Dukkha Reverb. Loren W. Christensen
hands the sobbing would-be thief some paper money from his pocket, all the while the boy bows nonstop. Tex hands Samuel a rag from his pocket which Samuel secures over the boy’s eyes. A moment later, the two men escort him up the steps, past us, and through the glass door.
“Father gave him money to buy food, and now he takes him through the house and out the front gate. He did not want the boy to see the inside. Father is quite compassionate, no?”
“Has this happened before?”
“First time since we have been here. It is too easy with the tree.”
“Sam,” Samuel says coming back through the door and moving down the steps, as if the thing with the burglar was no more than a neighbor borrowing a cup of phở. “Sorry about the disruption to our breakfast. Let me introduce you.”
Sifu has remained seated on the cement bench, his back to us, elbows resting on his knees as he watches the koi. At least that’s what he appears to be doing. Judging by what Samuel and Mai have told me about him, he might be having a nice chat with the fish.
Samuel stops a respectful distance from the old man and murmurs softly. Sifu stands and turns about. I start to gasp, but manage to stop myself.
His eyes.
I read somewhere about a painting of Jesus in St. Catherine’s monastery in the middle of the Sinai Desert. The writer was startled by the painter’s depiction of Christ’s eyes, how they reflected two different expressions. The left eye conveyed Christ’s anger at sin and the right eye depicted his compassion and forgiveness. A monk told the writer to gaze at each eye for a while and reflect on what he felt from each one. The man did and was so moved that he left the monastery forever changed.
It would be strange enough that a Chinese man would have blue eyes or green ones, instead of the usual brown. But Sifu has one of each, one blue and one green. If the mixed colors weren’t peculiar enough, the way he looks at me is so… It’s as if he’s seeing into me, seeing into my… being. Like he already knows me, understands me. I want to break eye contact with him, but I can’t.
“Son, this is my sifu, Master Shen Lang Rui, founder of Temple of Ten Thousand Fists.”
Sifu brings his palms together below his chin in a praying hands gesture and bows his head. “Happy,” he says softly.
I return the salutation, feeling oafish. “Nice to meet you.”
The master is dressed in tan slacks, a pale blue overshirt and—blue Converse shoes. Samuel wears red ones. They shop together? He’s slight, maybe one hundred and fifty pounds, with a mop of healthy salt-and-pepper hair befitting of a much younger man. In fact, his posture, bearing, and his eyes—those eyes!—are of a man in his thirties, twenties even. Mai said once that he is in his mid or late sixties.
Just as I was wondering if I should offer my hand, he extends his, a surprisingly small one, fragile looking, like a dry fall leaf. He covers mine with his left one and moves it up and down slightly. “Happy,” he says again, just barely louder than a whisper.
I smile back and… I feel something—a surge of heat beginning at my hand and streaking up my arms, flushing my face, and flooding through my torso and legs. What the hell?
I relax my grip, but he holds onto my hand for a moment longer, his strange eyes interlocking with mine. Then he lets me go. I reflexively step back.
Samuel and his Sifu speak aside for a moment. Samuel nods respectfully.
“Sifu must leave now.”
“Oh?” I say, disappointed.
“He just stopped by to meet you. He has to go now to a dentist appointment. He has a toothache.”
Don’t know why that strikes me funny. I fight to keep it inside. “That’s terrible,” I say.
“It is okay,” Samuel assures me. “Sifu just needs a filling.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.
“See you,” Sifu says, running the two words together. Again he does the palm-to-palm thing.
He and Samuel head up the steps.
“He is amazing, is he not,” Mai says, gesturing for us to sit on the bench.
“I almost laughed about the dentist. A toothache just doesn’t fit a man like that.”
“Father does not think it is a bad tooth. Sifu sees a regular doctor. The master has not said anything, but Father thinks he might have health problems. It is something that Father senses about his teacher, I think. Maybe Father is per… perceiving something, I do not know. Father is worried, but he has not asked Sifu because he does not want to embarrass him.”
“I’m so sad to hear that,” I say.
“Yes.” Mai sits on the cement bench and gestures for me to do the same. We watch the koi for a moment, then, “Tell me, what did you feel when Sifu touched you?”
“I didn’t imagine that?” I ask, sitting next to her. The sun is getting hotter and the stirring breeze doesn’t help much.
“Did you feel warmness in your body?”
“It started in my hand and moved through me. What was it?”
“Chi. You know chi, right?”
“Of course. I understand the concept of chi as energy flow, life force, that sort of thing. Most demonstrations are fake, though.”
Mai nods. “Yes, I have seen false ones on YouTube. When you awoke today, how did you feel?”
“Pretty good. I was still fuzzy brained, though, from the jet lag.”
“Was?”
“Yes… Wait.”
“No more jet lag?
I rotate my head a little and look about. “You’re right. My head is clear; I feel sharp.” I look at her. “He did that? That’s crazy.”
“He helped you, right?” When I nod, Mai says, “Then maybe not crazy. Sifu does that with my family all the time. He feels something wrong and he tries to make it better. Most of the time you do not have to tell him that something bothers you. He will touch you and he will feel it.”
“Amazing,” I say, too dumfounded to say anything more intelligent.
Mai sobers. “But he has not been able to help my mother. TB is a very bad problem.”
“I’m so sorry, Mai.”
“Thank you.” We watch the koi for a few moments without speaking.
“You might have warned me about his eyes,” I say, smiling. “It took me back for a second or two.”
“Took you where?”
“It surprised me.”
“Oh,” she says. “Sorry. I forgot because I see him all my life. Father tell me a long time ago that there is a village in China where people have either blue eyes or green eyes. Some people say that a lost army, a Roman army, maybe two thousand years ago, be in this village. So some people now have blue or green eyes. Sifu got one each.” She laughs.
“Amazing. And the way he looked at me, into me.”
Mai nods. “It is exciting to see Sifu brings his chi to his martial arts skills.”
“I can’t wait.”
“You want to get some tea? We can walk down the street and get some at a sidewalk café. When we get back, I think Father wants to show you some more about our security. It will amaze you.”
“So far everything has. Will Samuel join us for tea?”
“No. He has office work to do.”
Mai