My grandmother
owned a small antique shop down on Cedar Rd, right across from the
chocolate shop where I spent most of my time when I was kid but once
I turned 12 things changed when my grandmother simply disappeared
without a trace.
The police
searched for 4 months but to no avail...she was gone and the thing
was that she left without closing and locking her store up.
I was one of the
first people in the store after she disappeared. There was a ton of
dust covering everything. Most of what she sold was purchased from
estate auctions all over the state but, despite her efforts, very few
things sold. Allegheny Heights was just not the kind of town to be
interested in old things so the few sales that she made were to
people who were just passing through and saw a quaint little shop and
decided to stop in. Thank God for her pension or else she would have
most likely starved to death.
Whenever I was out
of school for the summer my mom and dad gave me the job of doing an
inventory of everything that was in the store. I hated the job 1I
could usually find some freaky things that grandma would let me take
home so even though I hated the job I loved going through everything
she had collected.
So, when she
disappeared I got the job of doing a complete inventory of her shop.
Of course there were a huge number of ivory, silver and even a few
gold thimbles, antique cameras and some paintings by artists no one
ever heard of. Yeah, they were beautiful pictures but not really
anything anyone would buy. I finally made it to the backroom where
she kept the big stuff and her pottery. There were antique
appliances, old Grecian statues and one thing that caught my
attention...a huge Chinese ginger jar. It was beautiful without a
chip in the porcelain and it was inscribed with Chinese characters
surrounded by naked mermaids. Grandma put a price tag on it for
$12,000 saying that it was more than 1,000 years old. The strange
thing was that it had a gold amulet dangling from the lid. I decided
to grab both and take them to my bedroom. It took all I had to move
it. It was over three feet across and weighed what I thought was a
ton but I rolled it as best I could.
When I got home my
mom and dad were out at their jobs so I rolled it up the one step in
the front of the house. I always complained that I wanted a bedroom
on the second or even third floor of a house but at that moment I was
so happy that we had a single floor house I could barely contain my
pleasure. It actually got a lot easier to roll once I got it into the
house and finally into my bedroom. I took it and stood it in the
corner of the room. Luckily the lid never came off and there was no
discernible damage to it so I covered it up with one of my blankets
and went back to the shop to finish the job of counting things.
I got back home
about 8:30 and, after quickly eating my dinner, I rushed into my
room, closed the door and locked it behind me. I did not want anyone
to know about the jar until I was ready to show them.
“What are you
doing in there ?”
I heard my mom yell from the living room.
I had to think
quickly so I pretended to be on the phone. I knew that she had walked
from the living room to a spot near my room. “I am working on
something with a friend of mine,” I said.
“Working on
what,” she asked.
“We have a game
tomorrow down at the youth center and we are planning our strategy so
we'll win,” I replied. She knew that I played baseball so that
sounded like a perfectly good lie that I knew would work.
“Okay,” she
replied. “I won't see you when you wake up so good luck with the
game.” I knew that excuse would work. Hell, her and dad never went
to my games so they wouldn't ever know that I was lying.
I walked over and
pulled the blanket off of the jar. It was so shiny and perfect I
could not believe it. The lid was on tight. No matter how much I
tried it just wouldn't move. I tried heat, vasoline, hair oil and I
even went down to the kitchen and tried
cooking oil but nothing I tried worked. Finally I
grabbed it with a rubber glove my mom used to clean the bathroom with
and twisted as hard as I could. I heard a grinding noise as the lid
moved just a bit...just enough to let me know that it was working.
The more I tried the louder the grinding got until it was so loud
that I was sure that mom and dad could hear me but it was moving
farther and farther until it came off in my hand.
My heart was
beating so loud and pounding so hard that it felt like it was going
to come out of my chest. My breathing was heavy as if the air was
full of water and I was drowning. I knew that it was not true but my
mind could not tell my body that.
I sat down on my
bed. My body was shaking. It was almost orgasmic but since I was only
12, didn't like girls and was a virgin. I am using that description
not going by my lack experiences. Yes, it was orgasmic. It took
almost an hour for all of the excitement to leave my body. I still
had the lid in my hand. The inside was covered with mother of pearl
and the rainbows that came from it was absolutely beautiful but there
was a symbol painted inside. Another Chinese symbol. I had to get
them translated and see what this jar was used for.
The next morning I
did rubbings of the symbols and took them to a college down in
Pittsburgh. I had heard from some of my friends that they taught
Mandarin there so they might be able to translate it for me. I went
into one of the buildings and saw the name Dr. Lin May
Chou...professor of Chinese culture and language. I found his office
and when I got there my luck was fantastic...he was sitting behind
his desk grading papers or something.
“Doctor Chou,”
I asked in a voice that was nervous and yet interested.
He looked at me
and smiled. “Yes boy, I am Doctor Chou,” he said with a smile on
his face. “How may I help you?” I took the rubbings out of my
pocket and handed them to him. He got a stern look on his face as his
eyes darted back and forth over the symbols. “Boy, where did you
get these?”
I got them from a
ginger jar I found in my grandma's shop,” I said. “They are all
over the thing surrounded by naked mermaids.”
His face turned
white as he looked at the rubbings. “This is the name of Rakshasa,
an ancient Chinese demon,” he said. “My guess is that the ginger
jar is not a ginger jar at all.” I looked confused...after all I
had seen many of these in grandma's shop. This one was bigger but no
different from the others. “I think it is some kind of burial jar.
They used them back in China to bury the spirits of those who did
evil...even more so when the spirit was a demon which is what
Rakshasa was...one of the worst there
was.”
“Why ?”
I asked. “What did he do?”
“He did
everything he could to disrupt funerals, torture and steal souls both
living and dead and so much more,” he said. “Basically he was a
total badass!” Then he asked me if I could bring the jar to his
office.
“I had a hard
time getting it home,” I said. “I don't think I could get it down
here by myself.” He assured me that would be no problem. He would
get a few of his graduate students go to my house and pick the vase
up. I told him when my parents were working and set up a time to send
the students over.
“When you get
home,” he said in a very strict voice. “Do not look inside the
jar, just put the lid back on and seal it as tight as it was when you
found it.” I didn't ask why. He was way too serious to answer any
questions I may have so I promised and started leaving for home but
before I left I told him that I wanted to be there when he opened it.
He reluctantly agreed and I left.
I got home a while
later and the jar was still right where I left it. Everything looked
the same but for one thing...there was a strange glow coming from the
opening of the jar. I was a kind of blue but yet not blue. It looked
almost as if someone mixed a deep black with navy blue.
Yeah, I was
curious...how could I not be? I was a boy and that had to have been
the strangest thing I had ever seen but instead of looking I placed
the lid gently on top and pressed down to seal it to the rim of the
jar. When I finished that I twisted and pulled on it to make sure
that it was sealed tight. It was.
That night I
didn't get much sleep. I kept dreaming about Rakshasa. In my dreams
he would dig up the graves of the newly dead and hide the bodies many
miles away so that they could never be found or I would see him going
into childrens hospitals, leaning over the children and sucking their
souls right out of their young bodies....leaving them for the nurses
to find on their next rounds. No matter what the dreams were they
came to me every time I closed my eyes and they were as realistic as
if I were there watching what he was
doing and everything he did was worse that the thing before and all
of them combined made a story that ever Wes Craven could not conjure
up.
I woke up sometime
around seven and before my eyes were fully opened I looked at the jar
and then around my room. On my mirror were scratched the words
我希望我的鑽石.
Now, I could never read Chinese other than to order General Tao's
Chicken but some how I knew what those words said and they said, “I
want my diamond.” I just looked at it for a moment and then thought
it best to write them down so I could show the professor when I got
to his office.
My folks left
around 8:30 and the students showed up some time around ten so it was
safe for them to take the jar and haul it back to the university. I'd
be damned if they were going to leave me so as they were closing the
back of the truck I ran and jumped in the front seat.
“You aren't
supposed to go with us,” one of them yelled.
I was determined
that if the jar was going so was I. “That jar isn't going anywhere
if I can't go with it,” I yelled right back at him.
“The
professor...,” he started.
“The professor
said that I could be there when that thing was opened and I want to
make sure I am,” I yelled.
Now, I am not sure
if I won the argument or if he just gave up because he mumbled
something, got in the car and we started off for Pittsburgh. It
wasn't that far of a distance but it felt longer because they didn't
speak and they had some hokey religion program that promised
salvation for anyone willing to give the pastor $1,000 and it sounded
like he was promising sainthood for a donation of $2,500. It was all
a crock of shit. I knew it...pretty much everyone on the planet knew
it but the moron driving the truck took it as gospel.
We finally got to
the university and I walked with the guys as they carried the jar
inside. Dr. Chou was there waiting. He was dressed in a white lab
coat with some kind of velvet gloves which I assumed was to keep his
body acid from touching the surface.
“I did some more
research on those rubbings,” he said. “It is definitely a jar
that the ancients thought would hold the spirit of Rakshasa. It got
lost some time around 900 years ago and ended up in a couple
independent collections over the year. There were always stories but
nothing was ever proven and no one was allowed to study the jar until
now thanks to you.” Then he looked at me and asked me if I had
looked inside. Of course I said no since I hadn't and I didn't tell
him about the message or the glow from inside the jar...at least not
then.
They put the jar
on a low table. The students started making their own rubbings and
measurements of the cap, the circumference and the weight. Then Dr.
Chou started playing around the lid. It was holding tight and the
tighter it was the more he tried to force it open. Both he and his
students were groaning hard and breathing harder that people should
but it didn't move.
“Move away,” I
said as I walked up to the jar. They all backed away and I put my
hands on both sides of the lid and gently squeezed as I turned the
lid right for a few millimeters and then to the left and it came off
easy...very easy. I stood there holding it as the other just glared
at me for knowing how to do it. But that didn't seem to stop them. As
soon as the lid was off they all gathered around but not too close to
see what was hidden inside. Dr. Chou was the first one to actually
look inside.
“Give
me a flashlight,” he yelled. One of the students brought one for
him. He lit it and he stuck his head almost all of the way inside
before he had any kind of reaction. When he finally had one we
watched him back away and I was sure that he did some kind of dance
but
he said he didn't but
the way his feet were moving it could only have been a dance.
It took his like 15 minutes to calm down but
when he did we heard all about what he had seen.
“Doctor, what
was it, what did you see,” I asked with a burst of adrenaline.
“Canopic jars,”
he said with a voice still straining from the excitement. “It has a
half a dozen of them in there. I saw them I saw them all. They were
jade...the deepest green jade I had ever seen and the lids were
carved in the shape of different dragon heads. One was just freshly
carved it looked like...maybe some time in the last couple of years.”
“My grandma has
had that thing for five years I think,” I said. “I just know she
never put it out for sale and no one was allowed to touch it.”
The doctor went
back over to the jar and started removing the canopic jars one by
one, setting them on a nearby table for more research on what their
engravings said and why they were in a ginger jar in the first place.
Then, while he was removing the last jar he let out a yell so loud it
almost shattered the jar. “I found it,” he yelled. “I found
it!”
“Found what,”
I asked.
“I had heard
about it since I was a freshman in college. I always thought that it
was just a legend but now it is here in my lab. I cannot
believe my pure luck,” he was yelling as he ran around the room
while bouncing off of the walls. Then he did something I'd never
expect....he ran over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“What is it,”
I yelled back as I backed away from him.
He reached into
the jar and felt around for a second before he pulled it back out and
when he did he was holding a large diamond that was blacker than even
the midnight sky out in the desert. Smiling he said as he held it
out, “This has got to be the Diamond of the Gods. It is said to
hold all of the powers of the Chinese gods when the ancient peoples
turned against them.”
“Doctor,” I
said in a very nervous voice. “There was a message on my mirror
this morning that said "I want my diamond.”
Suddenly his face
turned white...whiter than even the clouds outside. “When you
opened the jar did you see anything strange,” he asked.
“Not when I
opened it,” I said.
“When then,
boy,” he
yelled at me. “When did you see it?”
I stood there for
a minute. Yes, I was getting more and more scared with every second
that passed. “When I went to close it,” I said nearly in tears.
“There was a glow and a mist that came out of the top and
disappeared. I thought it was just dust from the jar being so old.”
“Glowing dust,”
he asked. It was easy to see that he was getting angry with me.
“I didn't know,”
I said. “I
never opened anything like that before."
“Do you know
what you did,” he asked. “Do you?” I just stood there shaking
but I managed to shake my head enough to let him know the answer. I
didn't know what I had done. “You released Rakshasa. You let the
stealer of souls out into the world.”
Just then the
ginger jar shattered and the canopic jars flew across the lab. No one
was near it and no one could explain how or why the jar broke as we
were all too busy trying to keep the canopic jars from breaking. We
gathered all six of them and placed them on one of the smaller tables
and wrapped them in bubble wrap just to make sure that they were
safe.
We didn't notice
at the time but a door in the far wall slowly opened. Now, I knew
that door had a squeak in the hinges. I had come through that door
earlier but now it was totally silent. The doctor and his assistant
were busy picking up the shards of the ginger jar while I was looking
at the carvings in the canopic jars. They were beautiful to say the
least and for a young boy the images were just too fantastic for
words. I just stood there and stared for probably 15 minutes.
In a split second
a figured appeared out of empty space. It was ghastly to look at. It
had ruby red hair surrounding an oriental face. Horns protruded into
the air and each sent a sulfuric smoke into the air. Its hands were
burnt so badly that it was hard to call
them hands they were more like paws with claws that measured at least
6 inches in length. Its eyes,..I will never forget those eyes. They
were glowing green...the same green as the canopic jars but they were
transparent. Standing there I could see right into the back of his
skull. The funny thing was...he didn't have a mouth...at least not
one that I could see and that, despite everything else, was the
freakiest thing about this creature.
“Can you see
that,” I asked in a strangely calm voice. I know I should have been
freaking out...you know...
running around, yelling, but I didn't feel that. Everyone in the room
looked at me as if I was crazy and pretty much in unison they all
asked me what in the hell I was talking about. I pointed and said,
“Right there! You can't see that....thing standing there?”
Dr Chou told me
that there was nothing in the room but I knew better,
I could see it, Whatever it was it walked by me without even looking
at me. “What are you doing ?”
I asked as it walked farther and farther from me and towards
the table where Dr. Chou and the others were working. “What are you
doing ?” I asked
again in a firmer voice and again it just ignored me but Dr. Chou
shouted back to me that he was looking at that diamond he found in
the jar.
When he said that
I could see the creature's ears perk up so,
at that moment, I
knew who it was and what it was after. “Rakshasa,” I yelled as
loud as I could and as I did it turned slightly and its eyes locked
onto mine for just a second before it turned back to Dr. Chou. I saw
in its eyes that it was the creature who was locked in the jar for
1,000 years...it was the demon and it wanted that stone.
“Boy, will you
be quiet for just a moment,” Dr. Chou yelled back at me.
"I have to be extremely careful with these
artifacts. I will be just a few minutes and then I will talk to you."
As soon as he
finished talking Rakshara stood directly behind him, He wasn't in the
posture he was when he walked in. It was almost looking at a cat
stalking a bird. It was like watching a cougar hunt a small mouse and
the mouse didn't know it was behind him.
“Dr. Chou,” I
yelled but as I did Rakshara raised his hand and just one of his
claws touched Dr. Chou on the shoulder and I watched him fall,
gasping for breath and finally withering into dust and the creature
just smiled and it was almost as if I heard it laughing.
“No,”
I screamed as I ran over to the doctor. He was just a
pile of dust. No skin, no muscles, no bones...just a pile of dust.
I looked up and
saw Rakshasa reaching toward the table. I guessed that he was going
to steal the diamond and take all of the powers locked inside of it.
I also knew one thing :
since all of the students had taken off when Chou collapsed,. I had
to be the one to get the diamond and I had to do it fast.
It seemed as if it
didn't notice me any longer, if it even noticed me at all. I was able
to move around without it looking at me to see where I was or what I
was doing so I slowly walked up to the table. He had just reached for
the diamond when I stepped between it and the diamond, snatching it
from the tabe and running across the room with it. It was then that
he started watching me.
It started toward
me at a pace a lot faster than it was using when it walked in. It was
growling loud and that kind of sounded like a bear who was protecting
its cubs and its mouth was fully open. For the first time I got to
see into its mouth. Yeah, there were long sharp teeth on the edges
but the rest of its upper mouth was filled with barbs that looked a
lot like a collection of the sewing needles my grandma used to sew
with. Its eyes, I will never forget his eyes, they weren't the color
that I had seen earlier...they were glowing brightly and the color
was something that I could not comprehend. It was truly terrifying.
I just stood there
holding the rock. It was a lot warmer than it was when I picked it up
and it kept heating up until it was burning the flesh from my hand
but, even through the pain, I kept my hand wrapped tightly around it.
Rashasa was no more than ten feet away from me when the pain got to
be too much for me. By now I could smell my flesh burning so I opened
my hand and the diamond )fell to the
floor shattering into a lot of pieces when it hit the hardwood floor.
As it did Rashasa screamed in pain and he back
off.
At the same time I
looked and saw the canopic jars shaking. They made such a loud noise
that I fell to the floor with my hands covering my ears but that
didn't help. The noise was so loud that even through my hands I was
sure that my brain was going to explode. I could feel blood flowing
from my ears and nose. The noise got louder and louder until I heard
a number of small explosions. I counted six in all. Then I heard
something strange...six voices in different languages and they were
all yelling at the creature.
I looked and I saw
someone who looked like the pictures in my history book when we were
studying ancient China. Another was dressed like a Greek soldier and
yet another looked like someone who had stepped out of 12th
Century Britain. The last figure I saw was a woman dressed in modern
day clothes. She looked familiar but I wasn't sure who she was.
“Demon,” the
British man said. “Turn and face us.” He stood still except that
he had pulled his sword and was holding it before him. The rest did
the same, except for the modern woman who just put on a show of her
bravery. “You have kept us too long,” he continued.
It turned toward
them and started running right at them. It was growling louder than
it was when it was after me. It seemed to have one thing on its mind
and that was to kill everyone in the room.
The British man
stepped forward and shoved his sword into the chest of the creature.
He twisted the blade while the others used their weapons to slash and
stab the creature. Rakshasa swung its claws back and forth trying to
slice his enemies and its bites were so powerful that I could feel
them way across the room. But its claws and teeth never found a
target despite several attacks. While he was trying the British man
stabbed again and again, each time deeper and more powerful. Finally
the creature fell onto the floor and after one more growl he turned
into dust and was blown away in a breeze.
I crawled out of
my hiding place and ran over and kicked the last bits of dust across
the room.
The British man
came of and offered me his sword. “You were brave,
son,” he said. 'Not many men would have been able to do what you
did. Live your life with
honor and you will be as a brave of a man as you are a boy.” I
looked at the sword and it looked very familiar. I thought about it a
minute before I looked at the sword and then at the man.
“Your majesty,”
I said. “Are you?”
“Yes,” he
replied/
“And is this?
“Yes boy, you
are holding my sword,” he said. “It has served me well and I want
you to have it to protect you and help you be brave throughout your
life.” He walked back over to me and touched the sword. He smiled
and talking to the sword. “Excaliber, protect this boy as you have
me.” Then he just turned and walked away. I knew at that moment who
I was talking to. I had met King Arthur of Camelot.
One by one each of
the six faded away until was standing there facing the woman. She
walked to me and said, “You do not know me, do you?” I told her
that I had never seen her in my life. She was young and dressed like
a woman right out of World War 2. She had an accent that I had heard
all of my life.
I looked closer at
her and saw into her eyes. “Grandma,” I said as she wrapped her
arms around me. Then she whispered in my ear telling me that,
yes,
she was my grandma and that she was going to a much better place now
that she had been saved. I knew I should have been sad but I actually
felt happy. Then she told me one other thing before she too faded
away.
I took the ginger
jar home that day. I made sure that the lid was always kept far away
from the jar. I had it for about a week before I talked to my mom and
dad and told them everything that happened and what Grandma had told
me. We took it to the post office, packed it up and sent it to a
museum in Hong Kong. Of course, the lid was sent separately. We
didn't want to take any chances.
Me, I still run
that little store my grandma owned. It is doing well and I always
keep a picture of my grandma on a shelf behind me. That way I know
that she will be there if I need her.
Oh yeah, I forgot about Excaliber. I
still have it after all these years. It is stored in a velvet lined
box in my bedroom and when I have a son...he will get Excaliber when
I die and I just hope that it does as good for him as it did for me.
© Robert Taylor 2012
