Archer's Quest (11 page)

Kevin watched him for a moment, disappointed that Archie didn't seem terribly interested that they were both Fire-tigers. But the smell of the freshly fried egg roll distracted him, and he realized he was starving.

"Archer, there are chopsticks if you want them," Kevin said. He tore the paper wrapper off his pair and snapped them apart.

Archie watched, then picked up his own pair. He looked at them admiringly. "What fine work," he said. "It must have taken many hours for a craftsman to make them so smooth and even."

"What, these cheapo things?" Kevin said. "No, they're mass-produced—you know, in a factory." He saw the blank look on Archie's face. "Oh, never mind, it's not important."

"I am teaching my people to use them," Archie said. "Many still eat with their hands, which can be efficient but is often untidy and renders one's hands unfit for the bow."

Wow. It's true, then, what Professor Lee told me.

Kevin finished eating before Archie did. He wondered what they would do after they left the restaurant. He was out of ideas, logical or not—he was 99.9 percent sure there wasn't another tiger anywhere in Dorchester.

Archie slurped up the last of his soup. He pushed his chair back a little and stretched out his legs under the table.

The waitress brought a little tray with the bill and two fortune cookies in cellophane wrappers. Kevin reached for one. "Dessert," he said. On seeing another blank look on Archie's face, he added, "A cookie."

More blankness.

"Um—like a little cake. A sweet."

"Ah." Archie's face cleared.

Kevin opened the wrapper, broke the cookie in half, and pulled out the little strip of paper inside.

"Wah," Archie gasped. "A message inside your sweet! Is this some kind of magic?"

Kevin grinned. "No, they make them like this. Do you want to play a game?"

"What sort of game?"

"You read your fortune out loud, but at the end you add the words 'on the toilet.'" Kevin had just learned this game; Jason had done it at the birthday dinner.

"The toilet?"

"Er—the latrine," Kevin said. "Maybe you call it the outhouse."

"Ah, the outhouse, yes. And why do you play this game?"

"Because it's funny."

"But a fortune that comes from the spirits of the ancestors should not be trifled with," Archie said with a frown.

"These fortunes don't come from the spirits," Kevin said patiently. "People write them for fun, and this game makes it even more fun." He unfolded the little paper. "Okay, I'm going to read what it says now, but I'm going to add 'in the outhouse' at the end. Ready? 'Your efforts will have the desired results'"—pause—"in the outhouse.'"

Archie's face was expressionless.

Uh-oh. Maybe this was a mistake—maybe he thinks it's some kind of insult.

Then, "PAH!" Archie barked out a laugh that made Kevin jump. "That is very humorous!"

Kevin was delighted that Archie got the joke. "Open yours, and I'll read it for you," he said. Archie fumbled with his cookie and finally extracted his fortune. He looked at it carefully, then handed it to Kevin.

'"Patience and precision are virtues you should cultivate ... in the outhouse.'"

"HA!" Archie laughed again. "Patience and precision in the outhouse—HA!"

It was good to see Archie laugh; Kevin had begun to wonder if he knew how.

Just then a waiter and two waitresses clattered out of the kitchen and surrounded the only other occupied
table—the one where the two women were eating. It was the birthday routine again. The woman facing Kevin looked startled for a moment, then grinned and blushed and gave her companion a playful slap on the arm. "Oh,
you,
" she said.

The waiter hit the gong and the waitresses started to sing.

Kevin could almost feel his body vibrating from the gong's sound waves. A thought seemed to flicker in his brain, like something he was seeing out of the corner of his eye but couldn't get a clear glimpse of.... Something about the gong...

He frowned and craned his neck, trying to get a better look at it. It looked the way a gong ought to look—a round disk of dark metal, slightly curved, carved with Chinese characters. It was about the size of a car tire, and it hung from a wooden frame.
I wonder what kind of metal it is. Brass? No, brass is sort of a goldy color, isn't it? Bronze, maybe. Yeah, bronze is dark like that.
He'd seen statues made of bronze—

The thought broke through.

"Archer! I know where there's another tiger!"

Once again, Archie did not look nearly as excited as Kevin thought he should. He merely nodded. "Well and good. Where is this tiger?"

"It's at the university, where my parents work. I don't know why I didn't think of it before—"

Kevin stopped. The wave of excitement had passed and now a bigger wave of doubt took its place. Of course he hadn't thought of it before. It was ridiculous enough to think that a
real
tiger might get Archie back to Korea—but a fake one?

"It's not a real tiger," Kevin said, feeling his face grow hot with embarrassment. "It's only a statue."

The statue of Dorchester State's mascot, which stood near the college's main gate.

But Archie looked interested. More than interested—he was smiling. "A statue. It is good to know that you
live in a world with such reverence for tigers. Is it made of stone?"

"No, not stone. It's metal, I think it might be bronze. I don't know, it's probably a dumb idea...."

Archie looked startled. Then he leaned forward, bowing with the upper part of his body. When he straightened up again and spoke, his voice was quiet, but it was filled with both awe and delight. "I am honored to have a companion whose thoughts are so profound!"

Huh?

"A metal tiger!" Archie shook his head in wonder. "I can almost feel its magic working already I would never have thought of it myself, but you—your thoughts go beyond the obvious, into the realm of mystery, where magic resides!"

They do?

"Tell me," Archie said, his voice still hushed. "How did you arrive at this revelation?"

"Um, it was the gong," Kevin said and nodded at the other table. "I thought—well, the sound made me think of—of metal stuff."

"And from there you made the connection to our earlier conversation. How quickly you learn!"

Our earlier conversation?

Archie slid his chair away from the table. "Let us go to this metal tiger, then. I am quite sure that a ride on its
back will return me to my own time." He bowed his head again. "Such wisdom at a young age!"

It was the second time Archie had given him credit for something he didn't know he'd done. Kevin felt pride and confusion battling inside him.

Confusion won.

He sighed. "Archer, I'm not really wise at all," he said. "I mean, I have
no
idea what you're talking about."

Archie chuckled. "Modesty as well as wisdom. But it is sheer brilliance to have arrived at the conclusion that because in my time it is a Metal-tiger year, I would have to ride a metal tiger to return!"

A Metal-tiger year?

That cycle-of-elements thing! Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood. Archie had been born during a Fire cycle and he was—how old? Twenty-four. And each cycle lasted twelve years, so back in his time in Korea it was two element cycles later—

A Metal cycle, just as Archie had said.

Kevin felt a little uncomfortable, knowing that Archie thought he was a genius when he wasn't. Still, he
had
thought of the statue, and then Archie had sort of finished the thought.

I guess maybe geniuses always get help from somewhere else.

***

Kevin paid for the meal by leaving the five-dollar bill on the table. As they left the restaurant, he noticed a jar of chopsticks on the counter for take-out customers. On impulse he took a couple pairs and held them out to Archie.

"For me?"

Kevin grinned. "Yeah. A souvenir. Genuine Chinese chopsticks from the United States."

Archie bowed his head but did not take the chopsticks. He was silent for a moment, his brow furrowed. "Young Friend, what I am about to do may seem a great insult to you, but before you take offense, please allow me to explain."

Whoa—he's gonna insult me? What's up with that?

Archie hesitated again. "I beg you to understand, but I cannot accept your gift."

So he doesn't want the chopsticks—that's the big insult?
"Um, it's okay, Archer. No problem."

"Of course it is a problem!" Archie snapped. "My friend offers a gift, and I am so rude as to refuse? But as I said, I will explain." He gestured toward the outer vestibule of the restaurant.

They walked into the vestibule, where Archie turned to face Kevin. Archie spoke slowly. "The purpose of my visit here has never been clear to either of us, I think it is fair to say. But I know from the lessons of my past that
the future is a perilous realm. Whatever the reason for this adventure, I cannot believe that I am meant to carry back with me any certainty about the future. A man who thinks he knows what the future holds is the greatest of fools—and a dangerous one if he is the leader of an entire people.

"So in my heart I feel that if I am fortunate enough to return to my own time, I must not take anything back with me—perhaps not even the memory of my visit here."

Kevin pocketed the chopsticks, thinking hard.
That makes sense—I mean, in all those books and movies, whenever there's time travel, everybody's really careful not to mess things up in the past. Because it might change the future in some bad way. Even something as small as chopsticks.

Archie went on, his face solemn. "I hope to retain something of this adventure," he said, "even if it is not a conscious memory. I have learned that a person need not be a scholar, or an official, or even fully grown"—he nodded at Kevin—"to contribute to a great mission. The most ordinary among us have it within ourselves to be extraordinary, should we so choose."

Kevin frowned a little.
I think he just called me ordinary. Well, I guess he's right about that.

Suddenly, he remembered something the professor
had said about Archie's kingship. "
Wherever he went he talked to ordinary people
"—something like that, wasn't it?

A thought lit up inside his brain.
Maybe that's because some ordinary kid helped him, and even if he doesn't have any real memory of it, something sort of stays inside him and he goes home and talks to ordinary people from now on—because of
me
helping him. Wow!

For a moment, Kevin wished that Archie
would
remember him. That way he'd be part of one of Archie's great stories.
Too bad. I guess that's the way it has to be, for him and his time. But what about me?

He looked up. "Archer, I get it. Really I do. And I'm not insulted. I understand why you don't want to take the chopsticks. But if you think you might not even remember being here when you get back, do you think the same thing will happen to me? I mean, do you think I won't have any memory of you, either?"

That would be awful. The coolest thing that had ever happened to him—and he might not even remember it?

"Ah!" Archie raised his chin and looked much more cheerful. "No, my friend, exploring the past is of utmost importance. Two pasts, in fact—that of your family and that of the world around you. They are a large part of what makes a man who he is." He clapped Kevin on the
shoulder. "I cannot know for certain, of course, but I believe you will indeed remember. Perhaps in your question you have even discovered the purpose for my visit."

Archie smiled and continued, "Beyond that, we have just now shared both a meal and laughter. When two people have eaten together and laughed at the same things, they can forge a bond that rivals iron in strength."

The image of the school cafeteria popped into Kevin's head—him and Jason and some of the other guys eating pizza and messing around and laughing.

On impulse, Kevin bowed. A little bow, just sort of leaning his head forward, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Archie nodded and bowed in return. Together they walked out the restaurant door.

They headed back in the direction of the zoo. They'd have to cross the street to the zoo's entrance, walk all the way down to the pedestrian bridge over the highway, and then come back up the other side to the university.

Archie walked quickly, a kind of bounce in his step. Kevin started to feel a tiny bit of the hope that seemed to radiate from Archie. Was it possible—could riding the metal tiger get him back to Korea?

They'd find out soon enough.

On the street that led to the zoo, cars were lined up
waiting to turn onto the highway. The traffic signal stayed green for the highway traffic much longer than for the zoo road; only two or three cars at a time pulled out before the light turned red again.

Kevin and Archie stopped at the corner of the zoo street. They crossed with the light, and as they reached the opposite side, Kevin heard his name.

"Kevin! Kevin, over here!"

Kevin looked back. He saw someone waving out of a car window.

It was Professor Lee, in the fourth car down.

Surprised, Kevin stopped walking.
What is the professor doing here?

An image passed through his mind, like a really fast slide show. That man walking through the grounds of Westland House—

He's been following us!

Kevin's thoughts whirled in confusion.
No,
that can't be right. I left him at the museum.... But it's too much of a coincidence! He turns up here at the zoo, today of all days? He followed us—but why? I didn't give anything away when I talked to him, did I? And now Archie's with me, and I'll have to introduce him.

Kevin made a quick decision.
Pretend I didn't hear him—keep going—

But Archie had stopped, too. "Young Friend, did you not hear? Someone is calling you."