have been making her tough.

  “I’m going away,” I say, even then making the words sound fun, as if it were an adventure. My hands shake as I grasp her shoulders. “Aygul, listen carefully. I will be gone, far away, for at least a year. The Chinese need help in their factories and they’ve chosen me to go. But I’ll be back! And you must make a promise to me.”

  Aygul’s hands fly to cover her face as she tries to pull away. “It’s not true. You can’t go,” she cries.

  But it is true. I want to make her promise that she’ll keep studying, that she’ll try to be better at speaking and reading Mandarin than the Chinese themselves. They don’t want us to speak our Uyghur language. Then I remember that I was best at Mandarin and English and everything else, and that did nothing to protect me. I have no words of wisdom or comfort to pass on to my sister.

  We stand in silence as Father returns with the cadre and the Chinese man.

  “Come inside, Roshen, and make tea for us,” Father says, holding the door for the men to enter our home.

  I soon understand why he didn’t ask Mother to prepare the tea. The Chinese man speaks little Uyghur. Father wants me to listen and let him know if the cadre is translating correctly. He and Mother don’t know any Mandarin. They hate the sound of the language and refuse to learn it. Aygul and I speak it in school, but never in front of them or our grandparents.

  I build a fire and put the kettle on to boil. The light here is dim, and I stay close to the kitchen ledge, hoping they will pay no attention to me.

  They speak only of the farm. The Chinese man asks if the water spigot in our yard has ever run dry, has Father rotated crops, what grows best? He waits impatiently for Father’s answers to be translated. No one offers acknowledgment when I bring tea or seems to notice me standing quietly in the shadow.

  It is when the cadre clears his throat, reaches into his black pouch, and lays papers on the eating cloth that my body goes numb.

  “Teacher Cheng says that your daughter has excellent reports. That she is very educated.” The smile on the cadre’s face as he says this looks Chinese. He has forgotten he’s Uyghur. He’s a worse enemy than the Chinese. “She is the kind we are most proud to send away in our Surplus Work Force to help in the development of our great country,” he adds, still s
miling. He turns to the Chinese man and more or less repeats, in Mandarin, what he has just said.

  The Chinese man folds his arms across his chest. He is not smiling.

  Slowly, he lifts his head. As he pauses to form his words, Father breaks in, his eyes scary now, and black as coal.

  “You pay my daughter the greatest honor,” Father says in a cold, steely voice. “But you must be able to see that our family does not need the salary of a factory girl.”

  “No, no.” The cadre waves his arms. He does not seem to have expected this interruption. “It is because of her extraordinary talents that she has been chosen. It will be our duty to see that she is given only the finest assignment.” Suddenly his open palms go to his chest in a gesture of salam as if pleading with Father to understand that this is something he is being forced to do.

  “What’s going on?” The Chinese man’s face is hard, with no expression. His narrowed eyes never blink as he listens to the cadre translate the words that have just been said.

  Father steals a glance at me, and I nod. The translation is exact.

  The silence that follows is more frightening than the words as the Chinese man glares at Father. Finally he raises an eyebrow.

  “As the . . . incoming cadre of the district . . .” he says in halting Uyghur.

  Father and I both flinch. There have been rumors that the government is transferring Uyghur cadres away from their home districts so they won’t show favoritism to relatives and friends, but I hadn’t thought they might replace them with Chinese cadres.

  “Perhaps,” he is saying, in Mandarin now, “perhaps I can arrange for your daughter to stay here. If you are willing to give up your land. Sell it,” he says, “for a sum we agree on.” The dismissive gesture he makes with his hand cuts into me like a knife, and I wonder if I can keep upright as I listen to the translation and watch Father’s face crumple.

  But his eyes stay steely. He draws in short, quick breaths. I freeze, wait for him to erupt in anger. They’ll arrest him. Send him away to a labor camp.