Part 11 (2/2)
And it was their home - the dark red gate doors were wide open, allowing them to see light s.h.i.+ning from the windows of their houses. Their chickens squawked a greeting, and their dogs jumped through the gate with cheerful barks.
Our ancestors couldn't believe it. Dirty pots and pans that they had left in the morning were still in the washbasin, mixed-up shoes and hanging laundry were exactly where they were before. Even the book that Ye Ye had left was open on the same page. Ye Ye walked from room to room and house to house, with the family following like a parade. Finally, he found a slip of bright silk stuck in the hinges of the gate doors. He turned around to look at the family crowding about him.
”It is a miracle,” he said to them. ”We have been moved here, beyond the magistrate's reach. We are saved!”
The family cheered, but could not help asking, ”How? Who did this?”
Ye Ye looked at the empty land around him and the dark blue sky with the moon above and then at the thin strip of silk in his hand. ”This silk is from one of the children's kites. The kites brought our wishes up to the Old Man of the Moon and he must have decided that our destinies lay here,” Ye Ye said, and he motioned upward. ”For there is only one other here with us tonight. It is only us and the moon.”
”And your family has been here ever since?” Dragon asked.
Both children nodded. ”For over a hundred years, our family has lived on the mountain, and we keep growing. Sometimes we travel down the mountain, sometimes people come to us; anyone who visits is welcome to call our place home.”
”So...” Minli began, but her words died away as Da-Fu pointed toward the horizon. Minli and Dragon followed his hand and finally saw what could only be Never-Ending Mountain, home of the Old Man of the Moon.
CHAPTER 39.
Never-Ending Mountain was enormous, so large that it made Fruitless Mountain seem a like a loose pebble. Minli could not see the tip or the bottom of it, as it seemed to grow out of a gorge so deep that the base must have been at the foundation of the earth. Minli felt as if she were on the edge of the world as she stared across the great gulf separating them from the Never-Ending Mountain. It stood before them like a piece of raw green stone towering forever into the sky and disappearing into silver mist.
”There it is,” Da-Fu said, ”Never-Ending Mountain!”
”I bet the Old Man of the Moon does live up there,” A-Fu said. ”The top of this mountain must reach the moon.”
”How do we get up there?” Minli asked. She was starting feel dizzy from staring upward so long.
The dragon looked chagrined. ”If I could fly,” he said, ”I'd be able to get us up there to see the Old Man of the Moon.”
”If you could fly,” A-Fu laughed, ”you would not need to see him!”
”But,” Minli said, ”it looks like flying is the only way up to see the Old Man of the Moon.”
”There's probably another way,” A-Fu said.
”Yes,” Da-Fu said, ”you probably just have to let the Old Man of the Moon know you'd like to come up.”
”How do we that?” Dragon asked. ”Send a message?”
Minli looked up at the sky as Dragon and Da-A-Fu continued to talk. Send a message, send a message. Send a message, send a message. Dragon's words echoed in Minli's ears and she felt as if she were searching for a match to light a lantern. The wind gusted at her, as if it were trying to tell her something. She watched A-Fu's braid fly in the air; as she pulled it down, the cut pieces of her sleeve flapped like the tail of a kite... Dragon's words echoed in Minli's ears and she felt as if she were searching for a match to light a lantern. The wind gusted at her, as if it were trying to tell her something. She watched A-Fu's braid fly in the air; as she pulled it down, the cut pieces of her sleeve flapped like the tail of a kite...
”I know!” Minli said excitedly. ”We'll do it like your ancestors did!” She quickly kneeled on the ground and reached in her traveling bag for the two borrowed lines. Dragon and the children looked at her curiously as she waved the sheet of paper and the string before them.
”We can fly a kite up to the Old Man of the Moon,” Minli exclaimed. ”I'll make a kite of the two borrowed lines, that's bound to get his attention.”
Da-A-Fu and the dragon grinned and together they made the borrowed lines into a kite. They fastened the page from the Book of Fortune onto Minli's chopsticks and attached an end of the red cord to the kite. But as they tried to trim the thread - A-Fu thought it would look neater if the end didn't dangle - they discovered that the borrowed line could not be cut.
”It is a string of destiny,” Dragon said, as he tried again without success to cut the thread with his claw. Each of them, in succession, had tried to break it - Da-Fu even tried to snap it with his teeth. ”It is reasonable to think it is unbreakable.”
”Well, we don't need to trim the string to make the kite,” Minli said. ”But we can't cut the kite free to go to the moon.”
”Just fly it until the string runs out,” Da-Fu said, ”then let go.”
Minli nodded. It made sense. As they gazed at the wound coil, she said, amused, ”It won't take too long for the string to run out, anyway. There is not a lot there!”
”I just hope there is enough for it to fly,” A-Fu said.
So, with Da-Fu running, they began to fly the kite. As the kite rose higher and higher, Minli watched the coil of string in her hand.
”Is the string running out yet?” each asked over and over again. But Minli shook her head every time. The thread seemed to endlessly unwind. Even as the kite climbed upward becoming the size of a name chop mark, the string continued. Slowly, it disappeared from view with the thread scratching the darkening sky with a faint red line.
”That is a magic string,” Da-Fu said in an awed voice.
”Of course,” the dragon said suddenly. ”It's a thread of destiny. If we are destined to see the Old Man of the Moon, it will stretch to reach him.”
”You may be destined to meet him, then,” A-Fu said, impressed. However, as she looked at the sky turning to night, she frowned. ”But we are not. Da-Fu, we should go back home. We have been gone too long. After the Green Tiger, we should try not to worry Amah and A-Gong so much.”
”Don't you have anything you want to ask the Old Man of the Moon?” Minli asked. ”You could change your fortune too.”
”No,” Da-A-Fu said, laughing. ”Why would we want to change our fortune?”
The children ran down the mountain, their laughter melting into the air. Minli shook her head in confusion, but waved goodbye. As Minli watched them turn into figures of shadows, seeming to dance toward their home and village, she thought of her own Ma and Ba waiting for her in her home far away.
As the sky deepened like brewing tea, Minli and the dragon looked in silence at the red line reaching to the heavens. But just as the moon rose in the darkness, Minli felt a sudden jerk on the string. It began to strain and bend.
”Something's happening!” she cried out.
”Pull the kite in!” Dragon said. ”Bring it back!”
”Something has changed!” Minli said as she strained and pulled. ”It's heavy now!”
The dragon reached above Minli's head and grabbed the cord. Together, they pulled and dragged. As they strained, Minli wondered if they were bringing down the moon itself.
But there seemed to be no end to the string. As they wound up the thread, it seemed to get thicker and thicker. And when the string became the width of Minli's little finger, a strange clattering - like a wooden windchime - filled the air.
”Something has happened to the string,” the dragon gasped between heaves.
And something strange had had happened. The thread - which was really now more like a thick silk rope - seemed to have divided itself into a long strange web, reinforced with bamboo stalks. As the endless U-shape came toward them, Minli gasped. happened. The thread - which was really now more like a thick silk rope - seemed to have divided itself into a long strange web, reinforced with bamboo stalks. As the endless U-shape came toward them, Minli gasped.
”The string,” Minli panted, ”it's... it's a bridge!”
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