A Ghost in my Suitcase

by Gabrielle Wang

  How I wish I could just snap my fingers and be back in Australia, sitting with Papa and Robbie in the back room, listening to the sound of rain on the corrugated-iron roof. I wish I had never come to the Isle of Clouds.

  ‘Wishing won’t do any good.’ My mother’s voice is so clear it’s as if she’s standing beside me. ‘Feel with your heart, Little Cloud.’

  I follow Mama’s advice and relax. Then I remember! Ting Ting said something about a strongbox! Shen Da Pai would keep a treasure like this in a place he thinks is safe and secure.

  But where would the strongbox be hidden? When Por Por was taking us around the house she showed us her father’s office. There might be a safe in the wall or something.

  I rush into the office. It gives me the shivers because this is where we had our first battle with Shen Da Pai. I run my hands over the freshly painted plaster, feeling for something unusual – a secret panel, a hidden button, a sliding wall, anything.

  I drop to my knees and inspect the floor. There seems to be a space between the wooden floorboards in the middle of the room. I try to prise them up with my fingers. They’re loose but I will need something to use as a lever. I rush out to the reception room and find a large splinter of wood.

  As I lift the first loose board, a draught of cold air hits my face. Quickly I lift more boards until there’s a space I can fit my body through. The smell that wafts up to meet me is of damp and mildew.

  I lie on my stomach on the floor, my head dangling into the darkness. My mouth feels dry and I’m terrified, but I force myself to go on.

  There’s no ladder, but the ground doesn’t look too far away. I lower myself through the hole, then drop. Dust puffs up under my feet.

  The hidden room isn’t big, about the size of a small bathroom. There are metal plumbing pipes running along one wall and shelves stacked with old papers and bottles along another. Then I see something, half hidden in shadow – a large wooden box.

  I go over to it and lift the lid. The smell that rises from inside is horrible, full of sadness and despair. There are several small compartments. A black feather sits in one, a cloth purse filled with seeds in another. There are teeth that look human, a tangle of matted grey hair, the skull of a bird, a row of claws on a long thread of red cotton.

  My stomach heaves and I want to vomit. I take deep breaths. It looks like there might be another compartment underneath this one. I lift the top layer out carefully and put it on the shelf beside me. Ting Ting’s talisman necklace is lying on the bottom of the strongbox. My heart sings with relief as I scoop it up and squeeze it between my fingers. Underneath the necklace is a piece of folded paper with an official red seal stamped on it. It looks important. I pick it up quickly and slide it in my pocket.

  That’s when I hear something – a dragging, shuffling noise in the room above my head. I look up. Night is closing in fast. I want to stay down here to hide from whatever is up there. But I know I will be trapped if I don’t get out now.

  As quietly as I can, I stack three boxes, one on top of the other.

  My heart is pounding in my chest as I climb out of the hole and into the darkened room. Through the lattice windows I see the black outline of branches, and between the branches the dark grey sky of night.

  I slowly make my way out into the hall. I try and walk as quietly as I can, but it’s no use, my feet crunch and crackle over broken bits of glass. The air in the house is so cold that mist is coming out of my mouth with each breath.

  Then I see a shadow coming towards me. It’s Shen Da Pai! My heart leaps into my throat and my fingers close around Ting Ting’s talisman necklace, praying it will give me strength.

  The only weapon I have is my voice, so I begin to hum. The notes are soft and trembling at first, but then they grow louder and sharper until my eerie song fills the room. The notes slice the air, spinning so fast that if anything got in the way it would be cut to pieces. Shen Da Pai backs away. Don’t show your fear, I say over and over in my head as I walk past him.

  Once I’m outside in the front garden, I quickly cross the wooden plank and slip through the main gate. But I don’t stop there, and I don’t stop singing. Even though I can feel Shen Da Pai’s icy breath weakening its hold on me, I run for my life towards the canal and catch a water taxi straight home.

  Por Por’s house is in darkness as I go inside and lock the door behind me. They must still be at the hospital. I sit on Por Por’s bed, drawing my knees to my chest. It’s the only place in the Isle of Clouds I feel safe now.

  I open my hand and let the talisman necklace drop onto Por Por’s pillow. Then I lie down, cover myself with the doona and fall asleep.

  I wake up to someone rubbing my back.

  ‘I see you went to Bao Mansion?’ Por Por says softly as she touches Ting Ting’s talisman necklace lying beside me on the pillow.

  I turn over and sit up. ‘Are you angry, Por?’ Then, without waiting for an answer I say, ‘I’m sorry I told Ting Ting your secret. I didn’t mean to. It just came out.’

  Por Por is quiet for a moment then says, ‘It’s all right. I am partly to blame, too. At my age I should know that the only way to keep a secret is to keep it to yourself.’ She smiles and pushes my hair off my face. ‘You were very brave to go back there alone.’

  ‘I had to make up for what I did,’ I say. ‘Is Ting Ting all right?’

  ‘They are keeping her under observation a while longer. But she’ll be fine. Ting Ting’s a tough little you tiao, doughnut.’

  Por Por gets off the bed. ‘I must prepare for tonight.’

  ‘But you haven’t slept all night,’ I say, worried. ‘Why don’t you wait a few more days, then Ting Ting and I can help you.’

  ‘No. Shen Da Pai is far too dangerous for you to be involved. And he needs to be dealt with as soon as possible so he won’t become more powerful.’

  ‘I met him yesterday,’ I say, closing my eyes.

  I feel Por Por stiffen.

  ‘It was just getting dark and I was down in the hidden room, looking in the strongbox for Ting Ting’s necklace.’

  ‘You found the strongbox?’ Por Por’s says.

  ‘I saw some strange things in there,’ I say. ‘Bad things that smelt so horrible I wanted to vomit. I couldn’t even touch them, they were so awful.’

  ‘Hmmm …’ says Por Por, shaking her head. ‘Black talismans. So that’s where Shen Da Pai is drawing his power from. They must have been given to him by a black magician. When your training involves special powers, you are often tempted to use these to help yourself instead of helping others. Someone who uses his powers in this way is called a black magician.’ Por Por nods as if to herself. ‘That strongbox is Shen Da Pai’s strength, but it is also his weakness. If I can get to that box …’ She starts to walk out of the room. ‘I have a lot to do, Little Cloud.’

  I hop off the bed and follow her. ‘Take me with you, Por Por,’ I say. ‘Perhaps I can help you. I was able to control Shen Da Pai with my ghost song. That’s how I got away. Please let me go with you tonight.’

  Por Por stops at the doorway and turns. She shakes her head. ‘Not this time, Little Cloud. He is far too dangerous. But get dressed and I will show you how a ghost-hunter replenishes her energy.’

  We go outside and take the steps that lead down to the canal where the fish pond is.

  ‘Rocks have enormous energy because they come from the centre of the earth,’ Por Por says, as we stand by a large rock near the pond. She leans her back against the smooth surface of the rock and shuts her eyes. Her arms go limp at her sides. I hardly see her breathing, and the corners of her mouth are smiling, just a little, as if she’s having a beautiful dream. She stays like that for a long time, not moving a muscle. I look out over the canal. The water is the colour of a dense forest. Dark rain clouds have covered the sky and I hear the rumble of distant thunder. When her eyes open at last, they are bright and clear again. ‘There, I feel much better now,’ she says, straightening her jacket. Even h
er voice sounds younger, like an early morning birdsong.

  We go back up into the house. I sit at the kitchen table and watch her getting things ready for tonight. She puts two swords – a coin sword, and one with talisman symbols carved along its steel blade – into her long green bag. Pouches of herbs, jars of silver dust, strips of paper, a set of bells and her mingshen mirror all go into the bag. Then she sits a jar of black ink on the table. Very carefully she begins to paint talisman symbols all over her arms with a small brush. She takes off her shoes and socks, puts her foot up on the bench, rolls up her pants and begins to paint each leg – even the soles of her feet.

  ‘When fighting a particularly dangerous ghost, these talismans are essential,’ she says, blowing on the last symbol on her big toe to help it dry. She screws the lid back on the ink bottle, washes out the paintbrush in water, and puts it all away in the cupboard.

  ‘I must go and pray,’ says Por Por, and she closes the door to her room.

  I say my own little prayer as a streak of lightning cracks open the sky. ‘Keep her safe, Mama,’ I whisper. ‘Please keep her safe.’

  For the first time since I came to China, I wish Ting Ting were here to keep me company, to keep my mind off where Por Por is going and who she is going to meet. I would even let her win a game of weiqi, just this once, to keep Por Por safe.

  I sit at the table listening to the rain coming down in sheets. Water drips off the roof tiles. It’s like a symphony with lots of different instruments.

  To take my mind off things, I sing a song I made up on the plane when I first came to China. When I sing, nothing else exists.I don’t hear the rain, or feel the icy breath of Shen Da Pai any longer. I even stop thinking about Mama.

  But after a while, my mind snaps back like an old rubber band and I’m scared again for Por Por. I feel as if there is a long silken thread joining her to me now. Not only because she’s my grandma, but because she has passed down her ghost-hunting genes to me. And what Por Por goes through I go through, too. That’s why I must go to Bao Mansion and watch over her.

  I quickly go to the bedroom, grab my jacket and head out the door. Por Por only left half an hour ago, which means I won’t be too far behind her.

  It’s not quite dark as I step into the alleyway. The rain has eased to a drizzle. In the distance I see a pavilion, its red lanterns like globules of blood floating in the canal.

  I catch a water taxi to Bao Mansion. Everything seems so unusually quiet. Even the canal, which has always been busy with boats coming and going, is strangely free of traffic.

  Once again the gate is slightly ajar. I pull the collar of my jacket up around my neck and walk through. The house is in complete darkness. All I can see is its hulking outline against a stormy night sky. A gloomy silence engulfs everything. Where is Por Por? What is she doing? Why is it so dreadfully quiet inside?

  I huddle behind a stack of timber, waiting, watching, listening.

  I’ve almost drifted off to sleep when I hear the sound of wings, as if a giant bird is flying right over my head. I duck down as a black shadow falls across Bao Mansion. Shen Da Pai’s voice booms through the house, shaking the glass in the windows. I’m wide awake now as I peer out from my hiding place. I imagine his hideous form looming over Por Por’s tiny figure.

  There are explosions and flashes of orange light as the battle moves around the house. Sometimes it’s upstairs, then in the next instant I hear Por Por chanting from a room downstairs. I feel so helpless. The fight seems to go on forever. I lose all track of time. The walls of the house look like they are stretching, as if Shen Da Pai’s power fills every space and it’s about to burst. Then … silence.

  I hold my breath. The pounding of my heart and the creaking of the house are the only sounds I hear. I pray for Por Por to come through the front door, triumphant. I wait and wait. I feel a rising panic. Then I know, something terrible has happened to Por Por.

  I run out of the gate. My only thought is to save her, but I can’t just rush into the house. I can’t do it alone. I need help … Ting Ting’s help.

  I race down the main street of town, past the lock shop and the paintbrush shop, until I come to the clinic and hospital where Por Por had acupuncture the other day.

  I ask for Ting Ting at the front desk, panting so hard I can barely speak. The nurse points to a room down the corridor.

  Ting Ting’s bed is by the window and she’s reading, one arm propped under her head. She puts her book down and turns. ‘Where’s Por?’ she says.

  ‘She went to fight Shen Da Pai,’ I say. ‘There was a terrible battle. I think she might be hurt or …’ I stop to catch my breath. ‘I … I didn’t have any weapons, so there was nothing I could do.’

  ‘And you call yourself a ghost-hunter?’ Ting Ting snorts through her nose and frowns. ‘You’re just a coward.’ She kicks off the bed sheets and looks for her clothes.

  Once she’s dressed I follow her to the front desk, feeling small and useless as only Ting Ting can make me feel. It takes only a couple of minutes of sweet talking and Ting Ting is discharged from the hospital.

  When we get home, she fetches a key to the weapons cupboard from a hiding place in her room. I take out what I think I might need – a coin sword, some bells, my mingshen mirror, torches – and put it all into a long cloth bag. Ting Ting takes out a weapon that looks like a discus, and a stick with a rope attached to it that’s knotted all the way down. We still haven’t said a word to each other since we left the hospital.

  As we are about to go out the door, I say, ‘We should paint our bodies with protective talismans.’

  Ting Ting looks at me, raising one eyebrow.

  ‘All right,’ she says.

  I get the bottle of ink from the cupboard and paint symbols on my arms and legs like the ones Por Por painted on her body. Even though I only watched her briefly, I seem to know exactly what to paint.

  ‘What are those for?’ Ting Ting says, pointing to two large talisman symbols I have painted on the backs of my hands.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ I say. ‘But I think they are very powerful.’

  She looks at me, puzzled for a moment, then says, ‘You’d better paint them on mine, too.’

  I repeat the symbols on the backs of her hands.

  ‘Before we go,’ she says to me, ‘we need to energise our bodies.’

  ‘Right,’ I say.

  I follow her down the steps at the side of the house to where the fish pond and the large rock sits.

  Ting Ting tells me to lie on the ground.

  ‘Why don’t we use the rock like Por Por does?’ I ask.

  ‘Only ghost-hunters who are highly trained have the ability to absorb the power of rocks,’ she replies.

  We lie down side by side and close our eyes. I relax, letting my body sink into the cool ground. I can feel the earth breathing underneath me like a pair of giant lungs. Then it’s breathing through me, clearing my head, my nose, my blood. Cell by cell my body is renewed, until I feel as if I could run a marathon. I lie there for a moment longer then get to my feet, alert, wound up like a spring.

  ‘Wait,’ I say. ‘Before we go I want to give you this!’ Reaching inside my pocket, I take out the talisman necklace.

  Ting Ting stares at it.

  ‘I found it in the strongbox at Bao Mansion,’ I say.

  Her mouth drops open. ‘You went there … especially?’ she says in disbelief.

  I nod. I drop the necklace into her hand and her fingers close over it.

  ‘Xie xie, thanks,’ she says softly.

  I’m so surprised I don’t know what to say. ‘It’s all right,’ I shrug and smile.

  The long silken thread that connects me with Por Por seems to be winding itself around Ting Ting as well.

  Ting Ting nods at me and we sling our bags over our shoulders. We are two young ghost-hunters about to fight the most fearsome battle of our lives.

  We climb aboard the water taxi and sit down on the seat, our long weapon
bags across our laps.

  ‘When we get to Bao Mansion,’ says Ting Ting, ‘make sure you stay close behind me, all right?’

  ‘I will,’ I say, ‘unless I think you’re doing the wrong thing.’

  She stares at me, surprised. ‘You’ve only fought a piddly little fat belly. I’ve been training for four years!’

  ‘But I know where the strongbox is,’ I say.

  ‘Well … yes …’ she stammers. ‘Anyway, it’s important we work together and not argue.’

  ‘I agree with you,’ I say, hiding a smile. ‘I found a whole heap of weird stuff in that strongbox with your necklace. Por Por said they are evil talismans, given to your grandfather by a black magician to give him other-worldly powers.’

  Ting Ting sits back, listening, so I push on.

  ‘What we have to do first – before we look for Por Por or do anything else – is destroy everything in that strongbox.’

  ‘But what if Por’s injured? She might be badly hurt.’

  ‘Do you think Shen Da Pai is going to let us get anywhere near her? We have to find the strongbox and destroy those black talismans as soon as possible so that we can weaken his power.’

  She thinks for a moment. Finally she says, ‘All right. But remember, I’m the one with the experience.’

  ‘Yes, I remember,’ I say.

  I let Ting Ting lead the way as we get off the water taxi and walk towards Bao Mansion. One thing is worrying me, though. If we meet Shen Da Pai, how will Ting Ting react? Her emotions are so raw, so close to the surface. And she has such a bad temper. One tiny thing could push her over the edge. But I can’t worry about that now.

  We both flick on our torches as we slip through the gates and make our way across the wooden plank to the front entrance. The two beams of light are a comfort, but they also make us stand out in the dark like lighthouse beacons.

  Ting Ting steps to one side, letting me lead the way.

  I go down the corridor to the office, all the while watching out for Por Por, and for any signs of Shen Da Pai.