“No, it’s not normal at all,” replied George.
“Why not?” she asked innocently. “It’s true, isn’t it?" Then she turned to look at the Protector. "You told me yesterday humans try to be honest, and he does have big ears.”
“Yes, you should always try to be honest,” said the protector patiently, “but that doesn’t mean you go around poking people in the ear and telling them things that are rude or upsetting. If you can’t say something positive, don’t say anything at all.”
Emberly scowled, deep in thought. Then suddenly she smiled again and looking up at George said, “I’ll bet you can hear really good with those big ears of yours! That was a positive thing to say, wasn’t it?”
The protector threw up his hands in exasperation, but George just laughed. “I can hear just fine,” he said to Emberly. “But my ears are about the same size as yours.”
A look of horror spread over Emberly’s face and she clapped her hands over her ears. “I’ve got big ears too!” she screamed, then ran over and tried to hide behind the Volkswagen.
The protector looked at George and shrugged. “Praetorians don’t have ears,” he said simply. Then he turned back to the control box on the transporter and made a few more adjustments.
“All right!” he cried out. “We’re ready to go to Xhenxou, China!” He rubbed his chin. “Or at least, that’s where I hope we end up, if I set it right. But no matter. Hop in, and let’s get going.”
With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, George climbed into the back seat of the Volkswagen. Emberly crawled in next to him, still holding her hands over her ears, and avoiding his eyes. The protector sat in the passenger seat.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, turning to face George and Emberly. “Have one of these.” He handed each of them a stick of chewing gum in a red wrapper. “It’s mandarin Chinese flavored chewing gum – good for 24 hours of fluent language as long as you keep chewing on it. Try it. It tastes like fried rice.”
George took the stick of red gum, and stared at it in fascination.
“What do I do with this one?” asked Emberly, forgetting her ears for the moment and pulling a wad of bluish gum out of her mouth.
“That’s English gum,” said the protector to George. “Emberly is still learning your language, so I thought I’d make it easy for her today. But we’ll all be chewing Chinese now, so it won’t be needed. Put it in here,” he said to Emberly, producing a small plastic garbage sack from somewhere.
“You mean, if I chew this, I’ll be able to speak Chinese?” George said in amazement.
“Yep,” replied the protector. “And understand it too, as long as the gum is in your mouth. But of course, you won’t notice anything different. It will seem to you as if you’re still hearing and talking English.”
“Really?” said George.
“Agubordif?” said Emberly.
“There, you see?” said the protector. “Emberly took her English gum out of her mouth and is now speaking Praetorian – at least until she starts chewing some of this—“and he handed her a stick of the red Chinese chewing gum.
Emberly ripped it open and jammed it into her mouth. She made several loud smacking noises as she started chewing. Then she rolled her eyes happily.
“She likes gum,” the protector said confidentially. Then he opened a stick of gum for himself and put it in his mouth, pointing for George to do the same. As George started chewing, he was amazed that it really did taste exactly like fried rice.
“Now,” said the protector, “it probably doesn’t sound like I’m talking to you in Chinese, does it?”
“No,” replied George in disappointment.
“But I am,” said the protector with a smile. “Take the gum out for a second and you’ll see.”
George took the gum out of his mouth and heard the protector say something unintelligible that sounded like it was Chinese.
“Wow!” he said, putting the gum back in.
“Pretty handy, eh?” said the protector. “I’ve got gum for most languages.” Then he added confidentially, “You should try Italian. It tastes just like pizza.”
“And now, on to China!” cried the protector. Ant number 4 started the car, and started to inch forward toward the transporter door.
“Will it hurt to go through the transporter?” asked George with mounting apprehension as he watched the door draw nearer.
“Not at all,” replied the protector with a laugh. “It’s just like driving through a tunnel. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Where will we end up?” asked George curiously. “Is there a transporter in China too?”
“I entered the coordinates into the controller – it will find a secluded spot where no one will see and will automatically create a transporter opening for us to come in at. Both the opening there and the door here will be cloaked and made invisible as soon as we go through so no one will see them if they happen to chance by. They’ll stay that way until we’re ready to come back.”
Before George could say anything else they were going through the transporter. Rainbows of color danced in patches before his eyes, and washed across the faces of the protector, Ant number 4 and Emberly. George’s skin tingled as if thousands of ants were crawling over him. And then everything went completely dark.
CHAPTER 14: China
They were through the transporter door, and to George’s surprise, it was nighttime and very dark. There were only a few stars visible. George saw that they were in a small gully with bushes on either side, with not much else to be seen. However, the air was noisy with many car horns blowing nearby, so he knew they must be near a road.
“Everybody here honks their horn all the time, even when they don’t need to,” said the protector in a raised voice so he could be heard over the blaring horns. “There’s so many people and bikes all over that cars and buses have to honk to let people know they’re there, so no one gets run over.”
Slowly, Ant Number 4 pulled the car forward over the rise of the gully. George saw a large number of lights in the distance and some low buildings. There was a road nearby and George could see that there were indeed a large number of people on bikes, even in the dark, heading in both directions along the road, with a few honking cars and buses weaving slowly between them.
“Gosh,” said George, “I didn’t realize it would be dark here.”
“Yep,” the protector replied from the front seat. “It’s night here already, since China is nine hours behind California at this time of year. But they’re a day ahead since you have to cross the international dateline to get here. So I guess you could say that California is behind China in time, not the other way around.”
“If it’s so late, how come there are so many people out?” asked George.
“The Chinese generally take a little nap after lunch, which refreshes them to stay up late into the night,” said the protector. “You’ll find the whole city is far busier than an American city at this hour.”
Suddenly, Emberly pointed at George. “Your hair changed color and your eyes have changed. But you’ve still got big ears!”
George stared at Emberly in shock. While the dim light from the nearby buildings didn’t allow him to see much, he could tell that her blond curly hair was now black and straight, her freckles were gone and in every other way she looked like a Chinese girl!
“We are now Chinese,” said the protector calmly. “Even Ant Number 4.”
George saw that it was true. Both Ant Number 4 and the protector looked like Chinese men. Looking in the rear view mirror, George saw that his own appearance had changed dramatically. He also had black hair and looked very Chinese.
“Our car has changed too,” said the protector. “Volkswagen Bugs aren’t as common here as they used to be, so we are now riding in a more typical vehicle for China.”
Looking around at the interior of the car, George saw that the Volkswagen Bug had apparently been transformed into some type of yellow mini car or van
with bench seats.
The protector smiled at George from the front seat. “I’ll bet even your own mother probably wouldn’t recognize you now,” he said calmly.
At the thought of his mother, George looked impulsively at his cell phone. It was still on, but George doubted it would work if she tried to call from half way around the world. It was fascinating to think that he had come so far from home in the blink of an eye.
“Will we be here long?” asked George. “Not that I want to leave,” he added hastily. “I’m just afraid my Mom might try to call, and she wouldn’t be able to reach me.”
“That is a problem,” agreed the protector. “But we shouldn’t be here long. I’m just going to take a few pictures and do a few quick tests on the fallen star, and then we’ll need to ask around a little to see if anyone found an Uth rock like yours.”
Turning to Ant Number 4, the protector said, “Head for those lights over there.” He pointed to what looked like several spotlights in a nearby field. “I’ll bet that’s where the fallen star is.”
As they approached the field with spotlights, George could see street venders pulling carts of food or clothing, and a large number of people on foot or riding bicycles. All of them had black hair and dark eyes. George could now see why the protector had set the gauge to transform them all, so they wouldn’t stand out.
At the brightly lit field, they saw a large number of men in army uniforms carrying rifles. They were patrolling along a rope fence that had been set up along the edge of the field. A few curious spectators stood outside the rope, staring at the fallen star in the center of the field. It looked exactly like the one George had found. Two officials were examining it, with several armed guards standing behind them.
“Drat,” murmured the protector. “I should have known it would be heavily guarded here. I’m afraid we won’t be able to get very close to it. A few pictures from the outside of the rope fence will have to be good enough. But it looks just like yours, which I’ve been able to test and examine.”
“But what about the Uth rock?” asked George. “Does the army have it?”
“I don’t know,” said the protector. “If they do, they wouldn’t tell us. Let’s just hope if they do have it, they don’t find out how powerful it is.”
Ant Number 4 parked the car a short distance from the roped field. As they got out, the protector said, “Stay on this side of the rope fence, and don’t do anything to make the guards suspicious. If there’s any trouble, let me do the talking.”
George saw that the protector had put on a pair of glasses, but hadn’t taken anything else with him out of the car.
“What about the camera?” asked George. “Weren’t you going to take some pictures?”
The protector smiled. Raising his hand, he tapped his glasses. “This is my camera,” he said quietly. “I have a feeling they wouldn’t approve of my trying to take pictures of it with my Walmart camera. The army here is very protective and suspicious.”
Ant Number 4 stayed in the car while George, Emberly and the protector walked over to the roped field.
George could feel the eyes of several guards on him as he approached, and tried to act as normal as possible. This was hard to do with his heart thumping so loudly in his chest. Emberly on the other hand skipped along as if going to a picnic, stopping to look at the cart of each street vender that was going by, and staring at each bike rider that passed.
George noticed that the protector seemed to spend a lot of time adjusting his glasses. The protector walked along the rope fence for a ways, getting a look at the fallen star from several different angles.
Looking back toward the car, George noticed a glow on the horizon that must be coming from the center of the city. The bikes and honking cars continued winding along the nearby road in a steady stream in spite of the lateness of the hour. Did people here ever go to bed?
Turning back to the field, George saw that the protector had gone all the way to the far corner of the roped field, where he continued to stare at the fallen star. Emberly was nearby, closely examining the contents of a street vender’s cart, which appeared to be full of eggplants. She picked one up, turning it over in her hands. The street vender looked at her expectantly, probably thinking that she intended to buy it. With sudden apprehension over what Emberly might do, George hurried forward.
He was too late. Without warning, Emberly took a huge bite of the eggplant. Almost immediately she screwed up her face in disgust and spit it out on the shirt of the shocked street vender.
“Your purple rock tastes terrible!” she cried. Before any of the startled onlookers could do anything, she pushed the cart over and egg plants scattered in all directions. George stumbled on one and nearly fell as he rushed forward.
“Thief! Troublemaker! Brat!” cried the street vender as he danced angrily around Emberly. “You’ll pay for this! You’ll pay for all of my egg plants!”
“Here, what’s the trouble?” said a guard, pushing his way forward.
“This child pushed over my cart of egg plants!” cried the street vender.
“Those aren’t eggs!” screamed Emberly. “Eggs are white and taste good, but those purple rocks are awful!”
The guard took a menacing step toward Emberly, a dark look on his face. A sizable crowd seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Emberly, the street vender and the guard. George stood paralyzed at the edge of the crowd, not knowing what to do.
Suddenly the protector appeared, shoving his way in front of Emberly to face the guard.
“I apologize for the rude actions of my niece,” he said hastily. “I will pay for any damaged egg plants, I assure you.”
Emberly stood fuming behind the protector, but didn’t say anything. The guard hesitated. The street vender had quieted down for the moment, on hearing that he would be paid for his produce. In fact, he had broken into a big grin at the prospect of selling more egg plants at once than he probably ever had in one night.
“Emberly,” said the protector over his shoulder, while not taking his eyes off the guard, “please tell the nice gentleman you’re sorry, then go over to the car with George.”
Emberly looked sullenly down at her feet for a moment. She scuffed her toe at a nearby egg plant, cracking it open. Finally she said in a muffled voice, “I’m sorry.” Then she flashed everyone an unexpected smile and ran over next to George.
By this time several more guards had joined the first one. The protector quickly produced a wallet from an inner pocket and started pulling out colored bills of Yuen, Chinese currency. George wondered how the protector had known to bring any.
The street vender smiled happily and held out his hands, ecstatic to be earning more money off the protector than he would have earned in a day on the streets with his cart.
After passing out enough bills to make the street vender smile in glee, the protector slipped a bill to each of the guards. Then he signaled George and Emberly to follow him and headed quickly for the car.
When they got there, the protector wiped his brow and gave a sigh of relief. “That was a close one,” he said quietly. “Those guards can sometimes be a little bit difficult. It’s a good thing I transformed some money.” He opened the door of the car.
“Excuse me,” said a voice behind them. “Could you come with me please?”
CHAPTER 15: Jiu Na
The three jumped and turned quickly around. To their surprise they saw a Chinese girl standing before them, who was close to the same age as George and Emberly. She was wearing a well worn sweater, and shoes that looked two decades old. She smiled shyly, and said, “I’m Jiu Na. I wonder if you could come with me to my house. It’s not far away – right over there.” She pointed to a small shack nearby that looked like the roof was about to fall in. Other little, run-down shacks like it stretched off into the distance by the side of a trickle of water running down an open ditch.
The protector looked at George and Emberly for a moment. Then he said, “We’re
kind of in a hurry and probably won’t have time to go to your house. What do you need?”
“I have something to show you,” she said pleadingly. “Won’t you please come? It’s very important.”
“Well,” said the protector, “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll come back some other time.” He started to get into the car, signaling for George and Emberly to get in as well.
Jiu Na looked like she was on the verge of tears. “But you’ve got to come!” she cried. “I have to show it to you! He said I had to!”
The protector stopped, and looked sharply up at Jiu Na. “Who told you that?” he asked.
“The funny little brown man,” Jiu Na said miserably. “I didn’t want to tell you about him because I wasn’t sure you’d believe me. He was so strange.”
The protector quickly closed the car door and turned to face Jiu Na. “Did he have leathery skin and a gravely voice?” he asked with rising excitement.
“Yes,” said Jiu Na in surprise. “Do you know him?”
“It’s the Ziphon,” said the protector, turning to George. “We’d better go.” Turning back to Jiu Na he said, “Lead on.”
She smiled and said, “I’m sorry. I should have realized you’d know who he was. Come with me.” She then led them across a small field to the shack. They stumbled occasionally over the ruts running across the dark field, since it was too dark to see clearly. The spotlights on the field behind them did little more than cast difficult shadows across the uneven ground.
The door of the shack was scratched and scarred and creaked heavily as Jiu Na pushed it open. Inside by the dim light of a single bulb hanging from the ceiling they could see that the shack had only a dirt floor and a few sparse furnishings. An older woman was standing by a makeshift sink. She turned and smiled at them as they entered.
“This is my mother,” said Jiu Na.
“Hello,” said the older woman. “Would you like some rice?” She was already reaching for some plates on a rickety shelf.
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