by Park Moon
“I don’t get it!” Jade was stunned.
“You don’t have to. I will get the water for Dad. I will see you soon, okay?”
Lin left with her head down, holding back her tears, and I stared at my black shoes.
“You have a daughter?” the disappointment seemed to be carved into Jade’s forehead.
“I do. She is fifteen forever. You know how it is. Mermaids when they become young girls, they stay that way forever.” I smiled, shaking my jaw, wishing I could tell her that Lin had spent centuries crying, hugging Jade’s hanfu, singing in the lake, wishing her mother would come back.”
“Are you all right?” Jade looked at me fearfully.
“I am!” I rubbed my hands over my face and took a deep breath.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No, it’s just that Lin, my daughter, wishes a lot to have a mother. When she sees me with someone, she says nonsense. I am sorry!”
“I’m sorry! It is all right!” Jade took her right hand and put it in my left. I stared at the scene as if we were going back in time, to the time when we were happy. “Do you want to get it off your heart? It is always good to talk about what we feel. Is it a trauma?”
I nodded and she pulled my hand towards the bench and I sat down.
“Go ahead.” she kept touching my fingers and her warm hand contrasted with mine, as cold as the ocean.
“I lost my wife when Lin was a little baby.”
“Oh God! That must be painful.” she slid down and approached me, taking my other hand.
“I took care of her, alone, for many long years. You have no idea how many years that actually lasted. I had help from my faithful friend, a generous lady. But Lin always wanted the mother figure by her side. I drew my wife’s face, so Lin could catch a glimpse of her mother’s beauty.”
“Didn’t you have any pictures?”
“No, unfortunately, in those days there was no such technology.”
“Ah, you said that the girl is fifteen years old... It has not been that long.”
“As I said, it has been many years, Jade. You are incapable of understanding now.”
She stared at my fingers and looked at the ring.
“Is this your wedding ring? You wear it on your left ring.”
“Yes, I’ve worn it since she left. I have never taken this ring off.”
Jade took her index finger and thumb to the ring and touched it, while I did not move a muscle in my face, and barely breathed.
“Your act of love is beautiful!” she raised her eyes and I saw a shy tear fall from her right eye.
“I love her so much, Jade! I have never forgotten her, not one single second of this miserable life of mine.”
“It’s a Jade ring!” she sighed and turned her eyes back to the ring, still touching it.
“It was her name...” I let out that sentence like a silent scream.
“Jade?”
“That’s right!”
“I have the same name as her, what an unfortunate coincidence. I hope this does not hurt you. I know there are people who keep names and feel some discomfort if someone has the same name as the person who generated the trauma.”
“It’s all right. Your name is beautiful, and so are you!”
She let go of my finger and hugged her handbag, looking at the floor and her ears flushed.
“Pardon me! Did I say something invasive?” I was terrified to see her shoulders shrugging.
“No, no, it’s just that I’ve never heard such a thing.”
“That you are beautiful?”
“That’s right. But my name is beautiful.”
“It is the most beautiful of all. Because it is tattooed on my heart and my veins pulsate this name with every breath I take.”
She widened her eyes and stood up. I did the same and Jade held out her right hand.
“I have to go, Dan Lao. I think you have had many emotions today. You should rest.”
I touched her hand in an almost funeral farewell to my heart, and as she released herself from my touch, she took out a card and handed it to me.
“You can call me if you need to talk. We always need friends, right?”
“Friends!” I bit my lips and wanted to throw myself on her feet and beg her to remember me.
“When you want to work at the shipyard, feel free.” she finished before leaving, but I had urgency.
“Tomorrow!” I answered without blinking.
“Tomorrow? On Sunday?” she was thoughtful, turning her face a little to the right.
“Any problem with storming the shipyard on Sunday?” I smiled, my eyes shining.
“No! No problem. I wake up early!”
“I’ll be there before dawn.”
Yes, Jade, because I would be watching you sleep through the night.
Chapter 15
Narrated by Dan Lao.
The partnership began on that Sunday morning, when the sun touched her black hair and fair skin, while she took the fish from the boat, with the help of two elderly men.
I arrived, loosened my suit and rolled up my sleeves, and walked toward her. She smiled brighter than the sun and the moonlight in the night that would come later would envy her gracefulness.
“Good morning, Dan Lao!”
“I’m ready to get my hands dirty!”
“It will stink of fish all day long!”
“I told you I don’t mind. I love the sea and everything in it, believe me.”
She smiled, handing over the box of fish.
“That’s right! You have more muscles than I do, help me! I’m old!”
I laughed, something I had forgotten to do, years ago.
“You’re beautiful, Jade!” I blinked and she blushed.
✽✽✽
Work swept through the day, and at lunchtime, she took the food to the fishermen. Hungry, I sat beside her, so that the other men would not approach her. Yes, I was taking care of Jade, my rare gem. I would not dare lose her.
We laughed. We made ridiculous jokes about fish, and at the end of the afternoon, the shipyard doors closed, and the fishermen went home.
“It had been a long time since there had been so many fish. You have brought luck, Dan Lao!” she opened her arms to stretch out, and my wish was to fly to them and lift her up to kiss her mouth, as before.
“It will always be like this, I guarantee it! I always attract fish!”
“Ah, the king of the sea!” she smiled.
“Maybe, who’s to say? Anyway, I need a bath! I cannot get in the car with this smell! Next time I will come by motorcycle.”
“I always go to the beach before I take a bath. The seawater helps to take some of the smell away. I think the salt helps.”
“Is this an invitation to swim?”
“I can’t swim, Dan. I just get my feet wet and splash some water on my arms.”
“That’s no fun, Jade!”
“If you want to swim, be free! I will stay at the beach. It is safer.” she continued to nurture her smile and thus, she melted me in homeopathic doses.
We walked to the beach. I took off my shirt and ran to the water. I turned around and she was looking at me. I do not know if she was disbelieving me for throwing myself into the cold water at that time, or for taking off my shirt without thinking much about what she would think.
Her eyes were still on me when I swam out to the open sea and saw that she went to the edge, being touched by the small waves, and shouted:
“DAN! FOR GOD’S SAKE! COME BACK! IT IS DANGEROUS!”
I nodded and went back. I did not want her to worry. I ran across the waves and got in front of her, with my hair splashed salt water in her face.
“Sorry!” I looked at her, panting.
“For God’s sake! I was afraid to go far away, but you swim too fast! Do you have fins?”
“If I say I do, will you believe me?” I tilted my neck, and her eyes were a mix of doubt and the rays of the setting sun.
“I
don’t doubt it!” she laughed, embarrassed. “Here! Take your shirt!” she reached up to my chest and I held the shirt and her fingers.
“Jade! Thank you!”
“Thank you?”
“For keeping me alive this far.”
“I don’t understand!”
“No need to understand it. I just wanted to say that. To see you and your smile is a gift from God. I thought I would never...” I swallowed the words when she frowned in the middle of her forehead.
“Anyway... If you want to take a shower before you go, you can use the bathroom in my house. I think I have some of Dad’s clothes.”
“Right! Can I save some clothes at your home to change mine after work?”
“Of course! You will really need it. Can you imagine your daughter seeing you getting out of the car, smelling like sardines?”
“Don’t worry! She loves the sea as much as I do.”
“Does she?”
“Yes. Maybe you can allow her to visit the shipyard.”
“It’s yours now, right?”
“Thank you! I will bring Lin in next week, if you don’t mind.”
“She’s as welcome as you are, Dan Lao. It will be a pleasure to see her.”
My heart swam in a sea of happiness. I just wished fervently that Jade could remember what we had experienced.
After showering, and taking Jade’s father’s clothes, I said goodbye, with her hiding her laughter at seeing me leave in clothes, which were two sizes bigger than mine.
“You look elegant, Dan Lao!” she still held back her smile, as I walked down the stairs, holding on to my pants.
“I’ll get my revenge soon, Jade!” I blinked and smiled.
“Ah! If you make me wear fashionable clothes, it will not be as torturous as wearing baggy pants.”
“All right! We have a deal! You’ll visit me and wear my clothes!”
“Yours? You are tall! No way!”
I laughed and blew her a kiss, which flew up into the air and touched her cheek.
“The salt from the beach got to your neurons, Dan!” she pretended to receive the kiss and touched her cheek.
“I want more of this salt, Jade! Tomorrow?”
“Ah! Yes, yes! Tomorrow!”
I walked to the car, looking back every three steps, and she was leaning over the stairway ledge, watching me.
“HOLD YOUR PANTS UP!” she shouted, and I laughed.
“I’LL DROP THEM IF YOU WANT!”
“OH NO!” she pretended to hide her eyes and I got into the car, with a silly smile that touched the tips of my ears.
When I got home, Lin was by the pool, as usual, staring at nothing and humming.
“Dad!” she threw her elbows over the edge.
“Don’t even mention the clothes!” I snapped my fingers and my hanfu took shape again.
“When will you tell my Mother that I am her daughter? And, when will you tell her that she must fulfill the mission?”
“I need time. If I tell her now, she will not understand. I need her memory to come alive, Lin.”
“Daddy, how long do I have to wait to hug my mother?”
“Lin! Be patient!”
“Daddy, it's been centuries of waiting. Do you not think it is too long? Damn you, Oracle!”
“Wait! You are too young to understand the timing of things.”
“Are you saying I’m going to be an idiot like you? Dad, if I loved a guy, I wouldn’t wait, no! Time is too valuable! I will say! I want to go back to the island. I can’t live in this pool!”
“Give me a few months. Three months. I need three months!”
“Dad, do you think you can bring out my Mother’s memories in three months?”
“I do! Just let me believe it. If nothing changes, you can go back to the island.”
“Without you?”
“Daughter... You are mature enough to take care of the kingdom. I will stay here! Jade is mortal, I want to live with her.”
“She’ll realize you cannot be old, dad!”
“I will manage it, even if I have to use magic!”
“I admire your love. Will I love like this too?”
“Everything has the right time, my child!”
She shrugged, and threw herself back.
Chapter 16
Narrated by Dan Lao.
Lin visited the shipyard on the next weekend. The eyes of my little mermaid with the heart of a dragon and soul of a human, smiled with every step of Jade and sparkled when her mother smiled at her.
My heart was at peace, even though I still had a long way to go.
The days went by happily, between the smell of fish and Jade’s laughter. The nights came and went as long as it took me to wander in her dreams, searching for some part of myself in her memory.
The rainy late afternoon gave the romantic air that I needed to take another step, the same step that Jade had done, centuries before, before me.
Yes, I would risk everything, because time was passing and Jade did not remember me, in any act that I repeated, trying to search for sparks of memories.
Holding flowers, I went up the stairs and knocked on the door. She opened it and looked at the flowers.
“Jade.” I smiled.
“What is this?”
“I know I’m putting it all on the line, and I know that the possibility of receiving no for an answer is almost inevitable.”
“What do you say, Dan?”
“I want you to know that I love you. You will think I am crazy, but I’m sure you’ll understand soon enough.”
“Dan!”
“Just accept my love, Jade!”
“Dan, what did you see in me?”
“Everything!”
“What do you say?”
Before she slammed the door in my face and my heart crumbled before the stairs, I let go of the flowers, stepped over to Jade and took her in my arms.
She tried to put me away, closing her fists and pounding my chest.
“I love you, Jade! Look at me and tell me you do not feel anything.”
“Dan... Let me go!”
“There’s no way. There’s nothing left.”
I squeezed her waist and pulled her, throwing her body next to mine.
“Dan!” she breathed breathlessly in front of my nose. “What do you want?”
“Just tell me how you feel about me.”
“I don’t know. I do not think much about it. But...”
“But... Just say it! Please!”
“You attracted me in some strange way!”
“That’s all I needed to hear, my love!” my hands went up her back and my chest touched hers.
Our eyes crossed in a frantic attempt to look away.
“Dan!”
“Don’t say anything! I want only silence to be a witness.”
I kissed her, before she said anything else that would stop me from acting, and in my mind, the Oracle’s voice boomed:
“Jade gave her life to protect you, White Dragon.... I will be merciful to the human and leave the Dragon seed in her soul.... Only pure love, if it exists in you, will remain and for centuries and centuries, you must search for Jade and when you find her, remember that she keeps the seed in her soul. If there is still love for you, she will remember it!”
Her lips invaded mine and her hands touched my shoulders. Our tongues danced as before and my tears trailed down my mouth and nourished our kiss.
“I love you!” I murmured, as my tongue wandered in reverie for more of her taste.
“Dan!” she pulled away, breathing hard, and looked at me, absurdly startled.
“Do you remember me? Remember me, Jade?”
She stared at me speechlessly, and those seconds took a mass of hours, infinite like the pain I was carrying, seemed endless.
“Dan!” she groped my face and her index fingers dried my tears. “Where have you been? Where have you been?”
“Jade!” I shivered my lips and sobbed.
“My love! Is Lin my daughter?”
I nodded, choking and collapsing on the floor. Jade came down with me and hugged me. I sighed into her left shoulder and closed my eyes.
“My love!” she kissed the top of my head and I felt at home, just like before.
I pressed my hands to her shirt and forced my nose to her chest.
“I miss you, my love! Your smell... Your love... Your skin and your warmth.”
“Come on!” she stood up and carried my body with her.
Jade took me to her bedroom.
✽✽✽
The sun touched the beige linen curtain, and slowly walked like a snake in Jade’s naked body over mine. My fingers went back and forth, tracing her back, as I felt her heartbeat on my skin. I looked at her right hand touching my chest and slowly drawing the love line down to my navel.
“So, is there anything I should do?” she kissed my chest and looked at me.
“I am not sure. However, Mao is trying to understand what the Oracle meant that one life must be sacrificed for another.”
“I died to save you, would you now? I cannot bear to lose you again.”
“No! I will not let that happen! I talked with Lin. She will go back to the island and take care of everything. I will stay with you until you die naturally, so, I will guide you to the new life and I will know when and how you will be born. There, I will be waiting for you.”
“I wish I were immortal. Then we would not have any problem.”
“I hope so, but it depends on the Oracle.”
She lay down again on my chest and closed her eyes.
Chapter 17
Narrated by Dan Lao.
Mao burst into the bedroom and Jade shouted:
“Uncle!”
Mao looked terrified and frowned.
“She has recovered her memory?”
“Exactly! But, what are you doing here?” I covered Jade and stood up.
“Son, Xi knew where Jade was and now, she knows that you found out everything!”
“You say that Xi knew everything? San too?”
“For sure. I prayed a lot during the night and my visions were clear. They have united the powers. It will be you against them. Three elements are in your power and from what I understand, San gave the power to Xi, in exchange for what? That, I no longer know!” he scrunched his forehead and continued. “There is a possibility that they are using the power of the earth. So, you have the same amount of power as them, but oppositely.”