All the Gates of Hell

by Richard Parks

  "Is something wrong, Jin?"

  "Ah, no. Just worried about you, I guess."

  Joyce grunted. "Nice for someone to worry about me for a change. Though I still think that Teacher guy needs watching."

  Jin didn't disagree. Though she thought that, up till now, she could be forgiven for thinking more about here own role in this mess rather than the scope of Teacher's duties. Which, apparently, included "Boss of Working Stiff Demons." There was something clearly blue-collar and no-nonsense about the imp on Joyce's shoulder. She could no longer see it, but she knew it could hear her.

  What are you saying to Joyce?

  I'M TELLING HER THAT SHE'S UNWORTHY OF THE JERK SHE'S LIVING WITH AND DESERVES TO BE TREATED LIKE SHIT.

  That's a lie! She's the strongest, most together person I know!

  SO WHY DOES SHE BELIEVE ME?

  That stopped Jin cold for several seconds. But...

  FOR PETE'S SAKE -- DO I TELL YOU HOW TO DO YOUR JOB, IMMANENT ONE? IF YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM, TAKE IT UP WITH MANAGEMENT.

  After a moment or two Jin remembered who "Management" was. I believe I'll do that.

  Joyce closed the office early that afternoon, pleading a migraine. Jin just took a right into the alley by the flower shop. For a full minute as she walked there was nothing in the alley but trash, broken asphalt, and dirt. Jin was beginning to think that Teacher was trying keep her out again when the air seemed to shimmer around her and she was walking down the long corridor between double rows of grinning effigies on her way to the entrance to All the Hells. She found Teacher there by the dais as if he'd been waiting for her.

  "Teacher -- " she began, but he didn't even let her finish. He glanced at his strange watch and sighed.

  "Jin, didn't I tell you: 'no more questions'?"

  "Teacher, did you think for one sodding moment I'd agree to that?"

  In the distance the two guardians were in their usual poses, trying to pretend they weren't listening. Teacher leaned back against the dais and glanced up into the smiling, beatific golden face of Guan Yin as if seeking help. "Fuss all you want, I can't tell you how to be Guan Yin. Isn't that what you really want to know?"

  "What I want to know is why you sent that imp to torment poor Joyce!"

  "She's in Hell, Jin. Is there some part of the concept that you still don't understand?"

  "Maybe all of it. She doesn't deserve to be treated like that!"

  Teacher shrugged. "So why is she letting it happen? And when is she going to stop?"

  "You're blaming the victim, Teacher."

  He shook his head. "You're casting Joyce in that role, not me. For that matter, so is she. If you're so distressed by her suffering, why don't you free her?"

  Jin seriously considered punching him again. "I don't know how," she said finally.

  He nodded as if the matter were self-evident. "If you don't know how, then she isn't ready for Guan Yin. Do I sense a connection? Contrast that, perhaps, with the man in the fish and chips shop yesterday."

  Jin blinked. "You know about that?"

  "Yes, and so do you. Let's remember it together, shall we?" Teacher reached out an touched Jin on the shoulder before she could react. In that instant, Jin was back in Juney's Café on Jemmerson street. She heard the murmur of conversation at the surrounding tables, heard the sizzle as Karl slapped a burger onto the grill, smelled the meat cooking. There was a well-dressed, balding man at the condiment island. He was very calmly and methodically picking up lemon slice after lemon slice from the crisper and dropping them into a large glace of iced tea.

  Weird old guy...

  He was trying to get one more slice into a glass that couldn't possibly hold another when Jin reached for the ketchup and accidentally brushed against him.

  "They're just lemons," she had said aloud after the shock of her touch had made him spill half his drink on the counter. "You don't need to possess them all."

  In that instant he was gone as if he'd never been. In another instant Jin was back in the Gateway with Teacher.

  "Your memory, Jin. Was his problem a fascination with lemons?"

  She shook her head. "Of course not. It was greed and a lifetime in pursuit of things he didn't really want or need, just as a way of keeping score."

  "Right. And in his case all it took was one simple statement from you to that effect, at the right time and the right place and he vanished from Medias and left no traces. If he had family, they no longer remembered him, or they did remember they believed he had been gone for some time. Business organization charts altered, payrolls and insurance rolls followed suit. You could practically see the hole closing around the place where the man had been."

  "Just as it was as if I'd never owned a cat named Missus Tickles. My mother thought I'd made the whole thing up."

  Teacher nodded. "Just so. They were ready. Joyce is not."

  Jin knew that was the truth, even if she didn't want to. She tried another angle.

  "Even so, if there's an imp on one shoulder, shouldn't there be an angel on the other? Isn't that fair?"

  Teacher looked exasperated. "Fair? We're not dividing a pack of cookies here, Jin. Your friend has to be ready to understand, and to help herself or nothing is going to change for her. And just to be clear -- I didn't set the demon on Joyce, if that's what you think."

  "Ummm, then who did?"

  "She did. Not consciously, but she's trying to learn something, and strange as this may sound, the demon is helping her do it. There's nothing about her situation that requires a Guan Yin. Yet."

  Jin scowled. "So what good is being Guan Yin if I can't even help a friend?"

  Teacher shrugged. "I'm told that perfectly ordinary people help each other all the time. Or is there some other definition of 'friendship' that I don't know about?"

  Jin just stared at him for several long moments before she shook her head wearily.

  "Tell me, am I a complete and utter fool or do I just feel like one?"

  Teacher's expression was pure joy. "Tempted as I am, only you can answer that one. I suggest you work on it."

  (())

  Chapter 5

  On her way out Jin paused at the two guardian statues. They merely looked large, fierce, and stony, as was their habit.

  "You two were in my dream," she said.

  They didn't say anything. There was still enough of the old Jin present to consider that, perhaps, she should feel a bit foolish about talking to statues, but that echo was fading rapidly. Now she only sighed, and decided to get a little more specific.

  "You were there, weren't you?"

  YES, they replied in unison, which is the way they seemed to do most things so far as Jin could see.

  "So why aren't you two standing at the entrance to Medias? This isn't the way I came."

  THIS IS THE WAY YOU NEED TO GO.

  Actually, Jin had the same feeling. A kind of tug at the edge of her perception. That didn't change the fact that being told what she had to do or needed to do was getting a bit old. Jin put her hands on her hips. "And who, pray tell, said so?"

  YOU DID. YOU MAY NOT HAVE BEEN AWARE OF IT, BUT YOU DID COMMAND US. WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, AND IN THE REALM OF DOORS AND PASSAGES, WE DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES. THE ORDER CAME FROM YOU.

  Jin thought about it. "Suppose I commanded you to show me the way back to Medias?"

  Jin heard a creaking sounds as if the stone of the guardians themselves was trying to turn and face each other. She got a definite feeling that the two statues were discussing the matter.

  WE WOULD COMPLY, they said finally.

  Jin crossed her arms. "Good to know, but I sense a 'however' coming. What is it?"

  SOMEONE REALLY NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW. AND THEY ARE NOT IN MEDIAS. WHY WOULD YOU NOT WISH TO GO WHERE YOU'RE NEEDED?

  Offhand, Jin could think of a lot of reasons, but none that didn't make her feel a little ashamed of herself. She was coming to terms with the idea that she was, in fact, the mortal incarnation of Guan Yin, since her only other option was
to come to terms with the idea that she was barking mad. That meant that she could no more ignore the responsibility that came with that knowledge than a tiger could peel off its stripes. Mortal, limited, and all, she was Guan Yin, and she would do what Guan Yin needed to do.

  She did not, however, have to like it.

  "Just keep your guard up for anything coming back that isn't me," she said, irritably.

  THAT IS OUR SOLE PURPOSE. WE EXPLAINED THIS --

  "Yeah, yeah. I remember."

  Jin stomped off toward the doorway the guardians were flanking and pushed on the door itself as if daring the thing to get in her way. It did no such thing, but rippled like water to allow her to pass through without even bothering to open.

  Jin found herself in a corridor very much like the one that led from Medias to the Gateway to All Hells itself. The same flaring torches, the same carved monsters in the stone. The same dust and debris of ages settling on the stone floor.

  I don't suppose anyone ever sweeps up.

  It was a silly thought, but no more silly than a corridor with torches that apparently never burned out and never needed to be replaced. Her curiosity aroused, Jin made a conscious effort to open her Third Eye and then an immediate and panicky effort to close it again. For what seemed like one infinite moment she had stood on nothing at all over a space so vast and black that Jin knew without question it could have swallowed the universe with appetite left over. Then her Third Eye obediently closed and she was standing back on the solid stone of the passageway, squinting to see again in the weak torchlight, the dank scent of a long-closed space back in her nose. She'd never been so grateful for mold and eyestrain in her life.

  It occurred to Jin that, perhaps, illusions were not always bad things. She'd suddenly become very fond of the one that made the passageways to Hell seem like simple stone corridors that allowed her to travel infinite space in the time it took to cross Pepper Street. Jin hurried down the corridor toward the far door.

  Which wasn't there. Jin simply stepped through an open arch and into a cavern not unlike that containing the Doorway to All the Hells. The main differences that Jin could see at first glance was that this one seemed more elongated than round; she couldn't even see where it ended and she was fairly certain this wasn't simply because of the dim light. The other thing she noticed was that the floor of the cavern was strewn with small rocks and looked like the bed of a dried-out river.

  She frowned. "This is a hell, too?"

  "I suppose it depends on your definition."

  Later Jin would think that, perhaps, she should be used to people just appearing and disappearing; Teacher certainly did it enough. As it was, she jumped back two feet and landed in a fighter's crouch in full demon form. A few feet away from her there stood a strange-looking little man. He carried a staff with several rings set into the top of it. He was bald, and his earlobes were elongated exactly as those on many of the Buddhist images Jin had seen in her studies. He was maybe five feet tall in his sandals, and wore the robes of a monk. He looked about as dangerous as a fireplug with the water turned off.

  "Damn it all, don't do that!"

  The little man raised his eyebrows. "Immanence, your language has certainly gotten more... colorful, since our last meeting."

  Jin stood up straight and abandoned her Pulan Gong form, feeling a little foolish. She racked her brains while she waited for her heart to stop pounding. "You're... O-Jizou, yes?"

  He nodded. "You remember me, after all this time. I am honored, Kannon-sama."

  Something in the way he said it led Jin to think that he wasn't honored at all. In fact, if it had been anyone other than the Enlightened Being O-Jizou was supposed to be, she'd have thought he sounded downright annoyed. He was a Bodhisattva like herself, and had something to do with children, but that was all she could remember.

  "I'm in a mortal incarnation and my memory is faulty. Have I done something to offend you?"

  "The Lord of the First Hell informed me of your condition. As for offense... those in my care have suffered because of you. Suffering may be the lot of all creatures, but usually it serves a purpose, however obscure. Does what you have done serve a purpose? Emma-O believes so, but I don't know for certain and neither, apparently, do you."

  Jin said nothing. There didn't seem to be anything to say. Then the moment passed and the little monk turned on his heel and set out at a walk so brisk that Jin had to run to catch up. "Follow me, please," he said over his shoulder.

  "I'm trying," Jin said, amazed that the man's short legs could move so quickly.

  They hadn't quite reached the riverbed when a fierce-looking old woman appeared out of nowhere, blocking their path. Her hair was white and her eyes jet black, and those eyes glittered like cold wet stones. "Give me your clothes," she said to Jin.

  Jin put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me??"

  "Begone, Datsueba," O-Jizou said. "Do you not recognize Kannon the Merciful?"

  The hag looked at her even closer. "I know guilt when I see it. Her clothes belong to me. That is the Law."

  "I don't think so," said Jin. In another moment she was in full demon form again. The hag didn't appear worried at all, or even surprised. She did look a little puzzled.

  O-Jizou sighed. "Stop that," he said to Jin, as if she were a misbehaving child, then turned back to the hag. "Whatever else this woman may be, she is mortal and alive. You're wasting our time, Datsueba."

  "Mortal stink," said the hag finally, and made a sniffing noise. "I should have noticed. Didn't want to touch her anyway."

  In another instant the hag was gone and Jin had returned to her normal appearance. O-Jizou started walking again and Jin hurried to catch up. "What was that all about?"

  The little monk shrugged. "After their initial judgment, the dead, guilty and guiltless alike, come to this place to cross the river to the next realm. Those judged guiltless cross on a bridge. Those who are guilty must either wade or swim the river. It is the Datsueba's task to strip the clothing from the guilty."

  "Just what am I supposed to be guilty of? Are all the guilty here supposed to stay naked?!"

  "As to the first, I cannot say. For the second, no, they clothe themselves again in time," he said, as if the matter was of no importance.

  Jin just hurried along for a little while, so intent on keeping pace with O-Jizou that the inherent absurdity of what he had said took a little while to catch up to her. When it did, she almost stopped.

  "Ummm, O-Jizou, correct me if I'm wrong, but where we're walking is dry. There's no water here."

  "Not a drop," O-Jizou agreed.

  "So why does anyone need to wade?"

  "Because they don't understand that the water is an illusion. If they did, they wouldn't belong here." Apparently seeing that Jin was about to ask something else he went on, "Even in your mortal form you should know this. Or has your Third Eye never opened?"

  "Oh, right." Jin said. She did not, however, feel an overwhelming urge to open that eye just then and verify absolute reality.

  As they walked along the riverbed Jin saw something very strange. All along the bank on one side were children, piling heavy stones one on top of the other. Some of them were in fact naked. Others wore tattered clothes of an overwhelming variety: kimonos, robes, jeans, dresses, jumpers. Their ages seemed to vary from those barely able to walk to pre-adolescents. All seemed to be working at the stones. Some were piling in groups, others worked alone.

  "What are they doing?"

  "They're too small to wade the river, or the older ones can't swim. They're piling up the stones to try and make a footpath to the other side."

  "I don't understand. What can children so young be guilty of?"

  O-Jizou just shrugged again. "Ask the one who judges them."

  Even as they spoke Jin saw a ragged boy turn away to pick up another heavy stone and in that moment a small demon almost identical to the one on Joyce's shoulder dashed out of nowhere and shoved the pile of stones, scattering them a
nd reducing the pile to nothing. The demon vanished before the child could return with the stone to find all his work gone to nothing.

  "The poor thing -- "

  Jin had started to turn back but without even looking at her O-Jizou had reached back and taken hold of her wrist. "Neither you nor your pity can help him, Kannon. Please concentrate on those who need you."

  As scoldings went this one was very gentle, but it was a scolding none the less. Jin wanted to be angry, but couldn't. "This is what you deal with all the time, isn't it?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "Can...can you do anything for them?"

  "When the time comes -- and not before -- I help them cross the river."

  "How do you know when the time comes?"

  "How do you free someone from hell?" he returned, mildly. "It is, as Emma-O has taken to saying lately, 'my job,' just as freeing the punished is yours."

  "So I've been reminded. A lot," Jin said dryly.

  "If it were not so, Emma-O would not be doing his job. Granted, he has more than enough to concern him as it is."

  That sounded like a scolding too. Jin sighed. "If it turns out that this incarnation is a mere whim of mine -- and your guess on this is as good as my own -- I'll be sure to apologize for wasting everyone's time. In the meantime can we just drop the subject of my incarnation?"

  He just shrugged. "Your incarnation does not matter."

  "Then why do you keep bringing it up?"

  Somewhat to Jin's surprise, O-Jizou actually seemed to be thinking about her question as they walked. "I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe I'm just angry."

  "Human emotion is an illusion," Jin said, even though she wasn't really convinced of that herself.

  "'Show me someone who's never been bewitched by a pair of beautiful eyes and I'll show you a stone buddha,'" replied O-Jizou, smiling.

  "Is that a real saying, or did you just make it up?"

  "Yes," he said.

  O-Jizou smiled again and Jin started to wonder if she was beginning to like the guy. She really could do without the scolding, though.