When Li Jun mentioned Xiao Chun’s mother first, Master Liu’s sharp eyes darted from their lazy sweep in surprise, "How have you heard about Xiao Chun's mother?"

​

"Evil news rides fast and good news baits slowly.” Li Jun replied simply. “I’ve heard many things in my village. As the saying goes, 'A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.' My wife and I have done nothing wrong, Master Liu and I would appreciate you stop looking at me like I’ve stolen trade secrets.” He crossed deeply tanned arms over a middle-aged belly and continued, “I really would like to hire Xiao Chun as a full-time worker. We can take care of him. The fool’s mother will not bother us, even if she has become a ghost."

​

Master Liu gaped. Li Jun and his wife were genuinely considerate. He stood up and bowed to them, "I admire your virtues."

​

Watching Master Liu bowing, Li Jun waved a carefree hand and his wife took a hesitant step towards the master. "Thank you, Master Liu, but we really don't deserve your praise. Xiao Chun will work in my family. We all have our purpose..."

​

Master Liu interrupted him, "Your frankness is beyond value and it eases my heart. I must admit I was worried. You’ve convinced me that all will be well if Xiao Chun stays here. From what you have heard, you must know that it is difficult to predict cause and effect when working with ghosts. If we were unable to settle this down, even I can’t imagine what may happen."

​

Li Jun nodded his head, though not truly understanding the depth of Master Liu’s relief. He scratched his balding head, saying "Master Liu, don't you worry one bit. Xiao Chun will lead a calm and happy life as part of our family. What is ours will be his. I will treat him well."

​

Zhao Jie, Zhao Yuan and I had been sitting on the floor near Li Jun’s wife. “They’re really nice,” Zhao Jie whispered to me. His sister added, “Even nicer than Lei Feng!”

​

“Who?” I asked her quietly.

​

“Lei Feng is a man who spent his entire life helping others!” she told me. She looked back up to watch the adults.

​

I looked at Zhao Yuan with respect. I had never seen someone who’d spent their life doing kind things for other. Even Zhao Yuan, Zhao Jie and I were not kind people! We cause mischief all the time."

​

Our party stayed at Li Jun’s home until that afternoon. We had a very bountiful lunch in their kitchen too. Li Jun's wife cooked chicken, eggs, beansprouts and potatoes for all of us. Ever so slightly, I began to envy Xiao Chun’s new life.

​

Xiao Chun appeared to be in bliss as he gobbled down the first real home cooked meal since his mother had passed away. It was hard to understand why he was already acting so obedient to Li Jun and his wife. He ate exactly what the couple wanted him to eat, patiently waiting for their directions or the next, “Why don’t you try the potatoes?” chime from Li Jun. Xiao Chun wolfed down four steamed buns as they were handed to him. I don't know how he didn’t pop.

​

After Zhao Laohei had lunch, drank wine, and handed Xiao Chun over to the wealthy couple, he loaded up the wagon and prepared to take us back to village. At almost three in the afternoon the Sun was boiling. If there hadn’t been wind we would have roasted in the back of the wagon like cooked pigs.

​

I thought about Xiao Chun as Zhao Jie, Yuan, and I lay in the back of the wagon. I hoped his life would be calm and happy. I wished that for him, and then pondered as to whether that wish would qualify me as a good person like the Li family. When we got back to the village, Zhao Laohei pulled the tractor over.

​

“To the Village Head’s house Zhao Laohei,” called Master Lui. The old master looked at us children half napping in the wagon and shook his head with a smile. “Never turn down free hospitality.” He muttered, and walked away with Zhao Laohei and my father following after. I imagine they had to report that the whole situation was resolved. “We fixed it. We saved the day.” I thought and settled into a fine afternoon nap.

​

When I awoke, the wagon was jostling again. One of the village men was driving the tractor where Zhao Laohei had been. “Agh!” I gasped at him.

​

“Oh hush now!” He called back to us. I was told to take you to your house. It’s just around the corner, now quit yer’ fussin.” He spoke with a strange drawl that I had never attributed to someone in our village before. Zhao Yuan was waking up, but Zhao Jie’s head lolled from side to side as the tractor bumbled along. We hopped off the tractor when it stopped across the street from my house.

“Thanks, I guess.” Zhao Yuan called to the man. We walked across the street as the tractor rumbled along back the way it came. My mom was standing at the door when we arrived.

​

“Good day, huh?” She inquired towards our sleepy expressions. “Where are your father, and the other two?”

​

“With the Village Head,” I chimed, feeling some of my life return as healthy legs pumped blood back to my brain. “Come on, Zhao Jie! Let’s go play!”

​

“I’m going to see what they have to say,” My mom told me distractedly.  “You three stay here, Zhao Yuan, you’re in charge!” Zhao Jie and I glared at her, but Zhao Yuan called out, “Yes ma’am!” with a giddiness that I didn’t trust.

​

“Let’s play Grasping the Stones!” She suggested. Zhao Jie and I booed her idea.

​

“It’s not fair! Your hands are three times bigger than ours! We can’t grab nearly enough to win!”

​

"Fine. What do you want to play?” She said tauntingly, “Don’t tell me you want to play bed-wetting!” She stuck her tongue out at us.

​

Zhao Jie threw a pebble at her and stuck his tongue right back.

​

Bed-wetting was off the table, so we decided to play hide-and-seek. There were two spare rooms, a kitchen, and a principle room. After scouting the area Zhao Yuan agreed that my house would be an acceptable arena.

​

“Okay! Let’s see who goes first!” She told us, we put our fingers behind our back and guessed who was holding the most fingers out. “One, two, three!” Zhao Jie and I both pointed at Zhao Yuan. She stamped her foot once, but conceded, “Fine. I’ll be the seeker.” She pouted. “I’ll close my eyes and wait at the table, whenever you don’t answer me… I’ll come for you.” She growled the last four words, sounding like a terrifying crocodile-woman. Zhao Jie and I watched her close her eyes and then dashed out of the room. I head her singsong voice bounce of the walls with the repetitive, “Have you finished?”

​

“NO!” We yelled once, twice, and then were silent, as we’d gotten firmly in our hiding spots.

​

Zhao Jie hid in the main room under the bed, would have been my guess. I was in the spare room where Master Liu had been staying. The spot under the bed was too cramped, so I climbed atop the  barn style chest in the corner of the room and pulled the lid to cover me as soon as I got in.

​

"Haaaave youuuu finiiiiished?” She called a third time.

​

I held my breath and pulled back the wooden lid carefully so I could peek out. I waited for Zhao Yuan to come find me.

​

Soon, I heard her. "I don’t hear you so here! I! COME!"

​

My neck tightened in anticipation and I suppressed a giggle.

​

I heard Zhao Yuan open the main room door. I let out my held breath in relief. Obviously she was going to find Zhao Jie first.

​

I was smiling triumphantly and trying to hold back a squeal of victory to release when Zhao Yuan finally found me. I was smiling when I heard again, "Have you finished?" float to my ear.

​

My squeal turned into as gasp because it wasn’t the voice of Zhao Yuan, but Xiao Chun's mother.

​

I felt my armpits go cold like they’d been packed with ice and my skin swelled in gooseflesh. I swallowed a heavy lump in my throat.

​

"Have you finished...?” The voice was closer now. It sounded like it came from the door.

​

I swallowed again, wondering why it was so difficult. My heart pounded in my chest, as if the muscles contracting could deliver the message to my brain, “Run!” It would say, “RUN”. I huddled where I was, not making a sound. If I made a noise she would find me.

​

I squatted in the chest, the lid now closed as tightly as my eyes and I tried desperately not to cry. A part of my brain was in an uproar, hollering "Mom! Mom! Mom!" It called again and again.  

​

After a moment of silence I could hear my breath and another part of my brain, the more rational side chip in, “It’s fine. It’s normal to be scared. You’re okay.”

​

"Have you finished?"

​

The voice was closer, impossibly close. Inside my eyelids I saw her standing next to the chest that had become my prison. “She’s too short, she’d need to stand on a chair to peer into the chest,” My brain said. “Maybe she doesn’t need to stand on a chair because she’s a ghost!” Another thought challenged. I put my hands to my ears so I wouldn’t have to hear her any longer.

​

When I had all but burst from terror a finger of cold pushed into the chest where I huddled. I took my hands away from my ears just in time to hear the whisper, "Have you finished?" rasped into me. All at once, I could no longer be calm.

​

"Ah!"

​

I screamed and stood up in the chest. My head mashed into wooden lid, throwing it open as I stood with a very painful clunk. The room before me was empty. The door to the main room was still closed from when I’d shut it, while still playing a game. The side door that led to the barn outside was shut. I could see the afternoon sun coming in from the light, glinting off a nearby roof. I looked down at the heavy chest I had been squatting in. There I saw Xiao Chun's mother. She had gotten beneath the house and thrust her gnarled severed head up through the floor and into my hiding space. Her face was filled with wrinkles and shone its’ hideous smile between my feet.

​

"Zhao Jie,” I gasped, “Zhao Yuan, mom..." I was screaming and twisting my feet to avoid touching the old woman. I fell backwards out of the chest. My head hit the floor with a hearty thud and a million white lights burst into my vision. Xiao Chun's mother opened her mouth with a smile that just barely breached the wooden floor, "Have you finished?"

​

"Ah!" I screamed again, trying my best to scramble backwards without touching her. My shaking six year old legs skittered across the floor and I moved backwards much too slowly. Xiao Chun’s mother only smiled at me from the floor. Her visage began to rise out of the ground as I regained my feet.

Zhao Yuan and Zhao Jie rushed to the doorway.

​

“What? What? Why are you screaming?” Zhao Yuan yelled at me, not very kindly. "Xiao Yong, what's wrong with you? Did you stumble on a spider? Are you bit?" She looked me up and down with distaste.

I scrambled past them still screaming, "Run, Run away! It’s the ghost! Xiao Chun’s mother is back!"

Neither of them moved so I grabbed their hands. I cast a look over my shoulder and saw the ghost’s head, now being held at my shoulder height by an arm that jittered as it rose from the floor. And she was staring at us.

​

It didn’t occur to me that they still couldn’t see her. Zhao Jie mumbled out a surprised, "Where?"

​

Tears were pouring from my face and I couldn’t manage to speak. I pulled on them with all of my strength. Gears finally kicked into motion, either they came to sense or reacted to my reaction. We picked up speed quickly and moved from the spare room, through the main bedroom, past the kitchen and practically flew out the front door. My foot caught at an angle on the ground outside our front door and all three of us crumpled into a pile. My eyes shot open and darted to the front door. Xiao Chun’s mother was there. Her body bowed slightly and both arms held the severed head up like a sacrificial lamb. The eyes were locked onto mine.  Zhao Yuan followed my eyes and hissed, “Is she there?”

​

“Move!” I urged them. I scrambled back to my feet and puffed a sigh of relief when I saw them following me. Zhao Jie called out nervously, "Was there really a ghost?" as we jogged down the street.

​

I stopped running when my vision began to blur on the edges. Zhao Yuan caught up to me, panting herself, and slapped a hand on my back. Her fingers twisted around the shirt I was wearing and kept me from moving. Zhao Jie came up a moment later, red in the face and raising his arms above his head.

"Xiao Jie,” Zhao Yuan panted, “Get Master Liu from the Village Head’s house. I will take care of Xiao Yong."

Zhao Jie nodded and he ran off. I was staring at the ground trying to catch my breath when something occurred to me. “She doesn’t have to run.” I coughed out in between gasps.

​

“What?” Zhao Yuan asked, gulping in air.”

​

“She just goes!” I told her. I pulled my eyes from the ground and looked back the way we came. No shadows flowed across the dusk that was setting. No ghostly visage crept into my view.

​

“Goes,” I said again, and turned my head the way Zhao Jie had gone. He was running in the distance, maybe 15 yards away when I saw her. There was nothing in Zhao Jie’s path a moment before, and then there just was. She just was. Xiao Chun’s mother appeared in front of my friend as he raced for help. Without knowing it would happen, Zhao Jie collided with the dead woman, passing through her transparent body. It was like someone had turned off a switch. One moment he was running, head down, sweat pouring. The next his body jerked in a shiver and he collapsed into the dirty street, sliding heedlessly through the dust and rocks.

​

"Xiao Jie,” His sister called, “What's wrong with you..." Her voice pitched abnormally high and wavered.

“We’re eaten…” I thought. “She’ll kill us all.”

​

A powerful voice broke through my despair. One I recognized. It boomed through the street and seemed to stir a wind with its force. "How dare you hurt the boy in front of me? I command you to stop! This will go on no longer!"

​

The rage and power inside of Master Liu’s voice penetrated my certainty, but could not dispel the fear. Xiao Chun’s mother vanished from where she stood and an instant later a severed head floated before me, leveling its eyes with mine own. Her ghostly body crept towards me from behind, jittering and convulsing as if powered by fear itself.

​