Flying Lessons & Other Stories(8)

I stared. If Mrs. Li couldn’t find a suitable bride, I was going to have to marry FuDing? Me? I felt as if I had eaten spoiled fish.

“You’re not marrying age yet,” Shuwan said, trying to be kind. “You have a couple of years. That’s why Mrs. Li is trying to find FuDing a bride now. She’s hoping she can get someone else to marry FuDing before you have to.”

“Though I’d say that’s a pretty bleak hope!” Bisi sniffed.

I thought of FuDing and his hairy fingers that were too clumsy to hold a paintbrush but so adept at torturing bugs. If I had listened more carefully, would I have heard their silent screams? Tears of horror filled my eyes.

Shuwan heaved an impatient sigh. “You made her cry again!” she complained.

“Well,” Bisi retorted, “at least this time she’s got a good reason.”

—

The next morning, the streets around the House of Li overflowed with servants, horses, and sedan chairs. Mrs. Li’s chair was so large that it needed four men on either side to carry it. FuDing’s was not as large, but he was so heavy that the same number of men were needed to carry him. Then the cousins and aunts filled the carriages, and the horses were burdened with the supplies and gifts. Shuwan, Bisi, and I were to share a donkey, with the agreement that we would take turns riding, even though I had doubts about when my turn would be.

“It’s sheer craziness!” Shuwan grumbled as we paraded past the gawking neighbors, most of them awed by the grandness of our procession. “Going to that ocean temple carrying chests of jade and strings of cash! We’ll be prime targets for robbers. I wouldn’t be surprised if pirates docked their boats just to raid us.”

I remembered Shuwan’s fear of pirates.

“Weren’t some pirates seen recently?” I asked slyly. “I think someone said it was the Red Flag Fleet.”

“I hope not!” Shuwan said with such fear that I felt a little bad for teasing her. “They are the worst! No one can stop the Red Flag Fleet!”

“The Imperial Navy has tried three times to capture them,” Bisi said helpfully, “but failed each time. I heard that the Emperor has even offered amnesty to the captain and the crew if they’d agree to retire.”

“Why would they retire?” Shuwan said. “They take what they want, and no one can stop them. And here we’re going with all our gold! We might as well be throwing it into the ocean for them.”

The trip to Infinite Stream Temple was a long one, but enjoyable. My turn to ride the donkey came much sooner than I had expected, for my short legs could not keep up with the procession, and Shuwan was ordered to allow me to ride so that I wouldn’t slow down the group. She did this begrudgingly, until it was discovered that because I was so small, the donkey could bear the weight of another. So I rode along merrily, enjoying Shuwan and Bisi’s bickering about who would ride with me.

And I marveled at all I saw. Even the scrubby, unkempt brush on the dirt road was a pleasure to see. Mrs. Li insisted that her residence be immaculate at all times. Even stray leaves had to be plucked from the paths of the garden. (I knew this because clearing the walkways was one of my jobs.)

But the sea was what mesmerized me. It whispered with a quiet thunder, and when I saw the “waves made of dragon scales,” just like in one of Li Po’s poems, I gasped.

However, after “thirty-six twists and turns of the valley,” the Infinite Stream Temple came into view. High on a rocky hill, it was impossible to miss, for even from a distance the temple was a brilliance of gold. The temple’s bright yellow and red walls and roofs dazzled, a loud, vibrating blare among the soft grays and silvers of the landscape.

“If I were a pirate,” I said, “I’d raid that temple myself.”

“Shut up about pirates already!” Shuwan snapped.

I grinned and our procession began along the path toward the temple. As the donkey climbed I heard the murmur of the sea, as if it were sighing a secret, and turned to look down at it. From my seat on the donkey, I could see the expanse of the ocean—the rolling waves glistening like silver folds of silk embroidered with threads of…red? I straightened. Unmoving and still, a dozen large junks sat in the water, the masts red-wrapped spikes stabbing into the sky, as if waiting. Waiting for what? Their captain and crew? But the only seamen who would dare raise a crimson sail were the Red Flag Fleet pirates! I scanned the shoreline below and stared at the sampans—fifty of them, or maybe even a hundred, all piled together like discarded shoes in the sand. As one stray sampan began to bob away, I felt my own thoughts lurch. There were pirates here!

“Bisi,” I said, grabbing her arm. “Pirates!”

“Stop teasing Shuwan.” Bisi shook me off. “You little brat, you think you’re so funny….”

But her voice trailed off as hundreds of screams echoed from the front of the procession. Servants, silk, and sedans seemed to fly toward me, and I felt Bisi throw herself from the donkey, shoving me face-first onto the ground. Something hard hit the back of my head, but before all became black, I knew that the Li family had reached the doors of the temple and had been welcomed in by the pirates.

—

I dreamed I was a small child, being rocked gently in a mother’s arms. “Shhh,” she whispered in my ear. “Shhh…”

“Is that one awake yet?” a rough voice said.