### Chapter 39 Yellow Birds

Zhao Jie and I were basically grown ups. Everyone in the red classroom was a grown up. You remember how empowering first grade can be!

A surprisingly short time into the year it became clear that boys don't play with girls any more, not in the red classroom. Zhao Jie and I would cackle and rush home after class. We couldn't play with Zhao Yuan after all. What if the other boys saw us? Can you imagine?

Boys who play with girls had to wear dresses and play with flowers. Girls who played with boys though, well that never seemed to happen.

I don't even know how it all got started to be honest. Went to Jupiter to get more stupider and all that.

There was one girl though. Her name was You Xiaoqing and she impressed me deeply. I mean, deeply. She was short, but beautiful and people told her so every single day. You Xiaoqing's personality though, wasrough. She had a bad temper and would take down even the bigger boys from time to time. She'd leave one of the second grade boys crying, covered in mud, and cut up from the rocks in the play yard. Then she'd turn back and yell, "Shame on you for messing with a girl!" 'Girl' always came out longer than the schoolyard and loud enough to break both windows.

And all at once most of the boys hated most of the girls. You Xiaoqing though, wowza.

In the spring of 1993, halfway through our first grade class something unspeakable happened. A boy, one of the same boys she'd taken out during recess, stole You Xiaoqing's eraser. He took it off her desk in broad daylight, in front of everyone save the teacher, go figure, and then threw it into the washroom.

I don't think the eraser had even landed on the tiled floor before You Xiaoqing was up and moving. Her small hands turned into claws and they were all over the boy in an instant. While the class was taking in a collective gasp of surprise and excitement, he picked up a pencil case and knocked her over the head. By the time the teacher turned around from the blackboard, You Xiaoqing was on the floor holding her head and the boy was standing over her with blood dripping from scratches up and down his face. The fight club quickly burst into tears and both were sent to the village clinic for treatment. The boy came back first, he was covered in those little Band-Aids that everyone has, but no one remembers buying.

The teacher sent Band-Aid boy to familiarize his nose with the corner the moment he came back to school. You Xiaoqing didn't come back that day at all.

"I heard he knocked her into a coma!" One of the boys told me during lunch.

"No way, it was just a pencil case." Added another, "I head that he had to pay for her doctor visit though! He's gonna be in trouble for ages!" The boys whistled and laughed.

The next day, You Xiaoqing came to school wrapped in gauze the size of a couch cushion. Band-Aid boy wasn't in attendance.

"Do you think his parents locked him up for hitting a girl?" Zhao Jie asked me.

Another boy looked over at us, "Maybe they gave him," he slid one finger across his neck, "Corporate punishment!"

"It's corporal punishment!" I said, "They don't do that any more, my dad told me!"

"I dunno" Zhao Jie said, looking at You Xiaoqing's heavily gauzed head.

Band-Aid boy was still absent on the third day.

"I think he's dead." Corporate punishment boy told us. "Shin said that his neighbors told his older brother that they saw a ghost outside of his house!"

"Who?" Zhao Jie asked, ticking people off on his fingers.

"You know who!" He told us, pointed quite openly at You Xiaoqing's bundled head. "The eraser thief! A ghost was outside of his house! They said he was standing in the window like a freakazoid with his neck all bent outta whack and the ghost was right in front of him!"

Zhao Jie rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, I'll believe it when I see it."

When Band-Aid boy didn't come to school on day four, we started to believe it. By day five we were up to our necks in ghost stories, ideas of freak accidents, and trading obscure disease theories that could have taken over or been cursed onto him.

He marched into school unharmed on the sixth day and the boys swarmed him.

"Was it a ghost?"

"Did you die?"

"Was it gone-or-rhea?" The boys cried at him.

"No, no, what?" Band-Aid boy told us, "I was frightened by a snake, that is all! I didn't feel well and needed rest. Now stop bothering me!"

All of the excitement died away pretty quickly when we saw that he was okay. The boys retook their seats in class and everything went back to normal. I even saw him talking with You Xiaoqing without either of them baring teeth. The rest of first grade went by without incident. Zhao Jie and I reveled in how smart and mature we'd become. We entered the summer holiday of '93 with grand aspirations.

That summer Master Liu came to the village again. He only stayed for two days that year, and I remember being quite disappointed. Although, one of the first things he did was criticize my strength training, so I guess I wasn't that disappointed to see him go.

"Lazy! You've gotten lazy! Bend your knees! Straighten your back!" He told me. He stared down at me with genuine thought, his hand on his chin. After a moment of unbearable silence he said, "Maybe next year. Keep practicing."

Like cold water had been splashed over me, my shoulder sagged and I definitely dropped posture. "Yes, godfather." I told him.

"Come then! I'd like to visit Wang Qi and see how he is doing!" He beckoned me.

Those two days went by in a blur. We spent time with Wang Qi, who had turned his life around in the past year. He was the image of a respectful businessman when we arrived at his door. He invited us in and showed every ounce of courtesy to Master Liu. I remember sitting in the garden listening to the birds while they drank wine in the summer heat.

Master Liu spent enough time in the village to speak with my parents, Wang Qi, Zhao Laohei, and the Village Head, before leaving once more. He advised me on my strength posture and bid the quickest farewell.

I didn't cry that time.

After the summer of '93, Zhao Jie and I moved up to the second grade! I was more than happy to see that You Xiaoqing moved up with us. In the start of the year I was ecstatic to begin learning and spend more time with my friends, despite how simple and boring the red classroom had become.

Now a strong and mature eight year old, I was interested in food and playing. Zhao Jie and I liked to hunt for bird nests, because we figured out how to boil and eat the eggs. No one ever caught us in this act or we would have learned sooner that it was a pretty cruel way to pass the time. We separated many eggs from their mothers until the fall of that year.

Zhao Jie and I walked into the woods on our usual route after school. We spied a medium sized nest in a tree and squatted down to sneak up on it. The bird that was lighting upon the nest and rustling its feathers every now and again was a beautiful bright yellow.

"I've never seen one like that!" I whispered to Zhao Jie. He stared up at it with his mouth slightly open, not daring to speak. Zhao Jie had always been bad at whispering.

We arrived at the foot of the tree without causing too much ruckus. The bird began to chirp in shrill little cries.

"Does it see us?" I asked the woods around us, knowing I wouldn't get an answer from Zhao Jie. "Is ittalking to us?"

The bird turned its head to face the forest and one of its eyes met mine just as Zhao Jie was reaching up towards the nest. "Zhao Jie, no! Let it go!" I cried at him.

The bird let loose a shriek and spread its wings. It sounded like a thousand birds were lifting off at once. The trees around us began to shake with a roar and hundreds of birds took flight following the bright yellow feathers of our new acquaintance. I leaned against the tree and brought my hands up for protection. Panting, I tried to figure out what had just happened.

Zhao Jie was also panting. He had crouched down and covered his head as the flight of birds took to the air. He uncovered like a turtle coming out of its shell and asked, "Do you think that bird is king boss around here? I've never seen so many move at once!"

I nodded and spoke quietly, "Maybe." I looked up, waiting to be bombarded by feathers and tiny talons. "I don't think we should look for nests anymore. Do you think they'll want revenge for all the eggs we've eaten? Crap" I added, "Are we the bad guys?"

This stunned Zhao Jie. "I never thought about it... it was just a thing to do... they can't be, I mean. They can't want revenge. They're birds!" His voice shook a little. "Come on. We'll stay out of the forest for a while. No more egg hunting. Jeez that yellow one was intense!"

"King boss." I said.

"Emperor." He replied, without a hint of humor in his eyes.

We stayed away from the woods for the next week or so and abandoned any egg hunting. The emperor bird had made an impression though. During art at school Zhao Jie and I would try to draw it and we talked about it at lunch with the other boys. You Xiaoqing overheard one day and asked, "What's an emperor bird?"

"I" I tried, but I felt my cheeks grow hot. I don't think I'd ever spoken to her directly before.

Zhao Jie saw me stumble and elbowed me to the side. "This beautiful bird we saw in the woods last weekend. It was bright yellow and the king of all birds!" His face lit up with a boyish grin. I watched him, jealous of that confidence.

You Xiaoqing looked at him with her sharp beautiful features and said simply, "I want an emperor bird." Then she turned and walked away. Zhao Jie opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The next day, You Xiaoqing came to school with none other than a bright yellow bird tied securely in thin leather ropes. Its claws were wrapped in what looked like leather pillows. You Xiaoqing walked into school with it, showing it neatly off, and then put it in the back of the classroom and draped a light leather bag over it. The bird didn't make a sound the entire time.

"You can see it after class!" She told the rest of us with a wave of her long black hair.

Zhao Jie leaned over to whisper his loud attempt at one, "I think that's the same one we saw!" That's our emperor bird!"

"How can you tell?" I asked, in a much quieter tone.

"I dunnoI just can." He said, and nodded with surety.

After school, and another brief glance at the bird being flaunted in You Xiaoqing's arms, Zhao Jie and I ran to the woods.

"We have to be sure!" He called back to me. Zhao Jie had hit a growth spurt over the summer and was much quicker than me now. I looked over him at the growing trees and saw a spattering of birds clouding the treetops. The various chirps and cries we heard sounded almost mournful.

We reached the edge of the woods, Zhao Jie only having to wait for a moment and paused to catch our breath. I hoped that the expression on my face looked less frightened than his did. His face was glossy with sweat and his eyes were darting at every new sound.

"Are you scared?" He asked. "We can go back to your house if you're scared..." His voice was bargaining, testing.

"No I'm not scared!" I told him, "I have Master Liu's jade!" I fumbled the pendant out of my shirt and held it tightly.

We entered the woods and tripped over our feet in the growing darkness as the sun sank on the horizon. After only a few minutes, we found a nest turned over at the foot of a tree.

"This is the same tree." Zhao Jie said. "I know it is! Look!" He cried, pointing at the ground. "There're my footprints where I ducked to get away from the birds!"

Our eyes went from his footprints to the tree, to the nest lying broken on the ground. I looked up at Zhao Jie. I was still looking at him when I realized the forest was moving, but silently. In the trees behind Zhao Jie's shoulders the branches were swaying and jouncing without making a sound. Zhao Jie's eyes widened as he noticed the same thing happening behind me. There were hundreds of birds on the branches surrounding us. I saw sparrows, magpies, ravens, owls, and woodpeckers. I spied birds I'd never seen before and ones that hardly even looked like birds. As the forest around us rocked in silence, my friend raised his impossibly loud whisper.

"Xiao Yong"

The silence broke like a hurricane. Every single bird surrounding us let out their own sorrowful pitch with chirps, tweets, and caws of pain. A small yellow bird on a branch to my left was screeching so loud it hurt my ears. I clapped hands to my head and gazed at the small bird with the same feathers as it's missing emperor. The dark red beak didn't match its older counterpart's, but the feathers were unmistakable.

The pain and sorrow in every cry hit me like forlorn waves. I grabbed Zhao Jie's hand and tried to yell over the raucous cries, "We have to get out of here!"

He nodded, squeezed my hand in his, and ran. Managing to make it all the way to the edge of the woods before tripping, Zhao Jie and I sprawled out onto the grass and loose rocks at the line of trees. The birds hadn't followed us, but I could still hear them and feel their grief.

"It was You Xiaoqing" I panted, spitting grass out of my mouth, as I lay sprawled on the ground. "She took the emperor bird." Zhao Jie grunted in agreement. "How did she get it? She wouldn't go into the woods alone."

We got up after a time and brushed ourselves off. Walking now, no longer being bombarded by cries of woe, Zhao Jie and I traded ideas on how she got the bird. We hadn't come to any good conclusions when I said goodbye and walked into my house.

"Why is your face green?" My mom asked immediately. I sighed, tried to wipe the grass stain off of my chin and cheek, and told my parents everything I knew about the emperor bird.

"You're letting your imagination go wild," She told me, licking her thumb and rubbing at the stain on my cheek. "There's no such thing as a king bird."

The bird wasn't at school the next day. You Xiaoqing sauntered in with her usual confidence, but this time I knew I could talk to her. I marched up to her and asked, "Where is it? Where's the bird?"

She took a step back, not used to being confronted or even spoken to with tone. "It's dead, what's it matter to you?" She scoffed and walked past me.

I spun around as fast as I could and caught her arm. "Where did you catch it? All of the birds in the forest are crying! They're in agony! You've left the baby emperor bird all alone!"

You Xiaoqing stared at me, her eyes glimmering. "There's a baby one?"

"That," I thought, "Was a mistake."