Dialogue

Chapter 13

13 Those were the happiest days of our lives, receiving the Australian government’s unemployment benefits, sleeping as late as we liked every day, making love whenever we liked, going to the beach to see the sun rise, eating fresh-baked bread straight from the oven on the sandy beach at dawn. We rolled in the sand and ran out into the sea to rinse it off. The sun would emerge from the ocean like the yolk of a great duck’s egg, stirring strong desire in us. The mist in the air would be scattered by an enormous warm current, and the light of the sky would redden our faces. Lan Jun said he had to make up for all the food I had sent him for half a year, and cooked me delicious dishes, and I was as happy as a real-life celestial. One evening at dusk Lan Jun and I came to the club opposite from where we lived, where there was a row of poker machines in a corner. “What’s this?” he asked me. “They’re called poker machines. They’re for gambling.” “Can you tell me how to play?” We went up to a machine and sat on a high-legged stool. I pointed at one machine and told him: “You put the money in this slot.” “What? You know how to play?” “A little.” He took a twenty-cent piece from his pocket and inserted it in the slot. The screen objects rolled up and down, then settled in one pattern. “You’ve won! Beginner’s luck! Press it again.” Lan Jun pressed a button again: “And again!” “This is real good fun!” In just a few rolls, he won more than ten dollars from just twenty cents. “I can use this method to earn money and support you now.” Lan Jun’s manner was that of a man whose financial worries are over. Dialogue 146 “You’ve got to be joking. I’ve never heard of anyone supporting a family and making a living by gambling. Don’t get into this, nothing good will come of it.” “OK, OK, OK — I’ll do as you say, Miss!” Lan Jun used the money he had won to buy a beer from the tap, and we sat down next to the window. “Beginners often get lucky, do you remember I told you my experience of going gambling with that old lady?” “Yes, of course I remember. How much money did you win that time?” “I don’t know, I didn’t ask at the time. Since then I’ve gone gambling once or twice, but I’ve never won a jackpot again, perhaps because I wanted too much to win some money and got distracted by worrying too much about winning or losing.” “Since you talk about beginners’ luck, then let me try my luck again today,” and he returned to the poker machine he had won at before. After pushing the buttons a few times, he returned after losing all the money he had won. I continued to draw portraits at the club by the sea, and Lan Jun often came with me. I would draw, and he would play the poker machines. Sometimes the money I earned would enter the mouth of his poker machine before it had become warm in my pocket. A lot of people at the club knew me, but not what our relationship was, only that I was earning the money and he was gambling with it. Some of the customers became hostile and tried to pick a fight with him. “Don’t draw portraits any more. People think I’m bullying you.” “Can you support me then?” I was leaning on his shoulder. “For the time being we’ve got the unemployment benefits, haven’t we? I can’t stand the way these people look at me.” I did as he said, gathered up my drawing things and went home with him. It was New Year, and I asked Lan Jun how we should spend it. “Let’s go gambling!” “What are we going to gamble?” I asked him. “On my good luck in coming to Sydney,” said Lan Jun with great selfassurance . “OK.” A good friend of his had sent him some money from China, and we took it and went to a club near Chinatown, where we gambled from the evening of New Year’s Eve until the morning of New Year’s Day...