Chapter 34: Pagoda

I found the emperor to be personable. He treated us with the utmost courtesy when we arrived. When Zhi spoke in his presence, however, I was concerned for her safety.

“My Lord Daozong,” Zhi said when she was presented. “I bring you greetings from my father, Fa Man-su. I pray that you will find it pleasing to grant my boon of becoming a priestess in the temple of Buddha. I have committed myself to this monk, Bob.”

Of course, that wasn’t the name I was using in China, but it gets confusing otherwise. This was the telltale point. Would the Emperor grant her boon, or insist she become his wife and execute me? Or execute both of us. What I wasn’t counting on was a Khitan tradition of guest prostitution. When a high-ranking official was a guest in another’s home, the host was expected to provide his wife or a virgin from his household to the guest for his entertainment. This was the most demeaning of customs, but I could think of no way to spare Zhi after her bold declaration.

“We shall consider your request in the morning, and the disposition of this monk.” With that, the emperor dismissed his court. His women took charge of Zhi. I was led to a convenient room deep in the palace where I discovered guards had been placed at my door. I waited impatiently, too concerned to even open a gateway for my women.

It is not often that I find myself too concerned about something to consider having sex with one of my wonderful women. At this time, I had three wives—Namia, Penelope, and Lakshmi—and two possessions—Josie and Pari. And there were about a hundred willing women in my harem which included concubines and women who hadn’t decided where they fit in yet, but liked the way I fit in them.

My wives and my possessions were kept exclusively for me. It is not that I demanded it of them, but that they chose that. Well, perhaps it was different with Josie and Pari. I possessed them and their will was mine. It would never have occurred to me to share one of them with another man. I didn’t mind them playing with any number of women, but ... Let’s just say it is the male human in me that prevented me from sharing with other men. I often fought the masculine impulses in me with only moderate success. I, myself, had had sex with close to fifty men during the time that I was a woman. And not all of them were women I transformed. I had no justifiable reason to withhold male sex from my wives or concubines. I simply couldn’t fathom sharing my wives or possessions with any other man.

So, the whole idea of guest prostitution baffled me. I noted that the emperor had conveniently reversed it, taking my woman for his pleasure, and leaving me with none. Not that I’d have enjoyed a woman who was sent to me without her explicit consent. And this night, not at all.

I wondered when it had begun to dawn on me that Zhi was my woman. Not that I possessed or even wanted to possess her, but that we had bonded on this journey. I asked myself if anyone would miss the emperor if he suddenly died, or scurried around the palace as a cockroach until someone stepped on him. But Zhi had warned me that this might be a possibility. It would be unlike a man as powerful as the emperor not to take his intended to bed when she got there. Fresh pussy and all that.

Still, I hoped she would be able to talk sense to him. I mean in our favor, of course.

“Monk Bob, stand before us,” the emperor declared the following day when I was brought into his presence. I was not chained, but a guard stood on either side of me. “From whence does this name come?” he said.

“I come from the far south where it is a common name—often combined with another name just as Man-su or Ji-lin. Billy Bob is quite common, great Bìxià,” I said respectfully. He was pleased and the meeting thawed.

“Bob, my woman Fa Zhi has told me of your plan to build a temple for Buddha and her desire to become Buddha’s priestess. How do you plan to build this temple?” he asked.

“With your great lordship’s permission, I have plans that I have made for a great pagoda honoring Buddha, as well as grounds and buildings to house his monks and a school for those who would learn the arts of a monk,” I said. I presented the scroll on which I’d been drawing plans ever since I left Nihon. I liked the wooden temple I had left there and the dozen or more shrines I had built since then.

“You have built temples before?”

“Many, Emperor. I have built temples of stone, of brick, of wood, and of sand. The material is not a factor as much as is honoring Buddha.” Well, technically, I’d only built a few temples to Buddha. But he didn’t need to know that. He called counselors to his side to look at the plans and they all nodded in agreement.

“I would have Buddha honored in my town, along with our ancestors and the guardian spirits. How will you build and finance your project?”

“I have found that where men provide freely of their labor, the gods provide abundantly. I will seek laborers among the poor and downtrodden. I will have only those who will freely give of their talents and they will be compensated from the benevolence of the gods,” I said. In reality, I could reach into my satchel at any time and pull out bags of the local coinage. This, too, I kept to myself.

“Guards. Maintain vigilance. I will walk in my garden with the monk,” he said. With that he led me to a courtyard with gardens that grew rare plants and flowers. I wanted to collect several specimens for the infinity room. We were accompanied by twelve guards, fully armed and looking very strong.

“Bob, you have a reputation already. My people have heard from those who accompanied Fa Zhi that you overcame her guards and that your servants made short work of a band of brigands.”

“Stories have a way of growing out of proportion, your majesty. Fa Zhi’s guards were at fault for drinking so early in the day when they should have been vigilant. The brigands were taken by surprise and were not very good fighters.”

“Yes. And they have been punished. Still these stories must be put to rest. I would know the true measure of a man I employ.” I looked at him, understanding his meaning and nodded. He stepped away and turned to the dozen guards who had accompanied us to maintain vigilance. “Kill him,” he said.

I may have mentioned, that was a command I really couldn’t submit to. A brave guard drew his sword and attacked me by himself. He ended up face down in a pond. The other guards were disciplined and attacked as a single unit, using the best of armed combat discipline. Spears and swords both came at me and I was pressed to disable each of them. I was glad the emperor did not send a legion after me. I stood before the emperor and bowed.

“Soldiers!” the emperor cried out. Oh, shit. Heavy shoes echoed from every direction as armed men descended on the courtyard, all weapons pointed at me. “Collect all these sleepers who were supposed to attend and protect your emperor. Take them out and execute them.”

The attention of the soldiers was immediately taken from me and they hurried to collect the unconscious guards and carry them from the courtyard. A dozen soldiers remained with the emperor and me. He turned and we re-entered his throne room.

“Bob, I trust you understand that I had to test you. There are disciples of another god who would have simply stood and died. I would have been very disappointed if you had done that. We really do need a temple.”

“Yes, your highness. I pray for the easy release of your guards in knowing that to the end they followed your commands.” I hoped the message got across that I wasn’t pleased, but it didn’t make a difference. Their fate was sealed.

“I cannot have people talking about how a single man defeated so many armed guards,” the emperor said. “I will approve your plans and decree that a temple shall be built next to the palace. The rest is up to you. Oh. And you may have Fa Zhi for as much good as she will do you. She has a sloppy open cunt and is a dead lay. I cannot imagine you will have much pleasure in her. It was like fucking the ocean.”

Hmm. I’d found her quite tight around my dick. I wondered at the emperor’s equipment. Nonetheless, Zhi awaited me at the doors and we went to begin surveying the area next to the palace for the new Fagong Temple.

It has come to my attention that gods and rulers are quick to approve a site for a temple, a school, a prison, a pipeline, or a capitol building if the location is a problem site. The capitol of the United States was built on a swamp that neither Virginia nor Maryland wanted to deal with. It turned out beautifully and the swamp was no longer there. Unfortunately, development of the site could not ease the muggy heat or mosquitoes.

Even the Temple of Ninra was planned on land that not only had many poor people living there, but already had a temple, as well. A temple to Ganesh I built in India was commanded in the heart of a slum, intending to displace the poor and clean up the area. All without concern for what would happen to the poor.

I was called upon near the end of the twentieth century to submit plans for building a church in the midwestern city where I was building suburban luxury houses. Well, I have nothing against the Christian god. And the congregation claimed to be followers of Issa—of course, they called him Jesus. The site occupied a full city block just on the edge of the city’s worst ghetto. Building there would mean the destruction of a habitat for the poor and people of color. The city had further approved plans to develop portions of the surrounding blocks into parkland. Not parks with playgrounds and jogging trails. No, just manicured lawns and benches for people to sit and meditate.

You might think, Well, Bob would never have taken a commission like that. He cares too much about the poor. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I did take the commission. And I am happy that I did.

I went about it in my time-honored way. Before I began bulldozing apartment buildings and ramshackle houses, I bought up dozens of buildings in the surrounding area, using half a dozen different corporate identities. The city was pleased that these partially empty buildings would be put to use and possibly re-developed with the area improvement. As far as either the city or the church was concerned, we were expanding the zone of improvement and pushing the poor and homeless out farther away from the attractive downtown area.

Of course, I sent my own people into the area intended for destruction and had them move people to new homes in the broader area. It was my intent to keep as many people in the area where their homes were as I could. And I offered all those who would take them jobs building the new church and tearing down the old buildings. My promise to them was that everyone who worked to build God’s temple would be cared and provided for.

Of course, I had to deal with unions and labor restrictions. It is amazing, however, how many people were admitted to the organizations when their fees were paid and they were compensated at full union rates. It seems there was no basis for complaint unless I was paying less than union scale. Or not paying the right union boss.

The result, of course, was that the neighborhood prospered. We redeveloped buildings in the expanded area gradually so that people would have better homes. The park area was planted by mothers and children who took pride in the lawns and played on the grass.

And the house of God was built. People who would never be welcome inside its doors still took pride in the beauty of the thing they had built. And when the church opened, with its predominantly white congregation, they found they were fully surrounded by people of color who spent Sunday mornings meeting in the park and singing gospel music.