My Asian Dragon: A BWAM Romance Story (2 page)

"My
uncle has very poor English, but I can speak okay," the young
woman said timidly. "My name is Tang Wen."

"Nice
to meet you. I am very sorry, but my Mandarin is rather poor. I will
try my best though, if your uncle would like."

"It
is no problem. If you do not mind, I would like to practice my
English with you as we drive."

Joy
agreed, and for most of the drive enjoyed pleasant if sometimes
boring conversation with Tang Wen. She was apparently a student in
Shanghai, whose goal currently was to finish school and get a good
job working for a computer company. Joy relaxed as the kilometers
rolled by, until the first refueling stop.

Getting
out of the van and stretching her legs, Joy saw Billy and the older
man, who so far she only knew as "Uncle," pointing at a map
and getting into a relatively heated discussion. Joy waited until
Uncle walked away before approaching. "What's up?"

"Oh,
he is just saying that the roads get a lot rougher from here on out,
and that we should have brought a different vehicle. What I keep
explaining to him is that while I may have more funds than your
average village goer, I'm still just a missionary, and I don't
exactly have access to a Range Rover on a daily basis."

"Are
you worried?"

Billy
shook his head. "Not really. The van has four wheel drive and
the tires are meant for all terrain travel. I'll be honest the shocks
and springs aren't the best, but other than a bumpy ride, I'm pretty
sure we'll get there eventually."

Eventually
turned out to be seven hours, as the roads degenerated to the point
that Joy was at times not sure if they were even on a real pathway.
Billy stopped three times to ask for directions, with Tang Wen acting
as a translator as the local dialects strayed further and further
away from Mandarin. The sun was going down by the time Billy
approached the village of Long Xue Yu. Looking around, Billy
shrugged. "Not a lot here."

That
was an understatement, in Joy's opinion. Long Xue Yu was the epitome
of a country village. The main street was dirt, although the ruts
were shallow compared to some of the roads they had traveled over
getting there. Most of the houses were relatively ramshackle, made of
wood and scavenged corrugated metal, and Joy wasn't sure but she
thought she could see a few thatched roofs on the outer edges of the
village. Off in the distance, obscured by the low light of sunset was
another, larger building, but Joy couldn't tell what it was. "I
don't suppose they have a Hyatt or even a Motel 6?"

"This
is China, not likely," Billy replied. "Why do you think I
brought the van? We pop the back, shut off the lights, and it'll
sleep three people."

"But
we have four."

Billy
shrugged. "I like to sleep outdoors. I have ever since I went
camping as a kid. If I need to, I can use the front passenger seat,
lean it back and I'll be fine. Seriously, you two get some sleep in
the van."

Joy
nodded, looking around. "Well, where do we park then?"

Billy
laughed. "Right where we are. I don't see any gas stations, and
at least the shoulder of the road is technically public use. First,
let's get the lay of the land, maybe we can find a place to eat. If
we're lucky, they may even have a tavern or some sort of lodge or
temple we could use, instead of worrying about who's going to sleep
in the van."

Billy
put the van in gear and drove slowly though the village. There were
no streetlamps, and from what Joy could see, none of the houses even
had electricity. While there were a few lamps burning in windows,
most of the houses were dark. Obviously in this village, people rose
and went to sleep with the sun itself. Finally, in the distance Joy
could see the large building that she had spied earlier. Approaching,
it became clear that it was some sort of temple, with stone buildings
and a wall running around it. Unfortunately for them, the gate was
closed, and Billy's knocks went unanswered.

"Well,
that settles it," he said, climbing back in the van and shutting
it off. "Looks like we're camping here tonight. Most temples let
people stay on their grounds for free, and I did pack food."

"Oh,
what do you have?" Tang Wen asked from the back.

"You're
not going to enjoy it, but I brought two cases of American MRE's.
They're easy to eat, easy to heat, and one of them is enough to fuel
us for almost an entire day if we need."

Tang
Wen made a face, but nodded. "Fine. I am hungry. Let's eat."

*****

The
next morning, Joy started her investigation. Waking up a little past
dawn, she gobbled her breakfast before the group started out on
trying to find people to talk to. "Might as well start right
here," Joy said, walking up to the now open gates of the temple.
Tang Wen and Uncle followed, while Billy said he was going to find a
better place to park the van.

Joy's
frustration with the investigation grew as the day wore on. Most of
the villagers seemed very shy, or even fearful of outsiders. She had
thought perhaps it was due to her brown skin, but even when Billy had
gone out with Uncle and Tang Wen they had little success. By evening,
Joy was almost ready to give up.

The
biggest challenge was language. Almost nobody in the village spoke
any English at all, apart from a few children who could spout a few
phrases, only to go off giggling and running up the road. The adults
of the village were hardly any better, speaking a broken, heavily
accented form of Chinese that sounded like total gibberish to Joy.
Even Billy couldn't understand, and Uncle could only translate
phrases to Tang Wen. All of them were the same, too. "No,
nothing strange," "What is a Triad?" "We have
lucky protector," and the ever present unintelligible yammering.

What
made it worse for Joy was the particular tone of the village's
dialect. She had gotten used to the higher pitches and seemingly
excitable talking of Chinese, which to American ears sounded a lot
like shouting and screeching, but this village's tone was on a whole
new level. Even when the villagers repeated themselves to Uncle, it
sounded almost painful to her ears.

On
the positive side for Joy however, the village was remarkably clean
and peaceful. She had gotten used to the Chinese culture that had
grown under the Communist regime of people often being very rude to
those they didn't know. She had seen drunks kicked in the streets,
children shoved out of the way of shoppers, and many other varieties
of petty unkindness.

But
in Long Xue Yu, everything seemed the opposite. People were kind to
each other. She had seen a young child, maybe no older than three or
four, stop to help pick up the things dropped by an old grandmother
who was struggling with her load. Better yet, with nothing but a kind
word the child volunteered to carry the woman's things the rest of
the way to her destination. In the fields surrounding the village,
Joy watched farmers work in harmony with their animals and with each
other, exchanging hearty calls and greetings across rice paddies.
While the village was obviously very poor, in many other aspects it
was almost a Utopian setting.

As
the sun set, the foursome collected themselves back at the van, which
Billy had ended up leaving next to the temple. "So, what's your
opinion, Joy? This is your story, after all."

Joy
shook her head. "I don't know, Billy. To be honest, I'd love to
stay and just observe for a while, but I don't think there's a real
story here. Maybe a human interest piece, but anything on Triads?
No."

"So
what's your plan?"

Joy
sighed, and stirred her ration packet, dipping her plastic spoon into
a foil envelope to scoop out what was supposedly beef stew. "I
think I'm going to stay a while, but you should probably head back.
Maybe if it was just me, and I went organic and just low key, I might
be able to see something that will give me a clue."

"You
sure? You get in trouble out here, there's not exactly a lot of help
available."

"Yeah,
I'm sure. How about you head back to Hefei, or take Uncle back to his
home, and if I need help I'll try and call."

"Cell
phones don't work well out here, Joy. The only spot I got a signal
was two kilometers north of here, on the main road."

"I
know. Billy, relax. I'm a big girl, and was raised in some of the
worst neighborhoods of Washington. I can take care of myself."

*****

After
Billy left, Joy's confidence started to fade. Night was coming on,
and while the full moon overhead seemed to cast the village in a soft
white light, she realized for the first time how much light she had
come to expect from things like streetlamps, building signs, and
other artificial means. Other than the moon, the night was
black
.
Joy looked back at the sight of her small one person tent, a parting
gift from Billy, along with the rest of the military rations and an
extra battery pack for her phone. It felt weird, knowing the thin
nylon shelter was all she had, but she felt like she could deal with
it.

Deciding
to take a walk, Joy made her way along the outside of the temple. The
monks who had talked to her that morning had seemed distant but
polite, although she felt like they had wanted her to leave quickly.
She decided to see just how big the temple grounds were, having only
seen the main atrium building that morning.

As
she made her way towards the west side of the temple walls, a hint of
motion got her attention. Off in the distance, perhaps a few hundred
meters away, she could see two figures making their way through the
edge of the forest surrounding the village. Joy crept along, curious.

When
Joy got within a hundred meters, her eyes opened wide, and her chin
dropped into her chest. In front was a man, walking like any normal
person would in the moonlit darkness, arms behind his back, glancing
up at the sky. What caused her reaction however was the creature
behind him. Maybe twenty feet long, with a snake like body but a face
that looked something like a short snouted dog, the creature looked
to Joy just like the drawings of a Chinese dragon she had seen in
books. The dragon was obviously stalking the strolling man, and was
maybe ten feet behind him. When the dragon reared up, Joy knew she
had to do something. "No! Behind you!" she shouted.

Both
the dragon and the walking man's heads whipped towards hers. The
fiery gaze of the dragon scared the hell out of her, and she took off
running, scampering as best she could through the trees and grass
that surrounded the temple. As she ran, she kept looking back, afraid
the dragon would be on her heels at any second. Unfortunately for
her, her lack of attention to where she was going caused her to miss
a low hanging tree branch, which caught her in the forehead, right
above her hairline, sending her crashing to the ground, stunned.

Joy
lay there for a moment, until the fear of the dragon cleared her
fogged mind, and she tried scrambling up. As soon as she did, she saw
the dragon, less than twenty feet away, its small front legs in the
air as the creature reared up on its belly and rear legs. It didn't
roar, but instead hissed, a snakelike sound that turned her knees to
jelly and caused her bladder to release. She was too afraid to feel
shame about peeing her pants through, as she fell back down, covering
her head with her arms, only praying that the dragon would leave her
alone.

After
a few moments, when she hadn't been eaten or torn apart, Joy dared to
look out from behind the shield of her arms. The dragon was gone, in
its place one of the monks from the temple she had seen that morning.
"You should not be here," the monk said, before turning and
walking away. Before disappearing into the night, Joy could hear the
monk's voice again. "Go back to your tent, and go back to your
life in the city. You cannot understand what you saw tonight."

The
surreal situation finally overtook Joy, and she fainted, her last
thought was thankfulness that she was at least already lying down.

Joy
woke up, and the first thing she noticed was that she was in a bed.
The soft texture of the cotton sheets under her made her sit up with
a start. Where was the forest? Where was the man? More importantly,
where was the dragon?

Panic
gripped her legs and Joy scrambled to get out of the bed, when a
calm, sonorous baritone spoke from behind her. "Please be calm.
You are safe."

Joy
looked around, and realized the voice had come from the same man she
had seen last night. He was sitting on the floor next to the head of
the bed, which was pushed against the wall. She hadn't seen him at
first because of the bed posts, and his sitting so low. "Who are
you?"

"My
name is Longwei. I am the leader of this village."

Joy
cocked her head. There was no way that Longwei could be the leader of
a whole village, in her opinion. In a culture that lent a premium to
experience and longevity, Longwei looked to be her age, definitely no
older than thirty five. He was actually a bit larger than most of the
Chinese men she had met, maybe about five foot ten or eleven, and
about a hundred and seventy pounds. "No offense, but aren't you
a bit young to be running this village?"