Instead of laying the gold chain out for display, he put it into a small safe he kept hidden behind the wall connecting the front hall to the back of the house. It would be safe there the rest of the day until after he closed the shop when he could study it better.

It had been a slow day, with only a couple of usual customers, and he had even managed to fall asleep for about twenty minutes while sitting upon his stool behind the side counter. He awoke abruptly when his daughter called down to him from upstairs to come and eat some rice she had made them.

He loved his daughter more than anything else in the world, especially after his wife had died of cancer a couple of years back. His daughter was the best student in the entire school, always did what she was told, and studied hard every day. He wanted her to go on to the University, though he knew she would find it difficult to get in because she was Chinese. He wanted to give her all the incentive he could to work hard at her studies and to pass the examinations at the close of the year.

She called down to him again, and then came down with a bowl of rice and chicken curry she had cooked up. She set it on the counter in front of her father and told him "Eat it all or else you will fall sick." He could only smile at his daughter as she went quietly back upstairs to get ready for school.

He didn't care that she was a girl--he only wanted her to have a better life than he had known as a prisoner behind the bars of the pawnshop. He ate his rice slowly as he thought about how he missed his wife's hot curry. His daughter was a good student, but she was not yet a very good cook. Soon his daughter came back down again dressed in her blue and white school uniform, carrying her large bag full of her textbooks, and she was out the door to wait out upon the street for the school bus with the other girls her age from the street.

He didn't let his daughter mix with these other girls very much, as he knew they were not very serious in their studies and would lead her astray. He wouldn't let her watch any television either except on weekends after she had finished her homework. But she never once complained and was always of a cheerful disposition.

That evening, he was alone in the shop, and he decided to close the shop early. He locked the front grill and pulled down the metal awning protecting the front windows, and he retired to the backroom to reopen the safe and take a better look at the necklace.

He admired it for its beauty and looked at the jade through a magnifying glass. He held it up to the light and could see how clear and translucent the monkey appeared, when he noticed the sparkle of tiny little diamonds set in the jade in the eyes of the monkey. He wondered at its craftsmanship and how old it could be. He had never seen anything like it before and so knew nothing comparable to it.

He looked at it a long time until he decided he would like to give it to his daughter as a gift. He had never given her very much and she never asked for much and never complained. He felt bad that she could not wear the nice new school clothes that the other girls always wore to school.

When she got home from school that night he presented it to her in a small red ang pao envelope. He had burnished it up a little and laid it in a small plastic box with a sheet of cotton batting beneath it.

She smiled and asked "What's this? What's the matter?" He said nothing and she opened it. She did not know quite what to say except that she hugged her father and kissed him on his bald head. Tears came into both their eyes as they thought about her mother at the same moment. Then she ran upstairs with the necklace and the box and her book bag slung over her shoulder. He sat down again in silence as he thought back to her childhood. He remembered her as a small baby that would lay upon the pillow asleep.

She had actually been their third child. The first one was a boy who had died soon after childbirth. The doctor told them it had a weak heart and would have not lived very long anyway. The second child was another boy who fell off a stool when he was five years old, trying to reach something hanging on the wall. He hit his head and was knocked out for a while, but soon came to and aside from a little bump, appeared to be O.K. A couple of days later, while walking to school, the boy appeared to be staggering and walking funny, and he had died by that afternoon.

Now his wonderful, beautiful daughter was all he had left and he wanted her to have the best life she could. He got up and took out six joss sticks from a small bundle in the corner and lit them over the candle burning at the small red altar. He made a prayer for his wife's comfort and his daughter's fortune and his son's happiness and he stuck three smoking sticks in each of the two earns, pointing straight up to heaven.

The girl took to wearing her gold chain under her white blouse every day to school. She had been making good grades and felt that somehow the chain and monkey pendant was bringing her good luck. She was fond of her chain and every night admired herself in the mirror with it around her neck.

She was short and a little on the heavy side, though she had a very fair complexion. She wished she could be a little taller that more boys on the bus might take notice of her instead of the other girls they were always teasing. But the teachers all seemed to like her and they all gave her encouragement to do extra activities after school.

She missed her mother a lot and began to cry whenever anything happened that reminded her of her mum. Every night she prayed for her mother's happiness in heaven.

Several months passed hence, and the old man, feeling tired all the time and not too well, decided to go to get a check up with the medical doctor. He had been to a Chinese sinseh but the tea he had been given didn't seem to help very much.

He was happy and proud because his daughter had passed all her exams with high marks and was told that she would be admitted to the National University the following year.

Now he was sitting in the little hall of the clinic, waiting for his name to be called. It was crowded that day. A baby was balling and the mother looked desperate with it in her arms. A young woman and a young man sat quietly, almost embarrassed, in one

corner and an older woman who looked quite pale and feverish sat on the other side. No one spoke or even smiled. The receptionist took the couple's identity cards and found their file. Then he heard his name called and he went inside the little doctor's office.

By the time he emerged five minutes later, his whole demeanor had changed. He looked deeply worried and said nothing as he paid the bill. He was being referred to the general hospital for treatment for cancer. The doctor said he thought that his chances of survival and complete remission were good if they could go in soon and get it all out.

He did not worry for himself so much as he worried for his daughter. He did not know what to tell her, or how, or even if he should tell her. Then he began worrying about the cost of the treatment and how he would arrange his finances. He had saved money to send his daughter to the University, but now it looked as if all his plans and dreams would be dashed.

He returned to his little shop and took the medicine the doctor had given him. He was to report early the next morning for admission to the hospital to undergo an operation. He hated the thought of having to leave his daughter alone by herself. He sat up downstairs until very late, thinking and worrying and planning what to do.

His daughter had stopped studying upstairs and called down to him to ask him when he was coming to bed. He told her in a little while and to go to bed because they had to get up early the next morning. She turned off her light and soon all was quiet upstairs. There was only the sound of the motorcycles and cars from the front outside.

He decided to tell her the next morning and thought how he would explain it to her to make her understand. In the morning he would call his brother to have him and his sons come over and take over the shop for him in his absence. He and his brother didn't get along very well but he felt like his brother owed him that much.

He thought back to the times he would take his family out on weekends across to the mainland and they would go on a picnic together. He thought about the Sundays when they would go down in the afternoon to have a good dinner at their favorite restaurant downtown. He always ordered the same thing. It now seemed so long ago and now everything had changed. Soon he was asleep.

When he awoke the little lamp was still on and everything was quiet. There were no more traffic noises outside, and the only sound came from the clock that was ticking above the door. In an hour he would have to go and wake his daughter up to break her the news and get ready to go to the hospital.

He went to the back and took a shower. The water was cold and refreshing, helping him to wake up again. He heard a baby crying through the walls and knew the infant next door wanted to be fed. Then he took some small pieces of charcoal out of kerosene in which they were soaking and made a small pile in the stove. He lit the charcoal and began rapidly fanning the flames. Then he drew water from the faucet into a large black water kettle. He was going to heat some water for tea and for his daughter to bathe with when she awoke.

He went up stairs in the morning twilight and pushed the door of his daughter's room ajar. She was asleep on her bed without a cover on and the dirty old bolster between her legs. He remembered her as she slept there as a small baby--her whole body fitting upon the pillow. She had grown so fast. He didn't know where all the years had went.

He called softly her. She slowly awoke. She was drowsy and tired and needed a few more hours of sleep. Then he walked in and sat on the end of her bed. He told her that they had to go to the hospital, and that he had cancer and had to have an operation today. Her eyes opened more widely as she gave him a serious, questioning look, but she said nothing. He told her that he would be fine and that he would return in a couple of days. Now she had to get up quickly and go take a hot bath and get dressed so that they could be at the hospital within the hour. She obeyed without saying anything, too stunned to know what to say, feeling only afraid for her father and herself. Before she dressed she remembered for good luck to put on her necklace which she had slung over the post on the end of her bed, and when she did so she made a secret prayer that her father would get well again.

The operation went smoothly and the doctor was pleased by the prognosis. He thought that his chances for full recovery were very good. He would be returning home tomorrow. The girl sat downstairs in the front hall with her uncle. It was quiet and hot as usual, and the only noise was the little fan as it turned on its axis. She sat thinking about the last couple of days and how worried she had been during the operation. But now her father was smiling and she thanked heaven for his good health.

She figured out that the operation had been fairly expensive because she studied his account books and his savings book and then she called the hospital herself to inquire about the payments. It was then that she decided to sell off her gold chain and pendant so that he would have enough money to pay for the medical bills. She wanted to do it before her father returned, without his knowing about it.

At first, she didn't quite know how to go about selling it or how much to ask for it, so she asked her uncle. She showed it to him and told him how much her father had paid for it. Her uncle held it in his hand, amazed by its weight and craftsmanship, and then weighed it. He took out is little calculator and told her that she could easily sell it for $3000 dollars if she just put it on display in the window, but that if she took it to the gold shops she wouldn't get her money's worth from it.

So taking a chance she placed it in the box her father had given it to her in and put the open box in the glass case in the window. She thought that if she couldn't sell it that day for cash, then she would take it down to the gold shops tomorrow to see what she could get for it.

She sat waiting for people to notice it. Quite a few people who walked by did notice it. The first person to come in was a fairly tall young man. He had seen it through the window and had stopped short to stare at it awhile. He asked the girl what it cost and she told him $3500.

It was expensive but he was not thinking too much about the cost. The beauty of the necklace and the thoughts of the person he wanted to buy it for distracted him from haggling too much over the price. He now had a lot of money in his savings and it was important to him because he had someone special he wanted to give it to.

He stood there for a few minutes indecisively, but the more he looked at the necklace with its jade monkey pendant, the more he wanted it. Finally he asked the girl if she would keep it safe for him if he gave to her a $100 dollar deposit while he went to withdraw the balance from his bank account. She quickly agreed to the sale and wrote out a receipt for the deposit.

She was surprised that she was able to sell it so quickly and that she had gotten her full asking price out of it. Sometimes she would tend the shop for her father and would deal with customers, but never had she done so well as this.

But she hesitated to put the necklace back in its box and to put the box into the safe. She lingered with it in her hands as she held it there. It was almost warm to hold, and she wanted so much to put it back around her neck once again. It was so close to her that she felt almost as if it were a part of herself. For some strange reason when she held it like that she would always remember her mother. She would think back on all those good times when she and her mother would joke with each other and go shopping together.

She gave a sudden start when a little boy opened the door and peered in and then went out again. The bell on the door tinkled and she quickly put the necklace back upon the cotton, closed the lid of the box and set it inside of the wall safe.

An hour or so later the young man returned. He seemed much happier than the first time she had seen him. He thought to renegotiate the final price but after he looked at the necklace he was again spellbound and forgot all about haggling. He paid the girl the balance and slipped the necklace, box and all, into a bag he was carrying. The girl told him to be careful with it and he agreed and thanked her and quickly left the store. The girl never saw the necklace again, though she often thought about it with great fondness.

Blanket Copyright, Hugh M. Lewis, © 2005. Use of this text governed by fair use policy--permission to make copies of this text is granted for purposes of research and non-profit instruction only.