Chapter 7 - "Earth and Metal Come a-Calling"

Hello dear readers,

You guys should know by now that I make fun of myself and denigrate my own work by pulling the curtain back on it. Here we go again. This story falls in the category of "Stranger Comes to Town." The first Star Wars movie was in this category (remember the two droids?) and if you now start to think of it, your list will get long really fast.

When a stranger comes to a small town, the gossip flies because there's nothing else to talk about. That's what happens here. Old dude feels sorry for a local waif, gives her pocket change, and now she thinks she owns him. What a pest! Or is that really it? Will he eventually use her, dump her, and think she should be grateful she got such a great memory out of him to lord over her pitiful peers? (Those common tropes are in some really great stories I might add.)

This one is short like last week's episode (where Clete tries to impress Lee with his swimming, and fails) and I should have batched them together because this conversation happens on the same day, but later.

If the chapter title seems enigmatic, I will explain here. Ba is the Second Guardian Princess of the Metal Element and Yi is the Second Guardian Princess of the Earth Element. Perfectly clear now? I thought so. Don't worry, you're still in exposition of what is a mystery story. And that means you're not going get everything straight until the second to last chapter. So if you're not patient, stop reading now.

Love,
Pops

Personal Diary Entry

Reporter: Qin Qin, 2^nd Guardian Princess of the Fire Element

U.S. Time:          Sunday, July 8, 2012
Island Time:        Dragon, Month 5, Day 20, Xingqi 7

I was sitting on the screen porch when my cousins Ba and Yi came by. I had not seen them for a few days. They heard I was working for the Scientist.

                  “No work today?” asked Ba.

                  “No. The lake sounding project is done,” I said to her, putting down my book and glass. “And the Scientist always rests on Xingqi 7. I think it’s his religion.”

                  “But he went fishing with Auntie Lee,” said Ba. “That’s a lot of work.” She made her swimming motions and then her stabbing movements, acting out one of their dives.

                  “He doesn’t spear fish like you two do,” I said.

                  “So he does the kind where you just sit and wait? That is SO boring!” said Ba, “I’ve lost all respect for him now. That's old man fishing. I thought he was a real fisherman.”

                  “I showed him he could pole fish from the rocky point. I think that was when he first got here.” said Yi. “Anyway, he’s just an old man. It’s probably too hard to hold his breath like that anymore. I’m sure the dove when he was younger. All men do.”

                  “Surface fishing?” said Ba dismissively, “How good can he be at it?” said Ba.

                  “Real good!” said Yi. “Better than us with our knives! Ling brought over a REALLY big piece of tuna for us. It is going to be GOOD eating tonight. Mom’s cooking it with black beans. I can’t wait!”

                  “Do you guys need help pulling weeds?” I said thinking that was the reason for their coming over. “I can put on my field clothes really fast.”

                  “No, we’re all done. You always miss half of them anyway,” said Ba. Yi gave Ba a shove at that remark and Ba put her hands up to her mouth. I was used to it. She always talks first and thinks later. "We actually came to ask about the Scientist. That's all. But, hey,” continued Ba, “You’ve been sitting here all day. What have you been doing?”

                  “We finally have some new things to read on the Island. In English! The Scientist brought American magazines. Look.”

                  Yi practiced reading the titles out loud. “The Economist, Scientific American, Forbes, Fortune, GQ, Reason, Holiday, Consumer Reports, Oil and Gas News, Wilson Quarterly. . .”

                  “Let me see that one,” said Ba opening up GQ. “It’s full of pictures of men! Can I borrow this one?”

                  “Don’t be so predictable,” I said. “There are also a bunch of other things he threw in a box that came in his lab. He said he would have time to get around to reading a lot of things. He also grabbed a few things from a bookstore at the airport. I’m reading a spy novel, but right now I’m reading his manual on field testing ores. He said he might have me help run some tests.”

                  “How are you reading that? You don’t have your glasses on,” said Yi.

                  “I’m using this huge magnifying glass. Works a whole lot better for reading. But I do have to hold it with my hand. But come inside and look at this.” We went inside where I had set up his lighted magnifier stand. “When the electricity is on I turn this on like this, set the glass in front of my face, and now I can write. With this I can even read all the Chinese and Japanese books Auntie Feng has at her house. It was impossible to see all the tiny little characters before. And then there’s this too.”  I held out a binder with looseleaf paper in it.

                  “What’s this?” asked Yi.

                  “I can actually do work on the Fairy Tale and the Annals. I even wrote a few pages today. But he said don’t bother with paper because it’s obsolete—he wants me ‘up floating on the cloud APSA’.”

                  “What does that mean?” asked Ba.

                  “I’m not sure, but he said training starts after my job is approved.”

                  “Did he give all this stuff to you?” asked Yi.

                  “No. Loaned. He said he wanted me to get ‘speeded up to’ on geology terms so he gave me the field guide and a reference book to study.  He brought the other things over just in case I wanted to practice reading lighter materials. So he left the magnifiers here for me to work with.”

                  “So you’re going to work for him some more?” asked Yi.

                  “Mama is clearing it with the Security Council.”

                  “That’s no fair. I’m jealous,” said Ba. “I want a job too. You’re getting paid, right?”

                  “Yeah, but there’s nothing to spend it on! But I’ll introduce you two to him. He’s not allowed to talk to you, but you can start talking to him.”

                  “Mama said not to talk to him,” said Ba. “She said the last thing she wanted was for the Security Council to yell at her for an hour, so stay out of his way.”

                  “I would not know what to say to him,” said Yi. “It would be scary.”

                  “So is the spy novel good?”asked Ba.

                  “It’s great. Maybe I should read it out loud so we can all hear it.”

                  “That would be nice,” said Ba. “But you would have to start over at the beginning.”

                  “That’s OK. It would be good. It’s hard to keep track of American names at first. They all sound similar. And a lot of them are long, like Japanese names.”

                  “So what is the Scientist really like?” asked Yi. “We always hear him arguing with Auntie Lee. He must be a very cross man.”

                  “Yeah, we heard them even when they were out in the bay this morning,” said Ba.

                  “Auntie Lee doesn’t seem to like him for some reason. I can’t tell why. As for me, we get along great! I think he’s pretty funny actually. He’s constantly rude and does odd things but I don’t think he knows it.”

                  “But I thought he fights with everybody? I heard he got into a fight with your mother.”

                  “He and my mother are just . . . fine together. I arranged a dinner for them with Xiaomei and her mom and I heard he was a perfect gentleman.”

                  “You weren’t there?” asked Yi.

                  “I was working. Remember? You came to see me later at the kiln.”

                  “Oh, THAT night,” said Yi.

                  “OK, and that’s why you had Xiaomei there, right? To monitor what went on between him and your mom?” said Ba.

                  “I was just being nice.”

                  “But, maybe he was a perfect gentleman because Auntie Lum was there?” Ba considered.

                  “NO. Not at all. He just met her that night.”

                  “Well, all the Seconds says she is the cutest of all the Firsts, and he is a man, after all . . .” Ba continued.

                  “I don’t say that. They just think that because she’s little. I’M almost taller than her.”

                  “So what was Auntie Lum wearing at dinner when she met the Scientist? Do you remember?” asked Ba. “Did she show off her body to him?”

                  “Now, now, Auntie Lum is not that type,” said Yi.

                  “I don’t know what she wore. I wasn’t there! Are you even listening?” I said.

                  “We don’t know what type of women the Firsts are around men because there have never been men around them!” said Ba. “Now, Auntie Qi on the other hand, is a different story. SHE is the one who shows off her body. Especially her breasts. And everybody knows that American men like that part the best. That’s why you didn’t invite Auntie Qi and cousin Fei I’ll bet.”

                  “Wah. No. Auntie Lum and Xiaomei live next door. You are so thick-headed sometimes.” I was thinking now that I hoped Mom changed out of her charcoal working clothes.

                  “But you did recruit Xiaomei to monitor what went on between the Scientist and your mother, right? You’re hoping he takes an interest in your mother?”

                  “OK, I admit it.”

                  “But why invite her mother Lum too? She’s just going to be competition for your mom,” said Ba.

                  “I can’t invite Xiaomei to monitor and not invite her mother. That would be rude.”

                  “And transparent,” said Yi. “Maybe you are clever. Why didn’t you ask me instead of having me sit with you at the kiln? I would have done a good job reporting to you. All that smoke made me choke. Eating dinner with the Scientist, even if he does argue, would have been a lot nicer.”

                  “Then I would have had to invite your mother, and if I invite your mother, I have to invite Ba’s mother, and Ba. And then that’s too much for me to cook who doesn’t like cooking. And if I am worried about a looks competition, Da Mei is even prettier than Lum to my mind. . .”

                  “Well, Mama is beautiful,” said Ba. “I’m glad I got her eyes. And her legs. Not that it really matters here though. But Mama always complains that she is much too dark.”

                  “Anyway,” continued Yi, “our mothers gave us strict instructions that we are not supposed to talk to him and to leave him alone. We heard the Firsts talking the other day and they believe the Scientist is not interested in people at all. AND that he is probably all stuffy and uses big words. He just wants to look at rocks, ah? They say he’s probably, cold, hard, and logical, like a robot, and probably not pleasant to be around. And THAT’S why Lee is having difficulty with him. So, we all avoid even getting near him. What have you noticed?”

                  “Right!” I said. “That’s probably still a good idea and just stay away from him. Let’s just leave it at that. I have to talk to him only because he needs my help as an assistant. So it’s probably for the best. He needs to stay focused on his work.” 

After all this I suddenly did not want anyone talking Dr. Wong except me and my mom. I didn’t know why. If he started to talk to Ba and Yi, he would ask all kinds of questions wanting to learn about them, and what they think, and their life plans. Like he did with me. And then he would want to meet THEIR mothers. But why should I make it more complicated than it has to be? It’s better NOT to give them ideas. It was probably a mistake to say that Auntie Da Mei is prettier than Auntie Lum now that I think about it.

                  “So,” said Ba, “how did it happen that you came to start working for the Scientist?”

                  “Let’s talk about that later. The sun is moving. Why don’t we go back out to the porch and I’ll start reading the spy novel out loud?”

***

Coming up: The next episode is going to be long and I'm going to throw a bunch of new people at you to absorb, and even more the next week--be warned. If this ever gets published, there will be a list of "Dramatis Personae" printed in the fly leaf so that people will know who's coming even before they start reading. Hmmm, maybe that's not a bad idea to post as it's own blog page . . .