“It’s very nice. Everything about Heaven is nice. There is nothing ugly, sick, or out of place in Heaven.”
Whoops. From the shift in his voice I could tell we had started off heavy for a simple chitchat.
“Being allowed inside was everything I wanted for a very long time,” he said. “When they let me through the door, I thought I would finally become content. At peace with myself. And then . . . well, you know what happened. Technically you were there, even if you don’t remember it.”
If the legend was true, then I’d been the instrument of the Monkey King’s wrath in Heaven after he realized he was nothing but a second-class citizen among the gods. The moral of the tale was probably supposed to be that patience and good manners were more important than power. But what I took from it was that the people in charge could withhold respect from you, and there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it.
“Can I see Heaven? Can you take me there?”
“Absolutely not,” Quentin said sharply. “It’s too dangerous for a normal person born of Earth. Your base humanity would be scorched away by the excess of qi energies, leaving only your spiritual essence behind. Genie Lo would be gone, and only the Ruyi Jingu Bang would remain. Forever.”
“That’s not what you would prefer? You’d get to fight with your stick like you used to, without any backtalk.”
“Don’t twist my words. Even if I took you to Heaven now, any powers you haven’t recovered in your current human form would be lost forever. You’ve got strength and true sight, sure, but there are still a few tricks you haven’t remembered yet.”
“Well, if you didn’t want your magic iron staff back immediately when we first met, what exactly were you hoping for when you came to my school?”
Quentin sighed and took a sip of some unknown drink, the ice cubes clinking against his glass.
“I was hoping you’d recognize an old friend,” he said. “I assumed the memories would come rushing back and you’d be so happy to see me that you’d take my hand right there in class and I don’t know . . . we’d run off and have an adventure or something. Go exploring, like back in the day.”
“Ha! You wanted to sweep me off my feet. Dork.”
I could practically hear him blush through the receiver.
“I’m going.” His voice was adorably gruff. “You’re distracting me. I’m down seven thousand bucks because of you.”
I bolted upright. “You’re fooling around with that kind of money?”
Quentin laughed in my ear and hung up on me.
School felt a little weird the next day. People stared at me like they knew something.
I wandered around from class to class until I caught up with Yunie at lunch. When she saw me she covered her mouth trying not to laugh.
“What is it?”
“Are you trying out a new look?” she asked.
The answer was no. I’d slept like the dead, and ended up having to run to make it on time without washing up. But half the school came in looking like slobs. I couldn’t have been much worse.
Yunie pulled out her compact mirror and held it up. I peered into it until I found what didn’t belong.
My irises were gold. Shimmering gold.
“You shouldn’t leave those in overnight and forget,” Yunie said. “It’s bad for your eyes. But I like the color.”
Shining, 24-karat eyes. Ten-year-old me would have been thrilled beyond belief.
Sixteen-year-old me had to go find Quentin.
“Well, of course,” Quentin said. “My eyes turned gold when I gained true sight in Lao Tze’s furnace. I’d be worried if yours weren’t gold.”
We were outside, near the away team’s end of the soccer field. Quentin sat on a tree branch, eating a nectarine from a bag that was full of them. He really liked his drupes.
“People think I’m wearing contacts,” I complained. “They’re ridiculous.”
He raised his hand solemnly. “One should never feel ashamed about their true self.”