"Wake up!"
The hiss right behind the ear, accompanied by a firm shake elicited a soft bruised groan.
"Good, we're headed back"
The sudden release and a thud, of muscles unengagable. Through letterbox slits there are bokeh lights in the distance. More carousers pass, some stumbling over a body sore from earlier collisions.
Someone stumbles and lets out an oath. A sharp pain. And this time eyes find focus. Theres a pavillion, on its side. That can't be right.
The sounds of the cacophony pierce the unconsious, enough to wake the barely living.
With supreme effort and the help of a low hanging branch, at last the pavillion is clear, with morrocan style laterns hanging from the roof. Sitting in profile, is middle-aged Black woman sipping from a delicate teacup. She doesn't appear to notice the body shuffling toward in her with lumbering purpose.
At much closer range, after some minutes, she merely nods, similing faintly, with a slight wrinkle of the nose, easily missed, and indicates the chair with her left hand.
Seated, the circus tents suddenly pop out and groups of reveller stumble by. But their noise is dampened, as if through a veil. The scratchy sound of piano from a victrola nearby, just over the shoulder, playing Satie.
"They've been there the whole time." The Black woman offers gently. "Maybe even longer than you lying on the ground." She shrugs and drinks again, with concentrated distance. After a few moments more,
"Coffee or Tea?" The woman waves toward a sideboard with two samovars.
After another struggle against a tender body and then settling back into the bench, the woman peers intently over her pince-nez.
"Are you ready for a reading?"
Seeing the confusion, she gestures towards the low table with between the chairs. In her right hand, she holds what appear to be tarot cards.
"I'm the Blue Oracle. If you need more time, perhaps I should begin with a story."
Once, in the dawn of humanity, before the anthropocene, there frolicked 4 dragons in the Eastern sea, Pearl Dragon, Long Dragon, Yellow Dragon, and Black Dragon, flying up in the clouds and diving deep into the waters of their home.
One day Pearl Dragon called the others over: COME QUICK! LOOK!
The dragons saw people praying. An old woman with a thin child on her back called out to the Jade Emperor to send rain, so the children could have rice to eat. She lit fragrant incense that awoke compassion in the dragons.
HOW SAD, they exclaimed and they looked at the Earth, dry and cracked under an unforgiving sun. The crops withered in the fields. The villagers and all people would die soon, if no rain came.
So they decided to fly to the palace of the Jade Emperor and beg his mercy on behalf of all people. When the crashed into his court, they disrupted the celestial order, but the emperor, who was young then, listened to them.
He told them to go back to their ocean and their frolicking, he would send rain in the morning. When the dragons, feeling their mission was complete, complied, the emperor promptly forgot his promise.
For 10 days, the dragons waited, while the people began chewing the bark of trees and eating clay. The dragons realized they would die soon. So they each absorbed great quantities of water into their body and spread it among the clouds.
When the Jade Emperor heard the people praying to him in gratitude, he knew that the 4 dragons had meddled. Angry he called out to the moutain god to fashion 4 mountain prisons for the dragons one for each of the four corners of the empire.
When the dragons were captured by the celestial troops, they gathered as much water as they could from the Eastern sea and under the mountain prisons they released the water, which flowed in 4 mighty rivers.
The peoples of the Earth never again had to worry about water. And the Jade Emperor went back to his entertainment.
That's how it was back then. If you don't believe me, then look at China.
The Jade Emperor continued to rule all the realms, having many celestial banquets, and remaining distracted by all the entertainment and delights.
During their long imprisonment, the dragons built might palaces into their mountains, and had children who frolicked and played in the skies and on Earth, even as their parents remained in their palaces.
The people of Earth for whom they sacrificed their freedom, grew in number and over the eons, forgot the source of their water and forgot how scarce and sacred it once was.
Even the Jade Emperor faded into myth. He wasn't much concerned with the Earth either, it seems... But with the loss of memory, his power waned and all that brought him joy disappeared into the mists of time, until he was a sad lonely old man, sitting in an empty palace. His only company was a little girl name Lungzu.
Not so long ago, a new age dawned, the Anthropocene. Your parents and grandparents were the first generation to witness the might of humankind. It was enough to shake the dust in the celestial palace. And with their newfound power, humans dammed and divert the great rivers gifted by the sacrifice of the 4 dragons.
Today the crops are withering in the fields and an old woman with a thin child on her back goes every day to burn fragrant incense. But the 4 dragons' children are beset by plagues from the kindgoms and cannot restore the balance their ancestors created. They need the help of humankind. And it is said, that humans need the help of dragons.
At the end of her story, the Blue Oracle looks thoughtfully at the table. The faint smile has faded and the lines etched in her face betray her experience, if not wisdom.
After a silence, she suggests the reading of another, more willing, person. It is one she has done many times before. Her movements as she arranges the cards and pieces on the table are almost automatic.
The shaking of the ground, started as a slow rumble and growing into sudden lurches. Her concentration unpreturbed, a serene smile appeared ready to flower at any time. Green trendrils began to curl around the corners of the pavillion and snake inward, as if to tuck the entire structure under the arm. Then the ground would right itself. The rumbling stopped when the ground was several feet below the floor.
Somehow none of the cards or pieces were dislodged. But the Blue Oracle dropped a piece and as she peered earnestly at a nervous face with perspiration beading, she pointed to the table.
"Here's the first game. Tapping a card on this deck, flips the card. If the category is correct, double tap, like this." Several cards shift to a pile on the table. And a stream of water flows to an area of the table.
"But if it doesn't match, or is blank," she taps another card. "Then one tap and the eicosigram appears. Tapping the correct category moves everything over.
As she slides the card, the green vines start to twine around each other creating a a strong stalk that is lifting the pavilion higher and higher. Flowers start to appear.
"When this first deck is finished, another awaits." The cards shift style and instead of a category, a name appears. This time it is a matter of typing the correct name into the box.
The vines just explode and the strange elevator without guardrails and with only the wind as noise rushes towards the sky. Through a cloud.
"Almost there. This is the story of an enlightened one." The oracle does not look up. "Others' results may vary."
The giant plant moved the floor sideways and gently lay it on the ground. And the flowers now are pods, shimmering in the sun above the clouds.
The ground is verdent, lush like a carpet. In the distance a shimmering sea awaits. A young woman walks towards you. By her dress, it appears she is Vietnamese. Smiling, she takes the hand held limply by a side.
"Come and tell me the story. I would love to hear it..." She walks towards a large palace. The Blue Oracle stops her.
"Quan Am, forgive me, I brought a visitor using another's story. I do not know if he has reached this level yet."
Quan Am looks curiously, scanning both faces for...and says "Ah, the road is long, may you find us here when ready."
Then a middle-aged man came out in robes. "Quan Am, let me invite our guest to the banquet. We have much to celebrate, including the rain."
"Lao-t'ien ye, this is not our guest of honor, merely a passing tourist from drought." The man shot a stern look at the Blue Oracle.
"Enough of this. I did not order it." He claps his hands.
Darkness falls.
"Wake up!"
The hiss right behind the ear, accompanied by a firm shake elicited a soft bruised groan.
"Good, we're headed back"
The sudden release and a thud, of muscles unengagable. Through letterbox slits there are bokeh lights in the distance. More carousers pass, some stumbling over a body sore from earlier collisions.
Someone stumbles and lets out an oath. A sharp pain. And this time eyes find focus. Theres a pavillion, on its side. That can't be right...