by Henry Lien
I also don’t want Doi to think I was doing it strictly to show off for Hisashi.
Which I would be.
Our tea arrives, and Hisashi pours for us. The sunlight shafting through the window turns the steam into ribbons of rising luminescence between us. We sip the tea.
“Do you like it?” asks Hisashi.
“Yes, thank you,” I say. “It’ll be my birthday soon, and this is like an early celebration.”
Hisashi says, “You were born in the New Year’s month, too?”
“Yes, and Cricket, as well. I was born in the year of the sea otter, in the Pearlian zodiacal system, so I’m about to turn fifteen, same as you and Doi. Cricket was born in the year of the sea turtle, so he’s about to turn luckyteen.”
“So we’re all New Year’s–month babies!” cries Hisashi. He shouts at the teahouse girls, “It’s our birthdays! Do you have any birthday specials?”
One of the teahouse girls skates over and says, “Please excuse me. Did I accidentally overhear that we have a birthday?”
“Yes!” says Hisashi proudly.
“Ah! We offer Pearl Famous students a complimentary infinity noodle on their birthdays!”
“Sold!” says Hisashi.
“Does the infinity noodle or broth have any animal parts in it?” asks Doi.
“Of course not! This teahouse is completely New Year’s Spiritual-Enlightenment-Cleansing-Regimen-Compliant all year round. See.” She points to a little shrine in the corner with a statue of the Enlightened One, covered in adoring animals, including two little birds perched on her smoked spectacles. “I shall bring you one infinity noodle.”
Hisashi says, “Can we have three more orders? It’s all of our birthdays!”
The teahouse girl laughs behind her hand. “You only need one. It’s an infinity noodle!”
After the teahouse girl leaves, Cricket asks him, “What’s an infinity noodle?”
“I have no idea,” says Hisashi. “But I liked the price. Anyway, Doi, Peasprout, and I are all year of the sea otter! So that means we’re going to grow up to be very confident and curious. Cricket’s year of the sea turtle, so he’s going to be wise and long-lived.”
“Illogical superstition,” scoffs Doi.
“But, Wing Girl, isn’t every year-of-the-sea-otter person you know very confident and curious?”
“Yes, but only because they’ve been told their whole lives that they’re going to grow up to be confident and curious since they’re year of the sea otter.”
“Hah,” says Hisashi to Cricket and me. “My sister. She always sees what no one else does.”
“In Shin, only infants and the elderly have their birthdays celebrated,” I say.
“What about in Pearl?” asks Cricket.
“We celebrate every birthday in Pearl,” answers Hisashi. “Shall we celebrate our birthdays together in the traditional Pearlian fashion?”
“We would love that,” I say. “Thank you. What are your birthday customs?”
Hisashi grows wistful and says, “Every year, you spend your entire birthday on your knees bowed in front of portraits of your ancestors, thanking them for the gift of your existence and begging them to forgive you for turning out such an unfilial and undeserving disappointment. Unless you don’t have ancestral portraits because you’re poor or an orphan. Then you have to spend your entire birth month on your knees, praying to the memory of your ancestors and begging them forgiveness for allowing family decline to occur on your watch or allowing your parents to die. Our traditions are so beautiful.” He wipes his eyes. “We can start tonight.”
Cricket and I look at each other.
“He’s joking,” says Doi.
Hisashi roars with laughter, tipping back his chair and balancing it on two legs.
I watch him laughing and teetering at the other side of the table, as comfortable with Cricket and me as if he’s known us his whole life. He’s like the boy I knew last year—the one who didn’t exist—except louder, wilder, and more openhearted.
The boy I knew, that I thought I lost, has not only come back; he’s even more himself than he ever—
Peasprout, stop it. Don’t forget that the boy you thought you knew last year withheld things from you because he thought he had a good reason to. He told you the greatest lie you’ve ever been told and hurt you more than anyone ever has. And everything that he was turned out to be an illusion. This boy appears to be everything that the boy was, except more of it. All of it. Proceed with caution.
The teahouse girl skates out with two other girls. Together, they hoist a massive black porcelain bowl onto the table. It’s large enough to bathe in if you really squeezed. In it is a steaming ball of noodles soaking in a broth of shaved ginger, plump shiitake mushroom caps, and slices of bamboo shoot, carrot, and burdock root, sprinkled with sesame seeds.
“Please slowly enjoy your infinity noodle,” they say together with a bow.
“Oh, it’s like longevity noodles,” says Hisashi.
“It’s nothing like common longevity noodles!” exclaims one of the teahouse girls.
“It’s far longer,” says another of the teahouse girls. “This is one unbroken noodle that is so long, it would take a fifth of an hour to skate its length!”
“It’s a new hatsubai!” says the third girl. This is Edaian for “new product.”
“From Eda,” the three of them say with reverence.
The first girl instructs us, “You must eat the entire noodle without cutting or breaking it in two, or you will have bad luck all year. Further, if your birthday is in the New Year’s month, then before you take the first bite, you must tell of one thing you learned that was a revelation about a friend you kept in the past year.”
The words of “The Pearlian New Year’s Song” rise in my head.
The teahouse girl grasps the noodle, which is as thick as a finger, with long silver eating sticks and hands it to Cricket. “Here’s the beginning of the noodle, little one.”
When she skates away, Cricket says, “This past year, I learned that someone who is my family is also my friend.” He bites the noodle, takes a sip of broth from a ladle as large as a normal rice bowl, and passes the eating sticks and ladle to Doi.
Doi says, “This past year, I learned that someone who couldn’t give me what I thought I wanted most gave me what I needed most.” As she takes a bite of the noodle, I wave at the steaming broth between us, blinking hard to keep my eyes dry.
Hisashi takes the eating sticks and ladle. He says, “This past year, I met the most extraordinary girl I have ever met.” He takes a bite and a sip and politely offers me the handles of both eating sticks and ladle.
I swallow nervously. I know he can’t be referring to me since we just met. However, he did say he already knows that he’ll never forget me.
I look at him.
He’s not looking at me. He’s tilted back in his chair, his palms on the table, his eyes closed as if he is savoring the taste of the noodle. Or of some memory.
I realize he wasn’t referring to me. He was talking about this girl that he brought back from Shin. I quickly stamp down the toss in my Chi.
At that moment, a boy skates through the entrance of the teahouse. The sash strapped across his robe reads NEW DEITSU PEARLWORKS COMPANY.
He sees Hisashi and says, “There you are!” He skates over, bows, and says, “Disciple Niu Hisashi. I have a letter orb for you from Chairman Niu Kazuhiro.”
Hisashi takes the letter orb from the courier, who bows again and skates out of the teahouse. He twists it open. We hear the voice of the Chairman say, “The sanctuary sponsorship hearing date has been moved up. Come to the statue of the Enlightened One on Divinity’s Lap on campus tomorrow at White Hour.”
Doi looks at me with as much dread on her face as I feel in my chest.
“Do not bring that sister of yours or that Chen Peasprout,” the voice from the orb continues. “Wu Yinmei and I will be waiting for you.”
Wu Yinme
i.
So that’s her name.
The most extraordinary person he has ever met.
My grip on the slick silver eating sticks slips. They drop into the soup.
When I reach in to pick them out, I see that they have scissored off part of the infinity noodle.
The severed length floats in the broth, as adrift and alone as a memory unshared.
* * *
“What is this sanctuary sponsorship hearing? Is it for this girl?” I ask Hisashi as we follow him out of the teahouse.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to—”
“We have a right to be at this hearing,” Doi interrupts. “We all helped you get her to Father. Otherwise, she would have been deported. You made us break the law for her.”
“We helped you smuggle a Shinian citizen to Pearl,” I jump in. “I want to meet this extraordinary girl from Shin.”
The last part doesn’t come out the way that I want.
Hisashi shows us his open palms and says, “Peasprout, much as I would—”
“Don’t you start finding—”
“—like to honor Father’s command, I completely agree with you.”
CHAPTER
LUCKY
The statue of the Enlightened One rises six stories above us here in the great square of Divinity’s Lap on the north side of the Principal Island. She towers so high that we can’t see her face through the dense drifts rising from the pearl.
None of the senseis or the Chairman are here yet.
However, standing there on a swiftboard at the base of the statue of the Enlightened One, in a robe of cherry blossoms on white, is the girl.
Hisashi says, “Doi, Peasprout, Cricket, I present to you Princess Wu Yinmei, great-great-granddaughter of the Empress Dowager.”
The girl gazes back at us, bright, unblinking, still.
Doi says to her brother, “You were supposed to trap the Empress Dowager in the pavilion and demand that she release Father’s hostage. Not her powerless heir!”
“That was a good plan, Wing Girl,” he says, clapping Doi on the shoulder. “Elegant. Tight. Bold. Like your wu liu. It completely failed, but wah, what a story it would have made!”
“What happened?” I ask.
“The Empress Dowager got the letter orb that Chen Peasprout sent, but she still wouldn’t step inside the pavilion. She didn’t believe the story that if she slept inside it, it would produce an oracle that would tell her the secret of the pearl.”
“Are you sure?” I demand. “I’ve met the Empress Dowager. She’s curious about everything.”
“Well, of course I’m sure!” Why is he getting irritated?
I look at this girl standing there, trying so hard to appear innocent. However, her feet give her away. “She can’t be a member of the imperial court. Look at her feet. All court ladies have their feet bound at the age of five. And why is she using a swiftboard and poles if she has unbroken feet?”
Hisashi replies, “That’s her story to tell, in time.”
I insist, “The Empress Dowager doesn’t have a great-great-granddaughter.”
“The Empress Dowager had to keep her a secret until she could inherit the throne.”
“She can’t inherit; she’s a girl. That’s why the Great Council of Holy Men has been conducting a search for the reincarnated Emperor.”
“Ah, well,” Hisashi clears his throat. “The Empress Dowager has been trying to change the law to allow for female succession.”
“I’ve never heard anything like that. I think I know a little more about laws in Shin than you do.”
“I spent the last year in the imperial court. The Great Council doesn’t want to allow the Empress Dowager to change the law of succession so they said she can only do so if she brings Shin an unprecedented treasure because they want her to fail. However, she came up with the idea of learning the mystery of the pearl. She wants to build Shin a pearl city of its own.”
Doi barks at Hisashi, “So why did you bring her here?”
This Wu Yinmei speaks, and it jolts me like a statue coming to life. “Because the Empress Dowager poisoned the rest of our family. I was afraid I would be next.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” reasons Doi. “If the Empress Dowager’s trying to change the law so that you could inherit, she wouldn’t harm the next in line.”
“That didn’t stop her from poisoning every other heir in line,” says this Wu Yinmei. “She wants someone young that she can control. A puppet empress.”
I cry out, “And what will the Empress Dowager think when she finds that Pearl has her heir? What have you done, Hisashi? She’ll be furious if her heir fled and found sanctuary from her in Pearl. You’ve flung salt in the Empress Dowager’s eyes!”
As I fight back the panic, one thought becomes clear: This girl’s presence here is deadly to me.
“We can’t let this girl get sanctuary here,” I say. “The Empress Dowager will order an invasion. She already wants our pearl.”
We.
Our pearl.
I guess this is my home now.
I continue, “If you’ve spent time with the Empress, then you’ve seen how vicious she is when she feels insulted. I helped you trick her. If she gains control of Pearl, you and I will both be executed. Why are you helping this girl?”
It makes no sense, unless it’s not coming from Hisashi’s head but his heart. Who is this girl to him? They spent a year together, then made a harrowing escape. He risked his life for her. A ludicrous lump of jealousy rises in my chest.
Don’t be a fool, Peasprout! You don’t know him. All you know is that he’s put you in danger.
“Chen Peasprout,” he says. “The Empress Dowager wouldn’t do that. You’ll have to trust me on this.”
“She could be a spy,” Doi says. “The Empress Dowager could have set all of this up to find out the secret of the pearl. She could have commanded this girl to take advantage of your kindness and beg you to smuggle her back to Pearl.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Hisashi says, and shakes his head. “Wing Girl, what’s happened to you?”
“What’s happened to you?” Doi asks him. “I’m not going to let you put Peasprout in danger!”
The two of them with their short, soldier’s haircuts and beautiful, unhappy faces stare each other down like reflections.
And in between them stands the cause of all this trouble, staring back at me like a ghostly mirror sent from Shin.
The girl’s gaze moves from me to Doi.
Then from Doi to Hisashi.
Then from Doi to me.
Then from me to Hisashi.
I feel as if she’s run her hands over my face. And Doi’s. And Hisashi’s.
She looks at Hisashi.
She says, “One should never have to choose between a sister and a friend.”
She looks at Doi.
“Or between a friend and a brother.”
She looks at me.
“Or between a friend and … a hope.”
She means Hisashi. She thinks I have hopes regarding Hisashi.
Doi’s eyes flash at the girl, and I can feel her Chi rippling with emotion.
The girl fixes her gaze back to Doi. They stare at each other, Doi’s face chiseled in anger, the girl’s face flowing in shades from intensity to neutrality, then back to serene, glowing beauty.
She says, still staring at Doi and smiling, “Or between a friend and … a hope.”
It’s the same words, but I know she intends a different meaning for Doi. I look at Doi, but her face is locked down in a mask of stone.
A voice behind us hisses, “What are they doing here? I told you not to bring anyone else.”
I turn to see the Chairman, stately like an emperor in a robe of kingfisher blue with silver mandalas. Glaring with fury, he comes flanked by the twelve senseis, all of them as somber as crows.
I’m relieved to see Sensei Madame Liao, although her expression remains stern. “Sensei
, New Deitsu Pearlworks Company cannot sponsor this girl for sanctuary status.”
The Chairman seethes, “How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do?”
Cricket whispers to me. I nod and say, “My brother and I had to study the statutes last year when we crossed into Pearlian territory. A private Pearlian company cannot sponsor a Shinian for sanctuary status if her presence here will endanger the security of Pearl.”
Doi leaps in and adds, “This girl claims to be the heir of the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager will order an invasion if we harbor her runaway heir!”
The Chairman shouts, “Hisashi! I told you not to bring them!”
I say, “Sensei, this girl’s presence here endangers us all!”
“You have no rights,” responds the Chairman. “You’re not even a permanent citizen of Pearl.”
Doi skates to her father and calls out in a firm voice, “Senseis. I invoke my legal right as a citizen of Pearl to oppose New Deitsu Pearlworks Company’s sponsorship of this girl for sanctuary status, and I call Chen Peasprout and Chen Cricket as my witnesses.”
Cricket says, “Wait, I didn’t—”
Doi announces at the top of her voice, “I hereby formally accuse Chairman Niu Kazuhiro of treason against Pearl.”
CHAPTER
FIVE
Heavenly August Personage of Jade. What will the Chairman do to Doi to punish her for accusing him, if he’s not convicted? She’s risking this for me. We have to prevail at this hearing. Supreme Sensei Master Jio announces, “We need someone to bring down the hands to litigate on. Sensei Madame Liao, will you please—”
“I volunteer!” Sensei Madame Yao shoves past Sensei Madame Liao toward the statue. She rips away her robe to reveal an undershirt that clings to her bulging muscles.
She crouches down, then explodes toward the statue of the Enlightened One. She bounds off the statue’s knee, then the shoulder. She executes a forward somersault followed by a two-footed lightning hammer move, pounding down on one of the open palms stretched heavenward. The impact slams the palm down onto the pearl before us, triggering a complex of creaking levers in the mechanical fulcrum of the arms and sending the other palm shooting up into the sky.
