Dear Gentle Readers,
It's time for turning point, don't you think? What, you thought the last scene was a turning point? Can't we have two? Or more?
Anyway, you should have all been expecting this one to happen. I've been giving you hints all along. Yeah, Clete starts to think this trip is about something more than college nostalgia and trying to recapture a lost experience. It's very big but very small. It was just a matter of when and who was going to be the witness to describe this event in their recollection.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy.
Love,
Pops
Entry Into the Annals
U.S. Time: Wednesday,
August 15, 2012
Island Time: Dragon, Month 6, Day
28
Yesterday, after cram school finished up, Dr. Wong asked Ba,
Yi, and myself to stay after for a few minutes. He was informing us that he was
hiring our services the next day and to report to his lab first thing. We did
as we were asked and after we arrived, he led us to a high point near the lab.
“Ba, Yi. Did your mothers and Mu leave for North Island already?”
They said that they saw all three of them leave together
through the pass road leading by the pens. The Professor then climbed a tree to
see if he could catch a glimpse of them using his field glasses. He called out
that he could see them moving away, disappearing into the trees that surround
the Shrine, and then he climbed back down.
“The Southwest Sector is clear then,” he
said to himself. “Which of you are good at running quickly, and moving without
detection?”
“That would be Yi,” I said.
“You’ve got the job then,” he said.
“Follow them. All nine of them are supposed to be assisting in some harvest process
in North Island. When all nine Firsts
have arrived, come on back. Got that?”
“I’m going!” said Yi, stepping off into a
quick run.
“What is this about?” asked Ba.
“I’ll tell you later. I’m running a
procedure that will be quite noisy and I want to make sure I don’t bother any
of your elders, because I’m trying to avoid being a nuisance to them.”
I did not like the Professor’s attitude. He was acting
different than he usually did. Very deliberate. Almost harsh. He seemed very
alert and almost nervous. We waited in silence until we heard the padding of
Yi’s swift feet.
“All Firsts are there.
“Thank you dear. Follow me, then.”
We left the Water Domain and entered Wood. He took out his
phone, called someone, and spoke to them in some kind of code. He said
something like, “Alpha is neutralized. Omega is on the move.”
“Uh, Professor? Did you see that we left
Water Domain? Aren’t you only supposed to be in the Chi Lin Domain this week?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got my
clearances taken care of.”
We followed him out
of Wood, through Earth and Metal, and then he took us on the path the led to
Souls Landing.
“Um, Dr. Wong?” Yi started. “Are you sure
you’re OK to come on this beach? WE’RE not even allowed to be here without a
good reason.”
“Tut tut, my dear,” said the Professor,
“my intuition is telling me that a very important visitor is coming and we need
to be here to welcome that visitor. We are all going to sit here on the beach
and just wait for something to happen. I take complete responsibility.”
At about 0940 he made a phone call. Right after that he got
his binoculars and started scanning the sky in a specific direction.
“I think I saw some poles around when I was here Eight? Would you mind
fetching one for me? Please?” he said.
Ba did exactly that. He took off his shirt and tied it to
the pole. He made another phone call and this time he stayed on the line
continuously. We heard a high-pitched buzzing sound which gradually started to
get louder and louder.
“Got the audio cue. Damn that’s loud and I
can’t even see the mother-fuckin’ craft yet. No, that’s not a problem … I hope.
No, NO. Under no circumstances ditch. We are taking this all the way through.
Ah, just got a visual on you. I am waving a shirt attached to a pole Ted. Do
you see it? Wet beach is solid pack, nice and sturdy. Your target range is
pretty tight from side to side, maybe only 15-20 yards, but nice and long.”
It was some kind of small airplane. The Professor was
landing an airplane on the beach. The scream from its motor was like a loud
wail of an animal in pain. The aircraft veered to our right and oriented itself
to land on our beach. He got out in front of it.
“Descending angle good, but too close to the dry sand. Pull up, circle
and try approach again.”
The buzz from the engine was deafening. The aircraft raised
itself back up went farther down the beach and then came at the Professor for a
second time.
“Angle perfect. This looks like a winner.
Take it in yourself.” He ran off the beach into the dry sand area.
The aircraft tilted its backside down, put its tail wheels
onto the sand and then touched the fronts. It rolled forward, and then came to
a halt. The engine was left running. There was no pilot. Clete went out to it
and put some rocks to block the tires. The body of the craft was like a really
long cylinder with wings, wheels, and a tail.
Clete went over, undid some latches and pulled out three large drums and
then rolled them onto the dry sand. He shut the latches and got back on his
phone.
“Payload is affirmative. Repeat, payload
is affirmative. Copy? Let’s see if we can get your little puppy back home now.
Do you want me to manually turn it around? No? You want to try it remotely? OK.
Standing by.” Clete pulled the blocks and then dashed out of the way. “Clear
for taxi and takeoff.”
The aircraft turned itself around to take off into the
prevailing breeze, accelerated, and then rose into the air and out into the
distance.
“OK. Call you in about an hour to follow
up. Gotta get this stuff off the beach before anyone shows up pronto. Thanks a
heap Ted. Went smooth as butter, but ya gotta do something about the decibel
level—the NIMBYs will kill any project with birds that sounds like that. Just
my 2 cents, top of mind. Yeah, I think your software was great on this test
run. You sold me. I’m all in. We’ll talk when I get back. This will scale up quite nicely I’m sure. Sally
will wire the remainder soon as I ping her with an e-mail; it’ll be calendared
today.”
The Professor opened the drum with a large #1 painted on it.
He pulled out three large canvas bags with locking metal clasps.
“OK girls, you’re the first ones.”
He got out two small, dark brown packets. He popped one open
and inside were a pair of sunglasses, the kind that wrap all around your eyes.
He put them on Ba, another set on Yi.
“Double polarized. Wear them outside when
you’re in the bright sun at all times. These will save your eyes so that you
can see into your old age girls. … Now, Sally said she was going to put that
one set in a hard-to-miss case. AH! Qin! I hope you like Batman.”
He pulled out a case with a masked cartoon face on it. He
opened it up and showed me a pair of glasses.
“Take off your old ones. Try these on.
It’s the best I can do until I get you off this damn island and into an
optometrist’s office.”
I could not get them on my face fast enough. That was the
day my world became clear. I could see Dr. Wong distinctly, and Ba and Yi
behind him. And then it went blurry, but
that was because I was crying. I grabbed him so hard. I never wanted him to go
away.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” was the
only thing I could say.
“It’s not a present. It’s part of your back pay. You earned them kid.
With your own effort and your own money. OK, but now we gotta get out of here,”
he said closing up the canvas bag. “Your job as porters is to get these three
bags up to the lab without detection. Got that? In the meantime, I’m gonna push
these other drums out of sight and I’ll get back and unload them later. You
each grab a bag and I’ll meet you back at the lab.”
We took a bag and started back down the pass road. There was
a figure standing at the pass entrance. Just watching. It was Auntie Lee. I
later learned she had come driven to the granary to retrieve some tools and was
attracted by the noise. We expected her to stop us and give us reprimands, but
she did no such thing. She waved us by. She looked both very sad and very
angry. As I passed her, she started to move forward, toward the Professor. That
was not going to be a nice conversation. I needed to go back and protect him,
but instead I could not think of anything to do but to just keep running.
***
The Professor was put under immediate house arrest in the
guest cottage. My mother had been summoned to review all of the contraband that
had been confiscated and stored in the Assembly Hall, as had all of the First
Princesses. They declared that
everything regarding the incident was to be in executive session with only the
Firsts. I protested of course, but I was silenced.
After her own review, mother headed for the Professor’s
cottage. I followed. She waved me off, but I would not be denied and she
resigned herself to my presence and said nothing else to me. As we walked I
could see her become angrier and angrier. She walked into his cottage without
knocking and shut the door to keep me out. All the windows were open of course,
since Dr. Wong finds it so unbearably hot here, so I could look in and see and
hear everything.
“Clete! I told you drop it. And what do
you go and do and drag me into this. Why do you do things like this?”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t the
slightest idea? What have I dragged you into?”
“Do not play the idiot. Do you hear me?
Just DON’T. Is this what Lee has to constantly put up with? NO WONDER she’s
turned into such a horribly cranky and nasty person of late! It wasn’t enough
for you that everybody turned a blind eye to the magnifying glass so-called ‘loans’?”
“Oh. You must be talking about my reading
glasses. Come on, they’re just a bunch of dimestore reading glasses I asked my
secretary to send me. Relax.”
“RELAX!? Relax he says. You go through and
find a specially packaged set and then hand them to her. And this pair of generic
DIMESTORE glasses just happens to have the left eye prescription stronger than
the right? And the curve of these lenses is different than the rest? And These
correct nearsightedness while the other are all for old-age magnification? If I
notice this kind of thing who else is going to? Hell! They even go dark when
you wear them outside in the sun. You’re REALLY terrible at hiding this kind of
thing. You make for a terrible outlaw!”
“So it was maybe a factory error?”
“A factory error that just happened to get
close to what Qin Qin needs? I swear, Clete. We’re isolated here on this
Island, but we’re NOT STUPID. YOU’RE THE STUPID ONE. You’d think a guy with
‘Dr.’ in front of his name could do a lot better.”
“That’s my story and I’m sticking with
it.”
“Why Clete? WHY?”
“Well, the next scheduled delivery for you
guys is about month after I leave, and I wanted her to do some close work for
me, so I thought I’d just be helpful and hire a delivery contractor. . .”
“Hire a delivery contractor! Do you
realize what kind of a position this puts me in? Did you think about that? The
Guardian of Fire, Keeper of Wisdom, the advisor to the Security Council on
matters of ethics, is a direct beneficiary of a breach of national sovereignty?”
“When you think about it, it’s basically a
bag of groceries and sundries.”
“To top it all off, there is a gift
wrapped box WITH MY NAME ON IT filled with cartons of Marlboros, Camels,
Shermans, and an assortment of both dry-cured Brazilian and hand-rolled Cuban
cigars?”
“Gift wrapped? Uh, well, that was probably
Sally’s idea. Did she use red and gold paper?”
“You’ve inferred me into a case of
bribery! I have no choice but to join as a plaintiff with Lee against you, just
to save my face, to avoid the presumption that I colluded with you.”
“Does Qin Qin get to keep the glasses?”
“YES! Damn you! She’ll wear them. We’re
not that dogmatic here.”
“Do what you have to do. I did. It’s your
own fault for not accepting a trip to Hawaii when I offered it to you.”
“What’s that? It’s MY fault now? I can’t
believe you! We cannot have further contact until this is adjudicated. God Clete.
Come here. God! Stand right here in front of me so I can hit you and hit you
hard!”
She grabbed the front of his shirt and then pounded his chest
with everything she could muster. I’m sure he was still hurting from his
injuries from falling into The Outside because I could see him flinch and
grimace. But he just took it. Then she grabbed his shirt again and pulled him
close and kissed him, long and hard. Then she hugged him. And then she pushed
him away violently. He almost fell.
“I’m SO ANGRY at you. Now as the Island’s
chief prosecutor I have to petition that you be deported from the Island
immediately. I HAVE TO.” She was crying. “I just hope,” heavy shudder, “that your
stupid luck holds out and that’s ALL that will happen. You don’t know our laws.
Things are vicious here. NOW GET OUT before I KILL YOU.”
“I can’t.”
“WHAT?”
“Uh, you’re in my place? I’m under house
arrest?”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Mother’s voice became
tiny. “And thank you … Qin Qin loves and adores you. So do I … Dr. Wong. You’re
the best thing to happen to her, to us, in a long, long time.”
Professor! Please, please. Now is the time if at all, I said
to myself. I think he heard my thoughts. It was his turn to hold her close and
kiss her. I guess Mommy did have a chance with him after all. I don’t know what
else happened, it didn’t seem right to watch, so I just sat by the door until
Mother came out a bit later.
© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.