Part 1 (2/2)
”The Old Man of the Moon! Another story! Our house is bare and our rice hardly fills our bowls, but we have plenty of stories.” Ma sighed again. ”What a poor fortune we have!”
”Maybe,” Ba said to Minli, glancing at Ma, ”I should tell you that story tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 2.
Every morning, before the sun rose, Minli, her mother, and father began work in the fields. It was planting season, which was especially grueling. The mud stuck to their feet like glue and each seedling had to be painstakingly planted by hand. When the hot sun burned overhead, Minli's knees shook from weariness. She hated the feeling of thick, soggy mud on her hands and face; and many times she wanted to stop in irritation and exhaustion. But seeing her parents' bent backs, patiently working, made her swallow her complaints and continue.
As soon as the sun began to set, Minli's parents sent her home to make dinner and to rest while they continued to work in the thick mud. They would not come home until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky.
At home, Minli washed her face and hands and feet; and even though all the water in the basin turned brown, she still felt like she was covered in mud. Her arms and legs were so tired that she felt like an old crab crawling on rocks. As she looked at herself reflected in the dark water, she saw Ma's frown on her face.
Ma is right, Minli thought. Minli thought. What a poor fortune we have. Every day, Ba and Ma work and work and we still have nothing. I wish I could change our fortune. What a poor fortune we have. Every day, Ba and Ma work and work and we still have nothing. I wish I could change our fortune.
At that very moment, Minli heard a faint murmuring sound that she had never heard before, like a song chanted from the clouds. Curious, she opened the door to see what the noise was.
And there, on the road in front of her house, she saw a small stranger calling out quietly. ”Goldfish,” he was saying softly, as if he were coaxing his fish to swim. ”Bring fortune into your home.”
Minli and the villagers stared as he wheeled his cart. Even though the village was by a river, it had been many years since anyone had seen a glimpse of a goldfish. The fish in the Jade River were brown and gray, like the village. The goldfish man's cart was full of bowls of flas.h.i.+ng fish that glittered like jewels.
His gentle calling drew Minli to him like a moth to a lit lantern. ”How does a goldfish bring fortune into your home?” Minli asked.
The goldfish man looked at her; the sun setting behind him made him glow bright red and yellow. ”Don't you know?” he asked her. ”Goldfish means plenty of gold. Having a bowl of goldfish means your house will be full of gold and jade.”
As Minli stared into his bowls with her s.h.i.+ning black eyes, a brilliant orange fish stared back at her with its s.h.i.+ning black eyes. And then quickly, so quickly that Minli barely thought about it, she turned into the house and grabbed the two copper coins from the white rabbit rice bowl.
”I'll buy that one,” Minli said, and she pointed at the fiery orange fish with the black eyes and fin that had caught her eye.
The other village children looked at her enviously while the watching adults shook their heads. ”Minli,” one neighbor said, ”don't believe his impossible talk. A goldfish won't bring fortune. Save your money.”
But Minli was not discouraged and she held out her copper coins to the goldfish man. He looked at her and smiled. Then he took one coin, picked up the fishbowl, and gave it to her.
”May it bring you great fortune,” he said. And with a small bow to the villagers, he wheeled out of the village. In moments, he disappeared from view into the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, and if it wasn't for the goldfish Minli had in her hands, all would have thought he was a dream.
CHAPTER 3.
But the goldfish was real, and when her parents returned from the fields for dinner they were not happy to learn that Minli had spent her money on it.
”How could you spend your money on that!” Ma said, slapping the rice bowls on the table. ”On something so useless? And we will have to feed it! There is barely enough rice for us as it is.”
”I will share my rice with it,” Minli said quickly. ”The goldfish man said that it will bring fortune to our house.”
”Fortune!” Ma said. ”You spent half the money in our house!”
”Now, Wife,” Ba said, sitting quietly, ”it was Minli's money. It was hers to do with as she wished. Money must be used sometime. What use is money in a bowl?”
”It is more useful than a goldfish in a bowl,” her mother said shortly.
”Who knows,” Ba said. ”Maybe it will bring fortune to our house.”
”Another impossible dream,” Ma said, looking at the plain rice in her bowl with bitterness. ”It will take more than a goldfish to bring fortune to our house.”
”Like what?” Minli asked. ”What do we need to bring fortune here?”
”Ah,” Ba said, ”that is a question you will have to ask the Old Man of the Moon.”
”The Old Man of the Moon again,” Minli said, and she looked at her father. ”Ba, you said you would tell me the Old Man of the Moon story again today.”
”More stories!” Ma said, and her chopsticks struck the inside of her empty rice bowl resentfully. ”Haven't we had enough of those?”
”Now, Wife,” Ba said again, ”stories cost us nothing.”
”And gain us nothing as well,” Ma said.
There was a stony silence as Ba looked sadly into his rice bowl. Minli tugged at his sleeve. ”Please, Ba?” she said.
Ma shook her head and sighed, but said nothing, so Ba began.
THE STORY OF THE OLD.
MAN OF THE MOON Once there was a magistrate who was quite powerful and proud. He was so proud that he demanded constant respect from his people. Whenever he made a trip out of the city, no matter what time of day or night, people were to leave their homes, get on their knees, and make deep bows as he pa.s.sed, or else face the brutal punishment of his soldiers. The magistrate was fierce in his anger as well as his pride. It is said he even expected the monkeys to come down from the trees to bow to him.
The magistrate was harsh with his subordinates, ruthless to his enemies, and pitiless to his people. All feared his wrath, and when he roared his orders the people trembled. Behind his back, they called him Magistrate Tiger.
Magistrate Tiger's most coveted wish was to be of royal blood. His every decision was crafted for that purpose; every manipulation was part of a strategy to achieve acceptance into the imperial family. As soon as his son was born, he began to make trips and inquiries to gain influence, in hopes that he could marry his son to a member of the imperial family.
One night, as the magistrate traveled through the mountains (again on a trip to gain favor for his son's future marriage), he saw an old man sitting alone in the moonlight. The old man ignored the pa.s.sing horses and carriages, the silk brocade and the government seal, and simply continued reading a large book in his lap, placidly fingering a bag of red string beside him. The old man's indifference infuriated Magistrate Tiger and he ordered the carriage to stop. However, even the halting noises did not make the old man look up. Finally, Magistrate Tiger exited his carriage and went to the old man, still engrossed in his book.
”Do you not bow to your magistrate?!” he roared.
The old man continued to read.
”What are you reading that is so important?” the magistrate demanded, and looked at the pages of the book. It was full of scribbles and scrawls that were not of any language the magistrate knew of. ”Why, it's just nonsense written in there!”
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