by Park Moon
“You mean my cousin, your wife?”
He pulled his elbows on the table and put his hands on it, rising to his feet, and I hurried to do the same.
“Did I say something wrong, Dan?”
“No! I need to rest! Go to your bedroom. Please, do not dare to leave it until dawn!
“Why not?”
“It is my only request...” he turned his back, but turned his eyes to me. “Do not cross the gates leading to the lake. This is an extra requirement.”
I nodded, crossing my fingers behind my back.
My Father used to say that if you cross your fingers, every promise is gone. I believed that he had used this way many times, when he promised, countless times, that I would be happy.
Dan Lao disappeared into the darkness, like a snake that blends into the grass and camouflages itself among the old logs.
I went to my bedroom, burping fish and thinking about that strange life I would lead in the dragon’s palace.
I was too talkative to stay mute for so long, and I needed something besides Dan Lao’s short speech.
Had he always been like this, or was there a talkative and active Dan who was cheerful and happy?
“Right! I am going after him!” I spoke softly, lifted my skirt a little, and ran to try to catch up with him.
Chapter 4
Narrated by Jade.
I reached the end of a corridor, which I believed to be the way to Dan Lao’s bedroom, and brave as a flea, I closed my left wrist and knocked the door, unique as only a divine door would be.
I heard no sound, even though I rubbed my left ear against the door, after giving the soft knocks. In addition, no steps came, in my hope that the door would open.
“Dan Lao? Are you there?” I whispered with my lips touching the wood, my legs trembling and my throat freezing. “Dan? Are you asleep?’
Not a thing.
I looked at the knob that was a triumphant bow and pushed it. My eyes widened as I caught a glimpse of the place. It was warm and red, or was it the red that made it warm?
The floor, softened by some fabric I did not pay attention to when I stepped on it, was soft. Next, up two steps, a bed with the same rods and silk that adorned mine.
I tilted my face to the left, coldly and calculatingly analyzing the empty bed and I swallowed dryly.
Dan was not in the bedroom, and when he came in, would he catch me as a chicken thief?
“What are you doing here?” his voice touched the back of my neck and I sighed.
“Dan!” I hurriedly turned around and put on my best smile to welcome him. “I wanted to talk. I love to talk and there is no one to talk to, so, can we talk?” I stammered, repeating the word talk to try to chase away my fear and wishing Dan Lao to give up on punishing me for invading his bedroom.
“Talk?” he crossed his arms, and it was a very bad sign. “Shall we talk about how you broke into my bedroom?”
“Oh, I knocked on the door, you know it. But, you didn’t open it. I thought you needed help. Were you passed out? Maybe!”
“I see! Did you break into my bedroom because you believed I was passed out? Didn’t you come in because you were curious, like a child?”
“Never! It was pure worry!” I puffed out my chest.
“That’s great! When I need a babysitter, I’ll call you!”
“You are so rude!”
“Welcome!” he smiled a little more than his usual weak smile, without a shadow of sincerity, and my throat went dry.
“Anyway... I like to tell stories. You can tell the stories of the gods too. I love gossip!”
“I won't talk about them! I despise them.”
“Right! So I do and you get to listen to it, right?”
He turned his face to the right and stared at the door.
“I think it is better and more prudent to go back to your bedroom, Jade!”
“One story, please! I have a saliva buildup. I need to talk.”
“You swallowed a lot of salt when you fell into the sea, this saliva buildup will help with hydration. Go back to your bedroom!”
“Dan! I need to talk, you know! I’m young and chatty.”
“I can see that! You talk too much! I should have left you in the whale’s mouth!”
“Oh, my God! Uncle Mao said you were very sweet and kind.” I made a ridiculous face, like kids asking for some rice cakes.
“I am very sweet! The problem is that you drive me crazy! You were not supposed to disobey me. I asked you to stay in the bedroom and look what happened? You are here!”
“A few minutes of conversation will not eat your tongue, Dan Lao. Do not be grumpy!”
He rolled his eyes back and pointed at the door.
I threw my lips between my teeth and sighed, defeated.
“Alright! You win this battle! But, listen! I had a great story to tell!”
“Good night, Jade!” he continued, hand outstretched, toward the door.
“Good night, tantrum dragon!” I huffed and stamped my feet, but stared at him.
“Jade, go!”
“You’ll miss the story!”
“For Divine’s sake! Start walking, for your own good! Do not make me catch you and throw you out of my bedroom!” he snorted, too.
“Right! I will not even tell you that the story was about a beautiful mermaid!”
“I don’t like mermaids!”
“You are one!” I showed my tongue at him and put my hands on my waist.
“I’m a man! Do not make me lose my temper, Jade! Hide your tongue, before I cut it out!”
“Come and get me! You are no match for me! Moreover, I do not care if you are a man! You are one of those men who turn into fish. Anyway, the story was of a beautiful...”
“Go!” he flew his arms around my shoulders and, unable to free myself, he grabbed them and dragged me to the door.
“Good night, Jade!” he released me as he put me an inch past the door and then closed it.
“Good night to you too, brute!” I huffed and went back into the bedroom.
Disgust touched the tip of my embroidered shoes.
Who did he think he was?
I kept complaining and kicking the air until I reached the bedroom. I threw myself on the bed and there, fell asleep.
“Jade?” he was beside me, and my eyes caught a glimpse of his hair falling over his bare shoulder.
In my silence, I slid my body to his chest and he put his right arm around my waist.
“I have waited a long time...” he touched my forehead and kissed it.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah” I opened my eyes and I was soaked with sweat.
I looked around trying to figure out where he had gone, but the fright had passed and I realized that it was only a dream, or rather, a nightmare.
“Did I dream about Dan Lao? Why?” I denied it a thousand times, until Pan appeared, desperately opening the door.
“What was it? I heard your scream from the other side, in the servants’ accommodations.”
“It was a dream! That’s all!”
“What did you dream about?”
What would I say?
“Sea!” I smiled weakly, diving into my own lie.
“Go back to sleep, Jade! It is raining again!”
“Does it always rain here?”
“Yes! Rarely does the sun come out.”
“Does it rain because Dan suffers?”
She did not answer and she did not need to. Any stupid person would know it.
I hugged the cloak and ran back to his bedroom. I knocked on the door, one and two dozen more.
Dan Lao was not a person who liked to open bedroom’s door, and I, stubborn as a slug that cursed to run, opened the door, waiting for that shrug of the shoulders and the door closing in my face.
“Are you back?” Dan grumbled, sitting up in bed, looking at a parchment.
“I had a sinister dream.” I shrugged.
“You must have dreamed about me!”
�
�How did you know?”
He took his eyes off the parchment and looked at me.
“I just jumped to conclusions. If you are terrified, there are only two reasons: you dreamed about the boat or me.”
“Ah! Anyway... Do you want to hear the story?”
“No! Go back to your bedroom!”
“Dan Lao, I always told stories to the little ones in the village. I was the official teller of ancient tales. My Father had taught me everything I know about.” I puffed out my chest and approached the bed.
“Right! Tell your mermaid story and go to sleep. I give up! You’re too stubborn!”
“You have to put down the parchment to pay full attention to the story!” I smiled triumphantly.
He sucked all the air out of his lungs and rolled up the parchment, placing it on a table beside the bed. He threw his back on the pillows, which I did not calculate how many there were, because the fingers of my hands would be unable to count. Salivating with his mouth ajar, he pulled the edges of the hanfu open, which inevitably left his chest exposed, full of muscular ripples. He settled himself at the head of the bed, crossing his arms and legs.
After a long breath, he looked at me and did not take his damned impatient eyes off me.
“May I?” I climbed up the steps and leaned against the rod at the foot of the bed.
“Be quick! Go ahead!”
“So... Once upon a time...”
He stretched and I gritted my teeth. During the narrative, he made faces because he wanted to frighten me with that “what a bad girl” look.
I took a breath and continued telling the story... However, Dan Lao blacked out almost at the end.
I did not have the courage to wake him up, because he was sleeping too peacefully to be the evil one that everyone hated.
I took the blanket that was at the end of the bed, and brought the fabric up to his chest.
“Good night, Dan Lao!” I spoke softly, but he was too sound asleep to answer, so I thought.
I put out the lamp beside the parchment and tiptoed out, closing the door slowly.
However, curiosity struck me again, and I headed straight for the gate that gave access to the lake.
It took me a while to find the lake, because the garden and the rain seemed endless.
What I thought there was the lake, more like an astonishing swamp. The water plants received the raindrops and the sound that came from their beating was a sad melody to my ears.
The gate was ajar and my foot stopped at the gate’s edge.
I did not need to enter to see how sad and desolate the scene was. In the distance, the shack had torn silks and everything looked old and gloomy.
“I was told not to go through the gate!”
The echo of Dan Lao’s voice hit me like an arrow, and I turned around, not thinking to smile again, because I knew he was too furious to accept my gleaming teeth in the middle of the rain.
“I didn’t go in! I was just looking!” I pointed to my feet and he stared at it too, raising his left eyebrow.
“Go back to your bedroom, Jade!”
“Why is everything so dead in this place?”
“Because it is dead! This side of the island is an echo of me, Jade. This is who I am, inside. Dan Lao is dead!”
“It needs life and flowers! It was not like this before.”
“I know how it was, not you!”
“I want everything to be like before, Dan Lao!”
A twinge hit the top of my head at that miserable instant and I held on to the gate. Dan ran up and held me.
“What’s wrong? Jade! Are you all right?” his voice became soft.
He held my back and touched his glacial right hand to my cheek.
“I want flowers! Life! I wish this place would be colorful again. Do not make it the color of the sea floor.”
“Jade! You talk nonsense! Go back to your bedroom!”
“It hurts too much to see everything like this. Without life and love, Dan!”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it. You do not look well. I will take you to your bedroom!”
Before he could pick me up, I fainted.
✽✽✽
He was beside me, looking at me when I woke up. It was still dark. I do not know how long I slept.
“Have you been here all night?” I mumbled, sleepy.
“Yes, you had a fever. Pan took care of you too.” his voice was urgent in finding an alibi to justify his presence there.
“Flowers! I want flowers!” I was still muttering like a parrot.
“I’ll ask Pan to bring you flowers!”
“Not for me! In the shack! Clean sheets and white curtains. I hope everything goes back to the way it was before.”
“I can’t promise you that, Jade, because there is no way to go back in time and undo human evil.”
I stood up and stood an inch away from Dan.
“Please!”
He looked away and sighed. Something in his opaque eyes came into mine, and in the dark immensity, a light came on.
Chapter 5
Narrated by Jade.
Pan asked questions, until her jaw got tired, about things in the village and my dealings with the people. My answers made her forehead wrinkle and her lips titillate a noise for no reason. She left, and then Dan Lao came into my bedroom, with his hanfu open and fluttering.
I looked away so as not to stare at his bare chest, but it was inevitable, because he came, counting steps, and sat down in front of me on the bed.
“I want you to stay in your bedroom and don’t put your feet out until nightfall, okay? Okay? This time, obey me!”
“Why?”
“I will have an indigestible visitor and she must not know that you are here.”
“Some lover of yours?” I growled, without realizing it.
“I have no mistress, Jade! The visit in question is from an unfriendly, human-hating goddess. I cannot keep humans here, and again, I am breaking the rules by keeping you here. I just wanted you to stay quiet until she left the palace. Can you do that?”
I nodded without blinking, because his voice was an inch from my lips and as subtle as a feather, it invaded my breath and my eyes lost focus.
He puffed out his chest and stood up. I followed him with my lost and curious gaze, and as he walked through the door, and when he placed his right forefinger on his plump lips and smiled, so gracefully, that my breath failed me.
I remained silent like a lizard peeking for the time to chase an ant, until the earth shook and my need to know which goddess was such an unwelcome visitor.
I slipped out of bed onto the floor and crawled to the ajar window, pulling the curtain and using it as a shield.
In the garden, something landed triumphantly, like a red and terrifying ray of light that made my shoulders freeze and my spine shiver.
Dan Lao approached the thing that was once a flash of light, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a beautiful woman.
Luckily, I was in the bedroom facing the garden and could hear their unfriendly dialog perfectly:
“Dan! I see you are still handsome! Immortality is good for you!” she puckered her lips and blew a fake kiss in the air.
“I can’t say the same for you, Xi!”
Xi? The terrible goddess? Oh! Dan Lao was facing the worst goddess in the Universe?
“I saw what the Kans did to the poor little girl. Did you hear about it?”
Dan Lao hugged the hanfu, visibly uncomfortable, and that scene floored me. I knew him a little, but I could understand how he felt, because Dan was translucent in his feelings. Whether he liked it or not, you could tell just by the arching of his eyebrows.
“The girl died at sea. Did you, as ruler in that strange place, receive any communication?”
“Whether I did or not, that concerns me, not the goddess of metal.”
“Ah, are you still mad at me? I thought you had forgotten that problem of twenty-five years ago. For us gods, those years are a brush
with the invisible, right?”
“I’ll never forget what you did to me and to ...” he pushed his arms against his chest, and held his gaze firmly in the direction of the damned goddess.
“Right! You are a god who holds grudges. It gives you wrinkles!” she sneered, and he remained static.
“What made you visit me? The wind’s messenger gave the message, a few hours before. It is not correct, you know it. You must tell the god you will visit, two days in advance.”
“Formalities, my dear! We can break formalities.”
“You didn’t break it when I begged you and the gods to leave my wife alone.”
“She was human, Dan. Do not try to justify it. You know that rule is clearer than the water you bathe in.”
Dan closed his eyes and his lungs filled with air.
“What do you want? Did you not come here to find out how I am, did you?”
“Of course! I want to know where you hid the girl!”
Dan Lao’s eyes widened and he gritted his teeth.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fool! I know you hid her. You know, I talk to that idiot shaman. I helped her, you must suspect. However, talk! Where is the girl? Give back the offering! The shaman needs it!”
“I’m not a sea entity to return offerings! I am a god! What I do with the things in the sea is my business, not yours!”
“You can’t leave a human in the house of a god. You will be penalized again, Dan Lao. How can you be such an idiot?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“No? I will check the rooms of your palace and if you do not allow me, I will know that you lie!”
When she spoke, I quickly thought of how to hide myself. I turned my head back and forth, looking for a trunk or any hole that I could fit through. Nothing! Anywhere I looked, she would open and find me. I aimed for the opposite window and took a breath. There was a way out to save Dan Lao from being punished for helping me: the lake.
I lifted my skirt and jumped over the low threshold, running desperately into the back of the palace without looking back.
I was sure that Dan was in trouble, wondering how to divert that woman from the direction of the chambers.
I kept running through the undergrowth, scratching myself on the wild rose bushes and thorny plants, the result of Dan Lao’s neglect of that part of the garden, which was now a swamp worthy of frogs and snakes.