The Pillar’s plane
X ian, the Tibetan monk, sat back in the fancy leather chair of the Pillar’s plane. He was sipping a piña colada and looking at a Playboy magazine with eyes so open he might have fainted.
“This isn’t what America is all about.” The Pillar snatched the magazine from the monk’s clenching hands. “I’m not getting you the visa to become a burden to the country. I want you as an asset. Most immigrants are.”
“Sorry, Chao Pao Wong.” Xian looked embarrassed. “I’m weak to Western temptations.”
“There’s no such thing as Western, or Eastern, temptations, Xian.” The Pillar prepared his mini hookah as they flew away from Kalmykia. “This hookah is a temptation, if not an addiction, if you stuff it with certain ingredients, and it’s definitely Eastern.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you can be a monk, a donkey, or a good man wherever you go. It’s your choice.”
“So my American visa is a choice?”
“It is, but then everything is a choice.” The Pillar smoked his hookah.
“Why so cryptic and gloomy, Cao Pao Wong? Is it Alice?”
The Pillar nodded, though he only made a slight move of his head.
“Then why leave her behind?”
“It’s complicated, Xian. Sometimes we’re forced to leave the people we love behind.”
“I don’t understand this. I mean, in the monastery we never leave a loved one behind.”
“That’s because there is snow surrounding your arses left and right,” the Pillar said. “And because in this isolated community you’re safe from life’s everyday battles. Trust me, the visa will mess with your head more than give you peace of mind. You know why? Because it will force you to make choices.”
“What’s wrong with choices?”
“Well, for one, they seem like genius decisions at the time.” The Pillar coughed, not happy with his smoke. “Only later, you may realize your choices were wrong.”
“That’s terrible.”
“You know what’s really terrible? Living with the consequences.”
“But this doesn’t explain why you left Alice behind.”
“I’m not leaving her behind. She’ll be all right.”
“You truly believe she can reach the end of the chessboard and win?”
“She’ll do that, trust me. She’s a fabulous and fine young woman.”
“Then what’s worrying you?”
“The truth she is about to confront,” the Pillar said. “Winning will only lead her to having to make another disastrous choice.”
“Why am I sensing it has to do with her past?”
“It does. Alice will have to deal with a horrible thing she’s done in her past.”
“Don’t we all do that all the time?”
“You have no past, snowbird, so pull yourself out of it.” The Pillar tensed. “Alice is about to choose the Inklings or Black Chess.”
“I have the feeling she will choose the Inklings.”
“Me too, but I wish it was that easy. Because if you ask any person about the truth, they’d tell you it’s either black or white…”
“Inklings or Black Chess,” Xian said. “It makes sense.”
“You’re wrong, Xian. The truth is never black or white. That’s the Hollywood perspective.”
“Then what is the color of truth?”
“Grey,” the Pillar said. “An ugly grey that makes London’s rainy and creepy afternoons look like heaven in greens.”