As Jax fled in terror, away from the lake, he could almost feel the monster breathing down his neck. Where’s the path that goes into the rainforest? Oh, where is it? I should have come to it by now, he thought as he stumbled over tree roots, blind with fear. The lake was behind him, that much he knew, but on either side were palm trees, their long straight trunks like stilt-walkers with their heads high in the air. He had never been this way before.
In the distance, Jax saw lights winking through the trees. A wave of relief washed over him and his mind filled with warmth as he imagined a friendly house belonging to the park ranger. There he would escape this scary place of monsters and creepy sounds, and be surrounded by people who might give him a mug of hot chocolate, before showing him the way home.
Soon he entered the forest where a dense mist was rising off the ground. He could barely see his legs as tendrils of white vapour swirled up around him.
The lights were growing brighter now, illuminating the tops of the trees. The house must be enormous, he thought. And why are there so many lights on in the middle of the night? Maybe they’re having a party. Jax listened for the sound of voices or music, but it was eerily quiet. He walked on through the mist until he came to the edge of the forest. As he stepped out from the trees, he suddenly heard the rhythm of drums. It was as if the trees or the mist had acted like a sound barrier.
He smelt the incense before he saw the four-metre high wall looming in front of him. It seemed as if it had just sprung up out of the ground. The black tiles along its top reminded Jax of the monastery he had visited with Ba, high on top of Hua Shan, one of China’s sacred mountains. It had been built, impossibly, into the side of a cliff, and appeared to hang in the air, with nothing but a sea of white clouds below.
Jax was intrigued. This building certainly didn’t belong to the park ranger. He followed the wall until he came to an octagonal-shaped gateway. On either side were two stone statues, one a dragon curled around itself, the other a lion, or something similar, looking over its shoulder. As Jax walked up to the dark-red door, the statues seemed to move. He hurried past them, not daring to look at them again.
The drums were now joined by the sound of a rhythm stick, now a bamboo flute, now a Chinese violin. As the notes reached Jax’s ears, it was as if each instrument was speaking comforting words to him, reminding him of how he used to feel – happy and loved – back in China.
On the massive wooden doors hung a big brass knocker. It was the head of an ugly beast with fierce staring eyes and a broad nose. Jax lifted the heavy ring that pierced the flaring nostrils, then let it fall back hard against the wood. He wondered if anyone inside could hear him over the loud music. But the music suddenly stopped, and he heard light footsteps approaching.
‘Gui, zou kai! Go away, ghost,’ came a growling voice on the other side of the door.
Jax was surprised that the person spoke Chinese to him. He answered back. ‘Duibuqi, sorry, but I’m lost and I don’t know my way out of the park. Do you think you could help me?’
‘I said GO AWAY, ghost,’ the voice repeated. It sounded like a girl.
‘I’m not a ghost,’ said Jax. This person must be crazy. Then he suddenly thought, maybe they’re all crazy inside. The place is big, very big. Maybe I’m knocking on the door of a mental asylum!
‘Bah! You can’t trick me,’ said the girl. ‘Only a hungry spirit looking for someone to eat would be out so late at night. Go away, I say.’
She’s crazy for sure, Jax thought. He was wondering if he should just leave. But then, he reasoned, if it was a mental asylum then at least there would be doctors and nurses who could show him the way out. He decided to try again. ‘Please,’ he said. ‘I promise, I’m not a ghost. Can I speak with your doctor?’
A small hole above the brass knocker was unplugged and Jax saw an eye peer through it.
‘See, I’m not a ghost,’ he pleaded to the eye. ‘I just want to know how to get out of the park, that’s all.’
‘Humph!’ the girl said, replacing the plug. ‘Go away!’
Jax heard the music start up. There was no use trying again. He turned and looked out at the dark forest filled with mist. I’ll stay close to this place until it gets light, he thought. At least the music is comforting, even if they are all crazy inside.
Jax followed the wall around a little way and sat down, hugging his knees to his chest. He was cold, tired and hungry. And the thought of hot chocolate still lingered on his mind, making him more miserable. Drawing the hood of his jacket over his face to keep out the wind, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
Jax must have dozed off because he had no idea that anyone was standing beside him until he felt a nudge on his arm.
‘Lai ba,’ came a whisper out of the dark. Someone was squatting beside him.
‘What?’ asked Jax, still feeling drowsy. He looked up blurry-eyed. Then he recognised the voice. It was the girl from the gate.
‘If you were a real ghost, the music would have made you disappear by now,’ said the girl. ‘But you’re still here, so I suppose you must be human. That’s why I’ve come to get you. Lai ba, kuai, come on, hurry.’
Jax rose to his feet, smiling thankfully. The girl was a head taller than Jax but seemed to be about the same age. She took his hand and whispered. ‘Come, I will have to slip you in secretly. Stay close and when I do this,’ she put her hand behind her back and clenched her fist, ‘hide anywhere you can. The Abbot doesn’t like strangers, especially when the doors to the underworld are open and all the hungry ghosts are roaming about outside.’
‘Hungry ghosts?’ said Jax, amused. ‘Where are they?’ Then he remembered the creature in the lake and his smile quickly faded.
‘They are everywhere – out here.’ The girl waved her arm in a one hundred and eighty degree arc. ‘Come, quickly. And when we pass those two statues, don’t look them in the eye. If you don’t see them, they won’t see you.’ She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. ‘They are not very clever guards, are they?’
‘What is this place?’ Jax asked as he followed the girl in through the gate.
‘It’s Whispering Cloud Monastery,’ she replied. ‘Now quiet, no more talking.’
They kept close to the shadow of the wall and skirted the wide courtyard. A metal cauldron shaped like a pagoda filled the air with the smell of burning incense. The first building they came to was a wide wooden structure with a black-tiled roof and upturned eaves. On each corner, gargoyles in the form of strange birds were lined up on the roofline. They looked like they were about to fly off into the night. A statue of a turtle with a snake curled upon its back guarded the entrance. All the doors were intricately carved and folded back, leaving a wide opening into a large hall. Inside Jax could see chanting monks dressed in pale-yellow robes, sitting on the floor. Their shiny bald heads reflected the flickering candlelight.
The girl signalled Jax to keep down. ‘Is that the Abbot?’ he whispered as a man in an embroidered blue robe came down the stairs. He was followed by a tall monk whose clothes were patched and worn.
‘No, the other one is the Abbot.’
‘Why does he dress like that?’ Jax asked, surprised that the head of a monastery would look so shabby.
‘He used to be from a very rich family. But when he came to the monastery as a young man, he put on monks clothes, and still wears the same ones today. Whenever he finds a hole, he just sews a patch over it.’
There was something strange about the way the Abbot walked, as if he was hovering or walking on cushions. Suddenly Jax realised what it was. The Abbot was actually walking about five centimetres above the ground. He turned to tell the girl, but she was already on the other side of the courtyard behind a stone fence, madly gesturing at him to follow.
Jax crept behind the cauldron just as the Abbot passed by, then ran across to join her. Keeping to the shadows, they slipped past the main building and around to the back. There was a smaller building behind that one and another behind that. The girl led the way up some stone steps and along a balcony, then through a lattice doorway into a long, dark corridor with small rooms off to one side and paper-covered windows on the other.
‘Jin lai ba, come in,’ the girl said, sliding open the door of the third room. Jax stepped in and she closed it quickly behind him. She then pulled down a lantern in the centre of the room and struck a match. The room immediately filled with a soft yellow light.
Taking off her pale blue beanie, the girl shook out her hair. Jax gasped when he saw her. She wasn’t Chinese at all, but had shoulder length, straight blonde hair and green eyes!
‘Wha… What are you doing here in a Chinese monastery?’ Jax asked, hardly believing his eyes. ‘And you speak Chinese.’
‘Of course I speak Chinese,’ the girl laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.
‘But you don’t even have an accent.’
The girl shrugged, adjusting her yellow robe. ‘I’ve spoken Chinese all my life, it’s the only language I know.’ She sat down on one of the beds, leant back on her elbows and began swinging her legs. Her straw sandals made soft swishing sounds on the flagstone floor. Jax sat down on the bed opposite her. ‘Are your parents here, too?’
‘No, just me.’
‘Then how did you get here? Where are your mum and dad?’
The girl gave a small sigh and Jax noticed sadness touch the corners of her mouth. ‘I don’t have any. I was left at the gates of the monastery when I was a few days old. Lao Bing heard me crying and brought me inside. It was lucky I had good lungs, otherwise I probably would have died from the cold. He said the heavens were so sad, the clouds cried for seven days. That’s why they called me Yu Yu.’
‘You mean like in rain?’ Jax traced the character in the air with his finger.
‘Yes, that’t the one. What’s your name?’
‘Mingzi. You know, as in bright one or clear one,’ Jax replied.
‘I like that name very much because it has both the sun and the moon in it. The Abbot says names are important. He says that each name has a colour and it must match the colour of the person it belongs to. If it doesn’t, then that person can become very sick.’
‘What colour is your name?’ asked Jax.
‘The Abbot said it should be blue, but when I get angry it goes bright purple.’ She smiled, hooking a piece of hair behind her ear.
‘And is that very often?’
‘Oh, only when I don’t get my own way.’ Yu Yu giggled behind her hand. ‘The Abbot is teaching me to see name colours.’ She half-closed her eyes and looked at him. ‘I can see your name, Mingzi. It is… yellow… yes, a pale yellow. I think that colour is good for you.’
Jax smiled. It was so easy talking to this strange girl. She seemed to understand him. Sometimes he felt good like that when he and Buzzy were talking about Ruby or the rats. But he had only just met Yu Yu, and already he felt comfortable with her.
‘Where do you live?’ she asked, unscrewing the lid off a hot-water jug that sat on the table next to her. She poured a glass and handed it to Jax.
Jax took a sip. The warm liquid felt good as it trickled down his throat. ‘On the other side of the city,’ he said.
Yu Yu sat up on the bed and crossed her legs. ‘Zhen de ma? Really? I’d like to go there one day. But the Abbot won’t even let me go outside these walls. He says that everything I need is in Whispering Cloud Monastery.’
‘What about school? How do you learn things?’ asked Jax.
‘The Abbott and the other monks teach me.’
‘What about friends then? Who do you talk to and play with?’
‘Lao Bing is my best friend, then there is Lao Lang and Lao Tan and Cook Fan.’ Yu Yu looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘But you, Mingzi, are the first one my own age.’ She looked into Jax’s eyes. ‘Can you tell me more about the outside?’
Jax tried to fight back a yawn. He covered his mouth with his hand and his eyes watered.
‘Aiya, dui bu qi. Sorry, I’m so thoughtless,’ said Yu Yu jumping up off the bed. ‘The Abbot always says I talk too much.’ She went to the door. ‘Lao Lang is away. He won’t mind you sleeping in his room for the night. Rest now, and we can talk more in the morning. I’m so glad you came. Wan an, goodnight,’ she said and slipped out of the room.
Jax took off his shoes and covered himself with the cotton mien bei. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was the beautiful but mournful bell-like cry that came from the direction of the lake.