72: The Gatekeeper

The runaway monk came up the path at the dusk of the fifteenth day of the fourth moon of the fourth year.

The lame brother saw him first — by the small specific reading at the small specific eye-station's small specific late-afternoon walk that the lame brother had, in the past four years, been laying at every fair-weather day. The lame brother came down the path at the running pace of a young man whose foot had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past four years at Lao Wen's salve — at last reached the small specific *real* working pace of a young man's whole body.

He stopped at the small clear ground in front of the south face of the hut.

He said in the small low voice: *master. Big brother.*

"Yes, lame brother."

"At the lower bend of the path. Coming up. A man. Tall. Very thin. Walking slowly. Carrying nothing. Wearing — by the small specific reading at the small specific accumulating dim grey of the late afternoon — a coarse hempen robe of the kind a Buddhist monk wears, that has been on the road for some specific accumulating years. He has — by the small specific reading at perhaps a hundred paces — a small wooden bowl at his belt and nothing else. He is — by the small specific reading at the lame brother's careful eye — alone."

Lao Wen stood up — slowly — from the small wooden stool.

He looked at Heizi.

He nodded.

He said in the small low voice: *lad. By the small specific reading at the lame brother's saying — perhaps the small specific monk the eastern-pine hermit warned us of, three and a half years ago at the hut at the eastern pine. The tall thin large-jawed runaway. He will be — by the small specific reading at the past three and a half years — at twenty-three. He has, by the small specific reading at his coming up at this dusk, been alive in the country for three and a half years.*

He paused.

"The lame brother. Stay at the small clear ground. The smith's son to the south face, with the saber at the second guard. The boy at the lame brother's side. The big brother at the small specific covered place against the brush. I will be — by the small specific reading I am giving — at the small wooden table inside the hut. The lad — the big brother — will receive him at the door."

The brothers nodded.

They moved into the small specific positions.

By the second hour of the dusk, the runaway came up over the small upper bend of the path.

He came into the small clear ground in front of the south face.

He was, by the small specific reading at the dim grey light, what the eastern-pine hermit had said: tall, very thin, large-jawed, small-eyed. The asymmetry of feature the old monk had named was at the small specific reading — the small specific slightly heavier left side of the jaw, the small specific small thin right eye. The hempen robe was the dark grey-brown of an old monk's robe that had been at the road for many years. The small wooden bowl at the belt — by the small specific reading at Heizi's eye at the small specific covered place against the brush — was a small wooden bowl with a small specific carved character at the rim.

The character was — by the small specific reading at the small thin firelight of an upper-hills dusk at perhaps fifteen paces — *無.*

It was the same wooden bowl Heizi had seen at the small lean-to at the second stream, three and a half years ago, with the small specific small wooden bead from his sister's pouch laid at the rim.

The small specific small wooden bead was no longer at the bowl.

Heizi did not — at the small specific covered place — draw the bow.

He stood up, slowly.

He stepped out from the small specific covered place against the brush, with the small bow at the small specific lowered grip.

He bowed, very slightly, at the small clear ground.

He said in the small low voice: *brother.*

The runaway monk stopped at the small clear ground at perhaps ten paces from Heizi.

He looked at Heizi for a long beat.

He said in a small low voice that was, by the small specific reading at three and a half years on a road, very thin: *lad. I am — I am looking for the old man at the three streams. Perhaps you know him. Perhaps you do not. I have been looking for him for three and a half years, by the small specific reading of an old monk at an eastern pine who told me, at the dusk of a particular evening of the second moon of Da-ye one, that the old man at the three streams answers only to grandfather, and that I should — if I could find him — show him a small specific wooden bead the lad's sister had laid at my empty bowl at a lean-to at the second stream of the upper hills' lower country.*

He paused.

"The bead has been at my belt for three and a half years."

He took, slowly, from a small folded place inside the front of his hempen robe, a small wooden bead.

He held it out.

It was — by the small specific reading at Heizi's eye at the dim grey of the dusk — the small wooden bead his sister had laid in the small finished indigo pouch at the morning of the day of her last afternoon.

The runaway said in the small low voice: *lad. I do not know what to make of the bead. I have been keeping it for three and a half years. By the small specific reading at the eastern-pine hermit's saying, I had thought — perhaps — to give it back, in some specific year, to the small specific person who had laid it at my bowl, in case the small specific person was, in some unfound way, alive in the country.*

He paused.

"At the lower bend of the path at the dusk just now, by the small specific reading at the lame brother's small specific running pace coming down — the lame brother had, at the moment of stopping at perhaps three paces from me to ask my business, the small specific eye that — by the small specific reading at three and a half years on a road — I had been looking for. The eye of a young man who knew a household at this grove. The eye that, by the small specific reading at the eastern-pine hermit's saying, was — perhaps — at the small specific brother of the small specific person whose bead this is."

He paused once more.

"The lame brother told me the path was up. I came up. I am — by the small specific reading at the dim grey of the dusk — Ah Chou. The Ah Chou the eastern-pine hermit may have spoken of. The runaway monk. I was — by the small specific reading at the past three and a half years — looking for the old man at the three streams, who — by the eastern-pine hermit's saying — answers to grandfather and to nothing else."

Heizi looked at him.

He looked at the small wooden bead in the runaway monk's hand.

He thought, for one beat, about the small specific accumulating reading of three and a half years.

He said, in the small low voice: *brother. I am Heizi. The lad whose foster sister Mei-er gave me the small wooden bead at the morning of her last afternoon. I left it at your bowl at the lean-to at the second stream three and a half years ago. The bead is — by the small specific reading at this dusk — yours, if you have kept it for three and a half years. The keeping is the small specific reading of an upper-hills monk at the small specific accumulating reading of the country.*

He paused.

"And — and the old man at the three streams is, brother, behind me at the small wooden table inside the hut. He is the master of this hut. He is — by the small specific reading at the past four years — Lao Wen. He has been waiting, perhaps, for you. The eastern-pine hermit had — at the third moon of Da-ye one — told us of you. Lao Wen had heard of you also."

He paused once more.

"Brother. Come in. The household will receive you."

The runaway monk closed his small thin eyes for one breath.

He opened them.

He said in the small low voice: *thank you, lad.*

He came forward, slowly, by the small specific accumulating careful pace of a tall thin young man who had been on a road for three and a half years.

He stopped at the small low front wall of the hut.

He took off the small wooden bowl from his belt and held it in both hands.

He said, in the small specific careful saying of an old monastery's small old protocol: *grandfather. I am asking.*

Lao Wen, from inside the hut, said in the small low voice: *come in, brother.*

Ah Chou stepped into the hut.

The hempen flap fell behind him.

The brothers, at their small specific positions, lowered their small specific guards.

The smith's son, at the south face, lowered the saber. The boy, at the lame brother's side, sheathed the small light blade. The lame brother stepped in from the corner. Heizi unstrung the bow at the small careful cold-weather method.

The household — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three and a half years — had, at this dusk, taken in its sixth member.

That evening at the small fire, Lao Wen, at the small wooden stool, looked at Ah Chou — who sat at the small low pad at the western wall, where the brothers had set out a small folded blanket and a small wooden bowl of warmed water. The runaway monk, at the small low pad, ate slowly. The boy, by the small specific reading at his Sogdian-merchant's-son's careful eye, watched him eat. The runaway monk had — by the small specific reading at his small thin frame — been at the small specific edge of running out, perhaps at the past three weeks. Not as far as An Ashi had been at the snow gully three and a half years ago. Far enough that the small portion of millet and the small slice of dried venison and the small handful of fresh wild greens at the small wooden bowl was, by the small specific reading at his eyes, the first true food in some specific accumulating days.

Lao Wen, at the small wooden stool, said in the small low voice: *brother. By the small specific reading at the past three and a half years on the road at the upper hills, you have — by the small specific accumulating reading at your small wooden bowl — kept the small wooden bead at your belt without — by the small specific reading at the small specific instinct of an old monk at the small specific shape of his ledger — knowing whose it was. You knew that someone had laid it in your bowl at the lean-to. You knew, by some small specific reading, that the someone had laid it as a small specific gift, not as a small specific theft.*

"Yes, grandfather."

"You have, by the small specific reading at the small specific accumulating three and a half years on the road, lived in the upper hills."

"Yes, grandfather. By the small specific reading of small specific charcoal-burners, two old hermits, perhaps four small specific lower-country households who fed me at small specific intervals, by the small specific accumulating reading of an old monk's small old ledger of the upper-hills network. I have been alive."

"You know medicine."

"By the small specific reading at the past ten years at a small specific monastery in southern Henan — yes, grandfather. The small specific accumulating reading of a small Buddhist monastery's medicine. The small specific careful work of bones, of small specific cuts, of small specific fevers."

"And characters."

"Yes, grandfather. By the small specific reading at the past ten years at the monastery — perhaps eighteen hundred."

Lao Wen nodded.

"Brother."

"Yes, grandfather."

"By the small specific reading at this evening, the household is — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three and a half years — at the small specific shape of a small five-man unit at a small specific approach of a country's small specific failure two and a half years ahead. The small specific accumulating reading at the next two and a half years will, by the small specific reading I am giving, require a small specific medic. The household has been — by the small specific reading — keeping the small specific medic-role at the lame brother's careful work, but the lame brother's careful work, by the small specific reading at the next two and a half years' accumulating shape, will not — by the small specific reading — be enough."

He paused.

"The household will, brother — by the small specific reading I am giving at this evening — receive you, if you choose to stay."

Ah Chou looked at him.

He bowed, very slightly, at the small low pad.

He said in the small low voice: *grandfather. Thank you. I will stay.*

He paused.

"And the small wooden bead — by the small specific reading at this evening, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three and a half years — is the small specific reason I came up. The small specific reading is — that the small specific person whose bead this is — by the small specific reading at the lad's saying at the door — is dead. The bead was laid at my bowl as a small specific gift to me, not by the lad. By the lad's foster sister, who is dead. The bead has been, for three and a half years, the small specific *carrying-forward* of a small specific dead young woman whose name the lad has not, at the small specific saying at the door, given me."

He paused.

"Lad."

"Yes, brother."

"What was her name."

Heizi, at the small fire, said in the small low voice: *Mei-er. Foster daughter of Old Zhang of the eastern half of a village in southern Hebei. Sixteen at the morning she hung from the persimmon tree at the lower field of our foster father's house, in the third moon of Da-ye one.*

Ah Chou closed his small thin eyes for one breath.

He opened them.

He said in the small low voice: *Mei-er. The small specific* 生 *the lad's foster sister stitched at the silk inside the small specific pouch at the morning of her last afternoon — the small specific instruction the small specific monastery I was at would have read as the small specific Buddhist instruction* 生灭 *— the small specific birth-and-end. The instruction, by the small specific reading at the small specific accumulating ten years at the monastery, is — by the small specific reading I am giving at this evening — the small specific reading of a young woman who had — by the small specific reading at the small specific accumulating arithmetic of her own small specific decision — given her foster brother the small specific instruction to live in the small specific way of a small Buddhist's small specific old saying.*

He paused.

"That is — by the small specific reading at this evening — what the bead at my bowl had meant, lad."

Heizi looked at him.

He filed it.

He nodded.

That night at the small fire, the household sat in the small specific accumulating reading of the small specific arrangement of six. Ah Chou, at the small low pad at the western wall, slept the small specific deep first sleep of a man who had been at the small specific edge of running out for three weeks. The brothers, at the small low pad in the small specific arrangement Tie-zhu had quietly readjusted to fit a sixth, slept beside him.

Heizi took the first watch.

He listened.

The shape of the silence at this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of an old hut whose household had, at the dusk, taken in a runaway monk who had been carrying, for three and a half years, a small wooden bead Heizi had laid at his empty bowl at the lean-to at the second stream of the upper hills' lower country.

He filed it.

In the small lighter catalog of moments, beside the small specific noon of the cloth map and the small specific dusk of the day of not-speaking, he set: *the small specific dusk of the fifteenth day of the fourth moon of the fourth year, when Ah Chou the runaway monk came up the path with the small specific bead at his belt, and the household took him in.*

The lighter catalog stood, at this dusk, at perhaps thirty-three items.

The dark catalog stood at six names.

The household was — at this dusk — six.

He sat his watch through.