Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 112

They continued like this and Tang occasionally heaved himself up, chose another book, and went back to his armchair. Monkey had gone upstairs, Pigsy was now chewing his way through an apple he had stolen from the man’s fruit bowl and Sandy was still engaged in conversation. They continued in this manner until late in the night, when Monkey finally tired out and collapsed, heaving, onto the antique rug he had been ruining for the past twelve hours. Tang fell asleep in his chair. Pisgy went to the room the villager had given them, and Sandy continued chatting deep into the night. The next day, the friends awoke to the sun shining through the curtains. Tang carefully lifted the book he had been reading last night off his face. He stood up reluctantly, lifting himself off the cushy armchair and looked around. Pure golden sunlight streamed through the windows, birds were singing their merry songs, and there were no clouds in sight. After Tang finished admiring the landscape outside, he turned around to find the beaming face of the villager and the smell of cooking rice. “Good morning!” greeted the villager cheerily. “Had a good rest?” “Yes,” Tang yawned, stretching. Sandy smiled at him. “Look at Monkey,” Sandy smiled. “He’s still sleeping.” Tang turned around, and sure enough, Monkey was sleeping peacefully on the antique rug. He rolled over and murmured something in his sleep. Shortly after, Pigsy came stumbling into the living room, still looking drowsy from his long rest. “Good morning,” the villager, Sandy and Tang chorused. Pigsy grunted something and sat down with them at the table, eagerly grabbing his bowl of rice the man had prepared for him. “You know,” remarked Tang, “We never go to know your name, even after all the hospitality you’ve provided us with. So what is your name?” The villager took at Monkey, who murmured something again, and chuckled softly. “The name’s Jack,” he said. The room fell into awkward silence. “Shall I show you around town?” The others nodded, seeing as they had only seen his house so far. They walked outside and blinked in the dazzling sunlight. They were left speechless. It had many houses similar to Jack’s - tall and, while shabby on the outside, if you peeked through the curtains, it was a different story. The village was bustling with people, there was a grand town hall that towered above them with pillars made of gleaming marble, a temple with a mighty statue of a praying man, cross-legged, towering over the populace, gleaming gold in the sunlight as people poured in and out. “This is our place of worship for our religion here, Buddhism.” They followed Jack inside and were dazzled by what they saw. The main hall was colossal, with towering ceilings and it was big enough to hear your own echo. The walls were painted in bright colours with beautiful art on every inch available, there was an elaborately-decorated carpet coloured with a dozen different shades of red, gold and purple, abut the real grandeur was in what was assumed by the friends to be the front of the hall. There was many smaller golden statues that depicted a man praying cross-legged, similar to the one outside, that were so shiny you had to wince when you looked at them. There was an ornamented sort of fringe to the area in the wall that had been carved out, with the golden metal in swirls, knots and the like. But the most breathtaking of all was the statue, with the praying man again, this time sitting in an ornate throne and wearing a jewel-specked crown that scattered light across the hall. After they had taken all of this in, they sat down next to the Jack, and tried to fit in by copying what he was saying. Slowly they managed to join into what was the low drone of prayer. “Tang…” He looked up. He saw a man that was almost a vision, but was definitely real. “Answer me...” His voice had a godly sense to it, but was still gentle. “Do you seek spiritual enlightenment?” Tang remained silent. The mysterious man drew closer. “I’ll take that as a…” he paused for a moment. “Yes.”