The Egg

As it turned out, Councilor Tom Tam did not cook the two small white eggs and the one small brown one for Storm King’s dinner, because something interrupted him. Right there in the egg basket, as Tom Tam was still deciding what to do about cooking dinner, the fourth egg, the largest one with the mottled gray coloring on its shell, began to rock back and forth rhythmically. As it rocked, bumping into the other three eggs in the basket, cracks began to appear in the large egg’s shell. First, one long crack that was as fine as one of the Storm King’s white hairs on his furry chin. Then a second crack that wasn’t quite so long. Then several small cracks appeared all at once.

Councilor Tam was stunned. He had never seen such a thing and didn’t know what to do. He was a councilor and a cook after all, not a man of action. While he had great wisdom helping his king make wise decisions, he had no experience making fast decisions. Making fast decisions was the job of Storm King himself, who was the fiercest warrior of his entire kingdom. A soldier on the battlefield who did not decide quickly which way to release his bow so that his arrow would fall among the most enemy warriors did not survive long on the battlefield.

In Storm King’s particular case, he had a lot of practice deciding quickly exactly when his battlefield attendants would be called in to trim back the ends of his living staff made of a large cluster of bamboo tree stalks. If the attendants arrived in the middle of a maneuver with an enemy soldier, Storm King could lose his advantage and lose the fight. If the attendants arrived after the war staff had grown too long on each end, then Storm King had difficulty lifting the staff to whirl around his body to strike his enemies down. So, Storm King knew how to decide things with only a moment’s thought.

Storm King reached into the egg basket without hesitation and removed the three small eggs one by one, setting them on the ground next to him to save for his dinner later. “Hold the basket tightly, Councilor Tam, with both your hands,” commanded the king. “I think we’re about to welcome a baby phoenix into the world. I will watch the skies meanwhile, to see if Lady Phoenix is coming to claim her baby.”

Councilor Tam did as he was commanded by his king, holding the basket tightly against his chest with both his arms. He was so frightened that it was hard to tell if his shaking was causing the egg to crack faster. The egg shell began to show cracks all over it, not just on the side that Tom Tam could see, but also on the underside of the shell lying against the bottom of the basket. This cracking went on for what seemed like a long time as both Storm King and Councilor Tam watched in fascination. Every once in a while, the king would glance upwards into the Eastern sky, looking for any sign of Lady Phoenix.

Suddenly, Storm King spied a dark speck in the Eastern sky, rapidly becoming bigger and bigger as it drew nearer and nearer. He could just make out the shape of large wings flapping furiously in the sky. It seemed like the large flying creature in the sky was moving not only quickly but with great purpose as its strong wings beat the air bringing it closer and closer much faster than the great war horses that Storm King was accustomed to riding into battle, much faster than even Storm King himself could leap from mountain top to mountain top.

Lady Phoenix was, after all, a mythical creature, one that dwelled in the lower regions of the underworld known as Hell. She was not limited by the powers of humankind or animals of the earth like the horses and cows domesticated by humans. We are not certain even if the rules of the King of the High Sky would apply to the creatures who dwell below, whether or not their powers would be limited when they came to play on earth and cause their kind of mischief. One knew Lady Phoenix only by the stories told of her famous battles with the dragon of the ruby eyes that lived under the mountain range that separated the Han kingdom from the Mongols who lived to the north. There were no stories told of people who had met Lady Phoenix in person who still walked upon the earth.

Storm King was so taken by the sight of Lady Phoenix coming towards them, that he was shocked to remember where he was and whom he was with, when Councilor Tam exclaimed, “A beak, I see the tip of a red beak. It is breaking through the egg shell.”

Oh, when will we find out what happens next? Mom will continue to tell her story on another night.

Linda Objects to Wars in Heaven

On the next night, Mom was ready to continue telling the story of how Councilor Tam found the phoenix egg and to reveal whether or not the egg was cooked for Storm King’s dinner. Linda settled on the floor in front of Mom, so she could see Mom’s facial expressions as she recounted the story. Gus and Tim each sat on one side of Mom on the couch.

“Are we all ready to listen, now?” asked Mom.

Linda replied, “Mom, I have a question. I’ve been thinking about the story so far, and I don’t understand.”

The boys sighed, loudly. They each snuggled closer to Mom and looked at each other across Mom’s lap as if to say silently to each other, “Oh, brother, Sis is going to delay the story, again.”

Linda persisted, “Mom, you said that the world where the gods, goddesses, and the phoenix and the dragon, and Storm King all live is a place where they conduct wars! But you also said that the heavenly creatures lived in perfect harmony under the Old King and grew bored. Which is it? Were there wars in heaven under the Old King?”

Mom thought to herself how all three of her children were so smart. She reminded herself that she must stay alert to be one step ahead of her brilliant children!

Then Mom explained, “Linda, you know that these stories are stories from my mouth. I tell them to you each night before it’s time for you three to go to sleep. Do you know how difficult it is to remember all the details of the heavens and the earth not to mention Hell, too? Perhaps I made a mistake. Do you believe that the Old King would allow wars in his kingdom of the Highest Sky?”

Tim, the baby, said, “Oh, boy, I like war stories. I bet the Old King had the bravest soldiers.”

“No,” said Gus, “the Old King had the fiercest warriors.”

Linda chimed in, “No, boys, you have it all wrong! The Old King did not allow wars in the kingdom of the Highest Sky, because he was a wise and peace loving king. He was so ancient that he had seen all the wars fought by everyone everywhere over a very long time, and he knew that wars are bad things. They create terrible messes, and then someone has to come and clean those messes up. The Old King did not want his gods and goddesses going to war.”

Mom laughed. She said to her children, “Now wait. Who is telling the story?”

The boys remarked in unison, “Mom, you are.”

And with that remark the story picked up where Mom had left off the night before the night before.

Storm King commanded Councilor Tam to bring the large gray mottled egg closer for him to examine. Storm King held the egg up close to his eyes and peered at it. He turned it around and around. He held it first in one hand, then in the other, trying to see if he could tell anything about its weight or how the contents of the egg shifted in his hands. The king held the egg up first to one ear, then to the other, listening intently to hear any sounds from the inside of the egg. Finally, he looked closely at it again, noting the marks on the egg’s mottled exterior.

“Councilor Tam, I believe that we have to put this egg back where you found it. Can you remember the exact place in the desert sand where you dug this egg up? I am fearful that this egg is, indeed, a phoenix egg, and that it is very near to hatching a baby phoenix. Lady Phoenix herself will surely be back soon to greet her new son or daughter when the little one pecks its way through the shell of its egg.”

Council Tam was shocked to hear what Storm King said to him. A phoenix egg in his basket, and it was soon to hatch. Did he remember from where exactly he had gotten the egg? After all, he had dug and found four eggs. Could he retrace his steps? Meanwhile, the king’s loyal councilor, cook and food taster was aware that his king’s stomach was beginning to growl very loudly from hunger.

What should he do first? Return the phoenix egg to its place in the desert sands, if he could remember exactly where that was? Or prepare the remaining three eggs into a delicious omelet for Storm King’s dinner? We shall have to wait till another night has come to hear the rest of this story.

Gus and Tim Object to Snake Eggs

Linda, Gus and Tim compared notes on the story of Councilor Tam's discovery of the phoenix egg. They loved hearing stories of Storm King and his adventures, but they thought something was screwy in Mom's telling of the story. Mom had said that Councilor Tam hunted in the sand, digging for snake eggs and the eggs of other desert creatures to cook for Storm King's dinner.

"Wait," said Gus and Tim together. "Snakes don't lay eggs. Snakes have baby snakes."

"Yeah," added Linda, who was in a higher grade in school than her little brothers. "On a field trip to the zoo, we saw snakes and their babies in the Reptile House. It was really dark inside the Reptile House, and the snakes were kept inside of cages that had glass so we could see them. They had two snakes that had just had baby snakes, a lot of them. The zookeeper told us that snakes have live babies just like humans do."

Mom stopped in her storytelling to explain. She thought to herself what smart children she had that they would know such a scientific fact when they had not even attended school for very long.

"In the Western desert of the Han Kingdom," Mom said patiently, "there is a crossover between the world as we know it and the world where the gods, goddesses and creatures like the phoenix and the dragon, and even Storm King, live and conduct their wars, adventures, romances and business. It is recounted from time to time that the heavenly creatures," explained Mom, when Tim interrupted.

"And demon creatures, too, don't forget, Mom," Tim added, feeling very smart for his age, especially since he was the baby of the family.

Mom continued, "From time to time the heavenly creatures, and yes, also the demon creatures from the very depths of Hell, cross over into our earthly realm to interfere with humans. For it is true that the heavenly creatures get bored with their perfect lives lived in perfect harmony under the rule of the Old King of the Highest Sky. Such perfection is not nearly as interesting as walking on earth where humans argue and disagree and then take their disagreements to the extremes of wars waged with vast armies and weapons of great imagination and destruction.

"It is equally true that the gods who live under the rule of the Old King of the Highest Sky are a randy bunch, who like to come to earth and romance the Han Kingdom's beautiful maidens. Such beauty is irresistible to gods who love beauty so much, and everyone who walks on earth knows that Han maidens are the fairest maidens among all earthly maidens.

"When the gods cross over into our world, they leave behind in the heavenly skies some of their godly powers, so that they do not appear too frightening to humans. It also wouldn't be fair to the humans for the gods to use their heavenly powers here on earth. Why, the humans wouldn't stand a chance of rivaling the gods in the tea house brawls and drunken fights that the younger gods sometimes get into.

"And, of course, part of the reason that the Old King of the Highest Sky limits the gods and goddesses when they come down to visit the humans is that he must limit the powers of the demons who come up from Hell to walk among the humans, too. After all, the Old King is not only the oldest god, but he is also the wisest one, too, having learned many lessons from his long life lived above the world watching all of its inhabitants live and die since the beginning of the kingdoms."

By this time, Mom saw that the children were tired, and it was time for bed, because tomorrow was a school day. So, we shall have to wait for Mom to continue the story of Councilor Tam's finding of the phoenix egg.

Councilor Tam Finds a Phoenix Egg

Storm King had amused himself all day leaping from mountain to mountain. It was especially fun to jump into a river and get his feet wet before leaping onto a mountain, sprinkling the trees with the water that fell from his feet. Soon, though, he got bored and tired, and he decided to lay down for a nap on the soft sand beyond the Western mountains. Storm King had behaved very well for a very long time, not frightening any Han soldiers or stealing any peaches from beautiful goddesses. It wasn’t easy to be good when mischief was Storm King’s basic nature.

The white fur on Storm King’s head grew long and fluffy right into the white beard on his chin and cheeks. When he howled with laughter or shrieked with joy, he would shake his head side to side. His snowy fur would whip around and catch in his mouth and teeth. When Storm King closed his mouth quickly mid-laugh, he would chomp down on a clump of fur, causing angry yowling from the pain. Storm King was a noisy, fearsome fellow, who growled loudly when he chased Han soldiers, leaping just far enough to land where the soldiers’ next footsteps would fall, looking like a demon who was friends with death.

Accompanying Storm King everywhere was his most faithful attendant, Councilor Tom Tam, who was also Storm King’s loyal cook and food taster. Councilor Tam was the most hardworking man in Storm King’s entire kingdom. Tom Tam was wise enough to give the king advice about everything from how much in taxes to demand from the village lords before they raised a rebellion to how much poison the king could ingest before it became dangerous. Tam cooked sumptuous meals truly fit for a king even when on military campaign with Storm King, using ingredients that he found wherever he found himself to be when it was dinner time. Councilor Tam was possessed of a nose that was like no other nose in all the land. He could sniff poison in food in the smallest proportions. So long as Councilor Tom Tam served Storm King, the king never had to worry about danger from poisoning.

Upon waking from his nap, Storm King was mightily hungry. He bellowed to Councilor Tam, “I’m hungry. Feed me. Feed me now.” Councilor Tam heard the great hunger in his king’s bellow. He hurried as quickly as he could scurry, hunting in all the little dips in the sand, looking for eggs hidden there by desert snakes and other egg-laying creatures to prepare for his king’s dinner. This night he was lucky and found four eggs, two small white ones, one small brown one, and one very large mottled gray egg. When Tam brought the eggs back to the camp where Storm King was waiting for his dinner, he showed the king what he had found.

“Wait,” roared Storm King, in a loud voice. “What do you have there, Councilor Tam? Why, it looks like . . . could it be?” said the king.

Tom Tam was confused. All he had in his basket were the four eggs. What was Storm King pointing at?

“That large egg, the mottled gray one, Councilor Tam. What have you got there? Why, it looks like a phoenix egg!” remarked Storm King, who actually was someone who was friends with the ones who live in the underworld.

“No, it can’t be. Why would a phoenix egg be buried in the desert sand?” asked Councilor Tam. The great phoenix was a mythical bird, who had the rare ability to rise from the ashes even after it had fallen in battle and was burned in the fires of the kingdom below the earth, the one that we commonly call Hell. Now Councilor Tam was worried. Why, if this gray egg were really the egg of a phoenix, he couldn’t possibly cook it up and serve it to the king. Who knew when the great phoenix would return looking for her buried egg? What would the great bird do if she learned that Councilor Tam had cooked her hidden egg and that Storm King had eaten it for dinner?

What did Councilor Tam and Storm King do? Would the lady phoenix come to reclaim her egg? Well, my friend, that is a story for another telling.

Scary Things

Linda cannot remember the time before television. When she entered school for the first time at age six, there was “Howdy Doody Time” during the lunch hour in the apartment with Gus and Tim. The song “It’s Howdy Doody Time,” would stick in Linda’s head, but she cannot remember any of the stories or who the other characters on the show were. Mom’s favorite program was “I Love Lucy,” which Linda watched, sitting beside her mother, fascinated by these examples of how other people dressed, talked and lived. Lucy and her husband, Desi, argued a lot in the television show but always kissed and made up. Linda had never seen Mom and Dad, or for that matter, anyone else, kiss. Lucy and Desi, being real people in “I Love Lucy,” made them more memorable to Linda than the puppets on the “Howdy Doody Show.” For Linda, “I Love Lucy” was a small window into the wider world that she longed to know more about.

Public school was a long walk away from the ethnic ghetto where Linda and her family lived. Each day Linda walked across a foot bridge over an expressway to the other side of downtown where the school was located. On the very first day of school, the teachers dismissed the children for lunch, and Linda didn’t know what to do. Mom had walked Linda to school with Gus and Tim, but her mother was nowhere in sight at lunchtime. There was no big sister or big brother to tell Linda what to do, and she was too scared to ask the teachers, whom she couldn’t understand anyway since they spoke English and Linda spoke her mother’s home country’s language.

Linda finally decided to follow the other kids, got into the lunch line and was led into the lunchroom where she sat down and had a hot lunch of unfamiliar food. Then the teacher noticed Linda, realized that she wasn’t signed up for hot lunch and sent her home for lunch. All the other kids who walked home for lunch had already left, and poor Linda had to run all the way home across the foot bridge by herself. “What a dummy,” Linda thought to herself, as ran into the apartment to eat lunch with Gus and Tim and watch “Howdy Doody Time.” Linda managed to chew and swallow a second lunch without anyone knowing that she had already eaten strange food at school. That was the first of many secrets that Linda would keep.

One summer evening, after Linda and her family had moved to a new apartment across town, because Mom got a job ironing shirts in a laundry, there was a big thunderstorm, and the sky got very black outside even though it was early. Linda and her brothers and Mom were hunched together in the living room watching the black and white television. A murder mystery was on, and the music became very dramatic whenever the story got to a scary part. Since Gus and Tim were leaning on either side of her, Mom couldn’t get up to turn the volume down on the television and asked Linda to do it for her. Linda liked being the eldest child and being helpful; so got up to do as she was asked. But Linda turned the knob the wrong way. The volume got very loud suddenly. The loudness startled Linda so much that Linda shrieked, and Mom had to jump up quickly and turn the volume down herself. Besides the television, the only other electric device in the apartment was the radio. The clock was a wind-up Big Ben that the kids took turns winding for Mom each night.

From that day forward, Linda avoided dealing with electric devices, because she was afraid that they would do unpredictable and scary things. What those unpredictable and scary things were are stories for another telling.