Year of the Golden Dragon (14 page)

“Would you please get moving and help me…” Ryan started to say. He stopped when he saw something on the television set. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the intricately carved wooden box.

“I don’t know. It’s a box. What’s your deal?”

“The guy at the front desk didn’t know what I was talking about. He’d never heard of Lily or her parents.”

“Maybe you didn’t get the name right.”

“I got it right,” Ryan said. He moved over to the tv and picked up the box. “Was this in the room when we got here?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said, turning the light on in the bathroom and closing the door. Ryan was asking way too many questions this early in the morning.

He turned on the tap and waited for the water to get warm. He pushed back his thick hair. No doubt about it, he definitely needed to get it cut. Just as he did every morning, he reached up to adjust the silk string holding his pendant. The silk cord was light, almost weightless. He pulled the collar of his t-shirt away from his neck and looked into the mirror. Only the cord was there. Where was his jade?

Alex opened the bathroom door and went back into the room. Ryan had opened the box and was looking at a piece of paper.

“Have you seen my jade?” Alex asked, pushing the covers back on the bed he’d slept in. Still nothing. He dropped to the floor and searched under and around the bed. He stood up again. “Ryan? I can’t find my jade.”

“What do you mean?”

“My jade. It’s gone.”

“You can’t be serious,” Ryan said, still holding the box in one hand and the piece of paper in the other.

Alex glanced at the front part of Ryan’s shirt. “Do you have yours?” he asked quietly.

Ryan dropped the box and paper onto the bed and reached up to his throat with both hands. He grabbed at the cord. When Alex saw that nothing was on Ryan’s either, he sat down hard on the bed. Alex watched his brother feeling inside his clothes; then, Ryan did the same thing Alex had just done. He pulled the bedclothes off and fell to the floor to look for his jade.

“Do you think Lily took them?” Alex asked, but not really wanting an answer.

“Maybe, but why would she do that?”

“To show her parents?”

“I told you. They said they didn’t have Lily or her parents registered here.”

Alex was sure he remembered – what? Actually, he couldn’t remember anything about Lily.

He looked at Ryan kneeling beside his bed. His face was the colour of the sheet. Alex picked up the box. It was about the size of a CD case, but thicker.

“Do you think she left us this in exchange for our jade?”

Ryan didn’t say anything as he picked up the piece of paper and focused on it. His hands were trembling.

Alex’s eyes were burning. He waited, trying to hold back the tears. He knew not to talk to his brother right now.

The seconds dragged on until Ryan finally said, his voice quivering, “I recognize some of these characters. I think it might be the poem Papa used to recite to us.”

Alex sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

Ryan folded the paper and put it back in the container. “Stop crying,” he said without emotion. “You’re the one who got us into this mess.”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

They froze.

“Maybe it’s Lily,” Alex whispered.

“Shh!” Ryan said, slapping his hand over Alex’s mouth.

“It’s the man from the front desk,” Ryan said under his breath.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

This time the sound was louder and more urgent.

The two brothers remained still.

“Have it your way. I’m coming back with a key and the hotel manager,” said the voice.

Alex watched Ryan tiptoe over and put his ear to the door. “What do we do?”

“Grab your stuff and the box,” Ryan said. “Hurry! We’ve got to get out of here.”

The boys dashed out, and raced to the door leading to the fire escape. They threw it open and ran down the stairs. When they got to the bottom of the stairwell, they pushed the metal handle down and the door swung wide. Ryan and Alex were pitched into a crowded, extremely narrow alley.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

An old man on a bicycle swerved to miss them. On the back of the bike was a bamboo pole holding ten or twelve ducks hanging by their feet. Resting on the handlebars was a metal basket on which a large wicker basket of eggs was balanced. The boys pressed back against the door, trying to stay out of the way.

Pushed up against the building, Alex asked, “Why didn’t we just stay and ask the hotel manager for help?”

“What?” Ryan glared at Alex. Then a puzzled look replaced the frown on his face. “I – I don’t know,” Ryan stammered.

Alex slumped down and sat on his haunches.

“Let’s try to find a policeman,” Ryan said. He nodded at the box in Alex’s hands. “We can show him that as evidence.”

Alex nodded.

“Maybe Aunt Grace and Uncle Peter have reported us missing,” Ryan said. His face softened and he added more gently, “They’re probably looking for us right now.”

Sometimes Ryan was a jerk, but right now Alex was happy to have him as a big brother.

They began walking down the alley. There were covered stalls on either side of the narrow lane. People were selling watches, handbags, ladies’ underwear and children’s clothes. Others offered tablecloths, socks, fruit, books, compact discs and every size of suitcase imaginable.

After a few moments, they came to the end of the stalls. They were now on a wide, busy sidewalk. Between them and the other side of Nathan Road were four lanes of traffic. There were people in every direction. Some loitered in front of shop windows and others rushed around. Music blared, hawkers called out their wares and there was the steady sound of car horns. Blasts of exhaust spewed out of taxis, motorbikes and double-decker buses, covering everything with a black film of diesel.

“Look,” Alex said. “There’s a phone booth. Let’s see if we can call Yeye’s place.”

“Right,” Ryan said, “but how do we get the number?”

“Call the operator,” said Alex.

Ryan picked up the receiver and pushed 0.

He stood listening for a moment, then frowned. Ryan said, “Hello? My Cantonese is not very good. Can you speak English?”

Alex watched him listening again.

“I need a telephone number for my grandfather, Mr. Wong. He lives on Hong Kong Island. Could you please look it up for me?”

Another moment passed.

“I don’t know,” Ryan said. “I only know his English name.” He groaned. “Please,” he said, “you’ve got to help us. We’re lost and we don’t know what to do.”

After a second or two, Ryan smiled. “Oh, that would be great.” He nodded at Alex, whispering, “He’s going to put us through to the Tourist Police.” Then, into the receiver he said, “Thank you. Thank you so –”

Ryan stopped talking and looked over Alex’s shoulder. His smile vanished.

What had Ryan seen? Alex peered back behind him. He didn’t see anything except vehicles and pedestrians. When he looked back at Ryan, his brother’s face looked strange. He was touching his left temple and seemed surprised. When he took his hand away, his fingers were smeared with blood.

“Ryan. You’re bleeding!”

Alex turned to look across the street again. A man with large sunglasses was climbing over the guard rail. Without bothering to look left or right, he leapt over the barrier and into traffic. He ignored the cars and other vehicles as if they didn’t exist, snaking his way toward them without harm.

How can he do that?

Ryan grabbed him and said, “Run!”

They ran together as best they could on the crowded sidewalk, Ryan looking frantically around all the time.

Alex turned around for a moment and saw the man with the sunglasses was following them. He had a horrible grin on his face.

“Who is that?” gasped Alex as Ryan pulled him toward a wide set of stairs in the middle of the sidewalk.

“The guy from the airport,” Ryan said. “Quick! Down here!” They bounded down the steps two at a time.

There was a row of turnstiles at the bottom with people lined up in front of several machines. The boys watched as a woman pushed a card into a slot and a metal barrier turned, allowing her to walk through.

“We need a ticket!” Alex said, tugging at Ryan’s sleeve and pulling him toward one of the ticket dispensers.

Ryan glanced behind them toward the stairs. His face blanched. “No time,” he said, crouching down and crawling under a turnstile. “Follow me. There!” Ryan shouted, pointing at a packed subway train. “Hurry, Alex! We’ve got to get on board!”

Halfway across the platform, Alex heard a voice speaking in Cantonese over a loudspeaker. The announcement followed in English.
This train is about to depart. Mind the doors, please.
A horn sounded, and the steel doors began to close. A woman stood just inside the compartment the boys were racing toward. When she saw Alex and Ryan trying to catch the train, she jammed her umbrella between the closing doors. They automatically opened again, just long enough for the boys to squeeze through.

“Thank you!” they breathed.

The doors sealed tight, and the train began to move away.

Just outside the window, Alex saw the man. He had removed his sunglasses and was staring at the box Alex held gripped in his hand. The subway picked up speed. The last thing he saw was the man shaking his fists. His head was tilted back and his mouth was wide open. He looked like he was howling.

Chapter 13

Advice from an Ancient Advisor

Hong Mei landed with a thud.
She lay on her side, half-frozen. Her black hair stood on end, and her pretty freckled face was covered in frost. Just above her blue lips were beads of moisture. Gripped in her hands were all three pieces of jade, still perfectly joined together as one circular disc.

As she regained consciousness, Hong Mei tried to open her eyes, but they felt like they’d been glued shut. She attempted to move, but her body was too stiff. Was she paralyzed? Had her back or neck been broken? Her heart raced. Thankfully, she could feel that.

Hong Mei thought of her
gong fu
training and the age-old mantra of “mind over matter.” She focused on what her senses told her and felt the warm kiss of the sun on her face. From above there was the cheerful, sweet twittering of birds. When she breathed in, she smelled rich soil and the woodsy scent of pine trees.

Her shoulder began to ache, but despite the throb, she was relieved.

After a few minutes, Hong Mei was able to move her arms, legs and feet. Although every single part of her body was waking up in pain, nothing felt broken.

When she could finally sit up, she once again tried to open her eyes. With a little effort, they came unstuck and she saw that she was outdoors. Off in the distance, she could see a town, or was it was a city? The buildings didn’t seem tall enough for Kowloon or Hong Kong. She heard the birds again and the low whistle of the wind tickling the needles of the trees. There were no sounds of city life. No horns honking, people talking or lorries rushing along roads.

Hong Mei looked down at her raw hands, thawing in the wonderful warmth of the sun. The jade seemed to wink at her, dazzling in its pale beauty. Had the stone brought her here? Why? With tingling hands, she divided the jade where it had once been broken. It snapped apart easily.

Slowly, Hong Mei stood up in the clearing where she’d awoken. There was a dark and thickly wooded forest next to her. What was this place? It was quite lovely, but oddly quiet. She’d never been to a place where there weren’t any people. Closing her eyes again, she tilted her face to catch more of the sun’s healing rays. Unlike most Chinese, Mama always said that a little sunshine was good for a person’s health. As it warmed her aching body, Hong Mei wondered if that old guy with Madam Ching was right about her freckles. Maybe they were from too much sun.

After only a second or two with her eyes closed, the familiar prickling began above her forehead and made its way over her scalp. The sensation lifted the roots of her hair, making its way to the top of her spine. She was about to have a vision.