Part 12 (1/2)
Dorothy couldn't believe it. Everyone knew where Kansu Road was. ”It's in the native city, where there was a large rally today, and the police came to break it up.”
”I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.”
Dorothy suddenly felt very tired and alone. She tried not to cry.
Beini looked at her more intently. ”Ah, you are a child of the Veiled Shanghai. That is why you're afraid.”
”What do you mean?”
”There are two Shanghais, one on top of the other. The Shanghai you're from, the Veiled Shanghai, is inhabited by different people, possesses different wonders, and is filled with unfamiliar sorts of machines. It occupies the same s.p.a.ce as our city, but a thin veil hides you from us, and us from you. Yet what happens in one Shanghai seems to affect what happens in the other.
”What I do know is that here the night is longer and darker, and the old magic is still strong, the magic that had filled the port with lines of qi and crisscrossed the land with currents of power long before the foreigners came and paved it over and covered it with their steam engines and electric automata.”
Dorothy was frightened, but she tried not to show it. She looked over at the bus again and saw that in place of the trolley poles, the bus now sprouted a big chimney. This wasn't the vehicle she was familiar with, but a new machine powered by white steam and black coal.
”Oh dear,” she said. ”How will I ever get home?”
”I don't know,” Beini said. She looked thoughtful. ”Once in a while we get a visitor from the Veiled Shanghaiabut who knows, perhaps you were sent here for a reason, for yuanfenaI believe if you want to go home, you must go see Oz.”
”Who's Oz?”
”The Great Oz is the most powerful magician in all of Shanghai. He lives in the Emerald House, in the middle of a green park.”
”How do I get there?”
”You follow the road of yellow brick.”
Dorothy looked down, and she could indeed see yellow bricks embedded here and there in the cobblestones, forming a trail that led out of the square into a dark side street.
Beini bent down and picked something out of the broken Panopticon. ”Here, take these.” She handed two silver coins to Dorothy, each showing the profile of a bald man.
”The workmen who installed the Panopticon left these coins, the dayang, to appease the Chinese ghosts haunting those who disturb their rest. The coins have some charm a.s.sociated with them, and you might as well keep them in your shoes for luck.”
”Thank you,” said Dorothy. She took off her shoes, put one coin in each, and stepped into them. ”And now I'll be on my way.”
”Merci, merci!” the children called after her.
”Be safe,” Beini said, and she held her hands together and said a benediction for Dorothy.
The glow of the lone streetlamp soon faded behind her. After a few minutes of gingerly walking in the dark, Dorothy emerged from the narrow, quiet residential street into a wide avenue, filled with rus.h.i.+ng people and cars and loud noise and bright lights and wonders Dorothy had never seen.
In the center of the street were columns of cars sporting large, chrome boilers. Alongside them were rickshaws. But many of the runners before them were not people at all, but man-shaped machines with legs and torsos of iron. Neon signs flashed and blinked everywhere, and vendors in kiosks hawked strange new machines and promised magical results. The strikes in Veiled Shanghai were definitely not taking place here.
”I'm certainly not on Kansu Road anymore,” said Dorothy to herself.
Ahead of her, she saw a boy about her own age, tall and gaunt, with a head of messy blond hair and ill-fitting clothes that hung loosely from his frame like a scarecrow's, arguing with a bakery owner in English.
”Get away from here! Go on, shoo!”
”I did everything you asked today. You promised to pay mea””
”You stupid boy! I told you to keep an eye out for those dirty urchins, and you ended up giving them free food!”
”But you told me the buns were going to be thrown out!”
The owner slammed the door in the boy's face.
Dorothy walked up.
”h.e.l.lo, I'm Dorothy,” she said, also in English. After a pause, she added, ”That man was mean.”
The boy looked away. ”You saw that? They used to call me Freddie back home in Iowa, but here, everyone calls me Scarecrow, on account of my looks. My pa always said that I had no sense, got no brains, and whipped me for it. Seems like I'm always doing something wrong, making people mad.”
”If you gave food to hungry kidsa”and I think I know some of those kidsa”you couldn't have done anything wrong.”
Scarecrow smiled. ”Thanks. You got anything to eat? I'm starving.”
Dorothy realized that her stomach was growling, too. She rummaged about and found that she still had some peeled carrots stuffed into the pockets of her dress. She took two out and handed one to Scarecrow.
He and Dorothy both thought these were the sweetest, juiciest carrots they'd ever had.
”You live near here?” Dorothy asked.
”Sort of.” Scarecrow scratched his hair. ”I sleep pretty much wherever. I ran away from home because being whipped hurt, and I wanted to see the world, learn some sense. I s.h.i.+pped out of San Francisco as a stowaway on a steamer bound for Shanghai. After I landed, I woke up in the morning and the s.h.i.+p was nowhere to be found. Then I just kind of stuck around. What a strange city.”
Sounds like you came from the Veiled Shanghai, too, Dorothy thought. ”Think you're learning much?” Dorothy asked.
”I don't know. The things I've learned so far don't seem to make the world any easier to understand.”
Dorothy nodded vigorously. ”Sometimes the more I find out about the world, the more confusing it becomesa”like tonight.”
Scarecrow laughed. ”Yes, exactly. Where are you going?”
”I'm going to see Oz, a great magician.” Just saying it aloud made it seem less ridiculous. A place that could make carrots taste so good must have some strong magic in it. ”I'm lost, but Oz, who is very powerful, will get me home. He can make anything happen.”
”A great wizard? He must be pretty wise then. Maybe this Oz will make me less foolish. Can I come with you?”
The road of yellow brick turned into a dark alley with no lights at all. The shadows seemed to hide unseen monsters, and the two children slowed down, their hearts pounding.
”Let me walk in front of you,” Scarecrow said.
”Aren't you scared?”
”I'm too stupid to be scared.” Scarecrow tried to laugh at his own joke, but his voice came out shaky.
”Hold my hand,” Dorothy said. ”We'll walk together.”
After their eyes adjusted, they could see that the yellow bricks cast a faint glow, like a trail of breadcrumbs in a dark forest. They gladly followed it.
A loud creaking came from off to their right. Both stopped.