2014 Campbellian Anthology

by Various

  On the day of the Second Motivation, we are all lifted up in joyful anticipation of the opportunity to take out that Doi Liang. We take our cups of tea and form a pack at the starting line.

  Sensei Madame Tong counts down. “San. Ni. I. Let fly!”

  We all burst and flip or cartwheel onto the perimeter wall and set off. Because the perimeter wall is only wide enough for one skater at a time, we all must follow along in a line. However, you can sprint when you skate past the rooftop of an adjacent building and do a diagonal three-point skid-step to pass somebody.

  Doi Liang keeps trying to pass the skater in front of her and move to the front of the line. However, we anticipate her moves and we work in unison against her like a school of fish.

  When we skate to a point that is blocked from Sensei Madame Tong’s view by the natural geography of the campus, we all let loose with our combat moves at Doi Liang, trying to make her spill her cup of tea.

  She is taken by surprise at the assault from ten sides. She performs quite well considering all those arms and skate blades coming at her.

  She quickly changes to the Pulling Hands technique, grabbing the girls’ limbs as they come at her, using the forward motion of their moves against them, and turning sideways to let them fly past her. The girl is not talentless, I must say that.

  But she is no match for so many girls. She is blocking off four girls who have stopped curbing their kicks and appear to be aiming open blades at her. If they are going to be using illegal moves on Doi Liang, I cannot stop them.

  Then, as Doi Liang passes the rooftop of the dormitory, little Lin-En skates up from the left side and slaps Doi Liang’s cup of tea. Good girl! It flies up in the air. Lin-En ends up skating right through the cloud of tea droplets, which stain all over her uniform robes. But at least we have succeeded in our mission. For Doi Liang snatches her teacup as it tumbles in the air and it is completely empty.

  As we skate into view of Sensei Madame Tong again, I see that not only have I made Doi Liang come in last place, I am going to come in first place.

  See. Do not underestimate Her Grace, Radiant Goddess Princess Suki. No one will shame me. No one will deny me. As I streak down the finish line in first place, I sing out triumphantly,

  “No dutiful daughter am I!

  “No father or mother ruled by!

  “Behold me, for I am the Radiant Goddess!

  “I fly up and rip down the sky!”

  I finish first, Doi Liang is right behind me but with an empty teacup, then Yoneko, then Chiriko, then Lin-En.

  I am glad to see that sweet Lin-En managed to place in the top few places again. For some reason, I am cheering for that girl. I skate over to her and say, “Keep skating like that and when we get to Pearl Opera Academy, I will start a sisterhood and you can be my first lady in waiting.” From the look of happiness on her face, you would think that I just gave her a gift of the moon. Sweet, open-hearted girl.

  When all the girls have crossed the finish line, it turns out that everyone finished with their cups at least half full except for Doi Liang. I figure that that means that she places twenty-third, dead last in this Motivation, and she will be expelled! I am overcome with joy.

  “What happened when the rise of the hill obscured all of you from my view?” asks Sensei Madame Tong. “Mistress Lin-En. Why is your uniform covered with tea?”

  Lin-En cries, “Doi Liang fell in front of me and spilled her tea on me.”

  Sensei Madame Tong’s neck and face fill with color. “Do not lie to me, worthless, shameful girl! Doi Liang has not fallen once during these weeks of training.”

  Lin-En begins to stutter and protest, but Sensei Madame Tong turns instead to Doi Liang.

  “Mistress Doi. Did you fall and spill your tea?”

  Doi Liang is silent, then finally answers in her low, hoarse voice, “No.”

  “Did Mistress Lin-En slap your teacup out of your hand?”

  Doi Liang does not look at Sensei Madame Tong. She does not look at Lin-En.

  She looks straight at me.

  She says, “Yes.”

  “Mistress Lin-En,” says Sensei Madame Tong. “Go pack your things. You are expelled.”

  Brave Yoneko skates to the front of the group and protests. “You cannot do that to Lin-En! You have no right to just disbelieve her!”

  I have never seen an adult turn so furious. “You are expelled, too, Mistress Yoneko! For disrespect to a Sensei. Now get out of here!”

  • • •

  That night, after Lin-En and Yoneko are escorted out by the evil nuns, we also learn that Sensei Madame Tong calculated the rankings in a different way from how I thought. After expelling Lin-En and Yoneko, twenty-one girls were left. Thus, Doi Liang’s finishing last means that she finished in twenty-first place. However, that combined with her second place ranking in First Motivation means that she averages out to between eleventh and twelfth place overall. Not last place. And not expelled. Instead, the tall girl with the beauty mark on her chin averages in last place and is expelled.

  Piss me off to death. The girls all want to make Doi Liang pay for what she did to Lin-En and Yoneko and they want to enjoy watching her pay.

  But I know it was not Lin-En and Yoneko that she was trying to hurt. It was me. And she succeeded.

  Poor Lin-En. We were becoming friends. And she slapped Doi Liang’s teacup to get revenge for me. Now she is going to pay with her career. There is no way that she is going to get into Pearl Opera Academy with an expulsion on her record, especially for cheating and lying to a Sensei. Such a waste of talent. And what is she going to do with her life now? The world is not a kind place for homely girls. I should know. It is people like me that make it so. Ah, poor Lin-En!

  And poor Yoneko! She was only speaking up for Lin-En, as I should have. But did not. And now her career is ruined, too. And she comes from an important, public family. Oh, how they will punish her for the shame she has brought on their public face.

  If I accomplish nothing else in this life, I will at least see that that Doi Liang is destroyed.

  For the next two weeks, I look for opportunities to sabotage Doi Liang without breaking any rules myself, but there is no opportunity since there are no tests until the Final Motivation at the end of the month. For the entire time, we only practice pairs Wu-Liu.

  We are surprised at how long this training lasts. We all hate it. It is very difficult work because you have to be careful not to strike or kick your partner with your skate blades, while learning to use her as a second pair of arms and legs, while taking on an opponent. None of us is feeling very confident about how we would test in pairs work right now.

  Except for me, of course. I am equally trained in single and pairs combat. I am skilled in all twelve of the zodiacal pairs moves, in either head or rear position.

  The only small beacon of joy during this time is that that Doi Liang is doing horribly! She tore a cord in one arm defending herself during the Imperial Tea-Service examination and has had it in a sling ever since. Watching her have to work so hard during training to reroute her Chi around the injury and watching her Wu-Liu suffer terribly for it fills my heart with peace.

  Sensei Madame Tong is furious at our lack of progress in pairs work. After two weeks of nothing but pairs drills for twelve hours each day, she gathers us on the training court for a speech.

  “Worthless Girls of Pearl Rehabilitative Colony. Your performance in pairs Wu-Liu has been disgraceful. If I were you, I would beg my parents for permission to commit ritual suicide out of shame for how I have disgraced my ancestors with my laziness and lack of excellence. You are all of you selfish, conceited girls. None of you has learned anything about the virtue of teamwork.

  “There is going to be a change to the grading system. For the rest of the term, you shall work only in pairs. For the Final Motivation, each pair shall receive one grade, so that every girl’s grade shall be tied to her partner’s.

  “You are all allowed to choose your ow
n pairs partner. Choose wisely.”

  There is much chittering among the girls at this. You can imagine all the drama and possibility for wounded feelings this will create.

  “One exception to the right to choose. It is clear from the Second Motivation that none of you shall choose Mistress Doi Liang as a partner. Yet, she needs a partner, so Mistress Doi Liang has the right to choose anyone she wants as her partner.”

  All eyes turn to Doi Liang.

  Doi Liang looks at Sensei Madame Tong.

  Then Doi Liang turns her head and looks straight at me.

  No, no, no.

  No, oh, no, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why me?

  Why me, why me, why always, always me?

  Aiyah! I want to die.

  Doi Liang raises her one good arm, points a finger at me, and says, “Her. I choose her.”

  That night, I write a letter to my father and my mother.

  “Esteemed and Honorable Parents,

  “I know you think I am a worthless daughter, but how could you send me to such a stupid, stupid place? Why did you not just tie me in a bag and throw me into the ocean when I was born? I know you wanted to, because I was not born a boy. Tell me the truth. I was adopted, was I not? I always knew it. That is why you never loved me, no matter how gentle and sweet a daughter I was. But even if you never loved me, you did not have to send me to a stupid place like Pearl Colony to be horribly tortured to death like an animal. I hate it here, but not as much as I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.

  “Your Worthless, Unloved, Female, Adopted Daughter, Suki.”

  How am I going to survive this term at Pearl Colony? My first place ranking combines with that Doi Liang’s eleventh place ranking so that it averages out to somewhere around sixth place. The evil nuns keep saying that the brutal training at Pearl Colony prepares all girls for the examination to get into Pearl Opera Academy, but everyone knows that no one but the top two or three finishers here ever get into the Academy.

  And with her stupid crippled arm, how are we ever going to complete the Final Motivation successfully? It was fun to watch her struggle during training to compensate for the injury and try to perform the moves with only three fourths of her limb strength. We all loved watching her fall and splatter flat on the pearl again and again as she tried so hard to reposition her center of Chi to balance out the injury. We all laughed so hard and it was beautiful, but now it is not funny any more. Piss me off to death.

  Also, this girl is dangerous and insane. And she hates me for no reason. I am afraid that it might be more important to Doi Liang to see me get kicked out and to ruin my career than for her to save her own career. What would it matter to her? She will never again be as famous as she was when she was Baby Swan Doi. She was already used up at ten years of age.

  We train in the twelve zodiacal animal pairs moves. For moves where one skater plays the head and one skater plays the rear of the animal, there is always a silent struggle between that Doi Liang and me about who will play the head, but she always yields.

  The side to side pairs moves are easier with her, but I hate having to hold her cold, rough hand, and we keep having to modify the moves to accommodate her stupid injury.

  Two days before the Final Motivation, Sensei Madame Tong announces that she is going to have us fight against actual Pearl Opera Academy students at our Final Motivation. Aiyah, we are so unready for this.

  On the last day before Final Motivation, Doi Liang and I are training in the Swinging Monkey routine together. During the entire final week, she has said nothing to me. Not one word.

  As we practice racing along the perimeter wall of Pearl Colony, I finally grow tired of her silence.

  “Why do you not ever talk?” I say. “What is wrong with you?”

  She says nothing.

  I say what I suspect is going to be a sore spot, to try to provoke a reaction from her. “Everyone knows why you disappeared for four years after you got famous as Baby Swan Doi.” Actually, I am still working on learning exactly what the trouble was that she got into that made her have to hide from public view all those years, but I figure that it is worth a try. “You and your parents think you were so clean in covering it up, but everybody knows. I cannot believe you do not realize that. We all talk about it and we all think it is just disgusting.”

  No reaction. “But what does it matter now? You are much too old and used up to perform ‘The Dragon and the Swan’ ever again. You will never be limber enough again to do that little swan move where you grab your skate behind you and spin like a blossom. Which was a vulgar little gimmick anyway.”

  Still no reaction. Piss me off to death. I have to be more creative. “I know about your brother.”

  She does not look at me.

  “I know what you are thinking,” I say, making it up as I go. “Your mother had a difficult pregnancy with twins. And you know that if they had had to choose one twin to sacrifice to save the other, you would not be here, would you. See, there is nothing about you that I cannot see.” I shoot this arrow into the air to see where it will land.

  She still says nothing. She still does not look at me. However, I can tell that she is not looking at me only through great self control. I can see these things.

  “Well,” I say, “do not think that you have some special right to act so tragic just because of that. My parents wanted a boy. And I think that I was adopted. But you do not see me going around feeling sorry for myself about it.”

  Aiyah, just thinking about it makes me start to cry. It is so unfair. Why me? When all I have ever wanted was for them to treat me like a human being, not some worthless embarrassment.

  As we skate toward the central minaret in the middle of the perimeter wall, we begin swinging each other in half-moon sweeps and passing the fulcrum of our collective Chi back and forth between us. I hate having her evil Chi in my body, even for a moment. As we approach the minaret, we press our bodies together. We launch our bodies off into the space to one side of the minaret. We whip in orbit around each other like a pair of thrown nunchaku, but we wobble because of her stupid injured arm throwing us off. The centripetal force is barely enough to arc us around the minaret and land us on the other side.

  As we land, Doi Liang says, “Do not be stupid. It cannot be both.”

  I am so surprised to hear her speak that I say nothing.

  She continues in that low, hoarse voice, “If your parents wanted a boy, why would they have adopted a girl? They are certainly rich enough to adopt a boy if they wanted. Either they wanted a boy, or you are adopted. It cannot be both.”

  I am stunned by her outrageous presumption. How dare she bring up my private family matters.

  SUPPLEMENTAL DECLARATION OF HENRY LIEN

  by Henry Lien

  First published in Interfictions (Oct. 2013), edited by Sofia Samatar

  • • • •

  I, HENRY LIEN, declare:

  1. I am the former Trustee of the Trust of Thornton J. Hess (the “Trust”). Except where noted, the following facts are of my own personal knowledge and, if called as a witness, I could and would competently testify thereto.

  2. Although this Trust has been wound down, I am submitting this supplemental declaration in fulfillment of my former duty as Trustee to disclose all communications with the deceased, trustor Thornton J. Hess (hereafter, the “Trustor”). I had understood that I was required to disclose all communications between the Trustor and me that occurred before his death on October 1, 2005.

  3. At no point was I advised that I was under any obligation to disclose communications that I had with the Trustor after his death.

  4. Nonetheless, given the highly contentious litigation that has surrounded this Trust, I am hereby making this supplemental declaration out of an excess of caution.

  5. As stated in my original declaration, the Trustor was living with colorectal cancer when I met him in February 2005. The Trustor had been undergoing a chemotherapy regimen and respon
ding extremely well to it. The chemotherapy caused his cancer to retreat and his tumors to shrink incessantly. Further, he suffered absolutely no side effects beyond an afternoon of pleasant sleepiness after each monthly treatment. The Trustor stated that his doctor had called him a “poster child for chemo.”

  6. Nonetheless, the Trustor had been a lifelong adherent of New Age thought. He stated that he believed that “the chemo is keeping me alive but not healing me.” Thus, in March 2005, the Trustor unilaterally took himself off of traditional chemotherapy against his doctor’s orders. The Trustor turned instead to a course of alternative natural and herbal remedies that he had investigated on the Internet, particularly bottles of a product that he referred to as “healing water” from Canada.

  7. I repeatedly urged the Trustor to return to traditional medical care to at least receive diagnostic scans to assess whether his experiment was working. I made these statements to the Trustor not in my capacity as a Trustee, as I was not even aware of the existence of the Trust at that point nor had I become the Trustee yet. I made these statements in my capacity as the Trustor’s partner. The Trustor refused and insisted that he could feel that these therapies were healing him. After six months of this, I finally told the Trustor that I would end our personal relationship if he did not return to traditional medical care to at least receive diagnostic scans. The Trustor agreed to visit the doctor.

  8. On or about September 8, 2005, I caused the Trustor to be admitted to UCLA Medical Center. The Trustor’s oncologist Dr. Richard Petrakis ordered diagnostic scans. The diagnostic scans indicated that the Trustor’s experiments with alternative herbal and natural remedies for cancer had not been effective in causing his cancer to retreat. On the contrary, the scans indicated that during the six months of the Trustor’s alternative therapies experiment, the Trustor’s cancer had spread from his colon to his liver, kidneys, stomach, and lungs. Further, Dr. Petrakis informed us that an extremely serious bacterial infection had developed in the Trustor’s abdomen and if I had waited 24 more hours to bring the Trustor to the hospital, he would probably be dead already.