The Devil in Silver

Pepper spoke softly into the receiver, looking over his shoulder for an orderly or nurse. “I had to return those tapes, Ma. I wasn’t being noble. I stole them from you and Dad. Anyone would’ve put them back.”

“Really?” His mother laughed quietly. “Because Ralph never did.”

38

PEPPER LEFT THE alcove feeling like gold bullion. So good that he didn’t mind taking the meds. As soon as he was done, Redhead Kingpin and Still Waters crowded around him. Standing so close they could’ve picked his pockets. (If his pajamas had pockets, that is.)

“What’s this?” he asked.

Redhead Kingpin looked at Still Waters. “Show him,” she said.

Still Waters carried her manila folder, “No Name” on the flap. She opened it.

“I don’t want to know,” Pepper said. They were carrying the terrible folder that only housed the terrible news. Whatever they were going to pull out from there would only wreck his mood. He moved around them and started toward Northwest 2. If he made it to the threshold of the men’s hall, the pair, and their news, would be left behind.

But the pair double-teamed him. Redhead Kingpin squaring off in front of him, while Still Waters dug through the crowded folder. Before he could bob and weave around the redhead, Still Waters had found the article in question.

“Read,” she said.

Pepper scanned the top of the page. This one had been torn out of the newspaper quickly. One edge uneven and ragged. It was from The New York Times. The byline read “Nina Bernstein.” It was accompanied by a picture of two women sitting in a train car.

Reluctantly, Pepper read aloud.

“ ‘Holding tight to her sister’s hand in the bustling streets of Oakland’s Chinatown, Xiu Quan Hong looked a little dazed, like someone who has stepped from a dark, windowless place into a sunny afternoon.’

“ ‘In a sense, she has. For a year and a half, Ms. Hong, a waitress with no criminal record and a history of attempted suicide’ ”—Pepper stopped there a moment, then began again—” ‘was locked away in an immigration jail in Florida and then held in a psychiatric unit in Queens, New York.’

“ ‘With no lawyer to plead for asylum on her behalf, she had been ordered to be deported to her native China, which her family had fled when she was only four years old. She was trapped in an immigration limbo: a fate that detainee advocates say is common in a system that has no rules for determining mental competency and no obligation to provide anyone with legal representation.’ ”

Pepper found his hand was shaking, but he read on.

“ ‘Then, through a fluke, her sister discovered her whereabouts in New York only three days before her deportation order was to be executed. Her sister, Yun Hong, a cashier at a supermarket in Oakland, found Theodore Cox, a New York immigration lawyer, through an Internet search and convinced him to take her sister’s case for free.’

“ ‘Now Ms. Hong, 41, is free on bail and living with her sister in Oakland.’ ”

That’s where he stopped.

He looked up at the picture again. Two women sitting in a train car. He didn’t know the woman on the right. He knew, but didn’t recognize, the one on the left. “That’s Sue?” he whispered.

Her hair had been cut short and now framed her face, where before, her face had been hidden. She didn’t look at the camera but her head was held up. She seemed to be looking out the window behind the photographer. She wore a pink short-sleeved T-shirt and black slacks. In her lap sat a big stylish yellow purse. The woman on her right, her sister, was caught in profile because she looked at Sue. In the snapshot she had one hand up and was gently fixing Sue’s hair.

Still Waters pulled the paper away from Pepper’s face.

At least that’s what seemed to happen next.

In reality Pepper had staggered backward and came to a stop only when his back touched the wall behind him. And his legs trembled, they were about to give out, so he slid down the wall until he smacked the floor.

Now Ms. Hong, 41, is free on bail and living with her sister in Oakland.

Pepper spread his legs and lifted his knees and leaned forward so his head faced the floor. His shoulders trembled, and, to his great surprise, he sobbed openly. It sounded like he was choking. He felt Redhead Kingpin and Still Waters come down to the floor and surround him. Still Waters actually put one hand on his back and patted him there.

“We knew you’d be happy to see that,” Redhead Kingpin said.

He looked up into their faces and could see that, if they weren’t crying now, they had been very recently.

“It’s really true?” Pepper asked.

They stayed there with him as other patients passed through the room, as staff members logged in files at the computer. If anyone noticed the trio there on the floor, it was only to walk around them.

“You can keep the article if you want it,” Redhead Kingpin said.

Pepper looked at Redhead Kingpin, who grinned tightly and nodded. Then at Still Waters who clutched the paper and kept her head down.