by S. H. Marpel
I nodded.
“So, John, you and your retainers may return again when we summon you. And until that time, you are dismissed.”
I nodded again, then turned fully around. Gaia and Sal let me pass and walked a pace behind. I could hear Lu Shi padding behind those two.
Once we reached the door, it opened again on its own, and then quietly shut after we were out of the throne room.
I heard Sal start to giggle, so I quickly turned and put a finger to my own mouth. “Not yet,” I whispered, “these walls have ears.”
Then I put my full pasture-pace to work and the three women had to keep up with me for once. I knew the way back to our little suite of rooms – and while the walls have ears, perhaps our own suite had fewer.
VI
ONCE INSIDE THE MAIN room of our apartment, and after Lu Shi closed the door, Sal lept into my arms and enveloped me in a big kiss. So I kissed her back, to release the tension I also had built up.
Once we were done, Gaia came forward and joined us in a big hug.
“John, you’re something else.”
“Sal, the Emperor just plays a lousy hand of poker.”
“But the Empress thought you were funny.”
“Just entertaining. More fun than she’s seen in quite awhile. But she saw right through me – more or less.”
Lu Shi interrupted us. “Excuse me, I will bring refreshments.” With a smile, she slipped through the door and closed it behind her.
I turned to Sal. “Could you please conjure up a comfortable couch – like that one in my – er – our cabin?”
She gave me an impish smile. Then suddenly pushed me backward.
I fell back to sink into that comfortable futon-couch of mine with its patchwork quilt and deep cushions.
Then the two ladies both fell in on each side of me. Their laughter and teasing soon had me also in hearty laughter.
Too soon, Lu Shi returned with a platter that held several meat kabobs and a pot of tea with tiny cups.
I extracted my arms from around the two ladies and reached for one of the skewers. “Lu Shi, this smells great – what is it?”
“Bat, Pangolin, some dog, cat, and rare lizard.”
I put it back on the tray. “Sorry, no thanks. My best to the cook though.”
Then I turned to Gaia. “Do you think you could get us some of Hami’s flat-bread cheeseburgers?”
Gaia grinned. “With real-milk milkshakes?”
Sal added, “And don’t forget the sweet potato strip fries.”
Lu Shi looked lost, as if we were speaking in code.
“Oh, Gaia, don’t forget an extra helping for Lu, here.”
Gaia nodded and stood, then shifted through the floor with a grin on her face.
In what seemed like only seconds, she returned, holding a wide stainless platter with big plates of steaming burger sandwiches, fries, and tall tumblers of various-colored shakes.
I looked at Sal, and she read my mind. A round table appeared, with four caboose bentwood chairs, just like Hami’s.
I helped all the ladies with their chairs as best I could, but the scent of good-old American burgers left me really only helping Lu Shi scoot her chair in. Then I got busy myself.
Lu Shi looked up with wide eyes after she swallowed her first bite. “What is this delicacy?”
“Ground cow meat, cheddar cheese, and buckwheat flatbread. Some ketchup, mustard, pickles, and lettuce. A little salt and some other spices – plus a lot of Hami’s secret ingredient – love.”
“John, if I may call you that, this is marvelous!”
“Oh – but you have to try all these shake flavors and tell us what your favorite is.” We watched her move her straw from chocolate to strawberry to vanilla and back. It was as much a pleasure to watch her reactions as she was having in the tasting.
“Ooh, I think this chocolate is the best!’
So she got one of the two chocolate shakes, and I let the ladies pick their own favorite, so I could take the last one.
You can never be too much a gentleman.
AFTER WE WERE ALL MORE than full, we now sat with tall glasses of Hami’s sweet tea and enjoyed the satisfied feeling.
Sal had swapped the round table for a short tea table. It now held the new platter Gaia had brought, which held the sweating pitcher of iced drink. (I was tempted to put my feet up, but Sal warned me with a look – so I obeyed. Again, the better part of valor.)
“Gaia, thanks again for stewarding this great food.”
She smiled at me. “Well, since Sal’s magic doesn’t work well here, and you all looked famished, it was my pleasure. Besides, Hami’s food is just... better for all our stomachs.” And her smile turned into a grin as she patted her own flat tummy in illustration.
“But John, why did you tease that Emperor so? I thought you were just making trouble for us all – until I saw the Empress lighten up.”
I shrugged. “Gaia, it just hit me as the thing to do. What he told us was no story, and until I can do my usual of getting the ghost to sort out its own mystery by telling it to me, then there’s no progress. Besides, pompous narcissism is just another way to deny the world around them. Puncturing it to let some of that inflated ego out is far more amusing.”
Sal smiled. “Well, the Empress sure thought so.”
I frowned a bit, speculating out loud. “What’s her job in all this anyway?”
Lu Shi put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, like from pain.
Sal leaned forward and put her hand on Lu Shi’s chair. “Something wrong?”
Lu Shi tried to smile and shake her head no, but then stopped. She lowered her hand as her eyes opened wide. “No, thanks. I think something very right just happened.” And an honest smile grew on her face.
She looked at each of us as if she’d not seen us before. Then the smile turned into a grin. “John, what’s in that American food we ate?”
I tilted my head to the side. “Just normal food – except for Hami’s cooking.”
“You said there was an extra ingredient besides the spices.”
“Oh, yeah – that’s the love she cooks in. And is about the best way to explain its healing properties.”
“Healing? That might be it. I feel so... well now.”
I straighted up and smiled. “That’s pretty common.”
“Not to me. It’s like I just figured out that I’d been sick for a very long time. Everything feels so – light now.”
Lu Shi turned from me to Sal and Gaia. “And like I’ve known you all for a very long time.”
Sal leaned toward her. “Like waking from a dream or something?”
Lu Shi nodded. “Just like that. Like I’ve been dreaming for eons.”
I had to ask. “I know this may seem impolite, but let me phrase it delicately – how many eons does it feel like you’ve been dreaming?”
Her grin stopped and her mouth dropped open. Her eyes went upward like she was counting.
“Many, many eons.” She turned towards me with her shocked look. “How is this possible? How can a person stay alive that long?”
Sal and Gaia exchanged looks as I kept focused on Lu Shi’s eyes.
“Short of becoming an immortal – one normally doesn’t.”
Lu Shi sat back against the back of her chair and wondered at this, her eyes now on the dew-covered tea pitcher in the middle of the tea table platter.
Shortly, she turned back to me. “Then I am either a ghost or still dreaming.”
Sal said in a quiet voice. “Maybe not either. But John can help you figure that out.”
Lu Shi nodded her thanks to Sal with a quiet smile, then turned back to me. “I do not understand what is happening. Or how this change occurred now and not in the eons before.”
I tried to appear relaxed. I didn’t have her answers, but Sal also knew that I was recruited just to solve these mysteries. Whether I knew how to do it right off, or not.
“Lu Shi, your situation is one I
haven’t seen before, honestly. But what Sal is trying to tell you is that I’m good at solving mysteries – and you certainly have a mystery to solve.”
The royal retainer leaned forward toward me. “Then, John, how do we begin?”
VII
“LU SHI, ALL LIFE IS a story. And stories generally take four forms, or their combinations: romance, adventure, mystery, and/or redemption. Sal and her sister recruited me to help certain people understand their own mysteries so that they can move onto their next phase in life.”
The royal retainer nodded, eyes open and attentive.
“Now, what I’m going to do next is something unusual for our normal assignments.”
She nodded again, listening.
“We are here to solve more than just your problem, your mystery. This castle is floating above an ever-growing desert – and that desert is affecting the rest of this planet in extreme ways. You might call it ‘climate change’, but that’s different from the normal unpredictable weather patterns some people use that term for. When a desert grows, it creates a wide and dry area which then affects other nearby areas. The planet then has to compensate to keep everything in balance.”
Gaia nodded at this.
“Now, the short answer to your question is one of three: you are an Immortal, or you are spirit-guide, or you are a ghost. Ghosts are simply some soul who hasn’t moved on after death, and is usually stuck in some injustice or tragic accident they don’t understand. An Immortal is someone who has achieved a high spiritual state and no longer needs a body to exist. Then, a spirit-guide (like Sal here) is someone who has developed a purpose beyond death – a continuing goal, usually to help people improve their conditions.”
Lu Shi nodded and thought this over.
“I am not enlightened, nor do I have a reason to be here other than to serve the Emperor and Empress. So I must be a ghost. In that case, what is this next phase I am supposed to move onto?”
I smiled. A fast learner is always appreciated, wherever they appear. “This can get interesting real fast. As I said, the usual point is to find the injustice or tragedy and help the ghost come to grips with that incident. Then they move on, usually ‘into the light’, which is the next phase.”
She beamed at me. “OK, John, what do we do now?”
I leaned toward her. “Here’s the tricky part. I like you and I think that this will go fast. But you are the only person we know here, so if we continue as normal, and you are actually just a ghost, then you’ll leave and we’ll have to start all over and find someone else to help us solve the mystery of this desert-castle.”
She nodded. “So you need my help. And the answer is yes – I’ll help you solve this bigger mystery and then we can get back to my personal one.”
I had to smile at this. Like I said – the quick ones are always appreciated. And the brave ones, too.
Lu Shi reached over and put her hand on mine. “I can say this as I know you and Sal and Gaia are all honorable people. And, while it may be the great food talking, I think we could all become forever-friends.”
Smiles formed all around the room at that idea.
“I’ve been around for a long time, even though the work I do amounts to a fairly dull routine. We don’t get many visitors, and usually they don’t leave – or they simply die quickly.” She patted my hand. “But you would be already dead if the Royal Couple didn’t like you, so they probably want to keep you as part of their royal court.”
My heart skipped a beat, but it’s not that we haven’t had worse happen to us.
“Whether Immortal, ghost, or spirit-guide – it doesn’t matter to me. Because I can tell you are good at what you do by how you got the Empress to smile, and the Emperor to... I think there is a foreign phrase, ‘eat right out of your hand’.”
My smile turned into a grin, as did hers.
“So, John, how can I help you?”
I put my other hand on top of hers. “Tell me about the Immortals trapped in those tapestries. We need to know all about them before the Emperor is releases each one and what to expect.”
We three visitors sat quiet and attentive as Lu Shi began her story.
THESE ARE THE STORIES I’ve heard. Each of the eight Immortals have their own long histories. Each one unique and varied. In our culture, they long represented the various peoples and occupations individually. As a group, they embrace all life and all living. You’ll find their eight figures on pottery and tapestries, and all things from the most humble representations that only the peasants own, right up to the most exotic items that only the richest can afford.
Together, they are known to bring luck and happiness to a house or an activity, even if they only appear as crude carvings on a peasant’s walking-stick. And why they remain popular despite governments and dynasties coming and going. They hold something in common to all people, from the highest to the lowest.
Historians say that their legends started long before any written history. But in the Tang dynasty, they started to be recorded. And why they “started” there with mortal lives.
While our recent government prohibits prayers, it doesn’t hurt to have some of these likenesses decorating our homes. Maybe they’ll be listening in – who knows?
Of course, they often visit in disguise. So our tradition of treating visitors with dignity and respect, even though they may not prove to deserve it.
And the reasons for this are found in the old Tao, even though our recent government would prefer no religions. But that brings tales from older days, before our Beloved Emperor and Empress. Before the Tao itself was ever written down. But now, in these days, we are thoroughly modern (and blessed be the great Mao and Xi.)
Let me tell you their names, their supposed origin stories, and what you can expect when you meet them:
Chung-li Ch’üan was a famous general of the Han dynasty, who was sorely defeated by the Tibetans and could not return to his country. So he became a hermit. It is said that he was meditating one day and the stone wall of his hermit hut was shaken apart in a great earthquake. Unhurt, he found an intricately-carved jade box in the ruins. Inside, he found the instructions to attain immortality, which he followed. At long last, one day in a ceremony that had many-colored clouds appear with music, a celestial crane bore him away. He is known to visit from time to time, often in disguise. You will recognize him as he usually carries a fan made of phoenix feathers. He represents males, and is a patron of the military.
Ho Hsien Ku was the young, beautiful, unmarried and chaste daughter of a shopkeeper. One night, a deity came to her in a dream and told her the secret of immortality, which required her to grind up and consume a small stone called “mother of pearl”. When she did this, she gained incredible agility. After that, she spent her days leaping from peak to peak in the mountains above their village and returning home at night to share the fruits she had gathered that day with her parents. Eventually, she found that she no longer needed to eat. As her fame spread, she was invited one day to visit the Empress, but during that journey she disappeared from mortal view. You will know her as she carries a lotus blossom and is very beautiful. She represents females and is a patron of housewives.
Ts’ao Kuo-chiu is the newest of the Immortals. He had an elder sister who became Empress, which elevated Tsao and his younger brother to royalty. Tsao did not apply himself to the matters of state, and his younger brother was always in mischief. To make a long story short, the younger ended up committing homicide and was executed. Tsao was ashamed of his own actions to cover for his brother, and went into the mountains as a hermit to study the Tao. Due to his diligent studies, he was elevated to an Immortal by the other seven. He carries an Imperial Jade tablet. He represents the nobleman, and is a patron of actors.
Han Hsiang Tzŭ found as a child that he was interested in how things grew. While slated for a position in the civil administration, he learned his lessons quickly and spent his spare time working with plants and animals. He found that his flute musi
c calmed the wildest animal. One day, he discovered a rare peach tree and climbed into its branches to taste it’s fruit. Losing his grip, he started falling up instead of down. This was the tree that gave immortal fruit – but only appears to those who are ready. You will find him carrying a bamboo flute. He represents the rich, and is a patron of musicians.
Lü Tung-pin is both revered as a patriarch, and also recognized as one with appreciation for prostitutes and wine. His story began in a tavern, where he found Han Hsiang Tzŭ heating some rice wine. As it had been a long day, Lu became drowsy and was soon dreaming of his lifetime – where he was promoted to a very high office, grew a large family, and fortune shined on him in every way. After fifty years, he made a serious mistake that had grave consequences. He was condemned to exile and was never to see his family again. All alone in the world, destitute, he was sighing bitterly about his fate – when he woke with a start. Han’s wine was not yet hot. This type of incident has since been referred to as a “rice-wine dream.” Lu realized the hollowness of worldly accomplishments and followed Han to a high-mountain spiritual retreat, where he was initiated in the divine mysteries and achieved Immortal status. While he carries a demon-slaying sword, you may also find him with a fly-whisker. He represents the common people, and is a patron of barbers and scholars.
Chang Kuo was the first of the Immortals and a studied magician. It is said that he preferred study of the Tao mysteries as a hermit, despite being invited frequently to the Imperial Court to entertain them. When he did finally agree, he was struck down by Death when passing the front of a temple – where his body instantly disintegrated. And yet he was seen riding his white mule in the nearby mountains not long after. He carries a bamboo drum as a talisman. He represents the old, and is a patron for artists.
Lan Ts’ai-ho is the youngest of the Immortals and little is known how she achieved that state. Her various exploits, as well as her dancing and singing satirical verse as a street performer earned her an invitation to join them. She carries jade castanets and often a basket of flowers. She represents the young, and is a patron of florists and gardeners.
