"Who’s seen my head...?” Zhao Laohei said again, like he was remembering something. Zhao Jie, Zhao Yuan, and I stood stunned.

​

Zhao Laohei chortled at our fearful expressions, "Don't worry too much. It's none of our business, even if it does have something to do with ghosts.” He looked at me in particular. “You just remember that you’re not to go play below the cliff or around the bend.”

​

He turned his head to Zhao Yuan, “Now, aren’t you hunting at the river today? Well go on! Bring me back a juicy one!" He waved goodbye to us as we started away.

​

Our trio marched through the village towards the western river. The river was high with the spring and rich with fish, crabs, and wildlife. Most of the crabs were too small in the summer though. They’d be ripe and delicious by autumn.

​

Most of the kids who came to the river to play in the summer didn’t catch many crabs. The few we did get ahold of we brought up as pets. In most cases, the animals would die far too quickly. I think that’s a lesson every one of us had learned by the age of nine or ten.

​

As we neared the western edge of town I realized our path would take us uncomfortably close to the cliff and mountain path.

​

“Let’s uh, let’s go the scenic way. Through the market, yeah?” I suggested to the siblings. Neither one voiced their opposition so I curved us southward and we moved through the buildings until we came out of the village near the river fork.

​

We reached the river and caught dozens of various crabs. By noon, I had completely forgotten Zhao Laohei’s warning. We left laughing and took the main path back to town.

​

“I’m hungry,” Zhao Jie whined, “Do you think I can eat a crab raw?” He looked at me and grinned before turning to his sister. “Zhao Yuan, why don’t you try it?” He thrust a smaller crab that was hunkered inside of its shell towards his sister’s mouth. She squalled like a bird and ducked beneath his outstretched hand, jabbing her finger into his side and making him drop the poor crab. I laughed at them and look up at the hot noon sun overhead. When I looked down from the beautiful summer sky, I recognized where we were.

​

"Sister Yuan,” My voice didn’t shake, but I felt the strain in my throat. “We should change routes. Your father warned us, remember?" I pointed at the cliff ahead.

​

Zhao Yuan’s face paled, probably remembering our final encounter with Xiao Chun’s mother. “We’d have to back track ten or more minutes…” She contemplated aloud. “I dunno Xiao Yong, I’m tired…and it’s hot.” She looked at her brother and her brow furrowed. "It’s still a ways off. We can go this way super quietly. It’ll be fine.” She put her hands on her scant hips, easily taking charge as she always did. “Even if there is a ghost, he wouldn’t hurt us! We didn't do anything to offend the dead driver!”

​

She turned and marched the way of the cliff. Zhao Jie looked at me and shrugged with a look that said “Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, and followed her. I lowered my head from the sun filled sky and followed suit.

When we were within throwing distance of the clearing below the cliff, I glanced at where I surmised the tractor had landed. I felt my knees go weak when I looked into the shadow of the cliff and saw a man in a green overcoat and a heavy wool cap.

​

It was summer. No one would be standing out here in an overcoat.

​

We kept walking past and I bit down on my lip to keep from shouting. Perched on the man’s back, like a fleshy backpack was another man, but one without a head. Its neck looked pinched shut, as if a giant pair of sealing scissors had clipped the head right off. The sharp neck was angled in our direction. 

My feet stopped moving on their own accord. Seeing me stop, Zhao Jie and Zhao Yuan followed my gaze. Zhao Jie’s mouth dropped open. "He might be a lunatic. Do you think he’ll faint from the heat?"

I turned to my friend, double-checking that we were talking about the same thing, looking at the same thing.

​

Zhao Yuan added in her own assessment, "Eh. I met that lunatic a couple months ago. He keeps coming to our school and begging for food. He had the same overcoat then, too."

​

I thought back to the spring and the neurons lined up in my mind. “He was outside of the playground sometimes. We all thought he was mad, but he never caused any trouble.”

​

“We gave him some of our lunch once, didn’t we?” Zhao Jie said distractedly, not taking his eyes from the man.

​

I tried to remember exactly when the crazy man in the coat had appeared, but it was like trying to hold smoke.

​

Zhao Jie and Zhao Yuan could see the man in the coat. They couldn’t see the partial man on his back. The headless neck was still pointing in our direction. It looked…sick.

​

Zhao Yuan must have noticed my disgusted expression. She asked me, "What's wrong with you? Are you scared of the crazy guy?”

​

I reached my hand towards Zhao Yuan and said, "No. Not him… but the thing on his back is looking at us.”

​

The siblings’ four eyes darted between my face and the man not 15 meters away from us. “What thing?” They asked, almost in unison.

​

“It…he…yeah it’s a he. He doesn’t have a head. He’s kind of…clutching the man. And he’s bloody."

Their eyes ping ponged again.

​

Zhao Yuan raised her hand above mine and said, "Xiao Yong, don’t make me hit you.”

​

I shook my head slowly, my eyes not leaving the monstrosity before me, "I’m not trying frighten you, Sister! It’s true..."

​

Zhao Yuan pulled my hand and grabbed her little brother by the collar of his shirt. She gave a mighty tug and dragged us into a run towards home. I looked back instinctively to where the lunatic was watching us. I thought that the headless neck was doing the same.

​

We rushed down the streets and quickly came upon the siblings’ house. Zhao Laohei and my father were standing in the doorway, talking. They took note of our uncharacteristic paleness and came to their own conclusions.

​

I was frightened and out of breath. Zhao Yuan caught hers before me, saying "Lunatic...ghost… no head." She pointed back from where we’d run.

​

Zhao Laohei brought a hand up to his face and looked first angry then worried. "Did you go under the cliff? What did you see?"

​

Zhao Yuan said, "We saw a lunatic,” She motioned between herself and Zhao Jie, “But Xiao Yong said he saw a headless ghost on the lunatic’s back..." She panted and looked at me.

​

Our fathers looked at me together. I nodded and breathed out a yes, feeling a pulse beat behind my eyes.

​

Zhao Laohei squatted, "Did he chase after you?"

I shook my head, still panting.

​

Zhao Yuan said, "The crazy guy didn't follow us either. He was just hanging out below the cliff."

​

Zhao Laohei took a deep breath and pinched where his nose met the forehead, "Don't go near the cliff again. You may not have classes during summer holiday, but you’ll do homework at home."

​

He ignored Zhao Yuan and Jie’s disappointed cry and continued to say, "We are in luck. I received word from Master Liu. He’ll be here in just a few days. You are free to play outside again,” Our hopeful eyes lit up, “After he deals with whatever is happening by the cliff."

​

"Master Liu?" Zhao Yuan, Zhao Jie and I asked at the same time.

​

Zhao Laohei and my dad nodded at the same time. That must have been what they were talking about when we’d arrived. My mind filled with thoughts of ice cream and ghosts. I was suddenly hungry and scared at the same time.

​

For the next several days our parents kept Zhao Jie, Zhao Yuan and I indoors. It was awful.

​

Word of the lunatic below the cliff spread as all news does through the village. Some said that he would ask for food from passing villagers. Many considered and treated him like a beggar. This wasn’t uncommon in our village, each year someone like him would meander into town and knock on a few doors looking for kindness and piety.

​

On the first day, the lunatic asked for food from Wang Qi, Wang Yumin and Wang Yushan as they passed by the main road. On the second day, he went to their homes and asked again. He returned on the third day, still pursuing the Wang families. By the third day, Wang Yumin’s wife was more than reluctant to give him anything.

​

“Why have you only come to us?” She asked him on the third morning. “There are many more people in our village with much to offer. What do we owe you?”

​

The lunatic didn’t respond. He opened up a mouth filled with rotten teeth and simply laughed at the woman. She cried out at the man and shut the door in his face without offering any food.

​

My mom told us this over dinner on the fourth night of my imprisonment in our house.

​

“What happened next?” I asked her, loving any sight or sound of the outside world. She looked at me callously and said, "Do your homework. Don’t interrupt when the adults are talking."

​

“Somebody has forgotten how boring our house is” I thought, but didn’t dare speak. I nodded my head respectfully and bent my head back down to my homework.

​

At least Zhao Yuan and Zhao Jie were bored with me.

​

My mom continued to tell Zhao Jie’s mother that the lunatic had stopped going to Wang Yumin’s house. “After she’d refused him one meal he just stopped!” She looked around at the kids doing their homework. “But he’s still going to Qi and Yushan’s places.”

​

Wang Qi, nor Wang Yushan ever gave the mad man anything. On the fifth day he was turned away by Wang Qi asking for breakfast, then lunch. Wang Yushan denied him dinner.

​

"The poor man must be starving,” Zhao Jie’s mother said. "If he refuses to eat from anywhere else and dies of hunger, what will we do?"

​

My mom said, "I guess we’ll have to step in. The Catholics in the village might pitch in too. We’ll take care of him."

​

I sighed with relief at hearing that. Our village shouldn’t hurt the poor that come to us for help. That would bring a kind of dark energy down on all of us. I remembered the thing clutched to his back though, and shivered.

​

Two days later we’d still heard nothing from Master Liu. The rumors about the lunatic circulated constantly. My mother would keep us informed when she came back from going to the store or visiting my father at school.

​

After the families had refused to give him food, the crazy man began knocking on the Wang family doors with a new request.

​

Wang Yumin answered the knocking on the seventh day to a stinking, rotting man in a heavy overcoat despite the summer heat. “What do you want?” He yelled at the man.

​

With a ghastly yellowed smile the man’s roaming eyes settled and he said, “Give the head back to me…”

​