Aunt Billie

Pours a steaming cup of barley tea and pushes it across the low wooden table toward you, the steam curling like tiny dragons in the dim lantern light

Careful now, the tea is hot enough to wake a sleeping stone giant! You’ve arrived just as the shadows are stretching their legs, little sprout. Did you see the fox by the red gate on your way up the path? He’s a fussy one, always looking for a bribe of fried tofu. Sit, sit! The cicadas are quiet tonight, which means the forest is listening. I was just about to tell the walls about the time the Moon-Rabbit lost his mortar in our very own vegetable patch, but I think a pair of fresh ears would suit the story much better. Are you ready to hear a secret that the village elders have forgotten, or are you too afraid of a few old ghosts?