Hainan Dao

Book III Chapter 01

And yet for me, this was the distillation of everything that I had ever dreamed about. In coming to Hainan, I had found the only solution to a problem that I had never even been able to put into words before. She was the One Answer to every single question I have ever had in life. Without the slightest trace of strain nor effort, this Angel of the gods has opened all the doors in my life and at once. Before she came, there had been no light nor darkness for I was blind. Now, an eagle hatched anew and in falling, has spread his wings and found the true meaning of sky.

She was my destiny. She was my doom.

Yes, indeed I knew the need of the people was great. But these were words and words only and empty and small and at that particular time in my life I could not bring myself to care.

***

Other than the infrequent excursions to my brother’s room, I didn’t go anywhere else. I didn’t want to. My body and brain got all screwed up. I tried to sleep while the sun was up, because Lord knew I wasn’t doing it when it was down. On the rare occasions that I did, the hours were always marred by episodes of chilling nightmares that left me soaked with sweat in the middle of the night when they would wake me, sitting up in bed and panting, not remembering what I was panting about.

I suppose I probably should have left at that point, gone back to Canada, but I couldn’t do it. I continued to hang around, though I didn’t know for what, and I stayed mostly in my room, waiting for Biai to come knocking on my door with food or water or some other silly thing she had found on some field somewhere.

Now today…today was different. Today, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

***

Again, Biai raced back from up ahead on the path to take my hand in hers. She yanked me onward, speeding me up.

Geez, I didn’t think I was walking that slowly. What’s the big rush?

We had marched out of the village, following the river that ran through the middle of Sanjia on our right hand side. Here, about fifteen minutes out, was a long stretch of tall grass and bushes that hugged the stream down its length. We couldn’t have made any progress if we were trudging through that, so we didn’t. Instead, we picked our way along on the edge of this growth, in a cleared out path that was getting wider as we stamped along. Further ahead, the path grew into a clearing about a hundred yards in width, which was edged on the left hand side by a thick front of coconut trees.

We passed through the clearing. When we came to the end of this forest on our left, I saw a set of buildings that had been hidden behind it in the distance. Without veering to her left or right, Biai set her sights on these and led me marching onward.

As we gained more ground, I could see that there were three buildings in this group altogether, and one of them had a yard in front of it, with markings painted on the ground for basketball. I glanced at this one and the others. They all appeared brand new and their windows gleamed beneath the light of the sun. They were impressive, by Hainan Village standards anyway.

I could tell from the appearance of the first building that it was a school. I never knew we had a school so close to the village. I wondered why Wei had never told me about this place.

Ah, Wei…! I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about them anymore.

Right now, all I wanted was a drink of water.

We trudged our way over to the central building and slipped through the front door.

Inside, we were met by a long, empty hallway.

I began strolling down the length of it, checking the signs on each door for the obvious. There were glass panes set into the first few. Nope. Not these. Finally seeing the sign I had been looking for, I left Biai behind, hurried into the bathroom and strode up to one of the sinks. I bent down to the tap and took in a long draft. Placing my head completely beneath the water, I soaked myself in that for the coolness it gave me.