Little Fox

Little Fox crept out of bed as her mother left. Ma Ma walked so quietly, her footsteps were barely audible as she slipped out the back door.

“Ma Ma,” whispered Little Fox, trying to watch her but Ma Ma had disappeared into the murky night air. 

“Little Fox,” called Ba Ba. “Go back to sleep.”

“Where is Ma Ma going?” 

“She will be back in the morning. Now go back to sleep. It’s late.”

Little Fox lay back on her bed, listening to Ba Ba’s snoring next to her. Ma Ma always did return by dawn, although Little Fox had never been able to see it. She would wake up in the morning and Ma Ma would be in the kitchen, making congee like she did every day. Sometimes Ba Ba said that she had to run deliveries at night. It was true that their store was very busy and her parents did often work long hours, but that did not make it any less mysterious. She rolled onto her side so she could see the door, wanting to stay awake until Ma Ma returned, but her eyes would not stay open.

When she woke up the next day, Ba Ba was already working in the store which was at the front of their house and Ma Ma was in the kitchen. The smell of congee made Little Fox’s stomach rumble. She ate her breakfast, watching Ma Ma as she bustled around, packing her tiffin for school. She looked full of energy, certainly not like she’d been out late at night. Ma Ma scolded her for eating too slowly and reminded her to get ready for school with a stern voice but a warm twinkle in her eye.

Little Fox attended the small Cantonese school in the Chinese quarter. There were not many children but Little Fox loved school. It was a chance to get out of the house. Her parents were always warning her about the white people who liked to harass the Chinese and so she was not allowed beyond the boundaries of the Chinese quarter by herself and after school, she had to help out in the store. When she complained they would say things like, “You’ll understand when you’re older.” Her life was contained within the few streets of the Chinese quarter of Melbourne.

Her father had come to Australia as a young man to make his fortune at New Gold Mountain, along with many other young men from Guangdong. Sometimes he told her stories about coming over on the boat from China or life on the gold fields of Bendigo. He’d been lucky to make enough money to start his own business in Melbourne once the goldfields were exhausted. Then he’d been able to send for a bride from Guangdong once he’d established his business. He would smile and say how beautiful Ma Ma looked when she’d arrived in Melbourne. The first thing he’d noticed about her was her dark eyes and how they flashed with spirit. It was the most auspicious day of his life. Whenever he told this part of the story, Ma Ma would tut and flap her hands at him but Little Fox could see that she was pleased. 

The school day passed too quickly and Little Fox said goodbye to her friends before she hurried home. She had a long list of chores to do back at the store. If it wasn’t too busy and Ba Ba was in a good mood, he might tell her stories from when he was growing up in Guangdong. 

When she got back home, she saw several men in the store, all deep in conversation with Ba Ba. Little Fox heard snippets of their talk as she went through to their kitchen to put her things away. She came out with her broom, ready to sweep the floor but her father told her to help Ma Ma instead. She bowed her head and returned to the kitchen.

“Ma Ma, what is Ba Ba talking about with those men? Is something going on?”

Ma Ma was chopping vegetables. Without missing a beat, she told Little Fox not to eavesdrop and tossed her an apron. 

“You take over here and I will start the soup. Ai yah, Little Fox, there have been bad men coming here, bad English men. They have a lot of anger and they drink too much. That makes them dangerous. So you must not leave the house, except to go to school and then straight home after.”

“Bad men in the Chinese quarter?” Little Fox paused with the kitchen knife. She looked up at Ma Ma who shook her head.

“I’m afraid so. Your father has lived here a long time so people want his advice. He has been through this with the English before.” Ma Ma sighed, though her hands were still deft and sure over the soup. “You must be a good girl, Little Fox. When you are older, things will be different.”

Little Fox nodded. “Yes, Ma Ma.”

She continued chopping the vegetables and herbs, thinking about the snatch of conversation she’d overheard. Something about the Governor not helping them, being deliberately blind. Ma Ma gave her more jobs to do, and then when the men had gone, she told Little Fox to sweep the store floor. 

Ba Ba was busy writing. He wrote a community notice each week that he posted outside the store. She stood next to him and watched his swift brush strokes but he reminded her to get on with her sweeping. A few more people came to the store that evening but there was no more of the hushed conversation of before, just people coming to buy this and that. After they closed the store, they retired to the kitchen to eat dinner with Ma Ma.

Little Fox always felt tired by the time dinner came but happy too. It was the one time that her parents were relaxed. Tonight, Little Fox was hungry but there were uncomfortable turnings in her stomach. She couldn’t put the men’s conversation out of her head but her parents sat and ate, making occasional small talk. She helped Ma Ma clean up after, hoping that she would tell her some more of what was going on, but Ma Ma just carried on normally. 

When Little Fox went to bed, she could hear her parents talking softly to each other. She couldn’t make out their conversation but the sounds of them moving around the store were comforting and she drifted off to sleep.

The sounds of crashing and glass breaking woke Little Fox. She rubbed her eyes, confused. It was dark, the middle of the night. Ba Ba’s voice and some English voices mingled in the store and she crept out of bed. Ba Ba’s voice was calm and entreating but the English were strident, heated. Little Fox tip-toed through the kitchen then eased her head around the door to the storefront. Her father was standing in front of the counter, two white men looming over him. The glass panels in the window were shattered, glinting sharply in the moonlight. She gasped. What were these men going to do to her Ba Ba? And where was Ma Ma?

One of the white men raised his fist and pushed his face in towards her Ba Ba’s. Then he said something in English that Little Fox couldn’t understand. The other white man laughed, a laugh that belied menace. She shivered, trembling for her father.

Outside on the street, a fox’s bark cut through the tense air in the store. Little Fox leaned forwards slightly, trying to get a better view. Her parents were always telling her stories about magical foxes. Her nickname came from their love of foxes. Ba Ba said there were lots of foxes in the Victorian countryside, brought over from England so the governor could go hunting, but the Chinese fox was far superior to those feral Victorian foxes. 

The man with the raised fist continued shaking his fist in Ba Ba’s face but the other man turned, gasping. He spoke to his friend.

“Look at that! A silver fox. With three tails.”

Little Fox stood up briefly, trying to see this fox. She caught a glimpse of a fox standing in the street just outside the smashed window. She ducked down but the men’s attention was now on the fox so she stood up again. 

The man who had spoken said something about money for fur which caused the man with the raised fist to turn to look at the fox. It was an incongruous sight; a silver fox with three tails, like the foxes in the stories, but in the middle of the city. The two white men became excited and one drew a revolver. The fox leapt forward, snapping its jaws. The man with the revolver shot at the fox, his revolver letting out a blast that left Little Fox’s ears ringing. She saw her father’s mouth was now open in anguish, his hands clutching the sides of his face. Little Fox saw the two white men burst out of the store, looking for the fox. Ba Ba followed at a safe distance and Little Fox ventured out of her hiding spot too, wanting to see what was happening. She ducked down behind the counter when the two white men shouted something at Ba Ba but they now seemed to be more interested in the fox. They left, boots crunching over the glass splinters. 

Ba Ba cried out then, calling Ma Ma’s name. Little Fox ran into the store, afraid of what she’d seen, afraid for Ma Ma. Ba Ba ignored her and dashed out into the street, still calling Ma Ma’s name. Little Fox followed him, nearly running into Ba Ba when he stopped at the laneway around the corner from the store. Ma Ma lay on the cobblestones, clutching her side. Blood flowed between her fingers. Little Fox screamed. 

Ba Ba scooped Ma Ma up in his arms and carried her back to the store. He laid her out on the bed, doing his best to bandage her wound. Little Fox did not know what to do; she was confused and terrified all at the same time. Ba Ba told her to grab some tonic from the store and she ran, wanting to help.

Ma Ma drank the tonic but she trembled as if cold. Ba Ba looked at her with such tenderness that Little Fox began to weep. Ma Ma tried to sit up then, but she could not. 

“Little Fox,” she whispered. “It is time for you to know. To take on your power.”

“Ma Ma!” Little Fox cried. “Don’t die.”

“I am shot, Little Fox, and I have not yet cultivated enough power to survive this man’s weapon. You must take on your power.”

Little Fox looked at Ba Ba, confused. Tears rolled down his face.

Ma Ma reached one trembling hand out to Little Fox. Little Fox gripped her mother’s hand and held it to her face. 

“You must take on your power, Little Fox. Your name…is your power. You are like me, a huli jing.”

Little Fox stopped crying, stunned.

“You are a fox spirit?”

“Yes, and you are too. Use your power!”

Ma Ma’s voice dropped so low they could barely hear her. Her face was white and wan in the candlelight but her hand in Little Fox’s was still strong. An electric pulse thrummed in their connected hands and Little Fox felt herself overcome with a strange feeling. As her mother’s spirit left her body, Little Fox shifted into her fox shape for the first time. She leapt on light paws, in awe at the new sensations. Ba Ba gazed at her, a small smile as he took in her silver fur and single brush tail.

The moment of wonder was too brief, however, as there were more sounds of English voices and glass breaking in the street. The two men were back and as angry as before. Little Fox’s ears pricked up and she leapt through the store and out onto the street.

The two men were partway down the street. She barked once and they turned to look at her. 

“It’s got one tail! I told you a fox can’t have three tails.”

“But it’s a silver fox. Where’d it come from?”

“Who cares about that? It’s worth money, that pelt.”

The man with the revolver took aim but she was primed, her fox sight and hearing keen as a razor. She darted to the side and snapped at the men’s legs. A shot rang out behind her and it made her jump but she kept her nerve. She had to keep them away from Ba Ba. Darting from one side of the street to the other, she set off towards Celestial Avenue, hoping the men would pursue her. They did, creating a ruckus as they went. She ran down the avenue towards the river, looking over her shoulder and there they were, running after her, singleminded in their pursuit. The docks were just ahead. She had only been here once with her parents but her mother’s spirit spoke to her and she ran on, determined. As she approached the docks she paused, letting the men catch up but not too close, then circled around to snap at their legs again. They shouted with ugly voices and she circled around the other way, snapping at their ankles. They were infuriated now and tried to shoot at her. She circled them one last time, keeping her eye on the wharf beside her and then darted out of the way. The men stumbled over the side, causing two splashes that made the night workers come running. 

Her eyes flashing with spirit, Little Fox sprinted back to the Chinese quarter and home, where Ba Ba was waiting for her.