“I will show you all the doctor reports,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with me!”
Except for the huge egg in the middle of your living room.
“And there is nothing insane with investing in my nephew’s movie.”
He allowed himself a moment to fantasize about that. A split second to spend a million dollars in his mind and make the kind of movie he wanted to create. God, how he wanted it! But even if his aunt had that kind of money, he would burn on the spit of guilt for the rest of his life if he ever took her up on her offer. His family would crucify him. Every holiday for the rest of his life, they’d talk about how he scammed his own aunt.
He couldn’t do it.
He gave his aunt a hug. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and smiled. “Thank you, Auntie. You are most generous, but I think I should go.” He pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call the hospital—”
“I won’t go!” she snapped. “Not unless you fulfill your promise.”
“To bow before a big egg?”
“Yes, yes. I will give you my money. That is my sacrifice. You will give your body and your work.”
“And you’ll go to the doctor? You’ll do whatever he asks?”
She nodded, and the motion included a bow. “Yes. Yes.”
He frowned at her. Then he looked around the room. If this was the only way to get her to a hospital….
“Don’t be intimidated by this. It is not as crazy as it looks,” she said, gesturing to the room filled to bursting with Monkey King paraphernalia. “I am just different.” She leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his, just as she had when he was young. “You understand different.”
He did. And he could not damn her for it.
“I am sane, nephew,” she said. “And I have a million dollars to give you for your movie if only you promise to dedicate yourself to the Monkey King.” She pulled back and gestured to the egg. “Every day, you must give yourself to him, yes? Every day. A simple bow and a promise. That is not too much to ask for a million dollars.”
“I will do it as long as you go see a doctor and do what he says—”
“My cancer is cured!” she cried. “But I will do it if you ask.”
“Good.”
“And if you dedicate yourself to the Monkey King.” She must have seen his expression, because she quickly moderated her tone. “We will draw up a contract. It will say that I get profit from the movie. Ten percent. Twenty percent. No, no, thirty percent profit from your movie.”
“Auntie!”
“Thirty percent profit for my million dollars. That is not crazy, is it?”
“No, Auntie. It’s not. But a movie is a huge gamble.”
She waved his words away with a flick of her fingers. “It is my money to gamble with how I want. Your father buys lottery tickets. How is that any different?”
“And if there are no profits?”
She sniffed in outrage. “Do you think I will break your arm? Nephew!” She flicked his upper lip with her finger. Except for the bloody half-moon cuts in his arm, that was the most violent she ever got with him. “If there are no profits, then I will come back to my store and make money again. All I ask is that you bow, Walter. Every morning, every night, you bow to—”
“An egg?”
“Yes. The stone egg of the Monkey King. You bow, you pledge your body and your movie to the service of the Monkey King. You can do that, yes? For a million dollars?”
He wanted to say yes. This movie had been everything to him for the last year. He and Bing had worked night and day on it. He’d gone without sleep and food in the scripting of it. His entire bank account was drained in the service of this movie. It was his dream, and with a million dollars, he could get it done right. He could screw that asshole Wu and see that Bing got the role he deserved. Plus, it would launch his own film career and get them both SAG cards.
And all he had to do was bow to a stone egg for his crazy auntie. It wasn’t so big a price to pay, right?
“Come,” she ordered as she tugged him over to the stone egg. “Bow three times to the resurrection of the Monkey King, and then we will go get the money.”
Her hand was on his shoulder, pressing him down. What could he do but agree? She so obviously wanted it, and he desperately needed her help.
He bowed.
“Say it!” she cried.
He took a breath, choosing his words as carefully as he could. Even if he didn’t believe in the Monkey King, he believed that promises had weight, and he did not want to lie to his aunt. “For a million dollars, I pledge my body and my movie to the resurrection of the Monkey King.”
Three times he bowed, and three times he pledged himself to the Monkey King.
Then he called the doctor’s office on the way to the bank.
