LLH 4.6

“Moon Lizard” by Roentgen

Tiffany Blum-Deckler and the other members of the Fashion Club had resisted with all of their might, but to no avail. It was a dark day in Fashion Club history when Daria Morgendorffer, using her incredible mental powers and under orders from Jane Lane, had mindcontrolled the entire Fashion Club and forced them, against their will....

...to study .

Two hours of this torture had passed. Whenever Daria suspected that the control was wearing off and that the concentration of the Fashion Club was flagging, Daria would give the command again. There was no escape. Daria lived with Quinn, and there was nowhere for the others to run that Daria could not catch up with them. For Tiffany it was worse, since even though Tiffany had the power to become insubstantial, Daria was the only person who could turn it off.

Like it or not, Tiffany needed Daria.

Not that the Fashion Club didn't resist. They could be forced to read the chapters and answer questions, but nothing kept the Fashion Club from making derisive commentary. An outside listener might have laughed at the terms 'Andrew Jerkson', 'Martin van Boring', 'Trail of Queers' and 'Old Liquor-y', all of which seemed to irritate Daria. Sometimes, the Fashion Club would give obviously wrong answers just to spite Daria, but a wrong answer meant a mental command to read the same boring chapters about the Bank of the United States again.

Tiffany couldn't say that she hadn't learned anything, though. She thought that Andrew Jackson's defense of his wife, Rachel, was really cool. The Fashion Club chuckled when reading about the spoils system, Jackson's replacement of Federal office holders with Jackson supporters. After all, you rewarded your friends after you came to power. Quinn rolled her eyes at Daria's preachy statement about how the spoils system was what was wrong with American politics. Clearly, Daria did not live in the real world. Tiffany figured that the spoils system was one of the reasons that Jackson was so popular -- any popular person would use the spoils system, or would use the spoils system to get popular, which meant that Jackson was obviously a great president, or at least great enough to have a whole test devoted to him.

And there was Rachel Jackson ("God forgive her murderers, for I shall not!") and the Peggy Eaton affair. Daria was on the side of Andrew Jackson but the Fashion Club backed up the wives of Jackson's cabinet. Peggy Eaton was not popular enough, and she was just a slut trying to crash a club that she didn't belong to (like Brooke). As the Fashion Club debated the matter, Daria seemed more and more perturbed that the Fashion Club had not come to the "appropriate" conclusion.

However, it was not a pleasant two hours. And there was more of it on the way. Jane Lane wouldn't be satisfied until ten hours of this historical torture had passed. What if Jane Lane made them all become... brains ?

It made Tiffany regret voting for Jane. Next time, she'd vote for Sandi.

(* * *)

Daria studied the atomizer. "Okay. We have Mandarin, Petitgrain, Grapefruit, and Lavender. We're going to try to use these scents. I want you to breathe in, concentrate, and see if you can bring yourself back to solid form."

Tiffany sat down. "You're coming back...right?"

"I'm staying until 9 o'clock. As long as I have to watch you guys study, I might as well have some free time with Jane. Try not to escape."

Tiffany said nothing. She really wanted to say a lot to Daria -- a lot of it not pleasant -- but depended on Daria for her help in controlling this power. If Daria forgot to come back, Tiffany would be trapped in phantom form the entire night.

Daria watched as Tiffany transformed herself. Tiffany's body began to take on a blue glow and Daria could watch Tiffany become transparent. She was a ghost in blueprint blue.

"I wouldn't spend more than thirty minutes in any one room concentrating. Go to another room if a scent doesn't work; there are atomizers in all the rooms. If we don't make any progress tonight, I'm going to try something else."

"R-i-iiiiight."

Daria and Tiffany looked at each other. They really didn't have any thing in common to talk about. Finally, Daria mumbled something about seeing her later and left the trailer.

With Daria gone, Tiffany took in the scent of mandarin. She tried to concentrate. Think about being solid. Think about being solid.

Think about being trapped forever as a ghost.

There was nothing to do. As a phantom, Tiffany had no control over her environment and could not interact with it. There were no magazines to read, since Tiffany couldn't pick up anything. No phone calls to make for the same reason. Daria wouldn't let her watch Fashion Vision. Tiffany couldn't even eat her favorite snack--one-half of a fat-free Pringles potato chip.

Another two hours of solid boredom.

(* * *)

Tiffany opened her bedroom door and was hit by the powerful scent of lavender. The scent immediately opened up Tiffany's pores and hit her with a very pleasant, calming feeling. She had to admit that she liked lavender best of all, so far.

After breathing in about ten minutes of lavender, Tiffany could feel her limbs getting heavier (even thought, technically, she was near-weightless). Sitting down in a chair was impossible while intangible, and Tiffany feared that if she tried to lay down in her bed, she would go right through it and hit the quarry floor. Not sitting down for almost two hours had her nearly exhausted and another two hours or studying history had weakened her mind and her spirit. Tiffany was in a very weak state. Her eyes began to close.

It wouldn't hurt to sit down. To try. Just a little bit. Tiffany resolved to find the chair in the corner and sit in it.

When she put her posterior on the chair -- or attempted to -- there was no solid contact whatsoever. Tiffany passed through the chair and 'fell' to the trailer's floor. An observer would have seen a lounge chair with Tiffany's head poking out of the seat cover.

Tiffany stood up again, using the trailer floor for support. Even Tiffany knew that that shouldn't be happening. Tiffany should have just fallen through the trailer floor as well, and hit solid ground outside. And then, Tiffany thought, what if the solid ground didn't hold her up, and she fell down deep inside the earth...?

She then tried resting her head on the trailer floor. Oh, it was hopeless! Uncomfortably, Tiffany moaned. It couldn't hurt to try to close her eyes. Even if she fell all the way to the center of the earth. Anything...even that ...was better than this awful life she was living and the fear that she lived under ever day that her powers would switch on and that there'd be no way to turn them off...!

(* * *)

Tiffany turned to her side. The lavender scent tempted her with restful sleep, but sleep eluded her.

Weakly, she supported herself into a sitting position. An observer would have noted that Tiffany's blue glow had taken a paler and unhealthy color, and that Tiffany was now becoming almost invisible.

Tiffany?....Tiffany?....will you speak to me...?

Tiffany opened her eyes. It was a voice. Not her voice, and not Daria's voice.

Don't give up, Tiffany!

Who was it? She had heard the voice before.

She opened her eyes. She saw a young man of teenage years standing in the room. He wore a strange costume, dressed like a peasant in a movie. He appeared to be of Asian appearance.

Tiffany spoke. "Bai Zheng?" she asked, tentatively.

The figure nodded.

" Do you come from China? " Tiffany asked, in Mandarin. " Or somewhere else? "

" You speak Chinese? That's amazing! I didn't know you were Chinese! ", said Bai Zheng, answering back in Chinese.

" Nobody speaks Chinese here. My Mom speaks it, my Dad speaks it, and I speak it. But I'm not allowed to speak it in the house anymore. " Not since her mother's fit when Tiffany lost a pageant and she was forbidden to speak Chinese ever again.

"Well, I guess we must speak English, then?" said Bai Zheng. He looked tentatively about the room. "You haven't seen... others , have you?"

"Wha-at others?"

"Other...." Bai Zheng grasped for the word. "Other apparitions . Like myself."

"Are you dead?"

"Things would be much simpler if I were dead," said Bai Zheng, "and I suspect I would be much happier."

"So...you're in China right now?"

"No. I'm right here. I walk the Earth. All I can do is...watch things. I can't touch anything. Or talk to anyone at all. Except for you."

"But how?" asked Tiffany. "I thought you had powerrrs...just like mine!"

"I have powers," said Bai Zheng, "but not the power to become as a ghost."

"But you're a ghost now!"

"No. I'm trapped here. I've been trapped here for a very, very long time."

"How long?"

Bai Zheng did not look happy. "I don't know how long. When I was in...the waking world...I used a different calendar. But I'm guessing that it has been...at least...a thousand years."

"So...." asked Tiffany. "How did you get to where you are now, then?"

"Do you have any time before Daria comes back?"

"How do you know who Daria is?"

"It was through Daria that I met you. I watch, Tiffany. Watching is all that I can do. It is all that I have done for a thousand years...."

(* * *)

The Story of Bai Zheng, the Moon Lizard

I am unaware of the year of my birth. As I said, my calendar is different from yours, Tiffany. I do know that I was born in the Year of the Ox, during the Time of Tending Graves, which must be what you called April. Besides, I was born of peasant stock, and had no need for a complicated calendar. There were officials of the Song in Jiangling who knew the calendar very well, but I did not need to know the year of my birth.

The land I was born in was the land of the Song, in what we would both call China. My existence was a simple one, and a brutal one. My mother died when I was born, so I never knew my mother. This left my father and me to tend our land and our crops. I had older brothers but they all died, either of sickness, or in war.

My father depended on me, but he resented me, for it was unlikely that he would find someone to marry him. Of course, I knew that I should be respectful of him as he was my father, but he made it very hard. It would be my job to work, to tend the land, and to marry as soon as possible to carry the family line forward.

Therefore, my life changed as the life of the seasons. I was lucky since being the only son meant that I would not have to fight in the army, but would be allowed to live and work the same land as my father.

We were tenants. The year of my birth there was the Great Tea Rebellion, where the noble peasant Wang Xiaobo took the capital...but he could not keep it. It was a bad time, even though the landowners claimed it was a time of prosperity. Many of those poor families who owned land had to sell it to the landowners. Jun Xian owned our land, and he was probably worse than any of the landowners, as my father and the other older men told me.

So we worked. We had to rent the grain and the plows from Jun Xian, who charged indecently. There were all of the taxes that we had to pay. We cultivated tea merely to pay the taxes, and both my father and I worked from sunup to sundown, every day.

There was one year -- the year before what happened to me happened -- where I was taken off the land by the military with several other peasants to build roads. The work was so hard that it would strip the skin off your palms. You pushed a rake until the blisters on your hands burst open, and burst open again. I would work with my hands bound like a woman's feet, my hands covered in bloody rags. I saw older men die in front of me, for the raking was the job of the younger men and those almost too old to work anymore. The dead would be burned at roadside, we would say a prayer, and we would continue working.

We were no better than slaves, really.

I was released back home. At least at home, I could help my father, who had found it hard to survive without my labor. We owed so much in taxes to Jun Xian that we both feared that we could not pay. As a result, I worked from dawn to dusk again. If the moon was high in the night, I would even work during the night to make the money, working by moonlight, like a slave.

When the soldiers rode through the land at night, they would mock me. "Look at the moon lizard, sunning himself!"

I was astounded at how much I could work, and how long. Instead of growing weaker after my time on the roads, I found myself growing stronger, much stronger. Working a half day or even a three quarters day was becoming nothing to me. Sickness and illness was becoming unknown. My body grew like an ox's. I could lift a barrel full of iron nails over my head without even taking a second wind.

I resolved to redouble my work on the farm -- it came to pass that peasants would stop what they were doing to watch me plow. They began calling me the "Moon Lizard", not as an insult, but as a mark of honor. (I found it much easier to simply push the plow ahead of me, without oxen.) It would have been better if they had kept their minds on their work, for it was a bad year, with very little rain. All of my hard work, my impossible work, and my father and I had very little to show for it.

Our crops would not pay our lease for next year. This left us, and many others, at the mercy of Jun Xian. The tea crop turned out all right, and hoped that it would at least pay the local taxes and with money left over, my father could negotiate for the lease.

That spring, my father left with several of the other tenants to talk to Jun Xian about the terms for the lease of the land for the next year. My father did not want me to come with him, preferring to negotiate these things himself. I suspected that my father did not want me to hear what was going to happen.

It was worse than I thought. Jun Xian was not interested in a lease. What he wanted to do was expel 50 families from the land. He charged a price for a lease, but five farmers couldn't have paid it! As it turned out, Jun Xian wanted a tea plantation. The families who had lived in the region would have no where to go. We would become peasants! And many of them would return to Jun Xian for food and shelter, in exchange for his right to work them to death.

No one knew what to do. My father spoke to other of the older men in the village. I was sent outside, but even my hearing had grown as a result of my labors and I could hear what the men were saying quite easily. They argued, and debated, and had no idea of what to do, except to maybe send a delegation to a finance minister, which would take time, money to travel, and most likely, come to nothing.

This left me with my friends, as we waited for the older men to decide what to do. My friend, Qian, suggested that we should form a peasant army. I told him this was foolishness. How were unarmed peasants going to face down soldiers?

"I think you could face down anything, given what I have seen," he said. "You are the Moon Lizard. You could outplow a team of oxen with your bare hands. I've seen you throw a stone so far that it never touched the ground again! I've watched you work for two days straight without sleep or food! None of us could fight you, and no soldier could kill you!"

"You brag!" I said. "I am a man like any other man."

Still, the others agreed. They were ready to follow me, to go wherever I asked them to go. I was unhappy having such power, and regretted the showing of my strength for sport. I abandoned my friends, and left to clear stones in a field.

As I cleared the rock away from my neighbors field, I heard a voice behind me. "So you are Bai Zheng, the Moon Lizard. I am Jun Xian."

"Why have you come here?" I asked him.

"I have come to tell you that it was your tea that gave me the idea to have a tea plantation. If you supervise the growing of tea, I will let you and your father keep the land. The other farmers respect you and fear you. I expect no trouble from them!"

"And what about the others?"

"The others can be peasants," he said.

"They have worked this land for generations!"

"My land!" he said. "And what have they earned my ancestors, the lazy beggars, for their generations of hard work? Nothing! My ancestors were too merciful, but I will not be merciful! Now they will really have to work to earn their bread!"

"And you ask me to hold the sword over them?"

"Why not?" said Jun Xian. "Your little farm means nothing to me. And neither does your father! Your father is a cockroach! If he dies, then you will work harder! Or maybe I will cast you off the land! Decide!"

When he mentioned my father, he had made his mistake. There were only a few things I found important in my simple life. They were the work on the farm, my need to raise a strong family...and my father. Now, Jun Xian threatened to take two of those things away from me.

I grabbed him by the neck. I could hold him with one hand, and I watched his fat legs kicking as his face turned blue and his tongue popped out like a bird's.

"Take back what you said about my father!"

He looked into my eyes, almost defiantly. He was a landowner, and I was the son of a tenant. "You are both cockroaches!" he choked out. "None of you will ever come back to this land! Not you, your neighbors...no one!!"

I squeezed harder. And then, I heard it. A snap.

Jun Xian had stopped kicking.

I let go, looking at the finger shaped impressions on his neck. Even a blind man would have seen what I had done to him.

I stood there, watching Jun Xian, to see if he would awaken, hope against hope. After many minutes, still standing, I heard a voice beside me. It was Old Ma, the man who worked the field.

"Bai Zheng, what have you done?" he said. "And you have done it on my field, too, damn you!"

"I'm sorry!"

"There is nothing to be sorry about!" Old Ma said. "I will have to testify against you and pray that Jun Xian's children decide that your life is worth Jun Xian's! I hate to do this to you, Bai Zheng, but I have mouths to feed!"

"So...what am I to do?"

"You have two choices," said Old Ma. "You can flee...or you can fight! If you flee, they punish your father. If you fight, perhaps they punish us all."

It was not a choice I wished to make. I could not tell my father about this, so I ran to Qian's house as quickly as I could.

Qian and his brothers listened as I spoke to them about what had happened. There was no point in hiding it, as Old Ma would soon tell Jun Xian's family.

"This is your chance!" said Qian. "We could be an army, with you as the leader! We could march all the way to the capital! Perhaps, you could be a king, and we could be your followers! Every young man of the village would follow you, and some of the older ones, too!"

"That is not possible!"

"You will stay here! We will let Jun Xian's family know that you are here, and we will bring your father here! Together, we will not be beaten!"

I argued against it. Jun Xian's sons would bring soldiers to have me arrested or killed. But perhaps there was a way out. My father would be safer with Qian's family. And perhaps, I could negotiate.

When my father arrived, he said little. "You...have destroyed everything, foolish boy! And now, everyone will be dead because of your stupidity! Now I must disown you to save myself! Perhaps I will be fortunate enough to have other sons! If you had let us negotiate, we would not be in the mess we are in!"

I could tell why he was mad. In killing Jun Xian, I had usurped his authority. I had done the thing that everyone in the village wanted to do. This made me his superior, and he could not bear the shame.

My only hope was that I could somehow survive and have a family of my own. My initial impulse was to flee the village, make my way out of it, become a peasant farmer, find a woman and raise children. However, the other villagers wanted me to stay. They were angry, they had been working for Jun Xian for years. They wanted to stand against Jun Xian's family.

So I stayed. I was foolish. I should not have stayed.

The next morning, Jun Xian's son rode up with three soldiers to Qian's house. The other villagers watched, almost twenty strong. "Where is Bai Zheng? Where is the murderer of Jun Xian?"

"I am here," I said.

"You will come with us," said the soldier.

"What is to become of my father?"

"First," said Jun Xian's son, "I will burn the old man's house down and turn my dogs on him. Then, I will burn Old Ma's house to the ground as well!"

"Do you think you can do it," I said, angrily, "if I resist you?"

"We will see how strong you are, now!" said Jun Xian's son. "Arrest him!"

The three soldiers charged where I stood. They carried spears, and lowered them as to run me down at the spot.

When they reached me, each spear shattered against my chest. One of the soldiers was unseated from his horse, his horse left to gallop away. I fell to the ground from the force of the spears, but my skin was not pierced or hurt in any way.

The men dismounted, and pulled their swords. They could cut against my clothes, but their weapons could not cut my skin. Even their armor was no match against my fists. In the space of a few moments, I beat the soldiers to death. I regret doing it, but I did not know my own strength and felt I was fighting for my life.

The villagers cheered, but Qian shouted at Jun Xian's son, "Get him! He's riding away!"

He rode his horse away from the scene.

I gave chase, on foot. I found myself running faster and faster.

When I started, he was but a speck in the distance, but he grew larger and larger. I could see the panicked look on his face as I closed the distance. He was putting the whip to the horse...and I was outrunning it!!

I ran along side the horse and turned to the son of Jun Xian in mid run. He reached for his sword in a vain attempt to strike me down.

I grabbed his arm and swung him out of his saddle.

I did not know my own strength, again, for I did not hold on as I should. The son of Jun Xian went sailing into the forest. I chased after where I had thrown him.

When I found him, I found his body shattered against a tree. Now the first son of Jun Xian was also dead. The soldiers would come and put the entire village to the torch in an attempt to find me!

Now I had no choice. I would come back and fight for my village. Truthfully, I had no idea what I would do next.

(* * *)

As it turned out, everyone else had an idea of what to do next. Already, the angrier villagers were forming plans. They would march to the capital and demand that Jun Xian be dispossessed of his land, and that the two taxes would be lowered. I would march at the head of that column.

My friend Qian already saw himself as some sort of bandit-general. He spoke for the youth. "If you wait for the soldiers to come, Bai Zheng, then they will burn the village to the ground, and they will never stop coming until you are dead. It would be best to take the fight to them. We can have one hundred men with you at the head. As we march through each village, we would find others, and finally, we would arrive at the capital and present our demands. We could be an army of thousands!"

"And what are we to do without swords? Or armor?"

"We have two swords from the three men you killed. We can march on Jun Xian's house first and take what we need. Only a few old men and women are there!"

"And Jun Xian's two other sons, both of age."

"Could they stand against you?"

"All right." I had convinced myself. "But we will offer them a chance to surrender. To give up, and leave the area. Free passage for them." Qian nodded, in agreement. I suspect he would have agreed to anything as long as I approved his idea.

So the only thing left to do was gather my "followers" and march to the house of Jun Xian. The peasants gave me an armor made up of the armors of those I had killed, so that I might have authority. I found myself on a horse, led by a peasant -- I did not know how to ride a horse, and I let myself be led.

When I arrived, I arrived in an armor too large for my body, and followed by sixty angry tenants and peasants carrying rakes and old rusted swords. I found twenty soldiers guarding the home of Jun Xian. There would be no question that the soldiers would make quick work of all of us, except for me, perhaps.

Qian had told me what to say. "Family of Jun Xian, you now stand accused of charging unlawful taxes and rents, of setting impossible goals for the poor peasants working under you, of evading the justice at the hands of the people who have been injured by your family and who have hidden behind your wealth and avarice. We command you to leave your house and face justice!"

I heard a voice from inside the house. Chou Guan-Yin, Jun Xian's mother, stood on the porch. "Mob justice? Hardly! It is you, Moon Lizard, who will be brought to justice for killing my son!"

A voice cried out behind me. "What about your son, Li, old woman? When he injured my father with his horse? My father is lame! Where is the justice in that?"

"Or when my son died!! I was too poor to pay for a doctor, because of the lease that Jun Xian made me pay two years ago! My son died in childbirth, and my wife can have no more children!"

"Or when my son was turned over to Li Meng's men on a work detail? I have not seen him since!"

The rumbles behind me grew angrier, and I felt afraid, not of what was in front of me but of what was behind me. "Come out of the house!" I cried. "And I will see that you are kept safe!"

"Never!" cried Chou Guan-Yin. "I will see your head on a pike, first!!"

The twenty soldiers rushed, on horseback, toward my little army. I tried to dismount from my horse, but I fell off of it.

As for the battle itself, the less said the better. I had now become so strong that it only required me to grab a soldier by the throat or legs and shatter his body with little effort. I was attacked with swords and staves, and with mailed fists, but none of them could shatter my skin. I did not even feel the pain at their attempts.

Finally, I saw one of the soldiers with fire in his hand. He threw the fire in my direction. I had never seen such fire before. Later, I would find out that this fire was called "gunpowder", which was only just being used in my country.

The bomb of gunpowder exploded at my feet. I was knocked some distance in the air, and fell over. I was still alive! When I stood up, my armor had been bent to pieces, and I was covered in black soot, but I felt no worse save for a slight ringing in my ears.

It was then that the morale of the soldiers collapsed. They were put to rout when they saw that I had survived their bomb, uninjured. They ran.

But while I had fought the soldier, the peasants swarmed the house of Jun Xian. They were already inside, and had been inside for some minutes. I was left with the decision as to whether to kill the fleeing soldiers or help Jun Xian's family.

I was angry. I went after the soldiers. They could have run twenty leagues on the fastest horses, but with my speed, there was no escape for any of them. After a few hours, they were all dead.

I returned to the house of Jun Xian. The peasants were dancing on the porch. When they returned, they gave a hero's cheer.

"Hail to the mightiest of warriors, the Moon Lizard! Protect us all!" they cried.

"I want to speak to Chou Guan-Lin."

There was silence. "Moon Lizard, you cannot speak to her. She has been killed."

I ignored the peasants and walked through the house. I saw bodies put out in the main room. The bodies of boys I had grown up with and the bodies of Jun Xian's family. His second son, Li, was dead, old Chou Guan-Lin was dead and all of their retainers and servants were dead.

Jun Xian had five daughters. "Where are they? Where are the girls?"

Qian stood forward. "The daughters have been left alive for you, Moon Lizard. To do with them as you please. They are in the bedroom."

I walked to the bedroom, preparing my apologies. When I arrived, I found two of the girls naked and crying. The other three huddled in a corner. There was blood everywhere. My heart rotted out in my body.

"You will send these girls back to their relatives, Qian." I had nothing else to day. The look of rage and anger on my face said everything. I turned my head to the youngest girl, who looked upon me with a hundred years of hate in her face.

I made my way to Jun Xian's chambers. "Leave me alone, here. Bring me wine, so that I may forget this day ever happened."

Qian called out. "The great Moon Lizard wants wine. And no one should disturb him while he drinks!!" Qian then looked at me as if I had approved of what had happened, and he left the room while I was left to contemplate my many failures.

(* * *)

The peasants brought me wine, bowing and scraping. They attended to me not as if I was a man, nor even a great general, but a god come back from the sky. If I had commanded them to throw themselves on a fire, they would have been glad to stack the kindling before leaping in.

Qian looked inside the door, patiently, waiting for the time I would call him back in again. I let him wait. I would not speak to him tonight.

We were coming close to the First Hour of the night, when Qian looked at me with a pleasant look on his face. "Oh Moon Lizard, I bring to you Mei Yue, a visitor from the family of Jun Xian. She has come to speak to you."

I saw her. She was quite beautiful, long hair and small feet that were not bound. Her robes told me that she came from the capital, and was a young woman of some wealth.

So we spoke about many things, which I can honestly say that I don't remember. Was it the wine? How could wine affect me? Mei Yue's beauty could affect me, perhaps in the same way as wine.

I remember Mei Yue's face even today. I remember her telling me that no, it was not my fault that such bad things happened to Jun Xian's family, and that Jun Xian's third and last male child was in the army, probably on his way. I could surrender and that everything would return to normal.

We continued to drink. I told her that with his father, his mother, his elder brothers dead and his sisters raped and molested, that it was impossible for me to be forgiven. "His family will not take me prisoner, but they will bring soldiers to put this land to the torch and kill everyone here until I give myself up!"

"Isn't that better, though?" she said, with a smile. "I come to bring you word that the son, a mighty general, is ready to forgive you even this. You would be adopted into Jun Xian's family, and you would oversee the land that his father had. It might be possible to even marry you to one of the girls, and for you to give them strong sons to replace the ones you have killed."

"And for the peasants?"

"There is no hope for them. Their heads will line pikes all the way from one end of the Great Road to the other, to put to rest any other rebellions. There will be no more peasant rebellions. The Emperor has commanded it."

"And the injustice of Jun Xian will perpetuate itself through my blood? That I'll have children who hate me? Did you see the look on his daughter's face? That my people will see me as an usurper and murderer? I think not, emperor or no emperor."

Her face turned dark. "We have nothing else to say to you. Your day is coming, Bai Zheng."

With those words, she turned and left.

I finished my wine and called for Qian. "Qian, why did you send this woman to me?"

"What woman?" he said.

I interrogated him, and he was unaware that any woman had come to visit me. When I explained what had happened, he interrogated the peasants who were watching the house. They had also seen nothing, nothing at all.

The only conclusion that made sense was that I was drunk. That it was all an illusion. Therefore, I went to sleep.

I slept for a few hours and woke up with pain. It was not stomach pain, but more like chest pain. I could not understand it. The peasant women began making potions of their own, the potions they made whenever anyone suffered the chest passion. But the potions brought me no relief.

And the pain did not go away. As morning broke, it got much worse. It was like a dragon sitting on my chest. I would sweat, and I was as weak as a kitten. As the pain worsened further, I began to bite into a cloth so that no one could hear my screams.

It got worse. The pain got so bad that I could not care if they could hear me or not. I cursed the women for their foul potions. At one point, I began screaming, "Kill me! Kill me! KILL ME!!" because the pain was so great I felt my bowels would spill out.

The peasants murmured. The house now had an ill omen. Qian came into the house.

"The people think you are bewitched, Moon Lizard!"

I was in no mood to argue. "I could be! I am in agony! Nothing helps me! I think I am dying!!"

"There is a rumor that the soldiers are coming this way! You must rise from your bed and defend us!"

"Defend you? Me, here, in such pain! I can't even stand up!! For Heaven's sake, Qian, get me a doctor!!"

I bellowed like an ox, and grasped at my stomach. Qian was taken aback and ran out the door. I had hoped that he would get help.

So for hours, I tossed, and I turned, occasionally crying out with great pain, praying to my ancestors for the removal of my faults. I was as near to sleep as anyone would come without getting relief.

After a few hours, I called out to Qian to give me relief.

No answer. I bellowed. I bellowed so loud that the pots in the room shook from my crying.

No answer.

With the remnants of my strength, I forced myself to stand. I walked like a dead man through the house. Qian was gone. The peasants were gone. The daughters of Jun Xian were gone. Only the corpses remained. I had been abandoned by the "army" that I once led. Undoubtedly, the peasants heard my cries and came to the conclusion that Heaven had abandoned me.

I made it back to the bed. I would die right here, unwatched, and unmourned. "How could this have happened?" I told myself.

(* * *)

The rest of the night I closed my eyes and prayed that death would take me, soon. At some untold hour, I opened my eyes and saw a man in blue robes standing over me. He had a frog on his shoulder, a red frog that was missing a leg.

He waved his hands over me, very concerned. I forced open my eyes. "I do not know you," I muttered. "Are you a doctor, or are you a judge in the afterlife?"

"Perhaps to you I am both," he said, "My name is Liu Hai Hsien. I have come from far away to see you."

"Why?"

"I have heard of the mighty feats of the great Moon Lizard. A man who could fight fifty soldiers without a sword leaving a mark on his skin. I thought you were a mighty sorcerer, and that I must make your acquaintance. Instead, I find a dying boy."

I looked at him. "Your eyes do not lie. I could do those things once, and now, I can do nothing."

"I sense great power in you, Moon Lizard, but I also sense great decay and great agony. Tell me what you can."

I told him as much as I could, telling him the story that you hear now. He grabbed at his long mustache, twirling it in his fingers. He listened intently, nodding gravely as I told him everything.

"And the woman, Mei Yue? No one saw her enter? Or leave?"

"Yes."

Liu Hai Hsien looked unhappy. "There are those in the world who can do such things. As you can fight fifty men, there are some who can enter and leave as they please. There is no reason for it. I suspect that some of them work together. I know of these powers of Mei Yue, her power to make others forget. I suspect, Moon Lizard, that you have been poisoned."

"Poison!" I cried. "Can you cure me?"

"A poison that could bring down a man as strong as you? That is beyond even my power to cure! With the right potions and charms, I could cure you. But in the time it would take to send my frog, Ch'an Chu to the Three Castles to fetch what I needed, I fear you would no longer be alive. Your time, Moon Lizard, can be measured in hours."

"Then I beg you, Liu Hai Hsien, use what powers you have to kill me! Do not let me suffer!"

"No!" he said. "That I will never do! I came her to determine what measure of man you were, whether you were one that I should destroy or whether you should be helped. I hate the power of the Emperors and their ministers and their generals!. I once worked alongside them, but now I work against them!"

"How can you help me? If you can't cure me, and you refuse to kill me, then what can you do?"

"There is a way out of your suffering. I must put you somewhere where you will not die until I can bring you back. It is a powerful spell that it takes three wizards to cast, and yet I am powerful enough to cast it on my own. I shall cast this spell, but I warn you of what will happen to you so that you do not fear!"

It was then that Liu Hai Hsien told me of his magical powers, and of the order of wizards to which he belonged. He said that when a wizard or evil doer fell under the justice of the wizards, he was not killed, for the mightiest of wizards refused to shed blood. Instead, they were cast to the Land of Shadows.

"How long are they cast there?"

"They remain until their time is served. There are some so evil that their names are written in the Book of the Domain to remain there for a thousand years or more. When the Most Powerful feel that justice has been served, then they are released."

He touched my forehead. "It is to this place, Bai Zheng, that I intend to take you. It is the only way I know how to save your life. You will stay there until I can come to rescue you and cast the spell that frees you."

"But won't I be destroyed by the evil ones in the Land of Shadows?"

"No. The punishment is that when in the Land of Shadows, that one can see and one can hear, but that one can never be heard by those in the Waking World. You are as a ghost. You can pass through walls, have all the secrets of the Emperors, but never be able to use any of them. You watch the pleasures of life pass by you, but are unable to take part. You feel nothing. You are nothing. In this way punishment is served.

"Those in the Domain," said Liu Hai Hsien, "will talk to you. They are men full of evil, for the most part. They will make all kinds of curses on you when they find out why you are there, but trust me, they can do you no harm. The prisoners of the Domain cannot hurt each other. You may talk to them , if you wish...but I recommend against it. They spew lies with every word."

"Will it take long? Until I can be rescued?"

Liu Hai Hsien began to set out his charms. "I hope no more than three days, Bai Zheng. So now I must ask you this question: do you wish me to leave, and turn away, hoping that I might return before you die? Or should I cast this charm, with all of its dangers and difficulties?"

The pain was so great that it was hard to think straight. I told him yes, yes, for Heaven's sake yes, cast the charm and free me of my pain.

I faded out of consciousness. My last memories were of an old man mumbling and a frog croaking....

(* * *)

And that was the last I saw of Liu Hai Hsien. He never returned. I do not know what happened to him. Perhaps, something unfortunate kept him from coming back. Perhaps he had been lying all along.

When I woke up, I was free of pain. I stood up. Rested and refreshed, I searched the house for some food.

However, when I reached the jars, I found I could not open them. My hands passed through them, harmlessly! I was in the Land of Shadows! I shouted out as loudly as I could, but no voice could hear me.

I was so happy not to feel pain anymore that waiting was no burden. What I had forgotten was that not only could I not feel pain, but I could feel nothing else. Not the cold spell of a rainy day. Not sunlight on my shoulders. Not the touch of a human being. Nothing.

I waited for Liu Hai Hsien.

The night passed, and day broke, and I waited some more.

Two days passed with no sign of him. Soldiers returned to the house of Jun Xian. They cleared out the corpses, and began to repair the damage. They set up a garrison with plans to attack Qian and the rest of the peasants.

Leaving my post, I ran to Qian's house. I tried talking, screaming, threatening his mother but there was no way on earth she could hear me. I was a ghost!

It was there that I heard that Qian was encamped by the river. So I ran to the river.

Qian was no leader. His band wandered the riverbank, aimlessly, hoping to avoid the soldiers. I shouted out that the soldiers were planning to attack in force as soon as they could find him.

He did not hear me. No one heard me.

I stayed there and watched as Qian's force was finally located by the soldiers. Unarmed peasants against professional fighters. The battle did not last very long, and there is no point in telling about it.

They put Qian's head on a stake. They put Old Ma's head on a stake. They put thirty-five heads on stakes along the road. One of those heads was the head of my father.

(* * *)

I am sorry, Tiffany, that I had to be silent at such a point in the story, but it has been perhaps a thousand years, and I still shudder from the shame and the pain of it all.

There was no rebellion. The former tenants were dispossessed of their tenancy. They would become peasants now.

I saw the third son of Jun Xian move into the house with his family. He became the landowner, and he was just as bad as his father and his two older brothers. The peasantry groaned under his rule.

The soldiers looked for me, but did not look long. Rumor had it that I had taken to the forest, and the soldiers looked there. With the band of peasants dead, I was alone, and they felt sure to find me.

At night, the peasants spoke about me in awe. I watched, and listened, but could not tell them anything.

After one generation, I was still spoken of...but untruths spilled into the story.

After two generations, I was a legend.

After three generations, those who had known me were all dead. The younger people did not believe much in a moon lizard.

After four generations, they knew my name, but not much else.

After five generations...I was gone.

(* * *)

My time was not wasted. I met the others that Liu Hai Hsien spoke about. Even though they were evil, they enjoyed a good story and they told me their stories, too. Some of them I believed, others I recognized as self-serving lies. One told me that Liu Hai Hsien was killed by other wizards, but I do not know this to be true.

Some of them had gone completely mad, or perhaps, madder, raving lunatics after centuries of deprivation. Some stayed with me for a while, but did not stay long. I was only in the Domain by unfortunate accident. They had been sentenced there. They were wizards and magic users. I knew nothing of such things. They usually only kept company with me to mock me for my foolishness. They were probably those other specters that you saw in your long walk. You can see them as easily as you can see me.

And there was nothing for me to do. I was doomed. So I stayed in China, traveling the land. I was there when the Mongols finally invaded, and Kublai Khan finally put an end to the Song Emperors.

I saw the coming of the Qing Emperors and the coming of the Westerners, many, many years later. The country I had known was falling apart. Many Chinese fled to the West, and I decided to follow them, as it had been hundreds of years I had been a ghost in my own country.

I came to the United States. The boat I was on came to California in 1871. I followed a few of the immigrants, and I learned English with them as they learned it. It did not take long for the whites to learn to hate the "Chinamen". I despaired, and finally abandoned my people and gave up hope. I wandered the United States.

In my wandering, I spied on the famous. On presidents, and heads of state. I am privy to discussions that would change your understanding of your history. When the Communists took over in China, I had hope that the peasants had finally achieved their victory. But the Cultural Revolution turned my hopes to ash.

There is no place in the world where I cannot go if I wish. But I feel nothing. No touch, no pain, no pleasure. No touch at all. I can see, and I can hear. That is all.

Oh yes, and I can speak. But I can only speak to the damned, those doomed to wander the Domain forever or until they are finally released from their imprisonment. There are mighty spirits that I no longer meet. Perhaps, they are finally free, or maybe they walk the other side of the earth.

The only person from the waking world that I have spoken to in a thousand years...is you, Tiffany Blum-Deckler.

(* * *)

"But...why me?" said Tiffany.

"No one else has your power, not that I have seen. I found you through Daria Morgendorffer. I have followed Daria since the first day she came to Lawndale. I happened to pass by and watch as she and her sister came to your school. Through her, I learned of Quinn.

"When Quinn was concerned that you were not in school, I was concerned, too, and left to see for myself. There we met for the first time, when I learned of your struggle."

"Why don't the wizards let you out?" asked Tiffany.

"Perhaps they are unaware that I am here at all. Perhaps Liu Hai Hsien had no chance to tell anyone that I was here, if he was killed."

Tiffany thought about it. "Maybe I could let you out."

Bai Zheng frowned. "I would not risk it. Only when you are weak or tired do you seem to be able to talk to me. More would put your life at risk."

"I'm al-ready at risk. I'm so tired. What if I fall through the bed when I go to sleep?"

"I've set myself on the ground many times, and have not fallen through yet. I've ridden boats, cars, planes and have not fallen through. Perhaps it is just a firmness of mind that is needed."

Tiffany sighed. "My mind's not really that great. I'm not that smart."

"Of course you're smart. I mean, I wasn't smart, and look at me. I couldn't even read or write a thousand years ago. Now I speak and read many languages. It takes time, and patience, and interest."

"You think," said Tiffany, "that I could even pass Mr. DeMartino's test? It's really hard."

"I watched Daria Morgendorffer when she took the same lessons. The lessons on Andrew Jackson are not hard. And...between you and me...Mr. DeMartino will always ask one or two questions that come straight from the chapter reviews. Daria said so when she spoke to Jane."

"How much do you know," asked Tiffany, "I mean, how much do you know about me?"

I probably should not say anything intimate. "I know about the situation with your mother. I know that your father is mostly absent and that their marriage is a sham. I know that you are in the Fashion Club, that Quinn likes you...but that sometimes you tell people one thing and then another, anything to make them happy with you."

"You won't tell anyone else?"

"No. Never."

Tiffany took another scent of lavender. "This makes me soooo sleepy."

"But it freshens the mind and clears thoughts. Come, Tiffany...sleep. You can lie on the bed if you concentrate. I have faith in you!"

Tiffany reached out to the bed. She concentrated, trying to remove all thoughts from her mind that her hand might just pass through it. The first time she tried, she felt her hand going right through the bed's surface.

"Keep trying."

The next time, she felt a tingling sensation when she passed her hand through the bed. The third time...her hand stopped. She did not exactly feel the bed, but she recognized its boundaries.

"All things come easily with faith. Now lie down and let the scent of lavender overwhelm you."

Tiffany lied down and closed her eyes. She trusted Bai Zheng. Before she fell asleep, she made promises to herself.

She would pass history.

She would master this power, no matter what it took.

And someday, somehow...she would rescue Bai Zheng from his prison.

(* * *)

Daria opened the door to the trailer.

Gah. It smells like an explosion at a flower shop. Daria could feel a sneeze coming on, and finally let it fly. I'm surprised that didn't set off any earthquake alarms.

"Tiffany?" Daria wandered through the house, trying to find Tiffany, who would undoubtably be waiting for her.

She entered the bedroom, and found Tiffany asleep on the bed. Tiffany's "blue glow" was off. Very quietly, Daria reached forward and touched Tiffany.

Tiffany was solid . The power had somehow shut itself off.

"Tiffany? Wake up?"

"Hu-uh?" Tiffany moaned, rolling her eyes slowly, the perpetual dumb look on her face.

"Wake up," said Daria. "You're solid again."

Tiffany felt the bed, and this time, could feel the soft surface. All she had to say was "Wo-owwww. The lavender must reall-y be working!"

Daria gave a Mona Lisa smile. "Good." If she gets better, I don't have to spend any more time with her. "You keep working at that. I'm heading back home. Quinn wants to know if you want to come with."

"Yeahhh."

As Tiffany followed Daria to Jake's Lexus, she told herself, that Bai Zheng was not lost. Wherever Daria was, Bai Zheng would be. "Thank you, Bai Zheng," she said.

"Huh?" said Daria.

"Nothing." And it was time for Tiffany Blum-Deckler to smile the Mona Lisa smile.