Red Panda Goddess

Tired Yet?

“So you’re telling me that Juki is a goddess?” I ask in complete confusion.

“I’m not saying anything other than she is very special and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“Well I don’t either, but it’s just odd to really believe in such things with technology and science the way it is today.”

“You know just as well as I do that the world can surprise you in many ways that you thought not possible before. So I always keep an open mind to everything, as should you Vemo.” He smiles at whole gripping my shoulder.

“For you I’ll definitely keep an open mind about anything.” I smile back at him and we take the rest of the trip in silence listening to all of the sounds of the forest. We arrive into the village in the early afternoon and park the vehicle back into the warehouse. Mr. Cheng hands me a list of things to get and shows me the places where to get them and hands me a change purse full of money.

“I’ve got my own list of things and I think it would be better if we split up and get more done. I want to leave from here and get back to the house before sunset.” He walks off towards the west side of the village and I turn to the east and look my list over a few times trying to memorize it. I walk into store after store getting everything on the list never put a dent in the change purse.

“I’ve never seen him run out of money, I wonder what he used to do for a job?” I say to myself as I’m walking into the last place to finish off my list. I grab the last bit of supplies and walk out of the store surprised to see Mr. Cheng standing there ready to make the 10 mile trek back up the mountain. “Wow you’re already done too?”

He smiles at me and gestures to start walking, “I’m glad to see you moved pretty fast, we cut our total time in half splitting up. But next time we will have all day to do this so we can walk together and I can show you some the shops that have your kind of things.” He seems to be loaded down with supplies as much as I am but he doesn’t even budge to the weight.

“You don’t seem to be struggling with all the stuff, yet you don’t look as strong as I do.” He laughs and slows to my pace.

“It’s something I heard an American boxer call ‘kung fu muscle’ and he would tell me that for me to be as small as I am and pack a punch as powerful as his was unheard of.” He laughs and grabs the large bundle of flour off my back. “I need you to pick up the pace so I’ll take some for you. But next time you’ll need to carry more to get strong.” My jaw drops like a rock in water. I can’t believe he’s carrying almost twice as much and still not struggling or breaking a sweat. He continues to have a faster pace than me even though he just took almost half of the weight off of me and I’m still struggling to keep up with him. We make it back to the cabin just before sunset and he drops his load onto the front porch and walks around back. I drop mine beside his and Juki walks out of the little door and runs to me.

“Hey Juki! Did you enjoy getting to stretch your legs out and get some running around done?” She happily nods and purrs while I pet her and scratch her ears. I stand up and walk around back to see Mr. Cheng sitting on the swing watching the horizon.

“Sit Vemo, rest yourself and enjoy the view.” He pats the bench next to him and I sit down shuffling to get comfortable. Juki jumps up into my lap and lays back on my chest. We watch as the pink, purple, and grey sky gets brighter and brighter for a few moments. Then the sun touches the horizon and the sky flashes a bright brilliant purple and begins to dim slightly and slowly. The sun’s final peek over the horizon let’s a small pink ray of light run from the furthest landscape and shoots across the land like a solar laser show and disappears as the giant yellow ball dips below the black line of mountains. “Absolutely wonderful. I was hoping you would get to witness the light show at least one time before we left. It only ever happens once every few years.” I was speechless and my eyes were fixed to the sky in front of us. “I see you have your camera recording, are you going to stop it?” I looked down and didn’t even realize I had even brought my camera back here with me or even set it to record.

“That was, amazing! I’ve never in my life seen anything like that! What was all of that?” He laughs and turns crossing his legs to face me.

“The sun has to be in the exact right spot during the right time of year and for it to be during a sunset for it to happen. But there are a few lakes and ponds that dot the area in front of us here. And there are shrines all throughout the land that have these mirrors on top of them. They’re just big bowl like dishes that have a reflective surface. And if everything is set just right what you just witnessed will happen. If you’ll play it back on your camera I’ll show you what I’m talking about.” I run play the video back and as it goes through the stages of the sunset he explains how the lakes, ponds, and mirrors reflect the light from the sun and the image from the sky at the same time and mix them while being focused. So you get what looks like a natural forming laser light show. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “Now you see why I wanted to hurry.”

“Yeah, absolutely totally worth it, thank you so so much for bringing me here.” I reach over and give him a hug. Juki hops down off my lap and runs around the house.

“Come on Vemo, lets go inside. Help me grab the supplies and hurry inside.” He has a worried look on his face staring out into the darkened land. I look out while following him around the house but don’t see anything unusual. We get around the house and grab everything taking it inside and once we’re inside he turns around locking the door and locking the small door. Then he places four pieces of paper on each door, I look around and notice those pieces of paper on every window and door of the whole cabin. It also looks like Mr. Cheng’s house, just older. The placement and design all looks the same, even the table and seat placement. I walk into the rooms and realize that Mr. Cheng had built his house to match this cabin board for board. He comes around and shows me to the room I’ll be staying in. It’s a fairly big room from what I’m used to, a bed that would fit two of me, a closet that you can walk into and turn around in, a pretty black wood desk with a few drawers and a lamp, a nightstand next to the head of the bed, and a chest of drawers at the foot of the bed. The bed itself was only a few inches off the floor and was very comfortable to sit and lay on. I noticed there wasn’t a chair to sit at the desk with but there was an extra set of pillows on the bed. “Juki will be sleeping in here with you since she seems to enjoy your music. There’s a plug-in under the desk for your computer, and next to the nightstand for your phone and music player. The last time I was out this way I hired a team of Japanese technicians to make the place able to have electricity without running power lines through the forest. I wanted to keep it to where we stay away from the outside world as much as possible.” He points to the roof, “so there’s solar panels on the roof that catch every bit of sunlight from dawn to dusk. But you won’t be able to use your phone or any kind of internet.”

“Yeah, I noticed...but I guess that’s alright. I’ve got my guitar, music, Juki and you to keep my mind busy.” I smile at him and he walks off. I start unpacking all of my things when I suddenly feel a rush of overwhelming power like I was being weighed down by something. It felt as if I was being pushed to the floor by something that weighed an unimaginable amount. Just then Mr. Cheng rushed into the room with a piece of paper and hurriedly stuck in on the window. All of a sudden it was as if all the weight disappeared, “what was that?!” I asked without really thinking about it.

“Just something we don’t have to worry about during the day. It’s just the night time that it comes out.” He starts to walk away again.

“But what is it? That was more than just strange, I felt like I was...”

“Don’t fear it. Just be confident and happy. I’ll try to explain it to you tomorrow when we are fresh and new.” He walks out of the room shutting the door behind him.

I decide to return to unpacking and I get all of my clothes organized and put away, I set my laptop and camera on the desk, I set my guitar up against the desk, set my phone and iPod on the nightstand, and plug everything up. Mr. Cheng knocks on the door then opens it bringing me a nice looking rolling black desk chair. “I thought you could use this for your desk so I got it when we were in America and put it together here. I hope you like it,” he rolls it in and Juki hops into it spinning.

“Thank you so much! I love it!” Juki hops down and stumbles across the floor dizzy drunk. I sit down in it and it feels wonderfully comfortable, I roll it over to the desk and plug the camera into the laptop and upload everything. He smiles and walks back out of the room. As I’m looking through the pictures I notice some strange things in the pictures that have Juki in them. They all have her eyes shine very blue, it’s as if the camera is catching her eye refraction more than a normal camera. I chock it up to good quality and shut the laptop, then I decide to change into some comfortable clothes and see what we are having for dinner. I open the door and Juki runs out into the dining area and hops into an empty vase laying at the end of the table. I walk into the kitchen and offer to help.

“You can cut those cucumbers and those potatoes if you want,” he hands me a knife and shows me how he wants them cut.

“I really want to thank you for bringing me here Mr. Cheng. It’s not only an honor to here where your grandfather lived and also where you spent a lot of time growing up, I’ve also had an amazing time learning under you and having you as a friend is something I will never forget. I will tell our story for years to come. I just wanted you to know that I see you as a grandfather to me, I respect you and care for you as a grandson would.” I tell him with all of my heart as I’m cutting the vegetables. Juki pops her head out of the vase and then hops over into the kitchen. I grab a small bowl and dice her up some potatoes and cucumbers while giving them a small amount of salt. She climbs up a stack of flour bags and sits on the counter beside us. We all start taste testing each individual thing before it’s cooked and laugh at each other for no reason other than having fun while making a meal. He finally finishes cooking and sets the bowl pot down on the table, I take the dishes and set them around the table and Mr. Cheng sets another plate out. “Are we expecting company?” I ask curiously without knowing his motive. He doesn’t answer right away, instead he walks into his room and brings back a set of chopsticks just like the ones he and I have. He sets them down at the fourth plate and sits in his normal spot. I serve Juki her food and then allow Mr. Cheng to go next and he serves the fourth plate and then himself. Then I serve myself and grab my chopsticks and bow my head. Mr. Cheng blesses the food very noble like and then he waits patiently. I look over at Juki and she is waiting too, so I decide to wait as well so that I don’t stir any disrespect or offense. We sit there for what feels like an hour but is truly only about 5 minutes in silence and there’s a knock at the door. Mr. Cheng’s fist clenches tightly on his chopsticks and he stands up gesturing for me to come with him to the door.