Sue looked away, not wanting to see her grandmother in this light, and instead concentrated her attention on the old photographs from Hong Kong that were aligned on the dresser between newer photographs of herself and John. There was a picture of her grandmother and her mother standing in front of a junk in Hong Kong harbor, a picture of her grandfather holding up a live chicken purchased from one of the vendors on the street, a picture of her grandmother and two friends clowning in front of the black steam engine of a train. Hundreds of times over the years, on boring nights, on rainy days, her grandmother had told her the stories behind each of those photos, promising that one day the two of them would visit Hong Kong together, but Sue realized now that the two of them would not be taking any such trips.
The thought depressed her, filling her with a bleak hopelessness and making her feel sadder and more empty than she'd ever felt in her life.
She wished that she'd gone to her bedroom as soon as they'd come home and pretended to be asleep when her grandmother came looking for her.
'Susan.'
She looked back toward the bed.
'I want you to have this.' Her grandmother withdrew a necklace from the top drawer of her nightstand. She held it forth with two slightly trembling hands. In the stillopen drawer were wads of tissue and small empty bottles of old medicine.
The necklace, with its thin gold chain and small white jade pendant, looked vaguely familiar, and Sue turned it over gingerly in her hands as she took it. She examined the jade. 'Is it real?'
Her grandmother nodded. 'It is from the K'un Lun Mountains in Khotan.
It was given to me as a wedding present.' Sue recognized the necklace now, from the pictures. 'I wore it as long as your grandfather was alive, but when he died, I took it off. I was planning to save it, to give it to you as a wedding present, but I have decided to give it to you today.'
Sue tried to hand the necklace back. 'I'll get married eventually.
Give it to me then.'
'No.' Her grandmother held up her hands in refusal.
'I want you to have it now.'
Sue looked more carefully at the object in her hand.
The jade was white, milky, of the rarest variety. In the shape of a circle, it contained two carved figures, the dragon and the phoenix, joined together, symbolizing the male and female joined together in marriage. 'I can't accept this,' she said.
'You must. I will not take it back.'
:'I'm not getting married yet.' .... 'I may not be alive when you are married.'
Sue stared at her grandmother, realization slowly dawning on her. She felt an unpleasant churning in her store ach. 'You're not going to die, are you? You're not giving away all of your stuff because you're--'
Her grandmother smiled. 'I'm not dying.'
'Then why are you--'
'But I will die one day. I may even die soon.' 'Grandmother .. .'
The old woman sighed. 'I am giving you this necklace for protection. I know you do not hold the same beliefs I do, but I beg you to do me this one small favor. Wear the necklace. It will protect you against evil.
You may not understand now, you may think I am being foolish, but I think one day you will understand and you will be grateful
Evil.
Sue looked at the necklace in a new light. Her eyes saw not the beauty of the intertwined figures but the teeth of the dragon, the claws of the phoenix. Instead of making her feel safe and secure, instead of reassuring her the way it was supposed to, the necklace caused the hair on the back of her neck to prickle, sent a shiver of coldness through her. She might not hold the same beliefs as her grandmother, but she was not the skeptic she aspired to be, and the idea of wearing something that was supposed to have supernatural powers frightened her.
She thought of the strange shadow in the dark hallway of the high school.
Evil.
'Did you put a... spell on this?'
Her grandmother laughed, a tinkling, musical sound. Her eyes were laughing too, and for the first time since entering the room, Sue relaxed a little. Maybe she was overreacting.
'I know no spells. I am not a witch.' Her grandmother grinned. 'Do you think I am?'
'No,' Sue admitted, embarrassed.
'The necklace will protect you because it is jade. Not because of any spell that has been put on it or because it has been treated with herbs or because the carving has symbolic meaning. Anything made from jade will protect you.
'Oh.'
'I am giving you this necklace because I was going to give it to you anyway. I have simply decided to give it to you early.' Her smile faded. 'gut I don't want you to mention this to John or your parents.
This is between you and me. Do you understand?'
Sue nodded.
'Good. And you will wear the necklace?'
'Yes.'
'All the time?'
'Even when I'm asleep or taking a shower?'
'All the time.'
'For the rest of my life?'
'Until it is safe to take it off.' . Sue looked at her grandmother, saw again how old she looked, saw the thinness of her hair, the boniness of her frame. 'Yes, Grandmother,' she said.
'Good.' The old woman smiled. 'You are my favorite granddaughter.'
Sue smiled. 'I'm your only granddaughter.'
'Even if you weren't, you would be my favorite.' She rubbed her eyes and yawned, realistically, but with more dramatic flair than usual.
'It's getting late now. Go to bed. I will see you tomorrow. We will talk more about this later.'
Sue understood that she was being dismissed, and she gave her grandmother a quick hug, noticing as she did so that the old woman was wearing a jade bracelet around her skinny wrinkled wrist. 'Thank you,' she said, holding forth the necklace. 'I will treasure this always.'
She said good night and left the bedroom, filled with conflicting feelings, not sure if she was scared or sad, relieved or worried. She was definitely tired, and she wanted to go to bed, but instead she returned to the living room, where John was on the floor again, her parents on the couch.
She stood silently in the doorway, watching, until she found what she was looking for.
John, wearing a white jade ring on the middle finger of his left hand.
Her parents, wearing matching white jade necklaces.
Two pairs of footsteps on the hardwood floor of the hallway. Heavy and light.
Rich set his fingers on the keyboard of the PC and stared intently at the green words on the top half of the screen, as though he'd been doing so all along. He felt Corrie's presence behind him even before seeing the blur of white movement in the glare of the VDT, even before her shadow fell across his papers. He typed a sentence that he had no intention of using but that would seem legitimate if read over his shoulder.
Corrie stood, silent, waiting, trying to force him to be the first to speak, but it was Anna as usual who unwittingly broke the stalemate.
'We're going to church, Daddy.' Her small soft hand grabbed his neck.
She kissed his unshaven cheek, giggled at the roughness.
'That's good.'
'Are you coming with us?' Corrie asked.
He turned toward her, shook his head, motioned toward the PC. 'I have to finish this article. If I don't get it done today, there's going to be a big hole on the front page.'
