Wednesday, December 09, 2015

i travel into china town. the currents of some airborne energy have stolen me away from the ocean and propels me along on a beautiful sydney summer day. the place pulses with amazing faces, asia is alive here bombarding the prime sensory instruments but i am driven by instinct as i weave in and out of the side streets following my nose into the depths. 
a small sign outside a tiny red for danger doorway with a red buzzer camouflaged by someone who doesn't want to be noticed. i press it. 
mr. lee sent me an letter by snail mail, it appears he he doesn't use technology not even a mobile. i pulled out a brown envelope amongst the junk mail and noticed it was addressed in some sort of floral script. it was elaborate, almost calligraphic.  i opened it carefully, and unfolded a parchment which was folded in triangles not square or rectangular.

captain mission.
i have read some of your adventures and found it most interesting from many perspectives. some of your stories are fun to read with great silliness and others have profound truth within them. i particularly enjoyed the ones where you travel into other dimensions and therefore invite you to my office for some thing i know you would value greatly. i cannot offer an address suffice to say, it's a red door in what you call the china town area.
regards 
dr. lee.

so i pressed the buzzer. 
i waited for some response but nothing happened. with my left hand i pushed the door just slightly, and it swung open. i was presented with a narrow staircase which i begun to ascend. the stairs were wooden and stained in a rusty red paint, but as i climbed the paint was replaced with a rich deep red velvet carpet. i seemed to climb for ever, upwards and upwards, around corners and turns until i faced another red door. i was about to knock but the door swung open and there stood a small chinese man, aged around 80 he sucked a pipe and was wearing some sort of traditional dress, black and embroided with symbols and patters, hieroglyphic, no they were chinese characters, pictograms, ideograms. i recognised a symbol from the i- ching but kept quiet. 
looking around the room i couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at it's size, much bigger than i would have imagined but scarcely furnished, in fact just an old desk in the distance. the smell of incense hit me as i walked in, invited by mr. lee.
he was certainly curious, and as we walked towards the desk he mumbled his gratitude that i had responded to his letter. he told me how much he had enjoyed my book and all the strange stories. by the time we reached the desk i was quite embarrassed by his praise. 
the room appears vast but badly lit, in fact a single candle on the desktop casts a large circle of flickering light, enough to see a papers and quills, some old books and a jade sculpture. 
the doctor beckons towards a chair, 'sit, sit, make yourself comfortable.'
i sit down opposite him, the desk between us.
'it is good you came here, i have something in my possession i wanted to show you, share with you. in my culture we have many traditions, many mythology but progression government means our old ways are abandoned, forgotten by many. young people like computer now.'
dr. lee opened a drawer and pulled out a wooden case, he carefully opened it up and took out an elaborate pipe instument. it was an old oriental long wooden pipe. he packed some dry leaves in it and with a thin long stick lit passed the flame of the candle to the pipe. his tight lips sucked subtly inhaling and a soft glow radiated from the pipe. 
'i like the taste, good for mind. good for travelling.' he offered me the pipe, 'smoke, you must smoke a little, it help you understand, it help me explain.'
i sucked on the strange tobacco, sour tasting and yet fresh unlike tobacco more like a salvia divinorum but with no immediate effects. we shared the pipe which when finished was placed back carefully in it's box.
'it's good to share the lotus.' dr. lee smiled. 'in my culture we have ancient ideas about life, animals and astrology's. ancient culture, much time to investigate, many teachings. confucius hey?'
'i'm more familiar with the tao te ching than confucius wisdom, i must confess i know a little not a lot.'
'yes, yes much in tradition, but i have something to share with you older than both repeated elders dreamed of. my family come from guanling, lived there from beginning of time. forefathers honour to be dragon keeper mr. mission, you understand?'
i nodded, the substance we had smoked was taking effect, a sort of clarity unveiled in my mind and as doctor lee revealed his history i saw it being played out in an immersive cinematic experience. i could almost smell the atmosphere as he told his story.
his family had held the prestigious title for hundreds of years until china fell to the xia dynasty and the warring began. territories battled and feuds played out over time, the poor were always trapped in-between conflicts and the lee family although remote were none the less effected. they possessed two eggs, one passed through the female line, the other the male line. no one knew the origin of the dragon keepers but a handful of people knew the lee family were guardians and devoted their lives to protect them, thus when conditions became dangerous the lee family were split, one egg sent eastwards and the other west fortunately escaping before the opium war.
the keepers of the eastern egg lost contact with their brothers and generations later it was thought both were lost. 
dr. lee's grandfather had arrived in australia after the first fleet, he had been a doctor as well and chose to follow flinders on a voyage to australia's north where he stayed with an aboriginal community for many years until returning to the city of sydney where lee was born and at age 13 the egg was passed on.
i listened to the story, the talking was in fluid english with elements of his culture slipping in. i guess living amongst the chinese population his english skills would be capped, but i was impressed with his command. he told a good tale.
i remained seated thinking perhaps the story would make a good addition to my work, i could shift a few details, change some elements to make it fit my own style. mr lee could be ms lee a sexy opium mistress....
i was lost within my own imagination when i noticed dr. lee had placed a large box upon the desktop. he opened it up and placed his hands inside pulling out an egg. it was the size of an ostrich egg but i could see immediately it was not an ostrich egg at all, for starters it was a soft blue surface with a purple shimmer where light reflected seemed to shift and move in a liquid motion.  
'this is the egg, i am it's guardian mr. mission.'
i stood up and looked at the dragons egg, it was indeed unlike anything i had ever seen.
dr. lee packed it away and we took our places.
'it's a beautiful looking egg and big will it ever hatch?'
'yes, one day it will. maybe in our lifetime.'
'i'd like to see that. i'd like to see a real life dragon.'
mr. lee smiles and laughs a little chuckle to himself.
'what's so funny?'
'i know you would understand it. appreciate it's beauty.'
'i do, it's magnificent to look but what makes it very special is to know there are dragons in the world.'
he laughed a little more, 'yes, there were dragons in the world, one day there may be another.'
i stood up to leave and mr. lee walked me into the darkness to the exit, we said our goodbyes and i shook his hand. as i left i asked him one last question.
'what came first mr. lee the dragon or the egg?'
'ah, good question, good question. i will tell you when i have answer.'
and with that the door closed.





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