When we arrived at Cousin
Li’s place by the river, there was no one in sight. Cousin Li ran into his
shack and yelled, “Bella, Bella!” but there was no reply. We then rushed to the river bank to look for
the kittens – and it was then that we heard that familiar, eerie, cackling
laugh …
We turned round and saw Lady
Arabella II sitting on a grass verge, eyes flaming, her body aglow like hot coal.
“What took you guys so long
to get here? I’ve been waiting for hours
for you to show up!” she shrieked and laughed again. Cousin Li was shocked at the change in her.
“Bella, have you gone
mad? Where are my kittens?” growled
Cousin Li.
“Safe and sound – provided
you co-operate with me!”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Look, I’ve nothing against
you, old chap. It was you who rescued me from the river. What I want is your two
friends. Turn them over to me and I
shall set your kittens free.”
“No! You know I can’t do that!” retorted Cousin
Li. Then turning to me, he yelled, “Da,
there are three of us, we can overpower her – let’s go!”
“Wait!” Lady Arabella
screamed. “Your kittens are with my maid
on the opposite bank. I have given her
strict instructions that should you try to attack me, she is to immediately drop
the kittens into the river and drown them.
So you see, you have no choice!”
“You’re bluffing, you bloody
she-devil!” yelled Cousin Li.
“I don’t think she is,” I
shouted back to him.
“Get Lao Tze to help!” cried
Ning. It was then that I realized that I
hadn’t brought my golden star with me.
“Oh, no!” groaned Ning.
\
There’s only one thing we can
do, let’s all yell at the top of our voices for Lao Tze to rescue us!” I said.
We shouted and shouted “Lao
Tze! Help! Help!” but there was only
silence.
Meantime we saw to our horror
that Lady Arabella II had swelled and become bigger and bigger – from the size of
a small cat to the size of a large dog and she was still growing bigger …
“When I grow to the size of a
big tiger, I shall kill all three of you!” she screamed, laughing wildly.
Then, just as I thought we
had lost the battle, we heard a loud roar from behind us and saw to our
amazement a huge bear – it must have been well over ten feet tall! It took a giant step to where Lady Arabella
was sitting and grabbed her with one big paw.
She tried to struggle free but was powerless against the huge bear. It then hurled her with a big swing of his
arm over the tree tops … we could only watch speechless …then as suddenly as it
appeared, the bear vanished.
The three of us stood there, shaken
by what had just taken place. Suddenly
we heard a voice from behind, “Here are the kittens, no harm has come to
them. I may be Lady Arabella’s maid but
I’m not as evil as she is.”
She dropped the kittens at
Cousin Li’s feet and ran off. It was
such a tearful reunion as father and siblings hugged each other.
“You know, Cousin Li,” I
suggested. “I think it’s better you take them with you to your mother-in-law’s
place and stay there for some time until all this has blown over.”
“You’re right, Da. Mei Ling will never believe what has just
happened. I’ve got you two to thank for
saving my kittens.”
As we walked slowly back to
the temple, Ning said, a little nervously, “Do you think we’ve seen the last of
that she-devil? I’ve had enough
excitement to last me for the rest of my life!”
“I don’t know, Ning. We’ve Lao Tze to thank once again for saving
us. He heard us and sent that bear although I didn’t have my star with me.”
When we arrived at the temple
gates, we saw an anxious Head Nun standing there. By the time we finished telling her about our
latest adventure, the sun had set and peace and quiet once more descended on
the temple.
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