In the Orient (5 page)

With the exception of a brief trip to Happy Valley to visit Marymount Secondary School, where the SLAP classes would begin the following Monday morning, Sunday was spent relaxing at Jade Place.

During the twenty-minute car ride with William and his father to Marymount, Archibald learned that the all-girls school, originally named Holy Spirit School, opened in 1927. The school was closed during World War II, and re-opened in 1948 as Maryknoll School. The school’s name had just recently been changed to Marymount Secondary School. The Columbian Sisters ran the school, and they’d graciously made several of their classrooms available for the SLAP faculty and students for the past five years.

After listening to William’s advice on the best way to get over jet lag, Archibald resisted the temptation to take a nap after he returned from Marymount Secondary School. In fact, he made it through dinner and all the way to nine o’clock in the evening before he retired
to his bedroom and finally closed his eyes. For the third night in a row, he was sound asleep within ten minutes of closing his bedroom door.

Archibald slept soundly through the night, opening his eyes exactly one minute before the alarm clock went off at six thirty in the morning. The routine that day would be, with few exceptions, the same one he would follow each weekday for the next seven weeks.

After his Chinese breakfast, Archibald walked several blocks to the bus stop where the SLAP motor coach arrived at seven forty-five. He, along with the other SLAP students who were picked up along the way, arrived at Marymount Secondary School in time for their first class that began at eight thirty. After SLAP classes ended at three thirty in the afternoon, he boarded the same motor coach and was driven back to The Peak bus stop.

From a little after four o’clock to about six o’clock in the evening, Archibald did his homework. Then he relaxed with William and May until dinner was served at half past seven. By ten o’clock, he was back in bed.

While Archibald enjoyed all of his SLAP courses, he liked the Hong Kong History and Culture class and the Chinese Literature class the best. Excellent teachers made both classes very interesting. Mr. Goodfellow, a transplanted history teacher from the outskirts of London, taught Hong Kong History and Culture, while Mrs. Wang, a Hong Kong native, taught Chinese Literature.

Even though Archibald knew that Hong Kong was under British rule, he hadn’t known how or when the British took control. It turned out that the opium trade sparked a conflict, referred to as the First Opium War, between Great Britain and the Qing Dynasty. Resolution of that conflict ultimately led both parties to sign the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Under the treaty, Hong Kong Island and its harbor were ceded to Great Britain “in perpetuity”—or in other words, forever.

Two other important treaties were later signed between the Qing Dynasty and the British Crown. The Convention of Peking, signed in 1860, resolved the Second Opium War. This treaty added part of the Kowloon Peninsula to the land that the Qing Dynasty had already ceded to Great Britain. When the British wanted to fortify their defense of Hong Kong in 1898, they signed the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, under which they obtained a ninety-nine year lease for the area later referred to as the “New Territories.”

Mr. Goodfellow explained that for the past twenty years, the Chinese government had been pressuring the British government to return all of Hong Kong when the ninety-nine year lease expired in 1997. In fact, the Chinese had been successful, and the Sino-Soviet Joint Declaration had recently been signed. Under this agreement, Great Britain agreed to transfer sovereignty for all the Hong Kong territories to the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997.

Just as Mrs. Chen had predicted, Journey to the West, the classic Chinese epic comedic folk novel written by Wu Cheng’en during the Ming Dynasty in the sixteenth century, was the sole topic of Archibald’s Chinese Literature class. Since the novel was comprised of one hundred chapters, the class studied both the abridged English translation of Arthur David Waley’s Monkey, published in 1942, and the supplemental texts taken from the authoritative four-volume edition written by Anthony C. Yu and published in 1977.

Mrs. Wang originally selected Monkey because Waley had translated thirty chapters almost word for word, rather than briefly summarizing all one hundred chapters, as was the case in previous translations. In reading Monkey, Archibald learned about the origin of Sun Wukong, who became the legendary Monkey King, together with the most important episodes of his western journey, including what happened when Sun Wukong and other pilgrims finally reached their destination.

The more he read, the more Archibald became fascinated with the story of the Monkey King. Not always a powerful king, Monkey was born from a stone on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. After joining a clan of other monkeys, it didn’t take long for his stature to rise, particularly when he found the clan a new home at the Water Curtain Cave located behind a large, beautiful waterfall.

Soon after being honored as the clan’s leader, the Monkey King recognized that he was still mortal. Wanting to obtain immortality, he mastered the ancient art of Tao. From that point on, he became almost invincible in combat, having perfected shape-shifting and the cloud-somersault that allowed him to travel thousands of miles in a single flip. He also learned how to transform each of the hairs on his body into, among other things, clones of himself.

When the Monkey King cheated death and defied an attempt to take his soul, wiping not only his name from the “Book of Life and Death,” but also the names of every monkey known to him, he was reported to the Jade Emperor of Heaven. That was the final straw.

Hoping to control the troublesome monkey, the Jade Emperor invited him to Heaven. There, the Monkey King was first named the Protector of the Horses, which he thought was a very important position. Upon finding out that it was the lowest job in Heaven, the Monkey King rebelled and set all of the Cloud Horses free. The Heavenly powers tried one more time to subdue the unruly monkey by making him the guardian of the Heavenly Garden, a position that the Monkey King once again mistakenly thought was very important.

Events spiraled out of control for the Monkey King when he learned that his name was not included on the invitation list to a royal banquet that included every important God and Goddess. Enraged at the perceived unforgivable snub, he once again rebelled
against the Jade Emperor, this time by conniving his way into the banquet hall and eating the “peaches of immortality,” stealing the “pills of longevity,” and drinking the royal wine, all of which had been reserved for the banquet.

One of Archibald’s favorite passages described how the Monkey King had plucked a few hairs out of its tail after becoming tired of fighting one hundred thousand celestial warriors from the Army of Heaven. After he put the hairs in his mouth and chewed them into bits, he recited a spell and spit them out as newly created hordes of fighting clones. Those clones fought on while the clever Monkey King sat back and rested.

However, it turned out that the Monkey King wasn’t clever enough to evade being captured and locked in a cauldron for forty-nine days. When the cauldron’s top was finally removed, the Monkey King jumped out, stronger and more vindictive than before.

With no other choice left, the Jade Emperor appealed to Buddha, who had just arrived in Heaven from his temple in the West. It was soon after Buddha agreed to help the Jade Emperor that the Monkey King finally met his match.

Knowing he could leap long distances in a single bound, the Monkey King smugly accepted a bet that he couldn’t escape from the palm of Buddha’s hand. The Monkey King then leaped and flew to what he thought was the outer boundaries of Heaven. Once there, he
pulled a hair out of its tail and wrote, “Monkey was here” on the only visible objects, five large pillars.

However, when the Monkey King leaped back, he found he was still in Buddha’s palm. More surprising, he found out that the five pillars were really Buddha’s five fingers!

As the Monkey King struggled to escape, Buddha instantly closed his fist and transformed his hand into a mountain that he tightly sealed. Just as Haktu had remained a prisoner in the secret cave’s underground lake, so too did the Monkey King stay locked in a desolate Chinese mountain for five painful centuries.

The Monkey King ultimately gained his freedom when he agreed to serve as a pilgrim under the guidance of Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang Dynasty. Knowing that the Monkey King would be impossible to control, Xuanzang received a gift from Buddha—a magical headband. There was a catch, however. Once the headband was put on, it could not be removed.

When the Monkey King was tricked into donning the headband, Xuanzang let out a special chant that immediately tightened it, causing excruciating pain. From that moment on, and throughout their ensuing westward journey to retrieve the early discourses of Buddha, or sutras as they were called, the Monkey King was under Xuanzang’s complete control.

Pigsy and Sandy, two others who needed to atone for past crimes, joined Xuanzang and the Monkey King in
their epic journey to India. During the journey, Xuanzang’s horse turned out to be a dragon prince, and the group of five battled a series of attacks from demons and other supernatural creatures.

More than once during the dangerous journey, the Monkey King acted as Xuanzang’s bodyguard, saving the monk’s life. Ultimately, that loyal service was rewarded when the Monkey King was granted Buddhahood and immortality.

The seven weeks flew by quickly. Not surprisingly, Archibald had mixed feelings as he walked out of his final SLAP class on a hot and humid Friday afternoon. While he was excited to see his brother, who was flying into Hong Kong that evening, he was sorry to be saying good-bye to his teachers and new friends.

Even though Archibald never felt homesick at any point during his stay in Hong Kong, he had greatly appreciated receiving the weekly letters from his parents, Jockabeb, Tess, and especially Willow. It had been eight months since he’d kissed Willow good-bye outside the Langley, Virginia debriefing room, and he was definitely missing her. Worse yet, he wasn’t at all sure when he would get a chance to see her again.

Before leaving for London with his son, Dr. Chen had arranged for Robert Liu to drive Archibald and May to the airport to meet Jockabeb. Despite the heavy
traffic, they arrived half an hour before Jockabeb’s plane was scheduled to arrive, which was a good thing because it landed twenty minutes early.

Standing in the baggage claim area with May and Robert Liu, Archibald could hardly contain his excitement as he waited for the first glimpse of his brother. He could not wait to recount what he’d already done in Hong Kong, and to get on with what promised to be a fun week before returning home.

However, he was in no way prepared for what he saw when his brother finally cleared passport control and came into view. There, walking right next to Jockabeb, was the one person Archibald had least expected to see, and the one he had most wanted to be with—Willow!

Breaking into a sprint, Willow ran toward Archibald, not caring what anyone else in the airport thought. The moment she reached him, she threw her arms around his neck, and breathlessly whispered in his ear, “Surprise!”

After a quick kiss, Archibald leaned back and said, “I can’t believe it. How in the world did you—”

“It’s a long story that I’ll tell you later,” Willow said, gently placing a finger on his lips. Then, looking at May, she added, “You should say hello to your brother and the introduce me to your pretty friend.”

Throwing a bear hug around Jockabeb, Archibald laughed and said, “Welcome to Hong Kong, little brother. How’s your jet lag?”

“I think I’m running on adrenaline at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll crash soon,” Jockabeb answered.

Turning to May, Archibald said, “Willow, Jockabeb, this is May Chen. May, this is my brother and my . . . ah, ummm . . .”