A storm system has settled over our island kingdom. Not a lot of work is getting done today, at least of the menial kind.
Today's passage is short, but sweet. Let's leave it at that
... as the story continues ...
Personal Journal
U.S. Time: Thursday,
August 30, 2012
Island Time: Dragon, Month 7, Day 14, Xingqi
Island Time: Dragon, Month 7, Day 14, Xingqi
Project Time: Week
10, Day 5
A slow-moving storm system moved over the Island on
Thursday. Rate of rainfall was moderate to heavy. It remained all day, had a
few pockets of clearing, but continued on into Friday. Rain is a twice-daily
occurrence on the Island so a few inches of rain everyday is easily absorbed
and drained by this ecosystem.
Since I was unable to carry on my external survey
activities, I spent most of my time on Thursday reviewing data and writing
reports and uploading them to the cloud. Qin Qin came over to the lab and spent
the day scanning and uploading the written archives of Dog Island. After she
had easily mastered uploading my data, she asked if she could create a cloud
archive to start an offsite repository of her Island’s historical and legal
record. She was deep into that project.
My own brush with the law on Dog Island informed me that
their traditions are mostly oral, but there are some extensive codifications of
various issues. Every day, Qin Qin would bring as many things as she would be
able to scan; items that were kept in a water-tight, air-tight chamber at one
of the highest points of the Island. I had time on my hands Thursday, so I
casually browsed some of the recorded procedures for settling disputes, trading
livestock, processing first-year refugees, and arranging family alliances
through mutual protection pacts and marriages. I could only read some of it as
the transactional legal language was Chinese and Dutch. Some was in German, the
language I had to read for some of the research in my second dissertation.
Being originally a hideout for felons, pirates, swindlers,
social miscreants, and political refugees from tyrannical Asian kingdoms
heavily influenced the extent to which respect for personal autonomy on Dog
Island was treasured over the group identity. This makes them very anomalous in
Asian and Pacific cultures that I have had to deal with professionally. Most
concepts of self are that you are but a cog in the wheel of a greater
thing—your family, your clan, your group. You are judged harshly if as a
representative of your group, your actions reflect badly on everybody.
Here, you owned your own problems. One way this kind of
worked itself out was that there many rules and guidelines for dueling as a
method of dispute resolution. There was even an open-court system whereby
duelists could recruit allies who cared enough, who could join in by putting up
to one-half the value of item in dispute into a settlement pot and thus give
them the right to speak on behalf of one disputant or another.
The few records I could understand seemed to show a “Wild
West” environment of might-is-right in a patronage system until The Empress
arrived and was successful in instituting some reforms that restrained the more
brutal elements of Dog Island culture. There were some “harmony of laws”
statutes which seemed to indicate that the Island bifurcated into two distinct
societies, one mirroring the Qing Dynasty imperial court which was
internationalist in its vision, the other which retained the libertarian
culture, but became particularly influenced by a group of Japanese expats
escaping religious persecution for their minority beliefs, probably a form of
ecstatic shamanism involving blood sacrifice, of which the Sea Witch is the
remnant. An historical anthropologist or political scientist could easily find
a PhD in all this. Of course, getting anybody to talk about it would be the
problem.
Over the several weeks I had given her access to my
computers and scanner, she had successfully moved all vital records onto
digital databases and was starting to make her dent into archival
documents. As we shut down for the evening
I said,
“You said you were going to tell me Dog
Island’s fairy tale.”
“I did, didn’t I?” said Qin Qin.
“You’re running out of time. I’m only
going to be here two more weeks. Looks like we’re going to have some downtime
tomorrow since the rain is supposed to continue. How about tomorrow night? I’d
really like to hear it now that I’ve looked at some of your legal lore.”
“Well, it’s still not done yet, but sure,
I can tell you as much as I know then. I got a new infusion of data. All of the
stories from the diaspora. Maybe after dinner.”
“I’ve got nothing planned, just show up. I
think a lot of others haven’t heard the whole thing either so you may want to
bring your cousins too. I will pop some REAL popcorn for you all.”
“WHERE
did you get that?” she eyed me suspiciously.
“Maybe it came with the supply ship, or
just maybe it was missed in the inventory of the drone landing, or maybe just
maybe I’ve perfected the art of clandestine smuggling onto Dog Island. I can’t
give you all my secrets.”
“I’ve got my eye on you! Don’t you do
anything without telling me. Is that clear?”
“You and the rest of your cohort. I’ve
felt like I’ve been under a microscope that last several days. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“That’s not polite.”
“Maybe, but it’s true.”
“We’re trying to keep you safe.”
“The last thing you tried doing to keep me
safe was pushing me off a cliff into the ocean. Which is exactly the same thing
your Aunt Qi did when her intent was to kill me.”
“Are you never going to move on and let
that one go? I think you should. It would help you in your healing process.”
“You are absolutely insidious. When your
own mother calls you ‘Demon Child,’ there’s a lot more to it than I originally
thought.”
“Maybe it doesn’t come from her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Auntie Mu told you all about us, didn’t
she?”
“Yes.”
“So now you know all about ME. Where I
came from?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like me any less?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because we’re WEIRD. Like alien creatures
or specimens of some religious science experiment. In all the books and
magazines I’ve read about people and families, nobody is like us. I wonder what
it’s like to be normal.”
“I’m normal. Look at me. Very
uninteresting. You, on the other hand, are VERY interesting.”
“Nice try. But I’m not buying it. I’m just
glad it’s out in the open now. I don’t have to keep my mouth shut about all our
family secrets.”
“Keep
your secrets. Trust me on that. This
really bothers you?”
“How would you feel if you found out you
were the by-product of some unemotional, loveless, biological coupling?”
“You might be surprised how many people
feel that way after 10 years of marriage. Not too long ago, a guy I know was
telling me all he gets is a hand job on his birthday and Father’s Day.”
“Translation please.”
“On second thought, cancel that. Look. Focus
on what you have. Your mother loves and cherishes you very much. That’s
important. Don’t you know that?”
“I do. But the way I came into the world.
I was a spoonful of goop squirted into my mother’s private parts by a guy who
could have cared less, which only happened because his wife had to fool him into
thinking he was servicing her. Ick. Where’s the romance in that?”
“Qin. We were all just jets of slime!
That’s the way it goes. Man, I’ve been a really bad influence on you. ‘Spoonful
of goop.’ That’s sounds like something I would say. Least you’re not all
potty-mouthed like me. I need to clean up my act.”
“DocDoc, please don’t change a thing about
yourself. You call it like it is. That’s what I like about you so much.”
“Don’t let details of your conception get
you down. And I am SURE your father is a fine man, otherwise he would not have
been selected. I met one of them—Nu’s father. As I understand it, you’re
royalty, and that’s frequently the case with royal partners. They’re arranged
for political convenience.”
“And history tells us that most royals are
inbred nutjobs who have to be restrained by their wiser advisors.”
“But you’re NOT inbred. How that happened
on a small island with a tiny population is remarkable. Your ancestors were
very cognizant. That’s the whole beauty of why you are who you are. You are
MORE than what your parents contributed to your genes.”
“I get it. I do. But our founder, the Empress
… SHE was born because her mother was
the Chinese Emperor’s favorite and he loved her child the most! Why can’t I have
THAT legacy?”
“Hey, I’m no emperor but I like you lot.
And your mom.”
“But where were you 16 years ago when we
needed you?”
“You know, if I EVER have the chance, I
have GOT to meet your ‘goop daddy.’ The dude is probably a riot.”
“EWWWW! When I look in a mirror and I see
every part of body that is not of my mother, I want to tear it all out.”
“It wasn’t his fault. He was doing
something he was asked to do.”
“Yeah, well when you do see him, kick him
in the crotch for me when you do as my Father’s Day present. AND, Emperor Doctor, even though you like my
mom, she is not your favorite.”
“I don’t have favorites.”
“Yeah?
Then stop hanging out with Auntie Lee and Auntie Feng and come over to
OUR house at night for a change.”
“Maybe I will.”
“You won’t.”
“I look forward to hearing your fairy tale
tomorrow. Bring Lian. Tell you what I’ll go over there.”
“Right.” She became sullen.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve been trying to
cheer you up, but I’m not very good at the father business.”
“Eh, you’re doing OK. I’m forcing myself
to be in a bad mood.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Sometimes it’s fun. All of this cheering
up would probably work if I let you.”
She pulled her scissors out of her side pack and then
fingered them.
“If I asked you to cut my hair, like you
did Nu, would you do it? I’d like to try having bangs.”
“No.”
“Sigh. You know then? You really don’t
like me that much then.”
“Thank you for offering. I’m flattered. I
will cut your hair when I choose to. And we will both know what it means.
Friends?”
“Always.”
“Want me to come over tonight? After
dinner?”
“No. Since you want to hear my fairy tale
tomorrow, I’ll work on it tonight. Just for you.”
© Copyright 2012 by Vincent Way, all rights reserved.
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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!