Starry River of the Sky (19 page)

“Jiming?” Rendi asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

The man’s eyes jerked back to Rendi, and his face flashed a grin. There was no doubt now. That was Peiyi’s smile! This man had to be her brother. He had to be Jiming.

The man began to laugh, a sound of pure joy and gratitude. He threw up both of his arms and sprang into the air with such a great jump that Rendi suspected not everything about being a toad had left him.

“I am Jiming!” the man whooped. He began to run and leap, like a horse feeling freedom for the first time. The moon bathed his naked figure in light as his fingers reached to touch the stars, his hair streaming. “I am
not
a toad!” he hollered, triumphant. “I am Jiming!”

Rendi couldn’t help laughing. He fell to the ground, spasms of laughter clenching his stomach. As he fell, he felt his bag underneath him. He had clothes! Rendi remembered. And he had food.

“Jiming! Jiming!” Rendi called as the man’s dance in the night slowed. “Do you want some pants?”

The pants did not fit well, barely falling below Jiming’s knees. But Jiming cheerfully squeezed into them, removing the drawstring completely. He sat down in the grass across from Rendi, accepting the cold rice balls he offered. The moon enveloped them in its soft, tranquil light.

“So who are you?” Jiming asked. “Other than a boy who brings wine to toads at night.”

“I’m Rendi. I’m the chore boy at your father’s inn,” Rendi said. Jiming stiffened, and Rendi hurried on. “But what happened to you? Where have you been? How did you become a toad?”

Jiming stared out at the lake in front of him. “It seems a dream now,” he said.

T
HE
S
TORY OF
J
IMING’S
T
RANSFORMATION

M
y father and I had an argument. It was a very bad one, the worst we had ever had. We said terrible things to each other, and
when I slammed the door behind me, I vowed never to return.

I was so angry that I did not realize for some time that I had been stomping across the Stone Pancake, going farther than I had ever gone before. When I did realize it, I did not care. I wanted to get lost. I wanted to never be able to find my way back to the inn or my father ever again.

When I passed the stone plain, I barely saw the bridge over the lake, and I definitely did not see the figure crossing it while reading a book. I stormed onto the bridge, violently colliding with the person. He and his bag were knocked to the ground and his book flew into the water, causing a splash so great that I felt the water splatter on my face. It was old Mr. Shan, and he jumped up and looked over the edge of the bridge with a noise of despair. He swung back toward me, his black eyes flashing.

“Jiming!” Mr. Shan said. “If you aren’t careful, your anger will burn you up inside!”

I grunted an apology and continued my outraged march. But his words began to repeat over and over
again with my stamping feet.
Your anger will burn. Your anger will burn.
And, then, my anger
was
burning. Inside, I felt as if there were a fire inside me, flaming and smoldering.

The bridge ended, and I went to the edge of the lake. The water was so still and black that it melted into the sky, and there were twin moons in the darkness. One moon was like a white jade plate floating in front of me. However, the burning was becoming unbearable. I did not gaze long. Instead, I kneeled down and began to drink.

I drank and drank, trying to extinguish the fire I felt inside. I watched the reflection of the moon siphon away as I gulped and swallowed. Then, all of a sudden, without any warning, I felt as if I was going to burst. I fell back, bloated and swollen, and threw off my clothes, which were choking me. As I struggled with my pants, I was horrified to see that my feet had puffed out and were webbed. The skin on my arms and legs had become thick and rough and spotted. But the worst was my stomach. It was grotesquely bulging, glowing, and it ached—a pressing pain that left me gasping.

I crawled back to the lake’s edge and recoiled at what I saw. My ballooned stomach cast the light for me to see that I had become a monstrous toad. I shrank back, afraid of my own image. The pain in my stomach as well as my huge size forced me to move slowly, but I pulled myself away—trying to get as far from my reflection as possible.

Finally, I found myself in a tunnel-like cave in a hill, and there I stayed. In my new toad shape, the daylight sun and heat were agonizing, and my new home was cool and dark. Not that I was ever comfortable. During the day, the pain in my stomach was a tender, dull ache. But as night fell, it would begin to throb and grow, and I could only moan and cry in helpless, agonizing pain. And that was how I lived until you came.

“You must have swallowed the moon when you drank from the lake! I wonder why it turned you into a toad,” Rendi said. He thought about Madame Chang’s story. Was the moon a pill of immortality too? “Anyway, that’s why I always heard those groans at night!”

“It was me,” Jiming said with a wry expression on his face. “I was miserable! Every night I wished I had never left home.”

“Well, now you can go back!” Rendi said, grinning.

Jiming hesitated, his eyes cast downward.

“I don’t know,” Jiming said in a low voice.

“What do you mean?” Rendi asked, astounded. “Everyone wants you to come back! Your father and Widow Yan aren’t fighting anymore, did you know? You can marry MeiLan now.”

Jiming’s face flushed at the mention of MeiLan’s name.

“Maybe MeiLan could meet me here,” Jiming said. “You could give her a message, and we could go away somewhere…”

“Go away somewhere? But you want to go home!” Rendi said, remembering the truth in the toad’s eyes. He almost stood up in dismay. “What about Peiyi? What about your father? What about you?”

“It’s not that simple,” Jiming said. “I can’t… I can’t just forgive everything and go back home!”

“But that’s what you want!” Rendi said in disbelief. “If you don’t forgive your father, you’re the one who suffers!”

Then Rendi fell silent, an uncomfortable realization coming over him. He was glad when Jiming responded.

“Maybe you’re right,” Jiming said, and he looked over at the moon. It was a shining, perfect pearl in the silk darkness of the night. “And I suppose the Village of Clear Sky wants its moon back too.”

“It’s like trying to lift a mountain,” Jiming said, gasping.

Both Rendi and Jiming had been straining every muscle to lift the moon, but it stayed rooted firmly to the ground. The moon was incredibly heavy.

Jiming glanced at the flat stone plain in the distance with a crooked smile. “It can’t be impossible to move, though.”

Rendi shrugged. Jiming was now fully dressed in his own clothes. They had found them after a quick search by the lake, and after shaking out a few frogs and crickets, saw that
they were none the worse for wear. Straining and pushing the moon, Jiming reminded Rendi of Master Chao on the day he had arrived at the Village of Clear Sky when they moved that
gang
of wine…

“Jiming! I know how we can move the moon!” Rendi said. “We have to roll it!”

And Rendi was right. The moon could not be lifted, but it could be rolled.

It was not easily rolled, however. The smooth surface was slippery, and the weight made it difficult to push. For all its round symmetry, rolling the moon was a slow procedure. Inch by inch, Rendi and Jiming rolled the moon to the bridge.

When they were halfway across the bridge, they heard faint calls from the stone plain.

“Rendi!” the voices were calling. “Rendi!”

That’s Peiyi’s voice
, Rendi thought.
And Madame Chang’s and Widow Yan’s.
They must have been worried and gone looking for him, Rendi realized. He looked at the figures standing by the tall tree, their lanterns drooping as they gazed toward him. The moon cast a pure light, and Rendi, perhaps for the first time, saw them clearly. There
was Master Chao, full of pride yet good-hearted, and Peiyi, fearless yet vulnerable. There were Widow Yan and MeiLan, weighed down by worries but unbroken, and Madame Chang and Mr. Shan, staring with soft expressions of homecoming. Their kindness and caring seemed to reach for him, and the moon began to roll as if pulled by a silver ribbon.

Crrriiiick!
Suddenly, there was sickening crack, and the waiting faces changed to expressions of horror.

“The bridge!” Jiming gasped. “It’s not strong enough for the moon! The bridge is breaking!”

Criickkk! Criiick!
Rendi and Jiming, their hands on the moon, stood frozen.
Criiiiiick!
The bridge gave a slow, stomach-turning groan, and Peiyi screamed.

“
Mr. Shan!
” Madame Chang said. It was not a statement or a question. It was an order. The walking stick clattered to the ground, and with long strides, moving faster than Rendi ever could have imagined, Mr. Shan flew toward them. From his pocket, the three-legged toad gave a miraculous jump and was quickly scooped up by Madame Chang. And then Mr. Shan leaped into the lake.

The groaning of the bridge stopped.

“Go ahead, Rendi,” Mr. Shan’s voice said from below him. Was Mr. Shan under the bridge?

“What?” Rendi said.

“He’s holding up the bridge!” Peiyi shouted from the lake’s edge. She raised both of her arms in the air, imitating Mr. Shan’s posture. Beside her, Master Chao beckoned madly. “Hurry up!”

Rendi and Jiming pushed with renewed effort. The moon rolled faster, as if it were being drawn to the waiting figures. Rendi could hear Peiyi’s excited babble before the moon even reached the end of the bridge.

“We thought those men might have come back to kidnap you,” she was saying. “I saw the snail shells, and I thought maybe you left them as a trail for us! And so we followed it. Who’s that with you? How did you find the moon? Why did you…”

The moon rolled onto the grass, and Jiming took a step out from behind it.