Chapter 23-Spinel
April 2, at 12:00 a.m., Syaoran lost his voice.
It was almost a smooth thing, a necessary event that must occur right then and there. If Syaoran felt any fear or despair he certainly did not show it. In fact, he hardly seemed surprised at all.
Whether it had any connection to the card Xuyan sent him we have little doubt. Syaoran suddenly spent most of his time at the cello. None of us knew why, but he played a different piece every day, perfecting it at night starting from morning and playing it again and again until he had to go to bed. He first started with his oldest pieces, lining the notes on the manuscript with magic so he could sense where they are and play them. Then he gradually moved up until his last and final cello sonata. After that he went to preludes and impromptus.
He would listen to CD's. So many CD's, Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Telemann, and even pieces that were not for cello. This he did for several weeks, about ninety pieces each day. Then he began playing piano trios, cello and violin duetts, and even concertos with Eriol-sama.
Sakura wanted to give the jade back to Syaoran. Syaoran would not have
that.
" He's right." Yue told Sakura. " You should have it."
Sakura couldn't understand why Syaoran was doing this. None of us could either.
" But look at him!" She cried.
" It's fate." Yue said sadly.
Fate failed us.
Sometime later the wizards and witches showed up but they brought little hope.
" Alas, it has happened at last." Sarah said to Syaoran. Syaoran only nodded.
" Who could have known?" Mimi said sympathetically, " In the end Destiny always
wins."
Destiny. Day and night, you would find Syaoran crying. It wasn't one of those noisy ones that keep you up at night, cursing and fuming. It was one of those quiet, silent, deeply sorrowing ones that you could not bear watching. Not that Syaoran cared though.
It seemed things could not get any worse.
Things did get better after a while. Syaoran kept his daily routine of listening
to music. He wasn't so crazy about it after a while, and sometimes asks me to read
him stories from the books. I read to him works by Tolkien and Chinese authors the
best I could, such as the Dream of Red Mansions and The Journey to the West.
Syaoran liked the Journey to the West and I did too, although he claimed that my Chinese was as horrible as his English ( a big insult on my part). It was basically about this magic rock on a mountain called Flower Fruit Mountain. ( Huaguoshan, since it sounds better, so we'll just call it Mt. Huaguo). After many events the stone exploded and touched the wind, so out came a Stone Monkey. This monkey learned the ways of monkeys, ( crawling, climbing, etc.) and became great friends with many animals on Mt. Huaguo.
Up in Heaven, ( this is a story for Buddhists) the Jade Emperor, ( Yu Huang Da Di, but that doesn't sound right in English) noticed that there was this weird being on Earth, so he asked a guy who can see a thousand leagues afar and a guy who can listen to any sounds brought by the wind to inspect what the heck is down there. Of course that turned out to be the crazy monkey, so the Jade Emperor thought that he would just leave this weird thing alone.
The monkey, ( so far nameless) was having a lot of fun with his monkey friends when they came to a waterfall. The monkeys said that whoever was brave enough and strong enough to go into the waterfall and come out again, would be made their " King". So this Stone Monkey volunteered. Behind the waterfall was a cave, with all life furniture in it, ( although they were made of stone; stone beds, stone chairs, stone tables, stone thrones, so it must have been quite uncomfortable. Hey, they were monkeys, what do they care? It ought to be better than trees, right?) So the Stone Monkey came out again and became " Mei Hou Wang" or literally, " Pretty Monkey King".
Of course, there came a time of merrymaking when King Pretty felt really
sad. The monkeys, of course, asked him what was the matter, and he said that one
day he would grow old and he was upset about that. ( the truth is it was much
deeper, but you get the point. ) The monkeys said he should go in exile and look for
a way to become immortal. King Pretty went in exile and learned the ways of Man.
He came across a woodcutter who spoke an immortal phrase. This woodcutter
showed him the domain of a very wise and powerful immortal, free from even the
ties of the Lord Buddha himself. ( See what I mean by Buddhists?) so King Pretty
got a name there, Wukong Sun, ( In truth the name had a meaning but even
Syaoran didn't know what it was, so how should I?) Wukong Sun trained with this
immortal for around seven years before the immortal decided to teach him a trade.
His trades were all for mortals and Mr. Sun didn't like any of them and refused to
learn them. Mr. Immortal pretended to be angry but was actually pleased, so he
used a code, ( if knocking on your head three times and walking with your hand
behind your back is considered a code to regular ' sane' people) to tell Wukong to
go to his chamber at night.
So for the next ten years or so Wukong learned seventy-two transformations
and a weird type of jump that can carry him a distance of either a hundred and
eight thousand miles or leagues, ( Chinese use very weird measurements.) and with
that the stupid monkey, ( who in truth was nowhere near stupid) decided to show
off. His master didn't like it, kicked him out, and Wukong went back to Mt. Huaguo.
There demons captured the place and Wukong with his powers kicked them out. ( I
think that's where Donkey Kong came from. Wu Kong, Donkey Kong, get it?)
King Pretty showed off his powers. And who do you think saw it? The Big guy up
in Heaven. The Jade Emperor.
I know. I'm talking like Kero. But personally I think this book is the funniest thing ever written. A monkey that knows martial arts. How many commercials used that theme? So anyways. Emperor Yu, or the Jade Emperor, asked what the heck is going on down there, and the officials said that there is a monkey that is creating chaos down there. Well, not really chaos, but they had reason to worry that he will. Venus, ( who is not the lovely Aphrodite but in fact an old man) suggested to give him a fake position in Heaven so they can have control over it. The Emperor was delighted. Of went old Venus into Mt. Huaguo and Wukong decided he liked the offer, not knowing the whole story, and he went with Venus to Heaven.
They gave him the position of keeping horses. Wukong was good at this, but he thought it was a great position, being a monkey and knowing no better. When he realized he had absolutely no power, he got angry and went back to Mt. Huaguo. The Jade Emperor got scared and tried to fight him into resignation, but old Monkey wouldn't have that. He was too powerful and had too much ability. He even gave himself a position, The Great Sage of Heaven, although he was nowhere near being a sage at all. Of course, the Emperor got mad, but old Venus decided to let him have the position but no power, so old Monkey was fooled again. Wukong went to heaven, and spent most of his time wandering about with nothing to do. The Emperor gave him a position of guardian a peach garden.
This is the funny part. Chinese think monkeys like peaches. In truth monkeys like everything. But Chinese think monkeys like peaches, and it actually came from this story. Wukong saw so many huge peaches, there were around twelve hundred of them, and if you eat one from different sections it gives you a different blessing. Wukong ate all the ripe peaches. Then there was this party with the Empress, and she was having a sort of peach festival. Fairies came over to the peach garden and found that there were only the smallest peaches left. Wukong found out he wasn't invited to the party and totally screwed it up. Then he stole all the food, ( including the peaches) and went back to Mt. Huaguo. Now the Jade Emperor was angry. They had a knight fight him and they sort of cheated a little because the knight couldn't defeat him, so they threw a circlet down and hit Wukong on the head. Wukong was captured, brought to heaven to have a trial, they tried to kill him but couldn't and he escaped and caused chaos all over Heaven. I think they should have left him alone, but anyways. The Jade Emperor called Father Buddha, ( there were many buddhas, and all except one are fat and bald. Father Buddha is supposed to be the first guy that came from India, however you spell his name.) Father Buddha played a game of betting with Wukong. He said if Wukong could jump out of his hand then all of Heaven's residents will be removed to the West and Wukong will live there with his monkeys. ( I forgot to mention that Father Buddha is huge.) But if Wukong could not, then he will be punished. Wukong that he had a lot of ability. Naturally, he couldn't win over Father Buddha, so he got imprisoned under a mountain.
This alone took around seven chapters before I stopped reading it to Syaoran
and Xuyan took over. It's mighty hard to read-kind of like Homer and his Iliad and
that sort, the language I mean. In any case. Syaoran had a lot of fun, I didn't,
because I had to read Chinese.
Kaho decided, quite frankly one day, to go to Russia. Why the heck would
she want to do that I have no idea. Eriol and Kaho had no ties to any Russians and
we have no reason to go there, as lovely as the subways might be. So she left our
group and went. Yukito and Touya two days earlier already went back to college.
Nakuru went with Kaho. They were supposed to be back within three weeks or so.
The house was rather quiet for a while because for a while no one came over. Syaoran seemed to enjoy the quiet although he never told me. He spent most of his time in his room with the window wide open. Without Nakuru's chatter it was mostly peaceful.
Then, two weeks after Kaho and Nakuru left, the wizards came back again. Or rather, Mimi and a boy named Si Pyung.
Syaoran seemed to be expecting them because while we were all freaked out, ( meaning Eriol, Xuyan and me), Syaoran welcomed them as warmly as his silence could welcome. Si Pyung seemed to know his plight and guided Syaoran to a couch, letting him sit down.
" What brings you here?" Eriol asked the question that was in all of our minds.
" We're actually here to bring Syaoran to the Hall of Wizards." Mimi answered. "
Sarah and the old man thinks that it might slow things a little."
" Slow what?" Xuyan asked.
They didn't answer straight away. " Oh, the end." Si Pyung answered. " By the way, you might want Yukito and Touya to come home and stay home in a couple of months. After all, they can always go back to college later."
We were all drawing ten thousand question marks in our brains because we had no clue what was going on. Syaoran, on the other hand, remained quiet and calm. White though he was, he did not show any signs of tension or fear.
" Is he going to go alone?" I asked.
" Oh, if you're worrying that we're not going to bring him back," Mimi chuckled, "
Alright, one of you can come with him. Preferably someone small."
What she meant was either me or Kero. Things got very interesting there.