Surprised, Mirabel said, ‘You mean there will be another time when I dress the dead, when I’m lost on the sea?’
‘Yes, but you may not recognise the pattern until it has been completed. The circumstances will always be different.’ He stared at her, eyes bright and piercing. ‘That, indeed, is the oracle’s function, my function – to help people see the patterns that bind them.’ He sighed, and stroked the white cat. ‘Take the bone home, and keep it safe just as before.’
The cat jumped out of the soothsayer’s arms and stood at the door, mewling. When he opened it, the cat ran outside.
Mirabel placed the bone back in her handbag. She wanted to ask him about JJ and Bao Bao. What did fate have in store for them? She hesitated in the doorway. Perhaps it was better not to know these things. Would she have followed the same path, done the same things, if she had not received the oracle all those years ago? She would never know.
She said goodbye and walked out into the alleyway. The white cat ran ahead of her and disappeared.
At the top of the lane she passed a woman holding the hand of a ten-year-old girl, her plaits like two dark arrows down her back. The girl glanced up at Mirabel for a moment and Mirabel smiled. The girl felt the tug of her mother’s hand, and walked on towards the end of the alley and the house at Number Eight.
Acknowledgements
Although this is a work of fiction, it has been inspired by the amazing true story of my mother, Mabel Wang. It is her photograph on the front cover and her sketches, drawn when she was just fourteen, that appear in this book. A special thank you goes to her. I would also like to thank my auntie Jean Ling and my uncles Phillip Chen, Stephen Chen and Wang Neng Li for sharing their memories of Melbourne and Shanghai during World War II. Also Corinne Fenton, Sofie Laguna, Yvonne Feine, Michael Wagner, Moira Robinson and Hope Stewart. A very special thank you to the great team at Penguin: Jane Godwin, Katrina Lehman, Dmetri Kakmi and Marina Messiha. Bob Skitch was invaluable for cartographic information, along with the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying, Brisbane, Queensland. Further research was carried out at the MacArthur Museum, Brisbane, and the Queensland State Library. Lastly, I would like to thank my family – Lei Lei, Ren, and especially Steve for his insightful editing, constant encouragement and breadth of knowledge.
In this book, most of the sounds of Chinese words are written using the pinyin system, which has become standard in the last fifty years. But there are a few words that have become so familiar in the old Wade-Giles system that it would only be confusing to change them now, such as ‘Chiang Kai-shek’, ‘Mao Tse-tung’ and ‘Chungking’.
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Little
Paradise
Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. Her great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush. Gabrielle has lived in both China and Taiwan where she studied the Chinese language and painting. Her stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with a touch of fantasy.
The Garden of Empress Cassia won the 2002 Aurealis Award, was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and was a Notable Book in the CBC Book of the Year Awards. The Pearl of Tiger Bay was shortlisted for the 2004 Aurealis Award, and The Lion Drummer was a Notable Book in the 2009 CBC Awards. Gabrielle’s novel A Ghost in My Suitcase was shortlisted for the 2009 Aurealis Award – Best Children’s Novel.
Gabrielle lives in Melbourne with her partner, Steve, and their two children, Lei Lei and Ren.
For more info visit: www.gabriellewang.com
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2010
Text copyright © Gabrielle Wang, 2010
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust.
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All poems translated by Arthur Waley,170 Chinese Poems, Constable & Co Ltd, 1918; except ‘Farewell’, by Yu Xuan Ji (AD 844–871), translated by Steven Clavey.
ISBN: 978-1-74-253043-7
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