Fragment 3 - Posted 9th October 2014

I felt terrible in the morning. At first I thought I had eaten something bad, and that made me worried for a moment. Then I realised what the pain was. I went and used my sponge and reported to Ma Peng and told her I had the Dark Cloud. She smiled wryly, and told me that everybody in the house had it. I stared. Ma Peng looked surprised and said "It is the gift of the White Ghost. Didn't you do this at school?" She laughed at my expression and said, "Meng Chu has your documents. We forgot them in all the excitement last night. And I believe a there is a book of instruction comes with them." Xu Xan climbed down the stairs with White Ghost just then, and she looked as bad as I felt. We left White Ghost in the courtyard and knocked at Meng Chu's study. She looked troubled too. She formally presented our documents and congratulated us again, and handed over a small book. There was only one, she apologised. They were in short supply. She hoped we would manage. She was making every effort to find another copy. She sighed and sat down. "Dark Cloud day," she said. "Every rose has its thorn. I expect I shall see you at the Temple." We agreed and withdrew. Breakfast was porridge-meal and fruit salad, and bitter tea. It would be plain meals until Dark Cloud was over, to make things easier for the kitchen staff. No-one has the stomach for anything richer, and it does help to make your insides feel better. White Ghost was puzzled and worried, as everyone was smiling at him in a regretful way. Xu Xan asked if we were going to the Temple, but I said we would go to the meadow first. I tapped the little instruction book, and she understood. I took the ball and the skipping-rope. The kite had broken in the tussle. The gardener could mend it with a new stick, but that could be done later. Xu Xan took the staff in her good hand, and I took the leash, and we stepped out gingerly into the lane. Even White Ghost looked around warily. We walked in the middle of the narrow lanes, avoiding the corners, and felt much happier when we came to the meadow. We gave the ball and the skipping-rope to White Ghost and sat down to read the book. It was in very small writing. I leafed through it to see if there was a summary. There was no summary, but there were some illustrations. "Look at this," I said to Xu Xan. She looked and giggled. "So we know where O Mei got her information," she said. "Here's a diagram of their interest!" "It must be important, then. What's that?" "I think that's us. I mean, that's ours. O My!" I looked at the next illustration. "O my!" I echoed. We looked at each other, and then we looked at White Ghost, who was playing with the ball. "As Full Custodians, you will be expected to assist." "That will be interesting." "There is a lot here." "Why don't you read five pages out loud to me, and I'll read five pages out loud to you. We'll finish the thing in a couple of days." "Five pages! Have you seen you small this type is? Two pages each. We'll read it morning and afternoon. We still have to exercise White Ghost." "It'll take a month!" "We'll have to take it in turns to read it quietly during siesta, then, unless we can beg a lamp to read it at night." "Siesta. We can read during the heat. If we don't get our sleep we'll be fit for nothing. Come on, the sooner we start, the sooner we're done." So I read out loud, as best I could, stumbling over the difficult words, and going back to read a sentence again when Xu Xan asked. After two pages Xu Xan took the book from me, but didn't do much better. The information was there though, and we began to understand the duties of our position. "Whew!" said Xu Xan, as she closed the book. "Not such a sinecure as all that. Come on, let's go to the Temple. We ought to make some big offerings." I whistled to White Ghost, who was trying to play with the skipping-rope on his own. He had no notion of time, and didn't notice we had not stayed as long as usual. Probably it didn't mean anything to him. He was surprised, though, when we didn't follow the lane back to the house, but walked through the market square and on to the Temple. We stopped outside and bought some flowers and incense from the hawkers. Xu Xan was frowning at me: too much! I said to her, look, we are making an offering to ease the Dark Cloud, that's one; we are giving thanks for our promotion, that's two; and we're giving thanks for coming out of a nasty incident in one piece. Xu Xan looked at her sling and looked at me. I told her that she might have been hit on the head. We were not completely sure if White Ghosts were allowed in the Temple, but we thought they were. Neither of us wanted to wait outside, so we crossed our fingers and just walked in. We took our flowers up to the big statue of Moon Goddess, and lit our incense, and sat for a while to enjoy the scents and the sound of the nuns chanting. White Ghost looked around with great interest, twisting his neck this way and that, but otherwise sitting still. One of the nuns, in passing, remarked what a well-behaved creature he was, and we glowed with pride. Then she slyly offered to bless him for five copper cash. Xu Xan would have said no, but I nudged her silent, and handed over the cash straight away. The nun ushered us into a little side-chapel, where she burned some incense and had us kowtow. There was a smaller statue there, very delicate and beautiful. Then she rang a little bell as she anointed White Ghost with ceremonial oil. She spooned oil on his head, on his shoulders, on his breast and on his interest, chanting all the while and ringing her bell. When this was over, Xu Xan asked if the oil tasted of anything, which puzzled the nun and made me splutter with laughter. We all kowtowed to her in thanks, even White Ghost, who is good at copying what we do. This delighted the nun, and she hurried off to tell her fellows. On our way out we kowtowed to Meng Chu, who was just arriving. She nodded at the sight of the oil on White Ghost's shoulders. I said "He is blessed." Meng Chu replied "We are all blessed." For another person to say, it would have been trite and pious, but I felt she was right. Nervously we took a stroll around the square to look at the market stalls. Xu Xan kept firm hold of her staff, and I kept firm hold on the leash. We were a little distracted because of this, and none of the stalls had much interest for us. Xu Xan nodded towards a stall of sweetmeats, but I wasn't interested. Ma Chao does better. Instead we bought a poke of prawn crackers, and shared them out on our way back, staring at anyone who might come too close. No-one did, and we began to grow a little more confident. Lunch was plain noodles. Nobody asked for sauce. It was a grim meal. We lurked around the courtyard until the gong sounded. Xu Xan took the book first. I had only closed my eyes when she nudged me awake and indicated for me to read a page. It made me sit up. I read on until Xu Xan got impatient and started to read over my shoulder. We didn't dare to stop. When the gong sounded for resumption of duties, we looked at each other, each holding a corner of the little book. "Meadow?" said Xu Xan. "Courtyard, " I replied. I didn't want to wait any more than I had to. We devoured the book, while White Ghost wandered the courtyard and smelled the flowers. We finished it and set the book down. I felt as though my head would burst. "I feel sick," said Xu Xan. "Dark Cloud?" I asked. "I don't think so." "A more responsible position than we had thought." "Nothing lasts for ever." "No," she answered, looking at White Ghost. "Some things last a long time, though." "Come on," she said. "Let's exercise the beast. I want to run around, I think." We took the ball, but played tag, in slow motion, or so it seemed, slowed by our skirts and our mood. White Ghost ran circles around us, tagging us only when he could not avoid it. Finally we gave up and lay looking at the sky. "Coming events cast their shadow before. I never understood what that meant until now." "Where does O Mei live?" "No idea. Ma Peng will know. Why?" "I want to ask her some questions. Should we go together? I mean, should we all go?" "Certainly. Why not? What do you want to ask her?" "I'm not sure yet. But I'll work it out." We were afraid to let the sun fall too low before we made our way back. The lanes were empty, to our great relief. We were glad to be indoors again. We ate Ma Chao's special rice, which was almost too rich for us, and smoked our pipes quietly. Ma Peng told us that it was cloudy, and it might be a good idea to put our awnings up. In the washroom I helped Xu Xan. She dabbed a finger at White Ghost's shoulder and licked the oil she picked up. "Mm. Clean it off his shoulders and head but leave the rest. I want to taste the oil." I fixed up the awning and Xu Xan set White Ghost to lie on his side at the edge of the pallet. "That's a good idea," I said. "I don't want him to fall on me," she answered. Then she knelt and milked his chi. She seemed to manage well enough. He curled up into a ball as he was spent. Xu Xan rocked back on her heels, smiled, and stood up. "I think the nicest bit is that he enjoys it," she decided. I nodded. "What did the oil taste like?" I asked. Xu Xan shrugged, and shook her head. "I don't know. Nothing. I can't remember," she said. We crept under the awning and settled ourselves. That night there was a thunderstorm and the rain ran off the awning in streams. It felt as if the whole world was crying.