Year of the Golden Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

she could bring on images just by thinking about them. “By harnessing your visions,” Baba said, “you make them your ally, not your enemy.”
    However, there were still plenty of times she could not manage them, and what she saw in her mind’s eye became increasingly more frightening and unrealistic. At the same time, her father changed. From being loving and kind, he became more demanding during Hong Mei’s gong fu training and preparation for what he called, “The Return of Black Dragon.”
    Now, Hong Mei reached into her pocket and took out the small, flat piece of jade and studied it. Not for the first time did she think it an odd shape for a pendant. Chinese favoured jade pendants that were circular, like flattened doughnuts or those old-fashioned Chinese coins with a hole in the middle. Some people wore a charm shaped like a peach, others a small Buddha or Goddess of Mercy.
    Her father’s jade was not like any of these. His had three edges, two straight as if they’d been sliced. The third side was carved with a wavy edge. It looked like a small Chinese fan.
    What was even stranger than the shape of the pale green stone was what had been etched on its face: parts of two different animals – a bird and a serpent by the looks of it – but only the lower parts, claws, feathers and a scaly tail. It always made her wonder if this pendant was only one section of a more traditional circular piece of jewellery like her mother wore. But why would her father have kept a broken piece of jade? What had happened to the rest of it?
    The whistle on the boiling kettle sounded. She sighed and put the jade back into her pocket. It seemed like she had been longing to see her father and ask him these questions for ages.
    Hong Mei grinned to herself. It was lucky she’d kept them hidden in her heart for when she saw him again. As soon as they were reunited, she’d let them tumble out. He would understand immediately how much his daughter had thought about him.

Chapter 4

    Sardine Class
    Alex didn’t have to follow Uncle Peter’s advice about the toilet on the plane. He’d been using the one in business class for the whole trip. That stewardess was so nice. Not only had she let him use the washroom up front, but she must have given him ten cans of Coke during the flight. With all that sugar, he wondered if he’d be able to sleep when they went to his grandparents’ after dinner.
    Ugh! Dinner in Hong Kong: it was bound to be horrible.
    Real Chinese food was something he tried to stay clear of. At a family reunion like tonight, there would be plenty of weird dishes. There was always at least one whole fish with head, tail and bulging eyes. For sure there’d be a roast duck complete with its head. And no doubt they’d have sautéed eel or squid or some other squirmy thing. Oh, and tofu. There was always tofu for Uncle Peter and Ryan. They loved that stuff.
    Alex knew it was going to be bad, bad, bad.
    At least Aunt Grace was normal. Alex couldn’t imagine his aunt eating Chinese food more often than she absolutely had to. Tonight, she’d probably say she was tired and they’d get to go to Nana and Yeye’s. But what if he got jet lag, like that time in Egypt? Uncle Peter had been pretty mad about that.
    They’d been given all kinds of sweets and sodas on the flight to Cairo and had stayed awake the whole time. But once he and Ryan had got into the taxi, they’d crashed. Both of them had slept the whole way into the city and to their hotel. Alex had felt like a zombie as he stumbled through the corridors to their room. Through his sleep-induced fog, he heard Uncle Peter on the phone canceling the morning’s camel trek.
    After he hung up he said, “The whole point of flying business class is to sleep. Not to play video games for fourteen hours straight.”
    “Can’t we just reschedule it?” asked Aunt Grace. “The Sphinx hasn’t moved in over four thousand years. It’ll still be there tomorrow.”
    “You