Three Loves Seven, Chapter 27, Part 1 - "The Second Princess Take Their Second Ballot on The Prince"

Dear Gentle Readers,

Last time we met, you will recall that Lum was seemingly hypnotized by her daughter Xiaomei and put into a shared trance state with Lian, Qin Qin's mom. Coupled with the recurring dream she's had of the Professor lately, Xiaomei confessed to Qin Qin that she had come to her cousin's way of thinking that Dr. Wong, improbable as hell, was the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

Of course Qin Qin wants to see what further level of support she has and so she will be calling a meeting in the episode to see where she is on this front.

If you ever take a vacation to a foreign land and you find that the natives declare you to be the "Second Coming" or reincarnation of some notable god or hero, it's probably a good idea to book the next flight out, because any way I look at it, it promises to turn out badly. Sure, they might give you a nice dinner or two and let you spend the night with their comeliest lad or lass, but at some point in these scenarios a grave responsibility will fall on your head like a free-falling anvil. Anyway, that's what I think.

You've been through this kind of story before. What do you think will happen next? I'll tell you, but it'll take a few more weeks

... as the story continues ...

[Questor’s Journal Entry}

U.S. Time:           Monday, August 27, 2012
Island Time:        Dragon, Month 7, Day 11, Xingqi 1

Cram School schedule had gone back to normal in the days after the Festival break. We were back to an afternoon class after work. Dr. Wong  was quite pleased the we had all taken our turns at supervising the group. He spent the last two session administering practice test. He was late coming in today, but as he did he had the largest grin I’d ever seen on him.

     “Good news girls.”

     “We improved, right?” asked Nu.

     “Better than that. If you were a bunch of high school girls in say, Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Gardena, Irvine, Westminster, Torrance, and uh, did I leave any out? Maybe Los Feliz, you’re all on the right side of the bell curve, so pretty damn good.”

     “Do you mind translating that?” asked Ling.

     “ALL of you have scored well in the high-target range for both math and verbal for acceptance into the University of California. A couple of you should aim for Cal Tech or Mudd. Give yourselves a round of applause!”

At that, we did more than applaud. We got up, cheered, and danced about the room.

     “If we were back in L.A., as a cheapskate Chinese American mentor, I’d take you all to Denny’s for ice cream and pie, but I’m sorry, my congratulations will just have to do until I can work out something else.”

     “So are we all going to Los Angeles?” asked Yi.

     “I hope so. Someday. And I promise we'll go to Disneyland and not the cheapskate Knott's route. I doubt that any of you will give a damn about Sea World.”

     “So seriously. What’s next?” asked Ba. “Linear Algebra like you promised?”

     “Or is it going to be General Principles of Engineering?” asked Jie.

     “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I would expect you guys to ask if you be dismissed early then.”

     “Why would we do that?” I asked.

     “Because that’s what all my regular students would do.”

      “But what would they do with their time that they would be in class?” I asked.

      “I don’t know. Watch TV, play video games, call their boyfriends or girlfriends?”

      “What a bunch of pusses," said Yi.

     "I think you men 'wusses,'" said Dr. Wong.

     "Whatever! Losers!” said Yi. “You make them sound so undisciplined and lazy. You keep saying you want us to go to your college. I don’t know if I want to be with people like that. They could do that all that stuff anytime.”

     “Wow! I am going to have to start scouting German universities for you guys then if you’re hungry for such rigor. Maybe I should start teaching you scientific German.”

     “Laat de Nederlandse les te beginnen!” said Ba.

     “Hunh?”

     “Too fast for you Doc? Would you like me to repeat slowly?”

     “First, that’s not German, that’s Dutch. How do you know it?”

     “It’s close to German and English right? Some of us are part Indonesian, and Dutch is one of the languages those families brought here too. We were speaking to some of the men from the supply ship today and we got to use both our Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch. German can’t be too hard.”

     “How many languages do you girls know?”

     “A lot. We never counted,” said Yi.

     “Maybe you girls need to be teaching me. Actually, I was going to be the lazy one and hope that you would give me the night off.”

     “Awww,” said Wen. She went up and hung on his arm. “Don’t you like teaching us?”

     “My work is done. I told Feng I’d get you all to admittance testing levels. You’re there. And what have I got left? Some 20 days? That’s not much time left to cover significant ground. It would be all new material for ALL of you.”

     “New material would make it fun!” said Wen. “And since your time is short, it’s all the more reason to make use of it right? “

     “Can’t you stay a little longer?” asked Jie.

     “My contract only permits a specific number of days. I’m pretty sure your mothers will arrest and imprison me if I overstay.”

     “That,” said Ling, “will not happen. I think even my mother would vote to extend your visa if you requested it.”

Qin Qin walked up to the Professor and handed him the moon guitar case.

     “What’s this?”

     “Isn’t it your night for music lessons with Auntie Feng for you as usual? It’s a little early but I don’t she’ll mind. I’m giving you the night off.”

     “You can’t just decide that by yourself!” said Fei.

     “We need to settle some things,” said Qin Qin, “on how we continue. We’ll deliberate and come to consensus on what you’ll be doing. I’m not forcing anything on anyone.”

     “HEY. You’re forcing ME to give you a bonus class, WITHOUT tuition. That’s robbery or slavery. You guys are as bad as your mothers.”

     “C’mon Doc Doc. Go.”

     “Now I think you’re trying to get rid of me.”

     “You’re smarter than you look. Now go make music with the pretty lady down the hall.”

     “You talked me into it. See y’all later.”

And with that she gave the Professor a shove out the inner door and down the hall into the Phoenix Cottage. She held the door open until we heard happy sounds coming out of Auntie Feng’s mouth. Within minutes they were playing together.

     “I’m SO glad they can be in the same room again,” said Wen. “It’s so sweet when they’re together. In fact, I’m going to go make them some snacks. Excuse me.”

     “Stay put,” said Qin Qin, blocking her way.

     “But I’ll make some for all of us too.”

     “We need you here,” said Qin Qin, who shut the door and placed a locking bar against it.  “Wow, I thought he would never go! We need to take a vote.”

     “Was that really necessary?” said Fei. “It would have taken all of 30 seconds to show hands for algebra or engineering.”

     “I am not calling for a vote on math or engineering. I am calling for a vote on just who we think the Professor REALLY is. There’s been some movement.”

     “I agree,” I said. “It’s been a long time since we met about this. If things have changed a lot then we need to decide if we have to do anything about it.”

     “But what can we do even if we are in agreement?” asked Nu. “It’s pointless.”

     “Can we at least find out where we are right now?” answered Qin Qin. “Let’s just start with a vote in reverse age order, youngest to oldest. You know me. Aye.”

     “Aye,” said Yi.

     “What?” said Ling. “Why? Why did you change?”

     “I thought were just going to vote first and talk about it after,” said Yi.

     “If we do that,” said Jie, “it might make some of us change our votes.”

     “Isn’t that a good thing?” asked Fei.

     “If we want to know what everyone REALLY thinks, we should do a secret ballot,” said Qin Qin. “If some of you are weak-willed to be swayed by which way the majority is going, I don’t care. Your vote really doesn’t count then in my mind.”

     “Qin! That is unnecessary. Do NOT say things like that,” said Ling.

     “Retracted,” said Qin Qin.

     “Let’s just do a secret ballot,” said Wen. “I’ll get paper and pens.”

We were each told to inscribe a slip of paper to signal our vote. A cross-shaped number-ten mark for yes, and a circle for no.  Ling gathered them, mixed them up, and then laid them out on a desk. Five yes, three no, one just had a single stroke.

     “What does the ‘yi’ or ‘one’ mark mean?” asked Ling.

     “It means I abstain,” said Ba.

     “What does that mean?” asked Yi.

     “It’s neither yes or no. Ma always tells me she votes that way when she’s asked to. It sounds interesting to me.”

     “But what do you really think?”

     “Tell me what you think first.”

     “But it’s a SECRET! It’s a SECRET ballot. Right?”

     “We need to talk about it!” said Wen. “Otherwise there’s no point in this.”

     “It’s a big change,” said Ling, “but still highly divided.”

     “I am one of the three nays,” said Nu. “I’ve seen nothing more to convince me. I like him a lot and I respect him a lot, but I think those who believe that he is The One are only bending their observations to support their bias, as Dr. Wong warns us NOT to do. I take what he says very seriously. I’d like to hear what one of the four new ayes found to change their mind.”

     “He survived the Ordeal at Sea,” said Yi. “I know because I found him on the beach. We were not supposed to find out about that Ordeal, by the way.”

     “WHAT Ordeal?” asked Fei.

     “YOUR MOTHER threw him to the sharks on the day of his trial. After he was convicted of dealing in contraband,” said Yi.

     “She most certainly did NOT!”

     “Are you sure?” asked Yi.

     “Even if she did," said Nu. "Shipwrecked castaways have arrived on the Island all the time. Tests of stamina and courage in the sea have been done before.”

     “Always on the west or north shores,” said Yi. “Never on the South shore. Nobody comes by way of the domain of the sharks. The only exception in history was Grandfather Bao. And do you know what sea creatures pushed him up onto the beach?”

     “The seals?” asked Ling.

     “The Great Whites. I didn’t know what they were at first.”

     “Did anyone else see this?” asked Nu.

     “Are you saying you don’t believe me?” asked Yi. "If this is the way I am going to be treated, why should I even stay here?"

     “You are saying incredible things. Sharks are improbable,” said Nu. “They can’t breathe out of water. And sharks don’t help people. Dolphins I would believe.”

     “I know a Great White Shark from a dolphin.”

     “I never said you didn’t. Sometimes it’s hard to see in the water.”

     “When was the last time you dive fished? If ever?”

     “Don’t get such an attitude. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

     “I don’t know all the prophecies and oracles, but I know one that is said in our branch, the divers’ clan. Every fish in the Inward Sea swims for the Prince. That’s why the Professor doesn’t have to bait his fishing line or chum his nets. It is their honor to be served at his table. They volunteer. That's why his fish always taste good--they have died happy. That’s what I think. They know who he is. And so do I.”

     “And that’s why you think sharks pushed him ashore?” asked Nu.

     “Nu, I think you are trying very hard to think that he is a normal man, but he is not. Ba saw it too. I will pray that you can see the special kind of man he is.”

     “Ba? Did you see sharks that day?” asked Ling.

     “Yes,” said Ba.

     “And that’s only good enough to make you abstain?

     “I’m sticking to my vote.”

     “Anything else, Yi?” asked Ling.

     “My mother believes he is so.”

     “REALLY?” said Ba. “When did she tell you that?”

     “She hasn’t said. I just know. She told me she has plans for Dr. Wong.” Yi smiled at that and laughed to herself as she said it. “She told me to be ready for a change sometime soon.”

     “A change? What kind of change?” asked Ling.

      “And what plans?" said Ba. "I can’t believe that. My mother has said nothing about that. Your mother tells my mother everything. And my mother tells me everything.”

     “That’s all I can tell you. That’s why I voted ‘aye.’ I don’t need more than that.”

     “I think,” Nu started in, “that your mother and you may be mistaking Dr. Wong’s kindness and his great resourcefulness for legendary qualities of the …”

     “With all due respect to the Second Dragon Princess and her wanting to persuade me to how she thinks, I know what I saw and I know what I think.”

     “Who else among the ayes wants to share what changed their mind?” asked Ling. “I am one of the nays.”

     “I am the third nay,” said Wen. “I want to share that Mother has become something of an agnostic as far as The One, The Great Prince is concerned.”

     “WHAT?” We all said almost in unison.

      “I know. It’s … disconcerting … isn’t it? But I think she’s given up. It’s like she doesn’t believe there is a Prince anymore. But I said she was an agnostic—she needs something more to convince her. It hasn’t happened, ever. But something happened two nights ago that made me wonder about that resolve. She was dreaming about the Prince from what I could tell, crying in great grief for the longest time, lamenting that she was being left alone, abandoned, again. Crying that it was her fault that she was being left alone. It was heart-wrenching. And there was nothing I could do about it.”

     “Ai! THAT happened to your mother too?” said Nu. “The same with MY mother!”

Everybody related the same thing. Qin Qin cast me a glance. I shook my head. I did not want to talk about it yet. Qin Qin’s theory of the “hive mind” seemed to have some weight to it.

© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.