### Chapter 42 Milky Snakeskin (2)

I cradled the snakeskin in my hand for a moment and then put it in my pocket. You Xiaoqing watched me in silence. She turned back towards town and started walking without a word. I followed her back to town and was surprised when she passed the school without stopping.

"Where are you going now?" I called up to her.

"Your house!" She said, turning around with a teasing grin on her face. The wide smile from the forest was gone now, and her color was back to normal. I was so focused on how different she looked that I almost didn't realize what she'd said.

"My hou- what?" I fumbled, but she kept marching ahead of me. I quickened my pace, but she kept pace just a bit faster. She reached the front door to my house before I did and walked right in. "Wait!" I tried.

I rushed into the house to explain and found You Xiaoqing introducing herself to my mother as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"It's always nice to meet Xiao Yong's friends." My mom smiled at us, mistaking the concern on my face for nervousness. "You two can play in the yard. I'll call you when lunch is ready."

I showed You Xiaoqing around the house, pointing out the games we had and telling her stories of how Zhao Jie and I had mastered hide and seek. She followed me with her hands behind her back, nodding her head like a residential inspector. We played tag in the yard until lunch was ready.

After eating, we talked about homework for a few minutes. You Xiaoqing bid me a curt goodbye and told my mother she had to be going.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" I asked, wondering if I was doing this right. I'd never had a girl over before.

"Nope. I'll be fine. My house is just down the main road. It's actually not that far from here." She smiled a sweet smile and waved at my mother again. "Bye! Thanks for lunch!"

My mom waved back at her and watched her through the window for a moment. She rounded on me with a knowing smile on her face. "So," She started, "Bringing girls over now, huh?"

My face went immediately hot. "She needed my help looking for a special bird. Something for school" I told her, "We couldn't find any." My thoughts were cartwheeling around my head and I hoped I didn't sound phony.

Mom nodded, still bearing that knowing motherly smile. "Mmhmm." She noised, and then went into the other room.

I moved to the desk and started working on my homework. Every now and then the snakeskin would creep to the front of my mind and I'd slide a hand into the pocket where it sat. I wrapped my fingers around the skin gently and felt that cold euphoria creeping up my arm. My vision seemed to sharpen and the worksheet in front of me looked crisp. The math problem I'd been working on danced in my mind and I jotted down the answer that came speeding into my head.

"Whoa" I whispered. I let go of the snakeskin and brought my hand to the table. After a moment the rush started to fade and the room around me dulled. "What is this thing doing to me?" I asked no one. My hand had moved back to my pocket and was reaching for the snakeskin again. I wrapped my fingers around it again and felt the cold clarity wash over my head. Smiling, I returned to my homework and whizzed through it, the problems practically solving themselves in my sharp new perspective.

"I wonder what Master Liu would think of you" I whispered, squeezing the snakeskin in my pocket. "I'll have to show him when he visits this summer. He'll know just what you are."

When I went to school the following week, You Xiaoqing was eceptionally nice to me. Each day she'd greet me when I came in and ask about my homework. The first time it happened I started to ask her about the snake. As if knowing what I was going to say, she put a finger to my lips and said, "Shhhh, it's a secret remember?"

She started to sit with Zhao Jie and I during lunch and play with us during recess. The other boys in class teased us and whispered behind their hands, but You Xiaoqing didn't seem to care.

The next week, You Xiaoqing asked me to come with her into the woods again. She led me to the same tree and once again released the tiny green snake. It didn't shed its skin this time, but roamed around the base of the tree where the yellow bird had once nested. I watched the little reptile slip and weave in the sunshine and found that I kinda liked the little guy.

Spring ended without event and summer crept into our village. The weather grew hot and the students grew restless. My summer holiday was coming up and the excitement was unmatched.

I went with You Xiaoqing into the woods a few more times. The last time it wriggled out of its old skin again and left another milky white snake shape in the dirt.

"How often does he do that?" I asked.

"It depends. Usually three or four times a year, I think." She replied. She picked up the shed skin and held it in her palm. Nodding at it like a scientist examining a specimen, she put it into her bag.

"What do you do with the skin?"

"Eat it." She said nonchalantly. She looked at me and laughed at my expression of disgust.

"Gross!" I all but shouted, "That's gotta taste awful!" A chill crept over my body. "How could you even swallow it?"

She just laughed and shook her head.

At the cusp of summer holiday, You Xiaoqing found me on the playground and pulled me to the fence so no one could over hear us.

"My snake is sick!" She told me, her eyes wide with concern. "I have to take him to a doctor, one far from here."

"Far from here? Why? Where will you go?"

"I don't know." She frowned and shook her head.

The next day You Xiaoqing wasn't at school. Our teacher made an announcement that only raised more questions.

"The You family has experienced a tragedy and You Xiaoqing will not be in school for some time. I want you all to keep her in your thoughts. We'll make a card to send to them this afternoon wishing them well."

"What happened?" I asked, forgetting to raise my hand and wait.

"That's none of your business Xiao Yong." She told me promptly.

"But she was fine yesterday!" I said, feeling a sharp pang of panic. I yearned for the snakeskin to clear my head, but it was in my dresser at home.

"Maybe the monsters got her." Said a voice from behind me. I turned around and saw Band-Aid boy sitting with his arms crossed.

"What?" I asked him, the panic creeping into my voice.

"I saw on her the street yesterday muttering nonsense." He told me, looking disinterested, almost bored. "She said there were monsters after her." He raised is voice into a falsetto and waved his hands in the air in mock fright, "They're going to get me. They'll eat me and all of my friends! Ahh!" He started to laugh and I had to keep myself from hitting him. I thought again of the snakeskin and wished I could feel its effect.

After school Zhao Jie and I walked slowly down the main street towards You Xiaoqing's house. We head someone talking and hunkered down behind a nearby bush. Zhao Jie peeked his head out and turned to whisper something to me. I immediately put my finger to my lips, knowing full well how terrible he was at keeping quiet. I peeked my head out myself and saw the Village Head speaking with a woman that must be You Xiaoqing's mother.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I have to get all of the details straight. You say she was sick?" The Village Head's voice said.

"Yes." Replied the woman. Her voice was full of tears. "She was babbling nonsense when she got home and her temperature was through the roof! We took her straight to the hospital, but the damn doctor said it was nothing and sent us back home."

"Then she went missing?" The Village Head asked. I looked at Zhao Jie in shock. His eyes met mine and he nodded, affirming that he'd heard it too. My hand went instinctually to my pocket where the snakeskin had been, but of course it was still at my house. I closed my eyes and strained my ears to listen.

"Yes!" The woman sobbed. We put her to bed and the next morning she was gone! Her school things, her clothes, even her toys were still there, but she was gone!" The woman's voice paused for a moment and we heard the shuffling of tissues.

"Take your time, ma'am." The man said.

"I searched the house up and down while her father scoured between here and the school. We didn't find her. We still haven't found her and you're here questioning me! Where is my daughter?" She was screaming now. The Village Head started to console her, but I'd stopped listening by then.

I turned to Zhao Jie and whispered, "Something took her!" He nodded at me, not daring to open his mouth.

A police car had pulled up to the house and was parking nearby our hiding place. I heard a pair of men get out of the car and walk towards the house. I started to get up and scout our escape without being seen when one of the men cried out in surprise.

"Did you see this?"

"What is it?"

"There's a snake skin outside the bedroom window! The damn thing is bigger than my leg!"

The Village Head spoke up again, "Anacondas and boas aren't unheard of in these areas. They usually don't come into the village though. Pay it no mind, it's not like a snake took the girl."

"Took isn't the word I'd use." One of the men said. "Look around for any sign of a trail. Maybe she followed it or something?"

Zhao Jie's eyes were wide with surprise and mirrored my own. I mouthed the word 'snake' and tried to hold back a shiver. He looked back at me and mouthed, "Let's get out of here!" While the officers went back behind the house to follow whatever trail there might be, Zhao Jie and I crouch-walked past their vehicle and onto the main road.

"I gotta get home!" I told Zhao Jie, not daring to explain further. "Watch out for snakes!" I waved at him and turned to run home. Word moved faster than I did. When I reached my front door, panting for air, my father was standing outside talking with one of our neighbors.

"Snakes you say?" My dad asked, "Yeah, I'll keep an eye out. If we see anything around here we'll let you know."

I walked past them, not looking at my father for fear of being questioned. When I got inside the house my mother pulled me to the side. "I don't know what you've heard already, but that friend of yours, You Xiaoqingwell she's gone missing." She told me. Her voice was sweet, but firm. "I don't want you going into the woods any more. And your father is going to start walking you to school, okay?"

"Okay, mom." I nodded, maybe a bit too quickly. I needed to get to the snakeskin in my room. I wanted to feel its calming coolness. She looked at me strangely, but didn't add anything else. I nodded again and then rushed to my room. Digging my hands into the hiding spot, I clasped the milky white snakeskin and sighed as the cold chill went up my arm and focused my mind. "Maybe it was her pet snake." I thought. "Maybe it grew so large that she had to take it somewhere else."

Rumors flew around the village at record speeds. Word was that a monstrous boa had eaten You Xiaoqing right out of her bedroom and then slithered away into the forest. I wasn't allowed to go outside and play by myself any more. "Not until the creature has been found." Mom told me. I asked her if she really thought that there was a giant snake eating children, and she only huffed at me. More and more people claimed to have caught glimpses of the snake or had chickens vanish in the night.

Time crawled by and our summer holiday began. A month had passed and still there was no sign of You Xiaoqing. People muttered about her disappearance when her parents were out of earshot. I heard one man talking about her one day when I was with my mother getting groceries.

"There'd be bones if the snake got her." He was saying to another man. "Them big snakes always spit out the bones when they're done with the meat." I felt fear sneak over my whole body at that.

Three days later an old farmer who owned the land behind You Xiaoqing's house lost a young cow from his herd. The talk was that there was another grand snakeskin had been found on the edge of his land.

"If it can take down a cow, then it could seriously hurt a person." The Village Head announced after this incident. "I want all of you to stay in your homes after dark. Lock up your livestock if you can! We'll be organizing a hunting party in the next few days to start going after this thing in the daylight!"

Teams of men went into the forests and the mountain hills, but they only ever came back with stories and the bodies of average sized snakes draped over their shoulders.

I thought of how Zhao Jie and I had hunted for eggs in the forest. We'd ignorantly killed dozens of baby birds. Now the men of the village would be killing hundreds of snakes. Any ones they found were like to be stuck and cut up.

"It makes them feel safe," My father told me, regarding the new fad of snakeskin items and snake meat filling the village. "People usually get mean when it comes to fear."

After a week of actively hunting and nothing to show from it, the rumors took on an extraordinary tone.

"It's a demon." Someone told my mother, who then told my father at dinner. "It's a demon disguised as a snake, sucking blood and eating anything it can get its teeth on." She laughed while retelling the story, but it made my blood curdle.

The Village Head spoke with a troop of older religious fellows in the village about a solution. Being the elders, he was happy to entertain their ideas and soon the village was hosting a theatrical troupe of Taoists that would perform "The Legend of White Snake". Word spread around that they'd be performing "The Flooding of Jinshan Temple" on the next full-moon night to cleanse the area.

The troupe was in our village for three days. The animal disappearances stopped shortly after their arrival. Master Liu arrived on the second day.

The feeling of relief when he arrived as palpable. My family took him in once again with open arms and jumped right into getting him caught up.

The old man came to our door, looking just as he always did. I ran and hugged him as soon as he was in the house. He knelt down and took my chin in his hand, raising my face so he could see my eyes. He smiled that same smile and said, "Xiao Yong, you look great. Your supernatural eyes haven't gotten worse either, not bad..."

He looked to my father and asked, "Where are your villagers? Last year the village was bustling with people enjoying the holiday. Why isn't anyone here?"

My dad looked tired, but he explained, "Of course you don't know. There's a snake here, a monster of one by the talk of it. It's been preying on kids and animals. The Village Head implemented a curfew so we wouldn't lose anyone else."

"Is it a white worm? "Master Liu asked without pause, "I don't sense any evil intention in the area." He paused and turned to look outside.

He turned back and looked past my father directly at me, "Tell me everything."