Monday, March 10, 2014

Chapter 9, Part 2 - "Tea Party with the Security Council"


Greetings Gentle Readers,

Clete is really trying to extricate himself out of Island affairs, really he is. But he has caught the attention of people who were likewise trying to pay him no mind. And so he winds up at a girls' tea party as you will see in this continuation of his journal entry. He is spending a lot time writing down this day's events because it's the most he's learned about his hosts in one day since getting there.

But parties are not always what they seem are they?

Just a reminder (you'll need to keep these women straight):
Mu is the First Dragon Guardian Princess of the East.
Qi is the First Chi-lin Guardian Princess of the West.
Feng is the First Phoenix Guardian Princess of the South.
Ting Ting is the First Tortoise Guardian of the North.

Thanks for reading.

Love,
Pops


[Clete's journal entry continues]


I of course told Lee everything over dinner. She was mildly irritated that they were intentionally shutting her out, but did not fly into a tirade of outrage as she tends to do with me. Ultimately she said it was a good idea to go but she would accompany me at the meeting. That was good since she knew how to get there and I felt secure with her taking me across borders I was not allowed to cross. It was a lengthy walk since our cottages were on the north side of the Island and Nu’s mother’s home was on the south. Halfway there, she waited for me as I stopped in briefly at Lum’s to let her know our tutoring session had been preempted. Xiaomei was disappointed but we made an appointment for the day after tomorrow.

                  “What business do you have with Lum?” Lee asked after I emerged from Lum’s cottage.
                  “I should probably not tell you. I am giving you the gift of plausible deniability. Nothing immoral, I guarantee that.”
                  “It will be the next thing to cause trouble with you. Why are you like that?”
                  “Lee, I was expecting you to explode when I told you about this thing with Nu. You’ve been remarkably calm.”
                  “Why would you expect that?”
                  “Getting upset is what you normally do.”
                  “I do not get upset! But I am afraid I am starting to get used to you.”
                  “Not much point in that. I’m a short timer. Do you have problems with this group? Are they really your boss?”
                  “I have no boss. If anything, I protect them. I am like their mother. All of them. Do they appreciate it? No.”
                  “So you do have some antagonism. What do you think this is about?”
                  “I do not know what Mu thinks.”
                  “Am I the thing you’re trying to protect them from?”
                  “I have nothing to say on that.”
                  “Do you have any instructions for me on how to act?”
                  “You just do what you do. Probably you will make greater errors trying to be right than acting as you normally are. You are a smart guy. You will figure it out. All of your mistakes seem to wind up getting fixed anyway. You make me tired.”


Nu was standing outside of her residence cottage to greet me. She now wore a formal black robe with white trim and her hair was down and loose; it hung past her waist. We were not going into the residence, but via a separate entrance Nu led us into an add-on to the cottage. About the size of a large American suburban living room, I suspect this may be the largest interior space on the Island—the “Meeting Hall.” A rug was spread out on the wooden floor. There was what I would call a low table, it was long, almost like a coffee table, set not quite in the middle. It looked like we would be sitting on the floor. There were several cushions set about. Nu stood there waiting with us.

Just then, the Security council walked in from the residence area. Three women roughly all the same age, 50-ish, and size, 5’1” to 5’3”, pretty much like Lee and Lian. The fourth was a bit smaller, like a slightly larger version of of Lum. They all had on impressive, and flowing taxicab-yellow silk robes with red and white trim. There were embroidered on the left breast of the robes the ideograms of what I remembered from Chinese School the four directions.  They stood side-by-side in a row. All of the council members had their hair loose about down to the shoulder blades and then tied off, with the remainder in a braid.

It occurred to me, and embarrassed me no end, is that while I had met three of these women but I could not remember who was who. I was probably not looking at their faces. What a faux pas! I tried to figure who it that subjected me to the “Johnson Exam,” but I couldn’t figure it out. I won’t say anything patronizingly racist like they all look alike, but being the same size and wearing essentially the same clothes and hairstyle, there was similarity in facial appearance. They were all probably related in some way. It’s an Island right?

Three teenage girls, they looked like teenagers to me anyway, filed in behind them and stood in a second row. They were attired like Nu, also with their waist-length hair loosed. I assumed the empty spot is where Nu would move to eventually.

I felt terribly underdressed in my white, short-sleeved cotton shirt, khaki pants, and field boots.  Lee looked a little surprised as well. I had packed a coat and tie. I wished I had put them on. The woman second from the left, Nu’s empty space was behind her so I assumed it was Nu’s mother, spoke. First Dragon Princess I assumed. “The Dog Island Security Council is convened. We have a guest this evening, Dr. Clete Wong. Dr. Wong, I am Mu and my fellow council members are Qi to my right, Feng to my immediate left, and Ting Ting at the far left. We have asked our daughters to observe tonight. You have met Nu, my daughter, and in the same order are Fei, Wen, and Jie.”

I nodded in response. Lee put her hand on the scruff of my neck and said to me, “You bow. Go down farther, 45 degrees, or if you can bend that far, 90.” I did so. My peripheral vision caught their response and then I was yanked back up at the right moment with a power assist from Lee.

Mu walked over and stood directly in front of me.  She looked over at Lee.

                  “Lee, we did not expect to see you here. What a surprise.”
                  “Some would say it is my duty,” said Lee.
                  “Yes,” said Mu as she turned back to me. “Before we get started, Dr. Wong, my daughter delivered a message to me where you instructed her to give me your exact words. Is that so?”
                  “I, uh … may have said something like that,” I found myself now feeling sorry I had said what I did.
                  “I gathered that I must be important with such a careful instruction. I believe I understood everything said, but there was one thing that I was unclear on. That was that you would like to ‘bitch slap’ me. Was that what you said?”
                  “I believe so.”
                  “I’m afraid none of us are familiar with that American idiom. So to be clear, I would like to you to ‘bitch slap’ me right now, please, if that is something you would so like to do.”
                  “Well, that, … yes …”
                  “Do you not want to do it any longer?”
                  “I suppose I still do … but …”
                  “The word ‘slap’ is literal then? I encourage you to do it and then explain yourself. If it involves my taking a strike, please do. I assure you, I may be small, but I am not fragile.” I got her signal.
                  “Tell you what, let’s put it off until later,” I said, “I would like to first present my credentials to this august body.”
                  “Very well,” said Mu returning to her place. At her signal, the Security Council and their attendants seated themselves on their floor cushions. “At this time, Dr. Wong will please introduce himself.” Nu started to move to her place behind her mother, but I put my hand on her shoulder and held her by me.
                  “I would like to request the services of this young lady as my translator please?”
                  “There is no need for a translator. We are all conversant in English as you now know,” said Mu.
                  “I’d still like one,” I said.
                  “Very well,” Mu agreed. “But why not your liaison?”
                  “Lee is perfectly fine and supportive, but this young lady impressed me when we spoke earlier and I would like to use her services.”
                  “Proceed,” said Mu.
                  Nu looked apprehensively at me but I gave her a reassuring look. “Manchurian is your court language right?”
                  “Yes. Say what you need to say in short phrases and I will translate them,” said Nu.
                  “That’s not what we’re going to do. On the top of my packet is my standard speech for protocol events like this. It’s very simple English. You will translate it and tell it into my ear and I will repeat out loud what I hear from you.”
                  “Very bad idea,” said Lee. “You will sound ridiculous.”
                  “If they want to laugh at me and think I’m an idiot that’s fine. Maybe that’s what I want them to think. How about that?” I said.
                  “Why would you want that?” asked Lee.
                  “You never know. Let’s do it. Nu?”


                  What should have come out of my mouth was a dry recitation of my resume. I am told that what came out of my mouth was something like this:

 [Switch to Manchurian]

Most illustrious descendants of the Venerated Scholar and Scion of Justice, Duke of the Jewel River Valley, and daughters of Her Royal Highness Qi, the Great and Exalted First Incarnation of the Empress of Dog Island, I bring respects from myself, my clan, and my country.
I am Dr. Clete Winston Wong, a citizen of the United States, here to conduct an introductory geological survey of Dog Island on behalf other Earth Dragon Institute. I hereby present my credentials to my official liaison to enter into your court records. Here are copies of my birth certificate, my passport, my bachelor’s and masters degrees, my doctorate in geology, my doctorate in petroleum engineering, transcripts of my postdoctoral research in offshore drilling procedures, an annotated bibliography of my articles published in scholarly journals, and a listing of patents for processes that I developed through my exploration enterprises.

I also present my letters of introduction from the U.S. Secretary of State, the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet, and from the sovereignties of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, Demark, Great Britain, South Africa, and Nigeria. Also submitted  are copies of charters and licenses that I hold to conduct trade and commerce and to practice the profession of engineering in those countries. Also included is a letter attesting to my current teaching assignment at the University of Southern California from the provost.

I had my eyes closed as I mouthed these words, a conduit for Nu’s awareness of court procedures. When I was done, I handed Lee a stack of paper that I had made up into packet for just these types of ceremonial presentations of credentials. When I turned to the council, they were each hunched over weeping. Finally the one called Qi, asked me a question.

                  “Dr. Wong, do you speak Manchurian?”
                  “No.”
                  “We have not heard it from a man’s voice since the Great Surge.”
                  “I’m sorry if I butchered it, and caused you grief.”
                  “It is not that you spoke it poorly,” said Qi, “you spoke it perfectly. How is that?”
                  “I am a good listener and an excellent mimic.”
                  “You berate yourself,” said Qi, “but you summoned Island ghosts into the room, Doctor.”
                  “Ghosts?”
                  “Loved ones. Ones whom we have not thought about for a long time. That is why we shed our tears.”
                  “I thank my translator, Miss Nu.” I looked straight at Mu. “As a teacher, and as a manager, I assign someone to do things for me when I know they can shine.” Mu frowned back at me. There’s your bitch slap. “Her parents and teachers are to be commended,” I added. “If there are any questions about my background or my work here that I can address for the council, I would be happy to entertain them now.” I turned to Nu and whispered, “Thank you my dear. I appreciate your expert assistance,” and gave her a firm handshake. Good, she was looking me straight in the eye. She remembered the American way. She took her place behind her mother, who looked conflicted as I hoped she would.
                  “Before we continue,” said Mu, “I think we let the good doctor refresh himself with some tea. Wen?” The girl second from my right rose and disappeared into the living quarters, returning with a tray of four teapots and four cups. She pour a cup from each pot and set them before me. “Dr. Wong, if you would do us the honor of choosing the tea that we drink tonight?”


                  This had all the marks of an intrigue and I didn’t want to get caught up in it. I gave Lee a glance. She whispered. “Just go left to right and pick the one you like best. It’s a childish contest of theirs. Each one makes their own blend.”
                  “Do you think they are set in the order of seating?”
                  “No. All mixed up. We should not talk too much. Don’t think too much. Pick your favorite. This is not that important. Again. They are a bunch of silly girls playing a game, but old. That is the kind of people they are.”


                  Still I was not assured by Lee’s advice. I got the sense she does not choose to navigate office politics with any kind of skill. Since I took Mu down a peg in my mind and picked her back up a little, I decided I was going to select Mu’s tea.

First one. Sweet. Fruity. Light. Not complicated. I looked closely at the four women. Damn. If only I could remember the other two I already met. The two on the ends were both faintly smiling. I set this cup to the left to correspond with Qi I think it was, with “West” or “xi” embroidered on her robe.

Second one. Powerful. Strong. Bitter foretaste, but lightens up at the end for a toasty finish. Otherwise one-dimensional. Bold. Mu is holding her face too still. This is probably hers. I set it to the right of the first to correspond with Mu, the East maiden.

Third one. Musky. Spicy. Starts exotic, changes to plain, then back to aromatic as it passes down your throat and the essential oils flare back up into your nose. West woman, Qi is fanning herself and shaking her head. Woman on far right, Ting Ting, North, is straightening her clothes. Fidgety. Constantly moving though sitting still. Not hers. She caught herself being disinterested and is now back in eye contact. Too late. She’s acting too familiar with me—I think I have my playful groper. I set down the third musk-smelling cup right in front of me, and retasted first cup. Springy. Light. Playful. Gotta to be that Ting Ting. Even her name sounds playful. I set that one in all the way to the right to correspond with her.

Retaste the third cup. Chai-like. Qi has cocked her head at me. Probably hers. She has a mysterious, earthy look about her. She almost looks Thai. Her hair is a lighter shade than the rest. She’s the one I didn’t meet. Must be hers. So I set in the far left position to correspond to her. I pick up the second cup and speak.

                  “This one has a nice robust , earthy flavor. It’s got a strength that we can all enjoy to carry us through the meeting. Let’s go with this.”
                  “Don’t you want to taste them all?” asked Mu. “Before making a decision?”
                  “When I find the one I want, I stop looking.”
                  Qi spoke. “Do you wonder that you have missed something even better?”
                  “Nope. With this level of decision making, you stop when your criteria are met. What if while you’re testing all alternatives, the suitable option disappears?”
                  “I suppose you must then keep looking,” said Qi.
                  “And continue on being unsatisfied. You’ve then lost time that you can’t get back.”
                  “Are you not even a little bit curious about the fourth cup, Dr. Wong?” asked Ting Ting.
                  “Now I am. But I’d look like a fool to you all if I drank it now.”
                  “These cups are not going anywhere,” said Mu. “I won’t think you a fool for trying all options.”
                  “I think,” said Feng, the South representative, “that I’d like to hear your opinion on all of them. You are a tea drinker are you not, Dr. Wong?”
                  “I am. I love tea. But I’m mostly a coffee drinker.”
                  Lee picked up the fourth cup, grabbed my hand, and put the cup firmly in it. “I can’t stand this! Drink it. We don’t have all night. Just drink it and pick one. Why do you indulge these girls in their schoolgirl games?!”
                  “LEE!” said Mu. “Why do you interfere?” Mu had a weariness and an exasperation in her voice.
                  “It so happens I agree with him. Hard for me to believe, but I do. You find what you need. Done. He is a smart guy, in spite of all his college degrees,” said Lee.
                  “I am SO GLAD you approve,” said Qi. “Here we are having a nice civilized conversation . . .”
                  Lee rolled her eyes. “Get on with this!” Lee scolded me. “Taste.”
                  “If you are inconvenienced, you can leave any time,” said Qi. Lee glared back at Qi.
                  “Gotta go with my liaison. I’ve spent too long on this. Here goes,” I said. First a sip, then my eyes opened up. It hit the back of my throat and it was like liquid joy. I think they all saw a change in my posture. “Wow! At first subtle, but very complex, but then it turns into a party in your mouth! How does it do that?” It was obvious to me whose tea it was because the woman was brightly smiling equal to the tea’s impact on me. I set it down second to right in front of me.
                  “So that is your favorite? That is your choice then?” Asked Mu.
                  “It’s great. I hope I have it again sometime, but I have to go with my first choice, the second cup.”
                  “But why?” asked Feng.
                  “It doesn’t meet my criteria.”
                  “What are your criteria?” she pressed.
                  “I decided I wanted to pick Mu’s.” Their mouths opened up. “Did I get it right?”
                  Feng started to say something, but Mu intervened. “WE are going to let that be tonight’s mystery. Nu, would you brew a nice fresh pot and serve us please?”
                  “Right away, Ma.”
                  “Now would be a good time for us to ask Dr. Wong any questions we may have about his work,” said Mu.
                  “Dr. Wong,” Feng started in, “I was reviewing your original file provided by the Earth Dragon Institute, and you gave us such complete credentials. You are a professor at a university in Los Angeles?”
                  “Well, I’m not a full professor. I’m just an adjunct. I teach graduate courses in petroleum engineering, and lower division math too.”
                  “What is an adjunct?”
                  “It means I teach only part-time.”
                  “Ah, and what do you with the other part of your time?”
                  “I guess you could say I look for oil.”
                  “Ah, I see. Thank you.”
                  “You say, you look for oil,” it was Qi’s turn. “Do you find it?”
                  “Well, in my business, it’s mostly no. But I have found several good, working wells in my time.”
                  “But you are not here to look for oil?”
                  “No. I am here as a volunteer geologist. That’s my original training. I’m just doing geological survey work for Earth Dragon Institute. This is not my regular job.”
                  “Do you think you would find oil here?”
                  “Oil can be anywhere, but no, this is not a likely place. It’s never been found anywhere near here, so nobody would try—unless there were some kind of clue detected. The closest oil deposits that have been found around here are in Indonesia. Basically you need to be over a place where an ocean died several million years ago, and it had to have stayed warm enough for all the dead material to cook into black goop.”
                  “What are you here to find?” asked Ting Ting.
                  “Just knowledge. Pure science. I’m here to record what Dog Island looks like at this point in time. So that we can compare it to future observations. Earth Dragon thinks that climate change is having an effect on your ecosystems, so they’re very interested in what I record.”
                  “What are some of your observations?”
                  “It’s premature for me to say anything right now. It was all rather sudden to be asked here tonight so I didn’t have any time to prepare any thoughts.” Of course, I couldn’t help but start going on about what I had recently observed, and I think Ting Ting stopped me from blathering on. I offered that I’d be happy to prep a digested report. We decided that they would meet with me in a week or so and I would make a presentation then. My portion was then completed and I was excused.


Lee told me she wished to speak to the council afterwards and asked Nu to escort me back to my cottage. “No detours” were her explicit instructions to Nu, and so we started back. She had changed out of her ceremonial robe and was back in the Black and White uniform. She started off and I followed about three paces behind her.

After we had removed ourselves from view of her home she slowed and I caught up to her and we walked side by side.


                  “Thank you Dr. Wong.”
                  “For what?”
                   “You gave me the biggest face I’ve ever had in front of the Security Council, the Water Guardian, and the three highest ranking Seconds, my counterparts. If only Ling, the eldest, were there … but then if she were, you would have asked her then.”
                  “No, I would not have. Ling has other talents. I wanted you for the job. You did perfectly. Let’s leave it at that. So that was Manchurian coming out of my mouth?”
                  “It’s the language that the council uses for official announcements, formal complaints, commendations, and festival prayers. I guess you would call it High Court Manchurian. It’s not what commoners would speak.”
                  “So your ancestors were nobility?”
                  “I’m not sure how much I can tell you, but it was spoken by one of our ancestors who founded Dog Island. I had you using the honorifics as if you were a visiting sovereign rather than a subject or a tourist. I hope you don’t mind. If you had some business to conduct with them, I thought it might help you out and have you seen you as an equal.”
                  “Well, it gave them quite a start.”
                  “As Auntie Qi said, they have not heard a man’s voice speak it for decades.”
                  “Who was the last?”
                  “Someone we call the ‘Sea Witch.’ He was the father of the current Sea Witch. He passed away over 20 years ago.”
                  “This is a man then, this Sea Witch?”
                  “No. In our time, it is a woman, and the next will be her daughter.”
                  “Do they live on the Island?”
                  “They dwell in the place that we call ‘The Outside.’”
                  “Ah, The Outside. I finally figured out that’s the proper name of the central sector. It’s in my research plan. I am scheduled to survey that area in Week 11. Why are those people called that? Witches?”
                  “They mediate communication between our world and heaven and hell, the living and the dead. And they also tend to illness and disease that Lum cannot address. But you will probably only see them when you go to their domain. They stay in their world and we stay in ours, but we cross over sometimes.”
                  “You have border restrictions even on an Island this small?”
                  “The girl you live next to, Ling. She may be able to tell you more. She is close to the younger Sea Witch. They meet and talk regularly in the place we call The Margin.”
                  “Nu, do you have any opinions on why they wanted to see me?”
                  “Do not quote me, but I think they were trying assess whether you are a danger or not.”


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Be truthful and frank, but be polite. If you use excessive profanity, I'll assume you have some kind of character flaw like Dr. Wong. Tks!