We pick it up right with the Second Princesses in mid conversation from last week, all disclosing whether they support Qin Qin's proposition that the legendary Prince has come in the guise of Dr. Wong. It's a split vote, just like contemporary American Congresses.
I realize it's hard to keep track of a nine-way conversation and I'm breaking all kinds of rules for narrative fiction with this scene. But it's indicative of the thinking everybody is doing right now. Everybody has gotten only part of the story and seen a little bit of Dr. Wong. So, if you're a little confused, even though you as the reader have seen everything so far, it helps you understand their predicament of trying to make sense of whether there is any larger purpose that this interesting American man may be serving.
Let me give a little bit of organizing data here. Remember that Qin Qin, Ba, and Yi are the youngest of the nine, and they are all pretty kinesthetic people--girls who lead with their feelings, especially bodily sensations. They are all daughters of the 2nd Branch. They have responded to Clete's action-oriented activities.
Jie, Fei, and Xiaomei have all had some kind of mystical or spiritual encounter in relation to Clete. They are, for the most part, the middling age girls with Xiaomei really being a crossover from the eldest three. Something larger than reason seems to be directing their thoughts regarding the Professor. They are all three daughters of the Third Branch (you know, the nonconforming nudist weirdos of the Island).
Wen, Nu, and Ling are the most legalistic thinkers of the nine. As far as they are concerned, a historical standard has been set for identifying the legendary Prince, and they need to apply that standard with rigor and conviction for a proposition to be credible and acceptable. They are the three nay votes. They love the Professor because they think he is most like they are--analytical, dubious, skeptical. They are the daughters of the First Branch, with the two eldest (Ling and Nu, and therefore having the most deference) and the smartest (Wen) of the nine. I think they would really, REALLY like to believe Qin Qin's proposition, but they have to resolve the primary issue in their own minds.
If you kind of keep these broad groupings in your head, it helps you keep track of the nine as they debate this issue among themselves. So pay attention (I realize this will be one of the hardest sections to read)
... as the story continues ...
“The process of elimination says you’re an
‘aye’ Jie,” said Ling. “Do you have anything to say about it?”
“On the Festival of Lost Souls. When I
went out on the ocean with the Professor. I saw something out there. It changed
me. And it changed my mind.”
“What was it?” asked Ling.
“I can’t say. It’s very private. I’ll just
say it was a very clear vision.”
“That’s not fair!” said Wen. “I want to
hear what made you change! Maybe it’ll help me.”
“I don’t think so,” said Jie. “You have to
have your own … encounter."
"And isn’t it enough to see," Fei butted in, "that he has made your
mother—she is the most serious and harsh of any of us here—he has made her
joyful in the really short time he’s been here?”
“Well, well, … Fei! You were out there
too!” said Wen. “What happened?”
“Jie's right. It’s too private. I don’t even know if we
saw the same thing. We haven’t talked about it. It’s too soon to share,” said
Fei. “Someday.”
“Grrr. FEI!” Wen yelled. “I want to know
what you saw. How could YOU, of anyone, see anything supernatural? If MY mother
is a Great-Prince agnostic, YOUR mother is an ATHEIST! What could have possibly
changed your mind?”
“I won’t tell you about what happened at
sea,” said Fei, “but I will tell you something that may give some of you pause.
The seals accepted him onto the Rookery.”
“THEY DID NOT!” said Jie. Fei only nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell ME? That’s a big thing. WHEN?”
“Festival of Lost Souls. In the afternoon,
after I gathered in the shellfish. It was so unexpected what happened. She even
… oh gods! A confirming Ordeal! Oh Yi, I’m so sorry …”
“She did what?” asked all of us.
“She pushed him off the rock tower platform
…” Fei hesitated but it was clear why. “… to see what the sharks would do to
him … as well as the seals. He obviously survived.”
“But why would she do that?” asked Nu.
“I think she wanted to make sure his
surviving his first Ordeal that Ba and Yi witnessed, was not an accident,” said
Fei.
“Double jeopardy?” scoffed Wen. “Do NOT
ever call my mother mean or harsh again!”
“NOBODY gets to go on the Rookery,” said
Nu. “Maybe he just smells like a seal? He WAS hanging around your mother a lot
and we all know she, um … I have nothing else to say on that.”
“SO frustrating!” said Wen. “What about
you? Xiao Mei! YOU are the QUESTOR! You have to tell us why you changed.”
“I’ve been having a dream for some time
now. I slept at my birth tree and asked the gods to reveal what I needed to
see.” I described the dream to them.
“OH DAMMIT!” said Ba. “TOO MANY things! Make
me an aye!”
“Why?” asked Nu.
“Same reasons as Yi. I just didn’t want you
all to think that I was just copying her. I DO have my own opinions.”
“Does your mom have ‘plans’ for the
Professor too?” asked Yi.
“No, but I do hear them talking all the
time about how they could work on changing some of his bad habits and make him
better ...”
“By doing what kinds of things?” asked
Ling.
“Auntie Na says she would do nice things
for him,” said Ba, “like cooking his favorite foods, giving him massages, or keeping his things neat
and clean. My mother usually thinks up things like physical tortures, or
punishments, or yelling at him.”
“Dr. Wong calls that ‘aversion training’ I
think,” I said.
“It will be interesting to see if any of
that would work on him. I don’t think so myself. Anything else? Madame
Questor?” Ling asked me in mock reverence.
“No. Not really.”
“By the way, has ‘the Questor’ decided
what school to apply to?” asked Nu. “USOP? Right?”
“Dr. Wong wants me to apply to university
in Hawaii too. He has a friend there that he had me call so that I can have
someone to mentor me through my experience there, at least the first year.”
“Who?” asked Nu.
“A geophysics professor. A Dr. Estelle
Hwang. I talked to her really early this morning.”
“They’re a few hours behind us right?
Wasn’t it the middle of the night?”
“They’re pretty close to us in time. But
he said it was OK to call her anytime. He said she was some kind of
work-around-the-clock genius like Winston Churchill, that she was always
sleeping in her chemical lab tending time tests.”
“I have NEVER made a phone call,” said Ba.
“And to a genius too!” said Ba. “So was she just like Dr. Wong?”
“No, not at all. She was actually quite
nice and polite. She knew exactly how to say things in a nice way. I think it
would be really nice to have her as a teacher. She said I was quite lucky to
catch her in person. Dr. Wong gave me the direct phone number into her lab
since he didn’t give me her cell phone number. If I’d have left a message it would
have probably gotten trapped in her office’s voice mail system for weeks before
she found it since the call came in on a Sunday. She said she’s pretty
absent-minded that way.”
“Sunday?” asked Nu.
“I forgot that about Hawaii too. But everything
is closed for the Christian Sabbath on Sundays in America, remember?” I said.
“I just forget because we work every day,”
said Nu.
“OK,” said Yi. “Now you three have to say
why you haven’t changed your minds.”
“Shortly after we started having classes, mother
said to me that he is a nice and learned man, but I should not think any more
of him than that. That he is her basically to perform a service for some
charity,” said Nu. “She said it would be troublesome to get needlessly attached
to him for any reason. And I didn’t even have to ask her anything about him.”
“I think my mother has fallen hopelessly
in love with him,” said Wen, “and she’s is embarrassed about it, and she
doesn’t want to admit it, and that that really bothers her, because it reminds
her too much of what she has stopped believing in.”
“My mother would never accept his being
The One as even a remote possibility,” said Ling. “Still, she always seems
enlivened and energized by his being around. She moves much faster than before
he came. But they FIGHT so.”
“That’s all what your MOTHERS think. What
do you three think?” said Yi.
“There’s no objective proof,” said Nu. “I
think it’s that simple.”
“I think it’s no coincidence that it’s all
you overly intellectualized FIRST BRANCHERS that are the holdup here,” said Qin
Qin.
“Qin, please,” said Ling, “There is no
holdup. You have to give me something. Can’t you share anything from your
research yet? Mystical experiences and odd animal behaviors will not do it for
me.”
“But the Professor said it’s best strategy
to give your fully formulated case when it’s ready.”
“I think YOU have the holdup in your
research,” said Nu.
“Well … putting aside the major problem of
the matching birthday …” Qin Qin started.
“You see? That’s it for me. That
eliminates him totally,” said Nu.
“So she’s a lost cause. I’ll never get
her.”
“You can’t just put it aside!” said Nu.
“Their births MUST align.”
“Please, put it aside for now and hear
this. There are two kinds of prophecy. Qualities that the Prince must have such
as strength, skills, cleverness, date and order of birth, that kind of thing. I
can match him up on most of those kinds of things. But there are several prophecies
about relationships and actions between personages called The Prince, The
Empress, and The Mage or Sorcerer. And none of them make sense when I apply
them to the people they would seem to correspond to—Dr. Wong, any one of the
First Princesses, and the Elder Sea Witch.”
“Give us an example of one,” said Jie.
“Here’s one: There shall be a betrayal each of the other forming an unrighteous
triangle.”
“That does not sound good,” said Fei.
“Here’s another: In the Coming of the Great Prince the Firstborn of the Sorcerer shall
be slain and so the lineage shall expunged for all time thereafter.”
“Firstborn slain? That would be Natsuki?”
said Ling.
“Have they even met?” asked Fei? “We
should keep them apart then.”
“But the whole point would be that she HAS
to die. By Dr. Wong’s hand, right?” said Jie. “If we really believe that and if
things are going to progress as they should?”
“They met when he fell into the outside
from the cliff and she nursed him,” said Ling. “They’re fine together. She thinks
he’s the funniest person she’s ever met, granted that’s not many people.
Murder? I can’t see that happening.”
“Maybe it will be an accident? When is he
scheduled to work in The Outside?” asked Ba.
“The second to last week that he’s here,”
said Nu.
“This is terrible,” said Yi. “Are there
any more oracles like that?”
“Yeah,” said Qin Qin. “I don’t want to go
into all of them now.”
“But what do we do then?” asked Jie.
“There is NOTHING to do or to worry about,
Jie,” said Nu. “Dr. Wong is NOT The Prince.”
“But what if he IS?” Jie insisted.
“We will just have to be vigilant and keep
everybody safe. Prophecies or no. Can we agree on that?” asked Ling.
“That means we ALL have to keep an eye on him
at all times,” said Qin Qin.
“But what are we looking for?” asked Yi.
“The minute he does something that seems
like what the Great Prince would do. That would be the signal.”
“And what’s that?” asked Yi.
“Save a life. Make money or create value.
Claim his wife and daughter. That’s his job basically,” said Qin Qin.
“Save a life?” said Ba. “I’m changing my
vote to no. Doc can barely take care of himself. Have you ever seen the kind of
food he brought for himself? Yuck! And he’s so weak! He has no stamina. There’s
no way he could save anyone. He’s too old.”
“Question?” said Jie. “If we DID all agree
he was The Prince, would we have to tell him, since he doesn’t seem to act like
he is supposed to?”
“Jie! Thank you for proving my point,”
said Nu. “If he were the prophesied Prince, he would be ACTING like one. A
prince would NOT be doing a geological survey.”
“We don’t have to tell him who he is,”
said Qin Qin, “it’ll kick in automatically when the time is right. Just like
when all the Firsts started crying at the same time two nights ago. Whether
they believe or not, something told them to react. We just need to be ready
when it happens, let everyone else know, we surround him, and guide him in
whatever he has to do without hurting anyone, especially Natsuki. I am going to
make sure it turns out to be the happy ending.”
“There ARE NO happy endings!” insisted
Fei. “Things just repeat with happy moments now and then! Everything wastes.
Everything ends. Everybody suffers. We just do the best we can and not create too
much karma!”
“You two stop. We’ve all heard this
before. Spying on the Professor is a waste of everyone’s time!” said Nu.
“Do you have something better to do for
the next three or four weeks before he leaves?” asked Ling.
“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll take my turn as
needed. But I think we’re being very intrusive on his privacy.”
The door to the hallway was rattling, and the came insistent
knocking. Wen got up and opened the
door. It was Auntie Feng and Dr. Wong.
“Why was the door blocked?” asked Auntie.
“We just wanted some privacy,” said Qin
Qin. Auntie looked skeptical.
“Music lesson over early, Mother?” asked Wen.
“There’s some work to do. I just received
word the supply ship will leave in the morning at dawn. They are concerned
about the weather and want to get ahead of it. I would like you and Fei to put
together the usual shipment of chickens, ducks, and rabbits for the Captain to
take with him when they depart tomorrow. Give them the finest. Also give them
one egg layer. They have brought back the cages from last time so you don’t
need to build any. They have plenty of feed. Dr. Wong will deliver the package
to them once you have prepared it. Let me inspect before you send it off.
Everything clear? Sorry to interrupt girls. You sounded like you were having a
most spirited conversation.”
“So what’s it gonna be? Elementary
engineering principles or higher math?” asked Dr. Wong.
“WE decided …” I butted right in, “that
until you leave the Island, we will each take a turn shadowing your activities
from waking to retiring so that we can observe the practice of being a
full-time scientist. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, that’ll work,” said Qin Qin.
Everyone else agreed.
“Thank GOD!” said the Professor. “No
lesson plans to write. I get a research intern every day? And I don’t have to
pay you? If that’s what you want, I’m going to put each of you to work. Hard. I
get to be the slave driver this time. SWEET. But you better clear it with the
Security Council.”
“And YOU, Young Lady,” said Auntie Feng
focusing in on Qin Qin, “I have something for the Guardian Princess of
Prophecy, History, and Lore.” She handed Qin Qin a set of envelopes and papers
all tied together in a bundle.
“What are these?” said Qin Qin taking
them.
“It is a good thing you now have an
up-to-date eyeglasses prescription. These are the responses from the several
expatriate elders to your request for recollections of legends of the Great Prince
that you put out when you were commissioned. Captain Ando was good enough to
gather several this past season as he was making his rounds. I trust this will
keep you out of trouble for a few days?”
© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
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!