Wei Long stopped still when he saw that the MSS were taking his wife into custody across the street just yards from him. His heart raced at the sheer panic and certainty in seeing the Peoples Republic of China secret police forcing his young wife Tian to the ground…four men came down on top of her.
He had raced to find her following a phone call from her Uncle at Party Headquarters.
“Where’s Tian?” he had asked in his familiar quiet tone.
“She should be at work, why?”
“Go now, immediately, and take her home…” his voice trailed slightly, then in an unfamiliar tone, “You will bring her to my office in the morning.”
“What? Why? I just can leave my office unattended…”
“Go now Wei!” he snapped and hung up.
Wei was momentarily shaken by the exchange, but then dutifully rose from his desk and left his office without explanation. He left the Ministry building at first annoyed at the interruption of his work day, all the imminent groveling that would follow to his superiors, and then with each foot fall the growing realization that Tian’s uncle’s phone call was very out of the ordinary and the urgency in his voice a cause for concern. His pace quickened to find his wife…something was terribly wrong.
Wei knew where to find Tian; she was meeting her colleagues at a makeshift unfurnished office to discuss an internet newsfeed mobile application start-up…an idea he did not agree with but nonetheless he thought innocuous.
Was this why her uncle had called?
Wei had tried to think of a link or connection. His walk turned to a jog and then to a run, but he could not process rational thinking. His lungs ached and when he tried to think about a possible connection, his mind rebelled and forced recent images and sounds; their morning breakfast, her closed eyes and the way she softly bit the corner of her lip when they made love…and they way their new young daughter suckled her breast.
Tian’s screams snapped him back to the reality of what was happening before him, an agent had started kicking at her ribs and stomach. He was yelling at her but Wei could not make out his charges…all he could hear was Tian’s pleas of denial and for him to stop. With each blow her howls became shallower.
The white silk blouse he had given her a few months ago for her 21st birthday was soiled. It ripped from her shoulders exposing white skin and then with each fading resistance…more black from the dirty sidewalk..and then dark red from her own blood. The same agent that had been kicking her now fell on her neck with his knee and pushed her head down in to the concrete, her face disappeared, and then so did the rest of her behind the bodies of the plain clothed agents.
Tian became silent.
Wei did not move to intervene…he was frozen in fear, paralyzed by what he was seeing.
Citizens continued about their business as if the event was not unfolding right before them, all too familiar with seeing people forcibly taken against their will and clear in the knowledge that to try to intervene would bring their own certain beating and incarceration, and worse. They ignored the cries from his wife and the brutal attack against her…a few even made comments assuming her guilt as they hurriedly passed, purposefully giving the scene a wide birth. No one made eye contact with the agents for fear of bringing bad luck upon their families. It is understood that the people taken by the MSS are never heard from again, and families who try to intercede or find their loved ones soon find fathers and brothers, and daughters also being taken…whole families undone – misery.
“Tian” he whispered. What have you done?
Wei summoned the courage to move, to cross the street and take his wife home…he stepped toward them but then stopped again when Tian was lifted back in to his view. Two agents held her limp body, one on each side lifting her from under her elbows straining against her cuffed hands behind her back riding up between her shoulder blades.
Tian’s head hung lifeless. Her flowing black hair now matted and hiding her face with blood draining from its tips. Her feet dragged behind as they moved her toward a waiting compact car, white and unmarked…her blouse was gone now and she was missing a flat from her right foot. Tian’s once white skin entirely blemished in intense black and purple, with streams of dark red blood from the lacerations on her arms and torso.
Wei wished for her to look up, to look at him…but nothing…and he did nothing as they placed Tian’s limp body roughly across the passenger rear seat, closed the door and drove away.
It was the last time Wei Long would ever see his wife.
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Lawrence Lewis
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂