Where Waters Meet

PRAISE FOR A SINGLE SWALLOW “[A] unique premise of ghostly rendezvous among soldiers, combined with first loves for all three men . . . Clever uses of newspaper accounts, military reports, and letters to loved ones advance the plot and complement the dialogue effectively and interestingly . . . superb . . . highly recommended.” —Historical Novel Society “[Zhang] Ling deserves all the credit for communicating the universal language of love and war, but credit is also due to Shelly Bryant, the translator, based on how vividly and movingly the novel reads.” —Enchanted Prose “Zhang Ling helps the reader see events through a distinctly Chinese perspective in which characters speak from the afterlife and natural objects have human agency. A thought-provoking work of fiction.” —KATU-TV (Portland, OR) “As a writer of perception and sensitivity, Zhang teases out the many layers of the devastating weight that the war had been putting on the individual, especially women . . . creates gripping suspense . . . In a unique narrative style, A Single Swallow compels readers to reflect on innocence and humanity through the prism of war.” —Chinese Literature Today “Themes of gender, memory, and trauma are woven throughout the narrative . . . the story is not just about friendship; it is also about one woman, a single swallow, who changes the lives of three men forever.” —World Literature Today PRAISE FOR ZHANG LING “I am in awe of Zhang Ling’s literary talent. Truly extraordinary. In her stories, readers have the chance to explore and gain a great understanding of not only the Chinese mind-set but also the heart and soul.” —Anchee Min, bestselling author of Red Azalea “Few writers could bring a story about China and other nations together as seamlessly as Zhang Ling. I would suggest it is her merit as an author, and it is the value of her novels.” —Mo Yan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature “[Zhang Ling] tackles a work of fiction as if it were fact . . . with a profound respect for historical truth as it impacts the real world, she successfully creates characters and stories that are both vivid and moving.” —Shenzhen and Hong Kong Book Review “Zhang Ling’s concern for war and disaster has remained constant throughout the years as she delves deeply into human strength and tenacity in the face of extremely adverse situations.” —Beijing News Book Review Weekly “[In this novel] we see not only the cruelty of war but also humans wrestling with fate . . . the novel blends the harsh reality of war seamlessly into the daily lives of the common people, weaving human destiny into the course of the war . . . A Single Swallow puts the novelist’s ability and talent on full display.” —Shanghai Wenhui Daily ALSO BY ZHANG LING A Single Swallow This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2023 by Zhang Ling All rights reserved. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Creation of this work was funded in part by an Ontario Arts Council grant. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Amazon Crossing, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Amazon Crossing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781662510380 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 9781662509001 (paperback) ISBN-13: 9781662509018 (digital) Cover design by David Drummond Cover image: © suns07butterfly / Shutterstock; © Beliavskii Igor / Shutterstock; © white snow / Shutterstock First edition CONTENTS Chapter I A DEATH, A MEMORY BOX, AND AN OYSTER WITH A PEARL Chapter II THE MEMORY OF A FAMINE AND A DUMB HEAD Chapter III THE MEMORY OF A YOUNG TEACHER AND TOSSING WATERS Chapter IV SISTERS Chapter V THE MEMORY OF A CATACLYSM Chapter VI WHERE DREAMS MEET ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chapter I A DEATH, A MEMORY BOX, AND AN OYSTER WITH A PEARL 1. George Whyller’s mother-in-law, Rain Yuan, died ten days ago, unexpectedly. Sure, she had been sick for a while: renal infection, diabetes, a stomach ulcer, rheumatoid arthritis, and the towering Alzheimer’s. But none of these things could cause one to kick the bucket so suddenly. A heart attack, they said. But she had always had a perfect heart. Well, when one gets to her age, the organs don’t give you much of a warning. Her age? For heaven’s sake, she was only eighty-three. There are parts of the world where people live to be a hundred and twenty—she was a spring chicken. Screw science. Rain was not her real name. No one in their right mind would call herself Rain unless she was a rock star or the mother of Snow White (the real one, not the stepmother). Her legal name, as recorded in her passport, was Chunyu Yuan, Chunyu meaning “spring rain” in Chinese. When a man marries a Chinese woman, he marries the whole family. Luckily for George, the family of his wife, Phoenix, had been trimmed, through death, disappearance, and estrangement, to only a mother and an aunt, with the aunt living thousands of miles away in Shanghai and thus hardly a bother. What remained of that family, namely Phoenix and her widowed mother, had been close. Close was not even the word. For most of their lives, other than a few necessary periods, Phoenix and Rain had always lived together, prior to Rain’s nursing-home days, of course. Phoenix brought her mother into her marriage, like an inseparable conjoined twin. Rain’s passing unhinged Phoenix and the worst part of it was she didn’t know she was a wretched mess. George had left work a little early today. He and Phoenix planned to have an early