The Stone Monkey

challenging. He thought of the days of his youth when he’d hide from Mao’s cadres in the junkyard, patiently stalking rats and vicious dogs for food. He thought too of the search for his father’s killers in the youth brigade. Those times had taught him a lot about the art of hunting and one lesson he learned was this: The stronger adversary expects you to seek out and exploit his weakness and he prepares his defense accordingly. But the only effective way to prevail against such an enemy is to use his strength against him. And this is what the Ghost now intended to do.
    Naixin? he asked himself.
    No. The time for patience was over.
    •   •   •
    Chang Mei-Mei set a cup of tea in front of her groggy husband.
    He blinked at the pale green cup but his attention, as was that of his wife and sons, was wholly on the television set.
    The news story, they learned with the translation assistance of William, was about two men found dead in Lower Manhattan.
    One of the men was a Chinese-Turkestan immigrant from Queens.
    The other was a sixty-nine-year-old Chinese national, believed to have been a passenger on the Fuzhou Dragon.
    Sam Chang had wakened from his heavy sleep, cotton-mouthed and disoriented, a half hour ago. He’d tried to stand but fell, crashing to the floor, bringing the children and his wife running. As soon as he noticed the gun was gone he’d understood what his father had done and stumbled toward the door.
    But Mei-Mei had stopped him. “It’s too late,” she’d said.
    “No!” he’d cried, falling back onto the couch.
    He’d turned to her. His loss and sorrow tipped him into fury and he raged at her, “You helped him, didn’t you? You knew what he was going to do!”
    The woman, holding Po-Yee’s toy kitten, looked down at it. She said nothing.
    Chang had made a fist and drawn back to strike her. Mei-Mei had squinted and turned away, anticipating the blow. William shifted from one foot to the other; Ronald cried. But then Chang had lowered his hand. Thinking: I’ve taught her and my children to respect their elders, my father most of all. Chang Jiechi would have ordered her to help him and she would have obeyed.
    As the pernicious effects of the powerful medicine had worn off, Chang had then sat for a time, racked by worry, hoping for the best.
    But the television report confirmed that the worst had come to be.
    The Turkestan had been shot to death, the reporter explained, by the elderly man, who had then died of an overdose of morphine, apparently a suicide. The apartment was believed to have been a hideout for Kwan Ang, thehuman smuggler wanted in connection with the sinking of the Fuzhou Dragon early yesterday. Kwan had escaped before the police arrived and was still at large.
    Ronald continued to cry and looked back and forth from the TV to his mother then his father. “Yeye,” he said. “Yeye . . .”
    Sitting cross-legged, rocking back and forth anxiously, William bitterly spat out the translation of the pretty newscaster’s words. By coincidence the reporter was Chinese-American.
    The story concluded and, as if the televised confirmation of Chang Jiechi’s death signaled the moment, Mei-Mei rose and went into the bedroom. She returned with a sheet of paper. She handed it to her husband then hefted Po-Yee onto her hip and wiped the girl’s face and hands.
    Numb, Sam Chang took the folded piece of paper and opened it. The letter had been written in pencil, not a brush charged with rich ink, but the characters were beautifully drawn; a true artist, the old man had taught his son, can excel in any medium, no matter how base.
    My son:
    My life has been full beyond my hopes. I am old and I am sick. Seeking a year or two more of life on earth gives me no comfort. Rather, I find solace in my duty to return to the soul of Nature at the hour inscribed for me in The Register of the Living and the Dead.
    And that moment is now.
    I could say many things to you, summarize for you all the lessons of my life, all that I have learned from my father and from your mother and from you, son, as well. But I choose not to do so. Truth is unwavering but the path to truth is often a maze that we each must struggle to find on our own. I have planted healthy bamboo and it has grown well. Continue your journey away from the earth and toward the light and nurture your own young crops. Be vigilant, as any farmer, but give them space. I have seen the stock of the plant; they will grow