Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 39

Why would they leave like that? I think to myself. I walk over to a table that has a metal spoon lying on the
tablecloth. Picking it up, I raise it to eye level, holding it just far enough away from my face to see. I gasp at my
translucent reflection. I am as pale as ivory. A radiant glow flows off my body. I am a ghost! Thoughts rush through
my head as I stumble back. I remember what Ksitigarbha had said to me.
“Then dance you shall!”
These four words repeat in my head over and over. I turn to the floor and do the one thing I knew I can do.
I dance.
I dance from dusk to dusk.
I dance until the world turns into a pit of darkness.
***
1.
Kono baka or このバカ means “You idiot” in Japanese
The above story is based on a ghost story popular in Shanghai. During the Japanese invasion in 1941, a Chinese girl
refused to dance with a Japanese soldier. After he shot her down, it is said she returned to the Paramount dance
floor(now the Hongdu Theater) to dance again. People who go to the Hongdu Theater have said that they have
seen a translucent woman dancing on the floor.
i
“I prostrate, go for Refuge, make offerings, please grant blessings. The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, who has unbearable
compassion for me and all sent...” This is a real Buddhist prayer.