The Harmony Silk Factory is the name of the shop house my father bought in
1942 as a front for his illegal businesses. To look at, the building is
unremarkable. Built in the early thirties by itinerant Chinese coolies (of the
type from whom I am most probably descended), it is the largest structure on the
single street which runs through town. Behind its plain whitewashed front lies a
vast, cave-dark room originally intended to accommodate light machinery and a
few nameless sweatshop workers. The room is still lined with the teak cabinets
my father installed when he first acquired the factory. These were designed to
store and display bales of cloth, but as far as I can remember, they were never
used for this purpose, and were instead stacked with boxes of ladies' underwear
from England which my father had stolen with the help of his contacts down at
the docks. Much later, when he was a very famous and very rich man--the Elder
Brother of this whole Valley--the cabinets were used to house his collection of
antique weapons. The central piece in this display was a large kris, whose
especially wavy blade announced its provenance: according to my father, it had
belonged to Hang Jebat, the legendary warrior who, as we all know, fought
against the Portuguese colonisers in the sixteenth century. Whenever Father
related this story to visitors, his usually monotonous voice would assume a
gravelly, almost theatrical seriousness, impressing them with the similarity
between himself and Jebat, two great men battling against foreign oppressors.
There were also Gurkha kukris with curved blades for speedy disembowelment,
Japanese samurai swords, and jewel-handled daggers from Rajasthan. These were
admired by all his guests.
For nearly forty years the
Harmony Silk Factory was the most notorious establishment in the country, but
now it stands empty and silent and dusty. Death erases all traces, all memories
of lives that once existed, completely and forever. That is what Father
sometimes told me. I think it was the only true thing he ever said.
We lived in a house separated from the factory by a small
mossy courtyard which never got enough sunlight. Over time, as my father
received more visitors, the house too became known as the Harmony Silk Factory,
partly for convenience--the only people who came to the house were those who
came on business--and partly because my father's varied interests had extended
into leisure and entertainment of a particular kind. Therefore it was more
convenient for visitors to say, "I have to attend to some business at the
Harmony Silk Factory," or even, "I am visiting the Harmony Silk Factory."
Our
house was not the kind of place just anyone could visit. Indeed, entry was
strictly by invitation, and only a privileged few passed through its doors. To
be invited, you had to be like my father--that is to say, you had to be a liar,
a cheat, a traitor, and a skirt-chaser. Of the very highest
order.
From my upstairs window, I saw everything unfold.
Without Father ever saying anything to me, I knew, more or less, what he was up
to and whom he was with. It wasn't difficult to tell. Mainly, he smuggled opium
and heroin and Hennessy XO. These he sold on the black market down in Kuala
Lumpur for many, many times what he had paid over the border to the Thai
soldiers, whom he also bribed with American cigarettes and low-grade gemstones.
Once, a Thai general came to our house. He wore a cheap grey shirt and his teeth
were gold, real solid gold. He didn't look much like a soldier, but he had a
Mercedes-Benz with a woman in the back seat. She had fair skin, almost pure
white, the colour of salt fields on the coast. She was smoking a kretek and in
her hair she wore a white chrysanthemum.
Father told me to
go upstairs. He said, "My friend the general is here."
They locked themselves in Father's Safe Room, and even though I lifted the
lino and pressed my ear to the floorboards, I could hear nothing except the
faint clinking of glasses and the low, muffled rumble which by then I knew to be
the tipping of uncut diamonds on to the green baize table.
I waved at the woman in the car. She was young and beautiful, and when she
smiled I saw that her teeth were small and brown. She was still smiling at me as
the car pulled away, raising a cloud of dust and beeping at bicycles as it sped
up the main street. It was rare in those early days to see expensive cars and
big-town women in these parts, but if ever you saw them, they would be hanging
around our house. None of our visitors ever noticed me, though, none but that
woman with the fair skin and bad teeth.
I told Father
about this woman and how she had smiled at me. His response was as I expected.
He reached slowly for my ear and twisted it hard, squeezing the blood from it.
He said, "Don't tell stories," and then slapped my face twice.
To tell the truth, I had become used to this kind of
punishment.
Even when I was young, I was aware of what my
father did. I wasn't exactly proud, but I didn't really care. Now, I would give
everything to be the son of a mere liar and cheat, because, as I have said, that
wasn't all he was. Of all the bad things he ever did, the worst happened long
before the big cars, the pretty women, and the Harmony Silk
Factory.
Now is a good time to tell his story. At long
last, I have put my crime-funded education to good use, and have read every
single article in every book, newspaper, and magazine that mentions my father,
in order to understand the real story of what happened. For more than a few
years of my useless life, I have devoted myself to this enterprise, sitting in
libraries and government offices even. My diligence has been surprising. I will
admit that I have never been a scholar, but recent times have shown that I am
capable of rational, organised study, in spite of my father's belief that I
would always be a dreamer and a wastrel.
There is another reason I now
feel particularly well placed to relate the truth of my father's life. An
observant reader may sense forthwith that it is because the revelation of this
truth has, in some strange way, brought me a measure of calm. I am not ashamed
to admit that I have searched for this all my life. Now, at last, I know the
truth and I am no longer angry. In fact, I am at peace.
As far as it is possible, I have constructed a clear and complete picture
of the events surrounding my father's terrible past. I say "as far as it is
possible" because we all know that the retelling of history can never be
perfectly accurate, especially when the piecing together of the story has been
done by a person with as modest an intellect as myself. But now, at last,
I am ready to give you this, "The True Story of The Infamous Chinaman Called
Johnny."