Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 30

and China?” “A language is a language,” Mr. Long mysteriously
replies (25).
Martha is warned by the hotel’s bartender to be careful o f Mr.
Long: “I want you to know if you get him drunk, old Mr. Long will
tell you that he used to be a dragon. And he’s not joking around
when he says it” he confesses to her. And, when she remains
unconvinced o f any danger associated with her unusual new friend,
the bartender furthers warns: “Still, be careful. They found a body
in the hall last year, in front of his d o o r.. . no marks, no blood, just
his neck bone snapped” (21).
Undaunted, Martha accepts Mr. Long’s help and the story
unfolds into a delightful tale that has Martha and Mayland tracking
down extortionists in Silicon Valley and rescuing Martha’s daugh
ter from blackmail and death. Her companion proves incredibly
resourceful, even superhuman, in his ability to solve her problems,
and Martha realizes that this odd man with the “ strange, hybrid
face” truly is a dragon — or was one, in any case. She remains
unperturbed, confronting him at the end o f their adventures with the
question, “How long have you been a human being?” (162).
Mayland finally succumbs to her inquiry, revealing to Martha
that he has been human for six years. He confesses that he has been
seeking truth — much like the mystic before the wall — and he
explains:
At first my quest was to rind out what there was in
man to make him act so strangely: to desire an
abstract nothing with a passion that should be re
served for gold. But eventually I came to see that I
would only find out the truth about man by rinding
man’s truth itself! (164).
It is Martha who makes him realize that she herself, and the
love he has discovered in her, is indeed this elusive “truth” that he

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