“How could I not see?” I say. “Those statues you carved inside your sculpture of the temple. They were just too small for me to see how beautiful they were.” I look up at the giant dolphins and whales and other sea life teaming within the form of the wave hanging over me. “But now, you’ve made something so big that it fills the sky. And even someone as stupid as I am can see.” I place my hands on his shoulders. “I see you, Cricket. And I’m so proud of you.”
And there, in front of all those people, I open my arms to him. I don’t embrace him; I don’t wrap him up in my arms. I come toward him as he comes toward me, and we embrace each other.
* * *
When the Drift Season Pageant is over, the students all proceed to Divinity’s Lap to participate in Beautymarch. No rankings. No competition. Just every student getting a turn to skate for everyone else, for the pure joy of skating. Doi and I row to the Principal Island and come ashore. We hold on to each other for steadiness as we follow the other students.
“Go get your skates.” We turn to see Sensei Madame Liao.
“We’ve been unskated for the term,” I say.
“The term is over,” says Sensei Madame Liao. “Now, go get your skates. You are skating in Beautymarch.”
We gape at her. I look at Doi. Her face is filled with doubt. The doubt is the shame of parading ourselves in front of our fellow students after our spectacular humiliation.
“You have paid what the law required you to pay,” says Sensei Madame Liao. “Do not let anyone else make you pay more. Never let anyone do that to you.”
Doi and I slip and stumble back to our dormitory chambers as quickly as we can, and every time we fall down, I laugh, knowing that we’re about to skate again.
When we arrive at Divinity’s Lap, Beautymarch is already under way. All the first-year boys and girls are arrayed in a vast circle, each student playing an instrument. The sound of erhus and flutes and traveling zithers and taiko drums fills the air as the great sculpture of the Enlightened One towers over us, her hand resting on the roof of the Hall of Lilting Radiance, her smile sweeping over us all. Sensei Madame Phoenix skates about, directing her birds to spell out auspicious logograms over the Enlightened One’s head. The luminescent harnesses crossing their green bellies spell out GENEROSITY! LOYALTY! FRIENDSHIP!
“Chen Cricket!” Sensei Madame Liao calls out.
Cricket tosses his taiko drum to the skater exiting the circle. He takes the center and skates strange little fidgets, doing no real wu liu, only fussy footwork, as he does when he’s nervous. He’s finding the grain in the pearl with his skates, working it with little twitches of his blades. As he does so, he’s making the pearl change color! It turns blue and silver under his skates and then we see that he’s making a figure in the pearl. He creates the image of the Temple of Heroes of Superlative Character. Everyone cries out with delight at his clever trick. The pearl quickly heals over and the image vanishes.
“Chen Peasprout!” calls out Sensei Madame Liao. I toss my erhu to Cricket as he exits the center. It doesn’t matter how I skate. It doesn’t matter what the other students think. I’m simply grateful for the joy of skating and for the honor of sharing a court with my friend Niu Doi one last time. There are cheers from some of the students as I give them one of my lifetime’s 608 riven crane split jumps.
“‘The Pearlian New Year’s Song’!” calls out Sensei Madame Liao. I exit the center and go back to the circle of students as we begin to sing, joined by Sensei Madame Phoenix’s birds.
If I learned just one thing, then the year has not been wasted.
If I traded one illusion for a revelation,
If I kept just one friend, then the year has not been wasted.
May we meet here in the New Year. May we meet here in Pearl!
“Captain!” calls out Sensei Madame Liao. Whom is she calling captain? It’s a term of affection in Pearl. It means “the best,” “the bravest,” “the highest.”
Suki makes to enter the center, but Sensei Madame Liao glares at her, turns away, and calls out, “Captain! Captain! Captain!”
Sensei Madame Liao stares down the length of the circle of students. As she beats on her drum and calls out “Captain!” it’s clear that her stare isn’t a challenge.
It’s not a command.
It’s an invitation.
She’s inviting us all to support something.
A few students begin to take up the chant. “Captain! Captain!”
She’s inviting us to put aside childish rivalries. She’s inviting us to search within us for enough imagination and heart to become our next, better selves. She’s inviting us to show that we’re ready to advance to the next year.
The court resounds with chants of “Captain! Captain! Captain!”
We all look to where Sensei Madame Liao is looking.
She’s looking at my friend.
Doi enters the center of the circle, her eyes shining with tears.
When she crosses her skates and rises on her toes and begins to wave her arms in wings, a cheer erupts from the crowd and the students cry out, “The Dragon and the Phoenix! The Dragon and the Phoenix!”
Doi begins to skate the length of the circle with her arms spread out behind her. She brushes her fingers lightly over the instruments of every student in the circle, inviting us to chase her.
Then she’s off! She leaps out of the circle and races across the campus. We follow behind in a long train, drumming and playing like a great singing dragon.
She leads us atop the roof of Eastern Heaven Dining Hall and takes a spinning shadowless kick leap off the edge into the night sky. Everyone does the leap behind her, making a wave pass along the body of the dragon and flip
