The Dreamweavers by G. Z. Schmidt

Author:G. Z. Schmidt [Schmidt, G. Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

十五

A Royal Act

Dreams often fade away when you wake up. Many people have trouble remembering any of their dreams from the night before. Dreams aren’t part of the physical world, after all.

When the twins woke up the next morning, however, their dream—and their plan to meet—stood out vividly in their minds. They completed their tasks anxiously throughout the day. Finally, after dinnertime, they followed the palace children and their caretakers to the evening’s spectacle, which was held in an enormous theater.

Despite the crowd, the twins spotted each other backstage immediately and ran toward one another.

“Did we have the—” began Yun.

“—same dream?” finished Mei.

The twins were stunned. Something wondrous had happened, something that seemed impossible, yet to what end, they weren’t quite sure. They thought of the Jade Rabbit’s words about the dream world, and what it meant now that they had seemingly traveled through it consciously together the night before.

Before they could continue their conversation, several servants abruptly ushered the twins into a dressing room. Men in elaborate cloaks and painted faces roamed the space, tying up their hair and putting on makeup. A musician played the erhu, drawing out long, elegant, forlorn notes from the two-stringed instrument.

“You can’t go onstage without costumes,” said a performer carrying a tasseled broadsword. “Here, try these.” He tossed the twins a pair of itchy costume robes—tacky green with peacock feathers for Mei, bright red the shade of Madam Hu’s lipstick for Yun.

Bewildered, the twins hurried to explain they weren’t actors. They started to head back out when the seemingly ever-present crane-like man stepped in front of them and blocked their path.

“As you will recall, earlier this week Master Fu-Fu requested the two of you perform in the show tonight,” he said, crossing his arms. “In fact, he’s pestered me about it daily.”

“You mean we have to go onstage?” Yun said, his face pale.

“We don’t know how to act,” Mei tried to explain.

“That sounds like your problem.” The crane man snapped his fingers at a nearby performer whose face had been painted into a green-and-red scowl. “Keep an eye on them so they don’t sneak out. I have better things to do tonight than to babysit whiny servants.”

After he left, the green-and-red man tried to cheer the twins up. “It’s a variety show for the royal children,” he said. “Anything goes! Tell a story or sing a song.”

Mei and Yun knew plenty of stories from Grandpa, and some from their parents. Somehow, Mei and Yun didn’t think this particular crowd would appreciate a simple story without singing or dancing. And the only songs the twins knew were ones they’d learned as toddlers, tunes that were full of clapping hands and nonsensical rhymes about farm animals. The twins had not met any professional actors in their life at the village. They’d heard of traveling acting troupes, but had never seen one in person.

“Acting’s not that hard, either,” continued the performer. “I’ve been doing it for years. There is something magical about acting. An individual

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