Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Little Bean, Past Lives, and Prophecies

Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Match One: Little Bean, Past Lives, and Prophecies:

-Ju-

My name is Ju Wang and I am eight weeks pregnant. Everything is going fine so far. Little Bean is healthy and still alive. Yao and I decided to call them that after the first sonogram.

"It's so tiny," I said, looking at the screen.

"Yes," Yao said.

"It looks like a little bean in a way," I said.

"Really?" he asked. "I thought it was a little seahorse." I tilted my head as I looked at the screen.

"I can kind of see it that way," I said. "I still think it looks like a little bean." The nickname stuck from there. It took Yao a little bit of time, but he thinks it's cute too.

"You are okay with calling him that?" he asked.

"Now, now," I said. "We don't know if it's a boy yet. It could be a girl. I don't want to know until Little Bean is born."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "It doesn't feel right to know ahead of time. I don't want to force the child into a predetermined box before they are born."

"But what if they get sick or something goes wrong?" Yao asked.

"We will go to the hospital and Bik to make sure that doesn't happen," I said. "I just don't want to know the gender before Little Bean is born." Yao sighed and pulled me into his arms.

"Fine," he said. I smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Love you," I whispered in his ear.

"Yes," he said back. "Love you too." The clan mothers have been taking good care of me. Bik has been getting me herbs and vitamins from the markets and her own stash.

"I have been keeping these just in case," she told me after the celebration dinner. The fact that she smiled as she said that only made me slightly worried.

"Have you?" I asked.

"Of course," Bik said. "I am a nurse after all. Is that wrong?"

"No, no," I said, shaking my head. "Thank you."

"You're welcome!" she said with a smile that made me shiver. I bowed my head and walked out of her house. Bik's a little bit too excited for this, isn't she?

Anyway, onto the other mothers.

Cai has been praying over Little Bean. She recites sutras over my stomach in the evenings. I let her go along with it given her own past with her pregnancies.

"You sure this will work?" I asked one evening.

"Shhh!" Cai whispered. She went back to her sutras. I stood there and took it. Anything to help her, I guess. Cai lowered her head.

"All done," she said. "I will still take you by the temple on Sunday to get your baby fully protected, okay?"

"Thank you," I said. I bowed and walked out of her house. On another note, my cooking has gotten better. The mothers and even Yao insist on cooking for me.

"No, you sit down and rest," Hark said on a Friday.

"I'm not even that far along yet," I said. "I can handle the cooking just fine."

"No," she insisted. "Don't try to do too much. You already have the clan and this baby to shoulder. Get Yao to help you around the house." Yao looked up at with big eyes.