Strange Stones.(Short story)

All along Highway 110 we saw signs for Strange Stones. They first appeared in Hebei Province, where the landscape was desolate and the only color came from the advertising banners posted beside the road. They were red and had big characters promising Qi Shi--literally, "strange stones"--and had been tattered and torn by the wind. We were driving northwest, right into a spring storm. There was only rain at the moment, but we could see what lay ahead--the forecast was frozen on top of the oncoming traffic. Most vehicles were big Liberation-brand trucks carrying freight south from Inner Mongolia, and their stacks of boxes and crates were covered with ice. The trucks had fought a crosswind on the steppes, and now their frozen loads listed to their right, like ships on a rough sea.

It was 2002, I was driving a rented Jeep Cherokee, and Mike Goettig was along for the ride. If things went well, we might eventually make it to the Tibetan Plateau. We had met in the Peace Corps years earlier, and after finishing our time as volunteers we had each found a different way of staying in China: I worked as a freelance writer; Goettig opened a bar in the southwest. But every once in a while we met up on the road, for old times' sake. We passed a half-dozen signs for Strange Stones before either of us spoke.

"What's up with this?" Goettig said at last.

"I have no idea. I haven't driven this road before."

The banners stood in front of small shops made of concrete and white tile, and they seemed to grow more insistent with every mile. Strange Stones is the Chinese term for any rock whose shape looks like something else. It's an obsession at scenic destinations across the country; in the Yellow Mountains you can seek out natural rock formations with names like Immortal Playing Chess and Rhinoceros Watching Moon. Collectors buy smaller rocks; sometimes they've been carved into a certain shape, or they may contain a mineral pattern with an uncannily familiar form. I didn't have the slightest interest in Strange Stones, but their proliferation in this forgotten corner of Hebei mystified me. Who was buying this stuff? Finally, after about twenty banners, I pulled over.

Inside the shop, the arrangement seemed odd. Display tables completely encircled the room, leaving only a narrow gap for entry. A shopkeeper stood beside the gap, smiling. With Goettig behind me, I squeezed past the tables, and then I heard a tremendous crash.

I spun around. Goettig stood frozen; shards of green lay strewn across the concrete floor. "What happened?" I asked.