Spirits Abroad (ebook)

  She took it from Angela. It was less brittle than she thought it would be, bending like a thin sheet of plastic when she folded it.

  "I think it's a scale," said Angela. "Like fish scale. I think your personal assistant is the dragon."

  Prudence gave her a blank look.

  "Hah, don't tell me you don't even know about the dragon," said Angela.

  Prudence tried to look intelligent. It didn't work.

  "Prudence!" said Angela. "Don't you even read the Evening Standard? Ah, don't answer. This is what happens when you only read textbook. The dragon came to London, what, a few weeks ago? Something like that. It comes to London every 100-200 years or so. The British say it comes to choose a maiden and then it takes the maiden away to live in this other dimension where the dragons live. Forever!"

  Prudence thought about this.

  "What for?" she said.

  "How I know?" said Angela. "Got a lot of theory but nobody knows for sure. The dragons don't explain. People say maybe having a human helps the dragon to do its magic spells. But you don't know, Prudence. Maybe they eat the humans."

  "Zheng Yi can't be a dragon lah," said Prudence. "Number one, he looks like human. Number two, he likes kaya toast. If you eat kaya toast, what for you want to eat human?"

  "Then the tomatoes leh?"

  "Hm," said Prudence.

  "What explanation do you have for a random guy who just shows up one day and follows you around?" said Angela.

  "I thought maybe he's homeless," said Prudence.

  "Prudence—" Angela dropped her hands in her lap. "OK. All that never mind. But tell me honestly, OK? Do you like him? As in, like him-like him?"

  "No," said Prudence. "I don't even like him with one like."

  "I heard that," said Zheng Yi from the kitchen.

  "Then are you just going to let him hang around?"

  "How to make him go away? When I try to call police I only get the Worshipful Company of Glaziers receptionist," said Prudence. "But never mind. I sleep with baseball bat one side, kitchen knife on the other side. And you know I do taekwando."

  "I also heard that," said Zheng Yi.

  "Good!" said Prudence.

  Angela still looked worried.

  "At least you'll tell me if you are going to another dimension, right?" she said. "You know we booked the bed-and-breakfast in Lake District already."

  "I'm not going anywhere," said Prudence.

  "I live in hope," said Zheng Yi, coming to the table. He laid a crockpot of stew on the table.

  With a supernatural effort at politeness, Angela said,

  "Oh, that smells delicious. What is it?"

  "Potatoes, carrots, swede, some grated apple for sweetness, fairies for protein. But only non-sentient ones," said Zheng Yi reassuringly. "Fairies are terribly good for you."

  They were also quite crunchy, and froze well.

  Prudence was by nature an incurious person, but she did find herself wondering about Zheng Yi. Dragon or no dragon, having him around did not change Prudence's life appreciably. She taught the tomatoes to sing songs so they would not get bored when she was away. She went to the hospital and for her lectures. Zheng Yi followed her around when she did not object and went about his own mysterious affairs the rest of the time.

  They were grocery shopping at Sainsbury's one day when Prudence said abruptly,

  "How come dragons need maidens?"

  Zheng Yi paused in the act of picking up a Basics bag of Onions of Forgetting.

  "So you agree that I'm a dragon?" he said.

  "I didn't say that," said Prudence quickly.

  "One keeps explaining to humans, but they never believe one," said Zheng Yi. "It's a very simple reason. It just gets lonely. After thousands of years alone in a cave, one longs for companionship."

  "Why don't you hang out with the other dragons?"

  "Other dragons are bastards," said Zheng Yi. "I moved out of my mother's cave after my mother tried to rip my guts out."

  "Oh."

  "Granted, I had tried to steal her Tiara of Clairvoyance," said Zheng Yi. "Bad idea. Never try to steal anything shiny from a dragon."

  "Not to say I believe you," said Prudence. "But say you are a dragon. Why choose me for what?"

  Zheng Yi stopped in the middle of the aisle to take her hand. They were standing between the pasta and the coffee. His eyes were the deepest bluey-green. Prudence had seen that color only once before, out of a train window in Japan, speeding past mountain rivers which had taken on the color of the dark green pine forests around them.

  Zheng Yi spoke in a low, velvety voice:

  "You," he said, "are tremendously funny."

  Prudence jerked her hand away.

  "Must get some rice," she said. "We're running out."

  It was all fine and good when Zheng Yi was just making himself useful, but then he became a problem. The problem was, Angela fell in love with him.

  Prudence was not very good at this sort of thing. She did not really understand feelings, so it puzzled her when Angela began to act funny.

  Angela started having other things to do on Friday night. Friday night cookouts were not a sacred tradition; they were allowed to miss Fridays if they had stuff on. But three Fridays passed by and Angela was busy every week.

  Of course they still saw each other, at lectures and lunch and so on, but she was different then as well. They would be talking naturally, laughing away as they had always done, and then Prudence would say something about the food in her freezer and Angela's face would just change. Prudence did not need to be sensitive to notice change in a face she had known for so long, though she did not understand what it meant.

  It was worst when Zheng Yi was around. Then Angela was outrageously rude to Zheng Yi, but at the same time he was the only one she had any attention for. She had no time to speak to Prudence.

  Perhaps the fight was inevitable. Yet Prudence felt she might somehow have avoided it, if only she were not such a tactless person. She had not even meant what she was saying. They were in a park eating sandwiches after lectures and before clinics, and talking about babies. Angela was a great one for baby-watching.

  "That's a pretty one," she said, waving her ciabatta at a little curly-haired brown baby. "I think I would like my baby to have curly hair."

  "Where got Chinese got curly hair?" said Prudence.

  "I'll just have to marry somebody non-Chinese lor," said Angela. Prudence hm-ed.

  "I don't mind," said Angela. "My parents are quite chilling about this kind of thing. My auntie got marry a Mat Salleh. Blue eyes, blond hair, everything."

  "Mat Salleh are OK," said Prudence. "It's when they're not-Chinese, not-Mat Salleh. Then you see whether your parents are chilling or not. Especially if darker skin."

  Angela made a face. "True."

  They lapsed into silence, Angela considering the merits of each passing baby, and Prudence struggling with her baguette. Despite four years in a sandwich-eating country, she had yet to master this tricky form of food. Her chicken mayonnaise was starting to drip out the other end.

  "I think I will name my baby Tristram," said Angela.

  "Very posh," said Prudence. Perhaps if she started eating from the other end? But then the chicken mayo started coming out of both ends. It was difficult to know what to do.

  "Don't you like Tristram?"

  "It's a bit hard to pronounce," said Prudence. She caught a piece of chicken before it could make a break for it, and put it in her mouth. "And maybe the other kids will make fun."

  "What you want to name your kids?"

  "I don't want children," said Prudence. "OK, OK, but if I have to, I wouldn't name something like Tristram. If I have children already they will probably be bullied."

  "Why?"

  "Because they'll be mixed mah," said Prudence. "Not so many people are half-reptile." She was too much entangled in mayo-smeared disaster to observe Angela's expression, or to notice the way she said, "Oh."

  Prudence
managed to get the remainder of the baguette in her mouth and chewed, feeling relieved. Next time she would get sushi to go.

  "Are you and Zheng Yi together?" said Angela in a low voice.

  "Ngah? Ngro." Prudence swallowed.

  "No," she repeated. The past five minutes replayed themselves in her head. She had not really been listening to what she had been saying. For some unaccountable reason her cheeks felt hot.

  "No lah," said Prudence. What a ridiculous thing to have said! What could have possessed her to say it? Such things did happen. You said something meaningless, for no reason, to fill the air with noise. It was just embarrassing when other people noticed it. The only thing to do was to pile more noise on top of it until it was forgotten.

  "Why so curious? You're interested, is it?" she said jokingly. "You can have him if you want. I don't want him."

  Angela's face closed up, like a gate clanging shut. The voice that came out of that taut pale face was like a stranger's.

  "Well, that's a remarkably stupid thing to say," said Angela. "Even for you. And not like you're known for saying clever things like that."

  Prudence had never seen Angela's face so mean. She managed to get out, "What?"

  "You know I like him!" shouted Angela. "You pretend like you're so blur but actually you just pretend because it makes things easier for you! If you're blur then easy lah, you don't have to see anything you don't want to see, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. People will accommodate you because you are so naive konon. You think it's cute, is it? Maybe you think you've fooled everybody. Maybe you've even fooled yourself. But you don't think you've fooled me."

  She stood up. In the way of Angela, she did not even have any crumbs on her lap to brush off. She looked Prudence up and down and for the first time Prudence was acutely conscious of the bits of bread and mayo stains on her jeans, of the width of her thighs, of the depressing lankness of her hair. Her hoodie did not look good on her; her face was too big. The whole world could see this.

  "Just remember this," said Angela. "I don't need anybody's leftovers. And I especially don't need yours."

  She stormed off.

  Prudence put her hand on her chest. To her surprise, it was still whole.

  Mostly Prudence felt bewildered. She was confused enough that when Angela didn't meet her at the station, she simply got on the train to Oxenholme by herself. It didn't occur to her to call the B&B and cancel the room they had booked for a week.

  She had made it clear to Zheng Yi that he was not to come along. She hadn't said so in so many words, because Zheng Yi had an inconvenient way of ignoring direct orders, but he had instructions to look after the tomato plant and use up the food in the fridge.

  When she looked around and saw him in the seat next to her, she was not surprised, or even annoyed. It seemed quite natural for him to be there.

  Zheng Yi did not say anything. He took her hand. Prudence nodded, and turned to look out of the window at the countryside flowing past. The green fields, the little red houses in the distance, the gentle gray sky above. Angela loved this kind of scenery: "The English countryside is so romantic," she liked to say. Prudence's face felt numb.

  Angela was not at Oxenholme station either. Perhaps she would be at the B&B. There was no harm in going. They had booked it already.

  When Angela was not at the B&B, and Prudence came to the awful realization that she was not going to come, that this was serious, that they were fighting and perhaps they would never be friends again, she turned to Zheng Yi.

  "Might as well go for a walk," she said. "Get to know the area a bit."

  She only started crying when they were safely away from the village.

  If Prudence was confused, Zheng Yi was in an even worse state. He had been looking at Prudence the whole time with the expression of a dog who does not understand why you won't play fetch with it. This expression intensified with Prudence's tears, with an added dimension of panic. Now he looked like a dog who is worried that you might be thinking of throwing the stick away altogether.

  "What are you doing?" he said.

  "Seventeen years!" said Prudence. "We've been friends for seventeen years. That's how old some people are! Some people have only lived seventeen years!"

  "I don't understand," said Zheng Yi.

  "Pik Mun never didn't friend me before," wailed Prudence. "Why-why-why she doesn't like me anymore?"

  "What is that coming out of your eyes?" said Zheng Yi. He looked closer. "And your nose?"

  "What?" said Prudence. She touched her face and her hands came away wet, but they were not any alarming color. "It's water. I'm crying, you doink! You've never seen tears before?"

  She had not meant it seriously, but for the first time since Prudence had met him, Zheng Yi looked shy.

  "Never," he said. "I've never actually had a human. You're my first."

  "This dragon bullshit again!" Prudence rounded on him. "Can you stop talking nonsense? Pik Mun doesn't want to friend me any more and you can still talk cock like this!"

  "I am a dragon," said Zheng Yi. "You know that."

  "I don't know anything!" snapped Prudence. She turned and made to stomp away. However she had not been looking where she was going for quite some time. She found herself stomping right into a river.

  It was too late to stop by the time she realized. The ground was muddy and treacherous — it had just rained. She slid down the bank and the water came up and hugged her close. It was freezing cold, and the force of it swept her along the course of the river with dizzying speed. She pushed both her arms straight out and kicked.

  Don't panic, she thought. Must stay calm. Swimming couldn't be that hard, you just kept moving and somehow that made it so you didn't sink—but she was sinking. And she couldn't breathe. Everything was a white swirl, and the roaring in her ears made it difficult to think. She was drowning — she had to stop drowning—

  Stay still, said Zheng Yi's voice. She heard it as if he was speaking directly into her ear. Stop fighting me. You're safe.

  The water trembled with the words.

  Everything came together, the disparate elements of air and water and sound reconfiguring themselves into a logical pattern. The river turned from chaos into one long smooth curve, and Prudence was locked safely in its heart. She was not being battered anymore, not being flung about by the untamed force of the river. She was inside the river. The river was the dragon. She was sitting on a fixed place and she was moving, but in the way that you are moving when you sit in a plane — there is the forward motion of something larger than you that you scarcely feel.

  She put out her hand and touched river water, cold as winter. She put out her hand and touched warm pulsing flesh. She was sitting in the dragon's mouth. She could see daylight through the gaps between his teeth. Magic clogged her nose and tingled on her skin.

  The river and the dragon spat her out on the bank, and when the river receded it left the dragon. Prudence saw through bleary eyes a long, gleaming black creature like an overgrown gecko. When she blinked, Zheng Yi was human-shaped again.

  "You see?" said Zheng Yi, looking smugger than anything that isn't a cat should be able to look.

  "Can't see anything," Prudence managed to croak, before a fit of coughing overtook her.

  "I am a dragon," said Zheng Yi superfluously. "Now will you come away with me?"

  Zheng Yi helped Prudence sit up, but there was still a pressure in her chest. She pressed her hand against her chest to relieve it. The wail burst out of her startled throat.

  "Shut up! I say no means no already! You don't know how to listen meh? Go away!"

  "What?" said Zheng Yi, but Prudence was sobbing.

  "You shouldn't make fun of people," she hiccuped. "You shouldn't invite people when you don't want them to come."

  "What's this?" said Zheng Yi. His voice had gone all soft. Prudence felt embarrassed and hid her face, but she was soaking wet and it wasn't all that pleasant. She looked for somewhere else
to hide her face and found a convenient expanse of warm fabric right next to her. Unfortunately this turned out to be Zheng Yi's shoulder, and dragon or not, he understood enough about human norms to take this as an indication that he should put his arms around her.

  "I want you to come," said Zheng Yi. "Why would I ask you if not? Why would I go to all this trouble?"

  "Don't simply hug people," grumbled Prudence, but only half-heartedly. It was difficult to tell someone not to hug you when you were busy wiping your nose on their sleeve.

  "Why wouldn't I want you?" said Zheng Yi.

  "You always laugh at me," said Prudence.

  "When do I ever laugh at you?"

  "You said I'm funny!" said Prudence.

  "Oh, that. You are," said Zheng Yi. "Terribly."

  This was the most he would ever say. As dragons go Zheng Yi was actually quite good at feelings that weren't goldlust, but he would never understand that he had to explain that when you are a dragon, and thousands of years old, most things become boring. The most wonderful thing anything can be is amusing. It was his way of telling her that he was madly in love with her.

  "I bet you don't think I'm pretty," said Prudence, who was in a mood for self-pity.

  "Oh no," Zheng Yi agreed.

  "I don't even know why you want me to go with you then," said Prudence.

  Zheng Yi seemed puzzled. "But I've told you so many times."

  "Anyway," said Prudence. "We can't go anywhere. I haven't finish med school yet. And after that I still want to get a job and work a few years in UK first."

  "I don't mind staying in your dimension for a few years," Zheng Yi conceded. "Not more than a thousand or so, mind. I'd want to get back to the cave after a couple of millennia."

  "Hah!" said Prudence. "I'll be dead by then lah. Don't you know anything about humans?" She stretched within the confines of Zheng Yi's arms, and noticed something.

  "I'm not wet," she remarked. Even her canvas trainers were dry. Even her socks. The tips of her fingers were warm.