Masks
By Shel Silverstein
 
She had blue skin.
And so did he.
He kept it hid.
And so did she.
They searched for blue.
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by-
And never knew.
 

Masks
By Maggie Ma

 
The story began from the heaven. One day, the Jade Emperor (The Emperor of Heaven) was writing calligraphy by using the magic blue ink that was newly created by Taishang Laojun (Supreme God Lao Zi). In a moment, the annoying Monkey King appeared in the Jade Emperor’s head because several days ago, the monkey destroyed the his wife’s grand peach assembly, which rendered his hands shake when holding the writing brush to dip in the blue ink that spilled into two families of the human world. A boy was born in the imperial palace while a girl in a poor village in the surrounding areas, and both babies with blue skin faces were considered as monsters by common people.
 
The emperor of the North Kingdom thought the blue skin was ominous and tried to hide the truth of his blue skin son and asked artisan to make a mask for his son under which the prince looked like his peers. Since a child, the prince had been requested not to tell the secret, not to approach girls and not to get married. Every night, standing before the mirror, the prince removed the mask and had the impulse of telling others the truth of his blue skin, but he dare not because of the inner fear of others’ weird looks.
 
The girl was born in a poor family. When she was little, she was sold to the imperial palace and was not allowed to remove her mask because her appearance would frighten common people and she might lose her life because of that. Her parents also told her that she had no right to get married or she would ruin the whole family. Two strange persons lived in one place, every day they met, but they never knew the truth deep in their hearts.
 
The prince always had repeated dreams. On a wide and large green lawn, a 12-year-old blue skin boy with a sword around his waist was chasing a blue skin girl with a whip in her hand. The blue skin could not hide their handsome and pretty faces just like two dancing amazing specters. Suddenly, a bluff appeared, the girl fell down, the boy tried to seize her, but it had already late. In a cold sweat, the prince woke. Walking toward the mirror, he gazed at himself in the mirror which could not be recognized as a blue skin prince by wearing the perfect mask. After getting dressed, he walked out of his room to breathe the fresh air.
 
He wandered into a garden near which there was a pavilion. A servant girl was playing with the princess and showed her whip-swinging technology standing on the rail of the pavilion. In an instant, the prince found the girl was to fall down to the ground because she was to step into the air instead of the rail. Upon sensing the danger, he rushed to the pavilion and caught the girl supporting by his arms. On seeing the prince, the girl flushed, touched her face subconsciously and immediately got rid of the prince giving an indifferent glance to him. Bearing her parents’ words of never loving a man and getting married, she dared not to show her affection to him. The prince was a bit disappointed and thought if only she was the girl with blue skin in the dream.
 

Afterwards, the Monkey King with his master going to the west for Buddhist Sutra passed the North Kingdom. On listening Monkey King’s magical power, the king implored the monkey to cure his son with blue skin. Monkey King knocked at the floor and then the earth god, an old man with long white beard and a crane appeared in front of them telling the cause and effect of the blue skin. The Monkey King giggled, immediately flew to the sky, and found the Jade Emperor to get the antidote that would remove the blue skin but let a person forget one’s previous sweethearts. Without knowing that, the prince and the girl took the antidote separately. The prince became a real handsome prince who married a virtuous and beautiful princess from the neighborhood kingdom. The blue skin girl became a real beauty and married to an imperial physician who also loved her deeply. Ever after, they both led a happy life. The girl with blue skin only appeared in the prince’s dreams. They never knew what’s happened, but seemed so familiar to each other.

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