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[Assistant] So that they turned their backs and fled the battle.


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[Assistant] The alimony leaders surrendered and Clovis won the day.


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[Assistant] As soon as he got home, Clovis went to find a bishop and asked him to explain Christianity.


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[Assistant] The bishop did, and Clovis agreed to be baptized.


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[Assistant] Now Clovis the ex-barbarian was an emperor and a Christian.


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[Assistant] The Cold War between America and the Soviet Union affected almost everything that both countries did in the years following World War II. It shaped events from the space race to the Vietnam War. Finally, in the 1980s, the Cold War was coming to an end.


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[Assistant] Politicians said that the relationship between the US and the USSR was finally thawing.


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[Assistant] The two central characters in this story are the President of the United States during the 1980s, Ronald Reagan, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev.


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[Assistant] The Gipper. Before he became president, Reagan had been a Hollywood actor. One of his most well-known roles was a football hero named George Gipp. Even after he became president, Reagan was still called The Gipper after this movie character. Gorbachev didn't have a nickname.


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[Assistant] He had a strange-looking birthmark, a large purple splotch right across his bald head. In newspaper cartoons from the 1980s, Gorbachev always looks as though someone has been painting on the top of his head.


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[Assistant] These two men are remembered for their work in melting the Cold War. The thaw began in Russia.


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[Assistant] In 1985, Gorbachev, who had become the leader of the Soviet Union, introduced a plan called Perestroika. This is Russian for economic restructuring. In simpler words,


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[Assistant] Changing the way that the government runs the banks and owns land.


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[Assistant] Since the Russian Revolution, most of the businesses and banks in the Soviet Union were owned, run, and controlled by the government. Under Perestroika,


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[Assistant] Ordinary people were allowed to have more control of Russian businesses, and even to own their own businesses once more.


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[Assistant] Then Gorbachev introduced a second plan, called glasnost, which is Russian for openness.


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[Assistant] People in the Soviet Union were given greater freedom of speech.


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[Assistant] Since the Soviet Union was changing, perhaps America could become the USSR's friend rather than its enemy.


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[Assistant] But the two countries had been enemies for more than 40 years.


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[Assistant] Both countries still had nuclear weapons ready to launch at each other.


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[Assistant] It was difficult to believe that the threat of war between Americans and the Soviets could ever completely go away.


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[Assistant] President Reagan believed that the key to ending and winning the Cold War


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[Assistant] lay in the way that both countries would deal with their weapons.


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[Assistant] Reagan and Gorbachev wanted to avoid another world war.


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[Assistant] Atomic weapons had gotten even more powerful and more dangerous since the first generation of atomic bombs, the bombs America dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.


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[Assistant] However, both countries were too scared of each other to simply get rid of all their weapons.


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[Assistant] Reagan could just imagine. The Soviet Union might promise to destroy all of its weapons as long as America would do the same. The US would get rid of its atomic bombs.


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[Assistant] And then it might discover that the USSR had lied and had kept some weapons back. Then the US would be helpless.


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[Assistant] The Americans and the Soviets were like two boys with water pistols facing each other. Neither one wants to get drenched with water, but both are sure that, if he puts his down first, the other guy will pull the trigger.


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[Assistant] Reagan decided to solve this problem, not by getting rid of all of America's atomic weapons, but by inventing new


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[Assistant] Bigger, more powerful weapons. He believed that if the Soviet Union knew America had weapons stronger than anything belonging to the Soviets, the Soviets would be too afraid to attack.


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[Assistant] This strategy was called Peace Through Strength. America could ensure peace by being stronger than any other country.


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[Assistant] And at the same time that Reagan was building up America's deadliest weapons so that America could achieve peace through strength,


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[Assistant] Reagan and Gorbachev are also entering into an agreement to reduce other kinds of weapons.


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[Assistant] This agreement was called the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or the INF Treaty for short.


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[Assistant] The two leaders signed this treaty on December 8th, 1987. The treaty declared that both countries would get rid of weapons that were short-range. Weapons that could travel only 300 to 3400 miles.


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[Assistant] Reagan's new piece-through-strength weapons didn't count because they were designed to travel longer distances.


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[Assistant] Although this may seem like a strange way to bring peace, it seemed to work.


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[Assistant] Perestroika and the INF Treaty spelled the end of the Cold War.


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[Assistant] The Russian people celebrated. They wrote plays, poems, novels, and songs about the end of the Cold War.


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[Assistant] One Russian singer named Boris Grabenchikov wrote a song called Radio Silence about glasnost.


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[Assistant] In the song, he tries to describe how wonderful it is for Russians to be able to tell the truth about communism, and to speak freely to people around the world.


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[Assistant] It's strange I don't feel like I'm a stranger. I feel like I belong here. I feel like I've been waiting for a long time. And now I can tell you some stories. Americans sang about the end of the Cold War too.


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[Assistant] In 1987, an American singer named Billy Joel visited the Soviet Union and gave concerts in Leningrad and Moscow.


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[Assistant] When he came back from his tour, he wrote a song called Leningrad. The song ends, We never knew what friends we had, Until we came to Leningrad.


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[Assistant] After 40 years of Cold War, the hatred between Americans and Russians had finally begun to change into friendship.


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[Assistant] And once again I shrugged on my black wool coat and jammed my cigarettes and phone in the pocket and headed outside into a late February day that seemed to get only grayer as it progressed.


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[Assistant] I pulled myself out and called Alex's school where, according to my fuzzy recollection, he could possibly be eating his lunch in the faculty lounge at that moment. Hey Andy, what's going on? How's your day going?


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[Assistant] Don't ask, I'm on my way to pick up her lunch right now. How's your day? Good, so far. My class has music today right after lunch and then we get to cover more phonics exercises. Even though it seems like they're never going to learn how to actually read something. Well, have there been any slashings today? No, he answered.


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[Assistant] So how much can you ask for? Save the whole reading concept for tomorrow.


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[Assistant] So, guess what? Lily called this morning. She got evicted from her place, so we're going to move in together. It'll be just like senior year all over again.


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[Assistant] I'm going to see if Lil wants to meet for a drink tonight to celebrate. You up for it? We'll meet somewhere in the East Village so it's not too far for you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, sure, sounds great. Uhm, call me when you're done dropping off the book. Will do. Bye.


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[Assistant] I was about to stash the phone when it rang again. The number wasn't familiar though, and I answered it out of sheer relief that it wasn't Miranda or Emily. Mer- er, hello?


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[Assistant] I had taken to automatically answering my cell and home phone, Miranda Priestley's office, which was supremely embarrassing.


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[Assistant] Is this the lovely Andrea Sachs whom I inadvertently terrified at Marshall's party? Ask a somewhat hoarse and very sexy voice on the other end. Christian.


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[Assistant] It is. And whom, I ask, is this? There were a number of men who terrified me that night for dozens of different and varied reasons. I didn't realize that I had so much competition, he said smoothly, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. How've you been, Andrea?


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[Assistant] Fine, great actually. I lied quickly, remembering a Cosmo article I'd read that had exhorted me to keep it light and happy when talking to a new guy because most normal guys didn't respond so well to hard-bitten cynicism. What about you?


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[Assistant] You're a rather deft liar, Andrea. To an untrained ear that sounded almost believable. But you know what they say, don't you? You can't bullshit a bullshitter.


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[Assistant] I opened my mouth to deny the accusation, but instead I just laughed.


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[Assistant] Let me get right to the point here, because I'm about to get on a plane for DC.


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[Assistant] I have a reservation at Babo this Saturday. Nine o'clock. A bunch of friends will be there too. An editor from The Buzz and a couple of writers from The New Yorker. You up for it?


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[Assistant] Had he just asked me out? Yes, he was asking me out. Kristen Collinsworth was asking me out on a date. A Saturday night date, to be specific. And to Bobbo.


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[Assistant] Or he just so happened to have a primetime reservation. Never mind the New Yorker writers.


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[Assistant] I'd really love to. Yes, you idiot, you just said that. Try and make some progress here. But I just can't do it. I uhm, I already have plans for Saturday.


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[Assistant] Do you really have plans, Andrea, or do you think your boyfriend would disapprove of you going out with another man? He was fishing, I could tell. Either way, it's nothing to do with you. I said prissily and I actually rolled my eyes at myself.


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[Assistant] Okay, well, I'll let you off this time, but I'll be asking again, and I think next time you'll say yes.


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[Assistant] Oh really? What gives you that impression? The confidence that it seemed so sexy before is now starting to sound a whole lot like arrogance. The only problem was that just made him sound even sexier. Just a hunch, Andrea. Just a hunch. And no need to worry that pretty little head of yours or your boyfriend's. I was just extending a friendly invitation for a good meal and good company. Well of course. Sure. I mean, I knew what you... Listen, I've gotta run.


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[Assistant] Why don't you give me a call if you change your mind? Offer's still open. Oh, and have a great day. And before I could say another word, he'd hung up.


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[Assistant] What the hell had just happened? The only thing I knew for sure was that I'd spent way too long chatting on the phone.


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[Assistant] It had been 32 minutes since I left the office. Longer than the time it usually took me to get there and back.


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[Assistant] I stashed the phone and realized I had already made it to the restaurant.


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[Assistant] I pulled open the lumbering wooden door and stepped into the hushed, darkened dining room.


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[Assistant] Andrea! I heard Sebastian cry from the hostess stand.


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[Assistant] He beeline toward me as though I might be holding the last of a life-saving medication. We're just all so glad you're here.


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[Assistant] Two young girls in crisp grey skirt suits nodded seriously behind him.


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[Assistant] Here we have it, one perfectly prepared lunch for one perfect editor and one perfect assistant. He added while winking at me.


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[Assistant] Thank you, Sebastian. We both appreciate it. I opened the natural cotton tote and made sure everything was right. One one and a quarter pound ribeye, bleeding all over the container. Two baked potatoes the size of small kittens, each steaming hot. One small side container of smashed potatoes, made soft with lots of heavy cream and extra butter.


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[Assistant] Precisely eight perfect stalks of asparagus with the tips looking plump and juicy and the ends shaved to a clean white finish.


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[Assistant] There is also a metal gravy boat full of softened butter, a pinch box overflowing with grainy kosher salt, a wooden handled steak knife, and a crisp white linen napkin.


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[Assistant] Very nice, Sebastian. I sat as though I was praising a puppy for going number two outside. You really outdid yourself today.


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[Assistant] He beamed and then looked at the ground and practiced humility. Well, thank you.


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[Assistant] I tucked the bag under my arm and turned to leave but just then my phone rang. Is this Emily?


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[Assistant] I stated calmly while Sebastian visibly swooned at the sound of her name. Are you preparing my lunch yourself, Andrea?


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[Assistant] Because according to my clock, I asked for 35 minutes ago. I cannot think of a single reason why. If you're doing your job properly, my lunch would not be at my desk yet. Can you?


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[Assistant] She got my name right. A small success but no time to celebrate.


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[Assistant] Uhm, well, I'm very sorry it's taken so long, but there is a little mix up with...


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[Assistant] I'm calling to tell you that I want my lunch and I want it now. There's really not much room for nuance, Emily. I want my lunch now.


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[Assistant] With that she hung up the phone and my hands were shaking so badly I dropped my cell on the floor.


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[Assistant] Sebastian swooped down to retrieve the phone and handed it back to me.


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[Assistant] Is she upset with us, Andrea? I hope she doesn't think we let her down. Does she? Does she think that?


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[Assistant] His mouth pursed into a tight oval and the already prominent veins in his forehead pulsed. I wanted to hate him as much as I hated her, but I just felt sorry for him. Why did this man care so much about Miranda Priestly?


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[Assistant] Perhaps he should take over my job, I thought, because I was going to quit. Yes, I was going to march back to that office and quit. Who needed her shit? What gave her the right to talk to me, to anyone like that?


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[Assistant] Also, push back my dinner tonight until 8.30. And if they're not happy about that, then just cancel it.


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[Assistant] Oh, and I want a final copy of the edited menu for tomorrow's party to reflect the changes I made.


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[Assistant] Make certain that there will be no sushi of any kind. Do you hear me? Yes Miranda. I said scribbling as quickly as possible.


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[Assistant] We were in the car on our way to the Dior show, my first, with Miranda spitting out rapid fire instructions with no regard for the fact that I'd gotten less than two hours of sleep. I awoke with a minor champagne headache, but the real jolt of pain came when the previous night's phone calls came flashing back.


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[Assistant] Lily, I needed to call Alex from my parents and see if anything had happened in the last couple hours. God, it seemed like a week ago. But now there is no time.


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[Assistant] By the time the elevator had hit the first floor, I decided that I had to stay for one more day. It was one lousy day to attend to this party. And then I'd be home with Lily.


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[Assistant] My parents and Alex would hold down the fort until I got there. It's not as though she's all alone, I told myself. My career, my entire future was on the line here. And I didn't see how two days either way made all that much difference to someone who wasn't yet conscious. But to me, and certainly to Miranda, it made all the difference in the world.


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[Assistant] Somehow, I'd made it to the backseat of the limo before Miranda did, and even though her eyes were currently fixating on my chiffon skirt, she hadn't yet commented on any one part of the outfit. I had just tucked the notebook into my bag when my cell phone rang.


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[Assistant] Okay. I was trying to say the bare minimum, since it seemed incredibly strange to be talking on the phone in front of Miranda.


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[Assistant] The doctor just called and said that Lily is showing signs that indicate she may come out of it soon. Isn't that great? I thought you'd want to know. That's great. Definitely great. Have you decided if you're coming home or not?


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[Assistant] Who was that? Miranda asked, still peering at her itinerary. Oh, that was my father. And what did he want you to do that conflicted with your working at the party tomorrow night? I considered a million potential lies in the course of two seconds, but there wasn't enough time to work out the details of any of them. I was left with no choice but to tell the truth.


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[Assistant] Oh, it was nothing. A friend of mine was in an accident. She's in the hospital. In a coma, actually. And he was just calling me to tell me how she was doing and to see if I was coming home.


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[Assistant] She considered this, nodding slowly, and then picked up a copy of The International Herald Tribune.


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[Assistant] I see. But I'm not. I'm definitely not going home. I understand how important it is that I'm at the party tomorrow, and I'll be there. I've thought a lot about it, and I want you to know that I plan to honor the commitment I've made to you and to my job. So I'll be staying.


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[Assistant] At first, Miranda said nothing, but then she smiled slightly and said,


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[Assistant] Andrea, I'm very pleased with your decision. It is absolutely the right thing to do, and I appreciate that you recognize that. Andrea, I have to say, I had my doubts about you from the start. Clearly you know nothing about fashion, and more than that, you don't seem to care. Your competency in the job has been adequate, but your attitude has been substandard at best. Oh, Miranda, please let me- I'm speaking!


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[Assistant] And I was going to say that I'll be much more willing to help you get where you'd like to go now that you've demonstrated that you're committed. You should be proud of yourself, Andrea.


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[Assistant] And just when I thought I'd faint from the length and depth and content of the soliloquy, she took it one step further.


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[Assistant] And before I could conjure up a single appropriate syllable to utter, the driver screeched to a halt in front of the carousel of the Louvre and leapt out to open the doors.


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[Assistant] I grabbed my bag and hers as well and wondered if this was the proudest or most humiliating moment of my life.


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[Assistant] Tall vanilla cappuccino, please. I ordered from a barista at the Starbucks on 57th Street. It had been nearly five months since I'd been here last, trying to get back to Miranda before she fired me for breathing.


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[Assistant] The cappuccino was almost too hot, but it felt fantastic on that chilly, wet day. Normally a day like this would have depressed me.


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[Assistant] It was, after all, one of the more depressing days in the year's most depressing month, February.


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[Assistant] The kind when even the optimist would rather crawl under the covers and the pessimist didn't stand a chance of getting through without a fistful of Zoloft.


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[Assistant] But the Starbucks was warmly lit and I curled up in one of their oversized green armchairs and tried not to think about who had rubbed his dirty hair there last.


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[Assistant] In the past three months, Loretta had become my mentor, my champion, my savior. We'd hit it off in that first meeting, and she'd been nothing but wonderful to me ever since.


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[Assistant] But even more exciting was her bizarre obsession with helping me make contacts.


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[Assistant] To get in touch with people at other magazines who might just be interested in some freelance stuff.


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[Assistant] Which is exactly what put me at that Starbucks on that overcast winter day. I was headed back to Elias Clarke.


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[Assistant] Loretta had called her old college roommate who happened to edit the city section of The Buzz and told her that she discovered the next new IT writer. That was supposed to be me. She'd arranged an interview for me today.


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[Assistant] I finished my cappuccino and headed toward the Elias Clarke building.


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[Assistant] A moment or two of reconnaissance indicated that no runway clackers were amid the crowds in the lobby.


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[Assistant] Although I technically should have signed in, I instinctively walked directly toward the turnstiles. Immediately, I heard a familiar voice call out a verse from American Pie. What a sweetie, I thought. This was the goodbye song that I'd never gotten to sing.


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[Assistant] I turned to see Eduardo grinning, but not at me. In front of the turnstile closest to him stood a toweringly skinny girl with jet black hair and green eyes, wearing a dynamite pair of tight pinstripe pants and a navel-revealing tank top.


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[Assistant] She also happened to be balancing a small tray with three Starbucks coffees, an overflowing bag of newspapers, and magazines and a duffel monogrammed with the initials MP.


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[Assistant] Her cell phone began to ring just as I realized what was happening, and she looked so panicked I thought she might cry on the spot.


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[Assistant] But when her repeated banging against the turnstile failed to elicit entry, she sighed deeply and started singing. When I looked back to Eduardo, he smiled quickly in my direction and winked. And then while the pretty brunette girl finished singing her verse, he buzzed me through like I was someone who mattered.


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[Assistant] This is Rachel E. Cook. We hope you have enjoyed this production of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. This program was produced and directed by Kevin Thompson, executive producer Dan Zitt, abridgment by Garrett Scott.


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[Assistant] I glanced over the memo. It was a request to the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Miranda.


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[Assistant] A man I could tell she absolutely despised, but who was, unfortunately, family.


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[Assistant] Jack Tomlinson was B-Dad's younger and wilder brother, and he just announced he was leaving his wife and three children and marrying his masseuse.


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[Assistant] Although he and B-Dad were both quintessential East Coast prep school aristocracy, Jack had shed his Harvard persona and moved to South Carolina, where he'd morphed into a first-class Southern boy.


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[Assistant] A real straw chewing tobacco spittin' hick. B-Dad had asked Miranda to organize an engagement party for his baby brother. And if she had to do something, then she sure as hell was going to do it right. And right was at the Met.


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[Assistant] I slept with my eyes open until the office began to fill up. 10am brought the first of the clackers, the quiet sipping of no-whip skim lattes to nurse the previous night's champagne hangovers. By 11, everyone had checked everyone else out.


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[Assistant] Time for a break at noon when conversation usually took place by the racks lined up against the walls.


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[Assistant] Each morning, Jeffy would pull out all the racks of dresses and bathing suits and pants and shirts and coats and shoes and everything else that had just been called in as a potential item for one of the fashion spreads.


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[Assistant] He lined up each rack against a wall so the editors could find what they needed without having to fight their way through the closet itself.


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[Assistant] The closet wasn't really a closet at all. It was more like a small auditorium.


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[Assistant] Along the perimeter were walls of shoes in every size and color and style, a virtual Willy Wonka's factory for fashionistas.


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[Assistant] The accessories, shelves and drawers took up the farthest two walls, and the sheer amount of merchandise, not to mention its value, was staggering.


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[Assistant] Fountain pens, jewelry, bed linens, mufflers and gloves, and ski caps.


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[Assistant] Pajamas, capes, shawls, stationery, silk flowers, hats, and bags. The bags. There were totes and bowling bags, backpacks and minis, oversize and clutches, envelopes and messengers, each bearing an exclusive label and a price tag of more than the average American's monthly mortgage payment.


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[Assistant] And then there were the racks and racks of clothes, pushed so tightly together it was impossible to walk among them, that occupied every remaining inch of space.


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[Assistant] So during the day, Jeffrey would attempt to make the closet a semi-usable space, where models could try and close by pushing all of the racks into the halls.


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[Assistant] Maggie Riser is the only woman in the world who can actually wear these capris. Hope, one of the fashion assistants, weighing a whopping 105 pounds at 6'1", loudly announced, outside her office suite while holding the pants in front of her legs and sighing,


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[Assistant] They would make my ass look even more gigantic than it already is. Andrea.


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[Assistant] Called her friend, a girl I didn't know very well who worked in accessories. Please tell Hope she's not fat. You're not fat. I said, my mouth on autopilot.


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[Assistant] It would have saved me many, many hours to have a shirt printed up that said as much.


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[Assistant] Or perhaps just to have the phrase tattooed directly on my forehead.


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[Assistant] I was constantly called on to assure various runway employees that they weren't fat.


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[Assistant] Oh my god, have you seen my gut lately? I'm like the fucking Firestone store, spare tires everywhere, I'm huge! That was on everyone's minds, if not actually their bodies.


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[Assistant] Emily swore that her thighs had a wider circumference than a giant sequoia. Jessica believed that her jiggly upper arms looked like Roseanne Barr's.


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[Assistant] Even James complained that his ass had looked so big that morning when he got out of the shower that he'd contemplated calling in fat to work.


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[Assistant] In the beginning I responded to the myriad am I fat questions with what I thought to be an exceedingly rational reply.


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[Assistant] If you're a fat hope, what does that make me? I'm two inches shorter than you and I weigh more.


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[Assistant] Naturally I thought she was lying, but soon I came to realize that Hope, along with every other anorexically skinny girl in the office, and most of the guys, was able to accurately evaluate other people's weight. It was just when it came time to look in the mirror that everyone genuinely saw a wildebeest staring back.


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[Assistant] Of course, as much as I tried to keep it at bay to remind myself over and over that I was normal and they weren't, the constant FET comments had made an impression. It had only been four months I had been working.


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[Assistant] But my mind was now skewed enough, not to mention paranoid, that I sometimes thought these comments were directed intentionally to me.


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[Assistant] As in I, the tall, gorgeous, svelte fashion assistant, am pretending to think I'm the fat one, just so you,


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[Assistant] The lumpy stumpy personal assistant will realize that you are indeed the fat one.


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[Assistant] At 5 feet 11 and 115 pounds, the same weight as when my body was wrecked with parasites, I'd always considered myself on the thinner side of girls my age.


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[Assistant] I'd also spent my life until then feeling taller than 90% of the women I met, and at least half of the guys.


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[Assistant] Not until starting work at this delusional place did I know what it was like to feel short and fat all day, every day. I was easily the troll of the group, the squaddest and the widest, and I wore a size four. And just in case I failed to consider this for a moment, the daily chit chat and gossip could surely remind me.


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[Assistant] But her smile faded as she looked at the bridge in front of her that seemed to loom into nothingness.


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[Assistant] The sky around Min Li was quiet as she walked on the red rope bridge.


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[Assistant] The only sounds he heard were that of her own breathing and the pounding of her heart in her chest. After the dragon and land had faded from view,


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[Assistant] Min Lee saw that the sky below her had somehow become a vast lake of pure water and the night clouds were made of floating lilies.


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[Assistant] She saw a round opening in the wall just before her. And in that circular passageway, a white rabbit stood like a jade statue. It was only when Min Li stepped off the bridge and the rabbit started toward her that Min Li realized it was alive. Welcome, the rabbit said. You're a little late. Did you have trouble with the monkeys? Min Li was too astonished to speak.


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[Assistant] Min Li saw the smooth water wave with gentle ripples and heard what sounded like faint drumming. To one side of her in the distance, standing out against the flat landscape, Min Li saw the silhouette of a man cutting down a lone tree, his axe making a thumping rhythm. As he chopped, the branches of the tree shook. Leaves,


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[Assistant] It seemed a shame to her that the only tree on Neverending Mountain was being cut down. Questions, questions, the rabbit said. I should make you wait to ask the old man. But if you must know, Wu Kang tries to cut down that tree every night. Every night? Min Li couldn't help asking. Yes, the rabbit said.


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[Assistant] This wife was beautiful and his children were healthy and they all lived in a comfortable cottage on a farm in the country.


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[Assistant] So he packed up his possessions and sold his cottage, farm and land. Then, with his wife, children, parents and brother, he moved to town. It was crowded and inconvenient in the smaller house.


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[Assistant] But Wu Kang was able to apprentice himself to a furniture maker, and his family began to adapt to their cramped home. However, the day he was able to carve a chair from beech wood was the day he quit and decided to move to the city. Why, his parents asked him. I want more, Wu Kang said. But we are happy here together, they said. It is not enough, Wu Kang said.


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[Assistant] Wu Kang decided to quit the training to be a storekeeper. After learning how to hold a paintbrush, he stopped studying for a government position. Wu Kang always wanted more.


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[Assistant] Maybe you should try to become an immortal, his young son said to him.


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[Assistant] The old man of the moon preferred to decline, but Wu Kang insisted and begged. So, with misgivings, the old man agreed and brought Wu Kang to Neverending Mountain.


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[Assistant] When the old man showed him how to obtain red threads from his granddaughter, the goddess of weaving,


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[Assistant] Only when you are able to cut this tree down will I know you have learned it. Wukan shrugged and began in earnest to chop down the tree. Little did he realize that with every cut the tree grew back.


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[Assistant] But she was afraid of disrupting the clay figures standing on the ground at her feet. Well, come here then, the old man said impatiently, and he tapped to stick on the ground again. And with a sound like a flapping of a bird's wing, the clay figures moved, clearing a path for Min Li. I know you have questions for me, the old man said. Every 99 years, someone comes here with their questions.


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[Assistant] But I will answer only one, so choose your question carefully. One question. Min Li almost stopped walking in shock. If she was only allowed to ask one question, she could not ask Dragon's question for him. Unless she did not ask her own. Min Li felt like a fish gasping for air. What was he going to do?


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[Assistant] And Ma's eyes washed upon her like the splashes of water from the lake. She had to change her fortune. She must ask how to do that. But when Min Li thought about Dragon, waiting for her patiently, it was as if she had been struck. And like seeds falling from Wu Kang's tree, images of the Dragon rained upon her. Their laughter as they passed the monkeys, his awkward struggles walking in the woods,


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[Assistant] Min Li's thoughts bubbled faster and faster, like boiling rice. Every step she took seemed to throb, and Min Li wasn't sure if the pounding was her heart or Wu Peng's axe in the distance. As she passed the clay statues, she thought she could see figures of the goldfish man, the buffalo boy, the king, and Da Ah Fu silently watching her.


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[Assistant] There was a single line of words running down the entire page. As she looked, Minlee realized for the first time she could read the words. Or really the word. For the line was only made of one word written over and over again. And that word was thankfulness. And suddenly, like the light when the clouds move away from the moon, Minlee knew clearly what question to ask.


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[Assistant] There is a dragon waiting at the bridge, she said. Why can he not fly?


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[Assistant] Even though they told themselves that they trusted Min Li and believed she would return, Ma spent most of her time looking out the window, lost in thought, while Ba grew older and grayer everyday. The only time they found comfort was in the evenings.


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[Assistant] We have no treasures, no fortune. Why are we so poor?


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[Assistant] Vowing not to return until she could bring a fortune back to her family. And it was only then that the woman saw the stupidity of her behavior.


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[Assistant] She did not know if she would receive compassion from either, but she vowed she would wait for it. If necessary, she would wait like the mountain that shadowed them.


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[Assistant] Min Li clarned onto Dragon's back. With both hands, she clenched the stone ball above his head. Take a deep breath, she said to him. And with the jerk that took all her strength, she yanked the ball off his head. Ouch! Dragon yelped. But then, he began to smile. I feel so light, he said. So light and peaceful.


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[Assistant] Min Li said, I was only allowed one question. What? The dragon said, you need to know. You have come all this way. We will fly back and you can ask him. Before Min Li could utter a protest, the red cord bridge seemed to shriek. And as they turned to look at it, the bamboo stakes began to rip the ground.


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[Assistant] She heard the buffalo boy's laughter as he refused her money.


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[Assistant] Saw the king's generous smile as he willingly parted with his family's treasure, and remembered Da'afu's last words to her. Why would we want to change our fortune, they had said. She had shaken her head in confusion then, but now, finally, Minmei understood all of it.


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[Assistant] And Min Li wanted to return home as soon as possible. Dragon, having waited three days and nights, was well rested, so they decided to leave Neverending Mountain at once. As Dragon soared through the sky, any heaviness inside Min Li left.


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[Assistant] Da Afu, Ama, Agong, and the villagers saw them and ran out of their stone hut, flapping their ruined sleeves in greeting. Don't stop! Ama shouted with a broad smile. Go home!


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[Assistant] Mimmi nodded and waved goodbye until the flowering trees looked like brushstrokes of golden paint on the mountain. Flying on the dragon made traveling much faster.


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[Assistant] You must be excited that you've finally seen another dragon. I am, dragon said as if in a daze.


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[Assistant] The smooth ride of the flying dragon made it easy for her to sleep. Min Li was impressed by how far they had journeyed and how much faster they were able to travel by flying.


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[Assistant] The tops of the peach trees seemed to sway a welcome to them as they flew overhead, and as they continued to fly, Min Lee thought she saw the monkeys still attached by the fishnet around the pot of rice. But Dragon was still acting strangely. When Fruitless Mountain,


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[Assistant] Night was falling.


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[Assistant] But Min Li could still see that every moment brought the Jade River and Fruitless Mountain closer. She was almost home. However, when they reached Fruitless Mountain, Dragon suddenly stopped. He dropped lightly to the base of Fruitless Mountain, where so long ago, Min Li had taken some stone to make her compass.


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[Assistant] This is fruitless mountain, Dragon said, and again Min Li looked at him. He was definitely acting out of the ordinary. Yes, Min Li said, a bit puzzled. My village is just a bit past this. I can walk from here if you wish. Do you mind? Dragon asked. For some reason, I feel as if I do not want to leave here. No, I don't mind, Min Li said.


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[Assistant] The goldfish said to her, your parents are sleeping. Welcome home. Min Li was a little surprised to see a goldfish, but smiled at reading.


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[Assistant] The shrabby walls and worn stones seem to shimmer as if a translucent silk veil covered them, muting any flaws and transforming the house into a dwelling of luminous light and delicate shadows.


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[Assistant] She climbed into her bed and went to sleep.


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[Assistant] Ma and Ba's happiness burst from them like exploding firecrackers, and even before she could open her eyes, they had flung themselves upon her. The joy, how it flowed and flooded over her. More golden than the king's dragon bracelet, sweeter than a peach from the queen mother's garden, and more beautiful than a goddess of heaven. Min Li smiled, treasuring her good fortune.


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[Assistant] Ma and Ba only stopped hugging her when her stomach began to grumble with hunger. Ma rushed to make a special breakfast.


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[Assistant] Min Li saw that he was pointing to Dragon's stone ball. It's just a gift from a friend, Min Li said, handing it to her father. Ba took it in his hands reverently, a look of awe on his face. This is not just any gift, Ba whispered.


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[Assistant] And he took his sleeve and gently rubbed the surface of the stone. To Min Lee's great surprise.


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[Assistant] But carefully, put the dragon pearl back on the table.


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[Assistant] A jewel colored splendor softened the sharp edges that had painfully sliced the sky. The sky itself seemed to be embracing the mountain.


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[Assistant] The wind softly caressed the newborn greenery with a nurturing breeze and skimmed the Jade River, the water now as clear as tears of joy. How is this possible? Ma asked. Jade dragon must be happy again, Ba said. Perhaps she is reunited with one of her dragon children. Dragon, Min Li thought, and her quick thinking mind seemed to spin.


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[Assistant] Min Li remembered Ma talking about the artist who had come to fruitless mountain many years ago. He took the mountain rock to carve into inking stones.


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[Assistant] Perhaps Dragon was born from an inkstone made of fruitless mountain, the heart of Jade Dragon.


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[Assistant] Then perhaps he was one of Jade Dragon's children. And by bringing him to Fruitless Mountain,


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[Assistant] Min Li had discovered how to make fruitless mountain green again. Min Li!


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[Assistant] A villager, finally recovered from the shock of the green mountain, stared at Min Li. You came back! Look everyone! Min Li has returned! As the neighbors clamored around, Maha sighed. But it was a sigh of joy.


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[Assistant] As he thought about her journey to and from Neverending Mountain, Min Li realized


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[Assistant] That while she had not asked the old man of the moon any of her questions, they had all been answered.


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[Assistant] The sun spreading its light for the last time before it set. Had he taken a wrong turn somewhere? As he gazed, two flying figures in the sky caught his eye. Red and orange, a dragon and his mate frolicking amongst the clouds. Wait, dragons? The goldfish man shook his head in disbelief, rubbed his eyes and looked again.


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[Assistant] Parents walked over and smiled indulgently at their children, and by the time the sun disappeared, the goldfish man had sold out of his wares.


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[Assistant] Maybe this was the place.


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[Assistant] And the goldfish man was face to face with a woman he scarcely recognized. He recognized her even less when she threw her arm around him like an old friend. You, she said to him, her face wrinkling in cheerful smiles. Come in, come in. My husband will be happy to see you. The goldfish man, speechless with surprise, let himself be led through the gate doors.


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[Assistant] Some of the children were playing on the ground with clay toys of boys, buffalo, monkeys, and rabbits, while others were being served tea by the father. This tea is a gift from our far away friends, the father was saying as he handed a child a cup. They called it Dragon Well. Husband, the woman called. Husband, look who is here. As he caught sight of the goldfish man,


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[Assistant] So happy and prosperous, he said. I only stopped to see if... Last time we met. How is your daughter? Min Li? The father said, laughing, waving his hand towards the house. She is in the back. She will be happy to see you too, but she will come out later. This is the time of night she likes to watch the moon. She returned then, the goldfish man asked.


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[Assistant] The moonlight washed over everything like a rich bath of gold and silver, making the fish shimmer like pearls.


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[Assistant] Production Copyright 2010 Random House Inc. All rights reserved.


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[Assistant] This sure is hot today. Doesn't look like it's ever gonna rain.


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[Assistant] On Sunday morning, while church bells rang in the villages along shore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.


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[Assistant] Once I wrote down on the empty spaces of a timetable the names of those who came to Gatsby's house that summer.


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[Assistant] It is an old timetable now disintegrating at its folds and headed, This schedule is in effect July 5th, 1922.


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[Assistant] But I can still read the grey names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby's hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him.


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[Assistant] From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers, and the Leaches, and a man named Bunsen, whom I knew at Yale, and Dr. Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine.


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[Assistant] And the hornbeams, and the willy voltaires, and a whole clan named Black Buck, who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near.


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[Assistant] And the Ismays and the Christie's, or rather Hubert Auerbach and Mr. Christie's wife. And Edgar Beaver, whose hair they say turned cotton white one winter afternoon for no good reason at all.


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[Assistant] Clarence Andive was from East Egg, as I remember. He came only once in white knickerbockers and had a fight with a bum named Eddie in the garden.


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[Assistant] From further out on the island came the Cheedles, and the O.R.P. Schraders, and the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia, and the Fish Guards, and the Ripley Snells. Snell was there three days before he went to the Penitentiary, so drunk out on the gravel drive that Mrs. Ulysses Sweats' automobile ran over his right hand.


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[Assistant] The Dancies came too, and S.B. Whitebait, who was well over 60, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga, the tobacco importer, and Beluga's girls.


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[Assistant] From West Egg came the Moll Reddies, and Cecil Roebuck, and Cecil Schoen, and Gullick, the State Senator, and Newton Orchid, who controlled films par excellence, and Eckhoust, and Clyde Cohen, and Don S. Schwartz, the son, and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another.


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[Assistant] And the Catlipps and the Bembergs and G. Earl Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife,


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[Assistant] Da Fontano, the promoter came there, and Ed Legros, and James B. Rottgut Ferrett, and the De Jongs, and Ernest Lilley, they came to gamble. And when Ferrett wandered into the garden, it meant he was cleaned out, and associated traction would have to fluctuate profitably next day.


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[Assistant] A man named Clipspringer was there so often and so long that he became known as The Border. I doubt if he had any other home.


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[Assistant] Of theatrical people, there were Gus Waze and Horace O'Donovan and Lester Meyer and George Duckweed and Francis Bull.


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[Assistant] Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls.


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[Assistant] They were never quite the same ones in physical person, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before.


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[Assistant] I've forgotten their names. Jacqueline, I think, or else Consuela, or Gloria, or Judy, or June.


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[Assistant] And their last names were either the melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalists whose cousins, if pressed, they would confess themselves to be.


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[Assistant] In addition to all these, I can remember that Faustina O'Brien came there at least once, and the Bedeker girls, and young Brewer, who had his nose shot off in the war,


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[Assistant] And Mr. Albrooksburger, and Miss Hogg, his fiancee, and Ardita Fitz-Peters, and Mr. P. Jewett, once head of the American Legion, and Miss Claudia Hipp, with a man reputed to be her chauffeur, and a prince of something, whom he called Duke, and whose name, if I ever knew it, I have forgotten. All these people came to Gatsby's house in the summer.


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[Assistant] At nine o'clock one morning late in July, Gatsby's gorgeous car lurched up the rocky drive to my door and gave out a burst of melody from its three-noted horn. It was the first time he had called on me.


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[Assistant] Though I had gone to two of his parties, mounted in his hydroplane, and at his urgent invitation made frequent use of his beach.


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[Assistant] Good morning, Old Sport. You're having lunch with me today and I thought we'd ride up together.


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[Assistant] He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American.


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[Assistant] That comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work, or rigid sitting in youth, and even more with the formless grace of our nervous sporadic games.


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[Assistant] Swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat boxes and supper boxes and toolboxes and a terrace with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns.


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[Assistant] Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town.


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[Assistant] I had talked with him perhaps half a dozen times in the past month and found to my disappointment that he had little to say.


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[Assistant] So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded, and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate roadhouse next door.


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[Assistant] And then came that disconcerting ride.


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[Assistant] A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves. Well, I'm going to tell you something about my life, he interrupted.


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[Assistant] I don't want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.


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[Assistant] His right hand suddenly ordered divine retribution to stand by.


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[Assistant] I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle west, all dead now.


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[Assistant] I was brought up in America but educated in Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition. He looked at me sideways.


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[Assistant] And I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase, educated at Oxford, or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before.


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[Assistant] And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces. And I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him after all. What part of the Middle West I inquired casually. San Francisco. I see. My family all died and I came into a good deal of money.


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[Assistant] His voice was solemn, as if the memory of that sudden extinction of a clan still haunted him. For a moment I suspected that he was pulling my leg, but a glance at him convinced me otherwise.


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[Assistant] After that, I lived like a young Raja in all the capitals of Europe. Paris, Venice, Rome, collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game painting a little things for myself only.


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[Assistant] And trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago.


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[Assistant] With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoke no image except that of a turbaned character leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne. Then came the war, old sport.


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[Assistant] There was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission as First Lieutenant when it began.


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[Assistant] In the Argon Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn't advance.


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[Assistant] We stayed there two days and two nights, 130 men with 16 Lewis guns. And when the infantry came up at last, they found the insignia of three German divisions among the piles of dead. I was promoted to be a major and every allied government gave me a decoration. Even Montenegro.


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[Assistant] Little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea.


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[Assistant] Little Montenegro. He lifted up the words and nodded at them with his smile.


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[Assistant] The smile comprehended Montenegro's troubled history and sympathized with the brave struggles of the Montenegrin people. It appreciated fully the chain of national circumstances which had elicited this tribute from Montenegro's warm little heart.


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[Assistant] My incredulity was submerged in fascination. Now I was like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines.


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[Assistant] He reached in his pocket and a piece of metal slung on a ribbon fell into my palm. That's the one from Montenegro. To my astonishment the thing had an authentic look.


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[Assistant] Major Jay Gatsby, I read, for Valour Extraordinary.


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[Assistant] Here's another thing I always carry, a souvenir of Oxford days. It was taken in Trinity Quad. The man on my left is now the Earl of Dunkester.


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[Assistant] It was a photograph of half a dozen young men in blazers loafing in an archway through which were visible a host of spires. There was Gatsby, looking a little not much younger, with a cricket bat in his hand. Then it was all true.


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[Assistant] I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal. I saw him opening a chest of rubies to ease with their crimson lighted depths the gnawings of his broken heart.


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[Assistant] I'm going to make a big request of you today, he said, pocketing his souvenirs with satisfaction. So I thought you ought to know something about me. I didn't want you to think I was just some nobody.


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[Assistant] You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad thing that happened to me. He hesitated. You'll hear about it this afternoon. At lunch? No, this afternoon. I happen to find out that you're taking Miss Baker to tea.


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[Assistant] Do you mean you're in love with Miss Baker? No, old sport, I'm not. But Miss Baker has kindly consented to speak to you about this matter.


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[Assistant] I hadn't the faintest idea what this matter was, but I was more annoyed than interested. I hadn't asked Jordan to tea in order to discuss Mr. Jay Gatsby.


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[Assistant] I was sure the request would be something utterly fantastic, and for a moment I was sorry I'd ever set foot upon his overpopulated lawn. He wouldn't say another word. His correctness grew on him as we neared the city.


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[Assistant] We passed Port Roosevelt, where there was a glimpse of red-belted, ocean-going ships, and sped along a cobbled slum lined with the dark, undeserted saloons of the faded guilt 1900s.


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[Assistant] Then the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us, and I had a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality as we went by.


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[Assistant] With fenders spread like wings, we scattered light through half Astoria. Only half, for as we twisted among the pillars of the elevated, I heard the familiar jug jug spat of a motorcycle, and a frantic policeman rode alongside. All right, old sport, called Gatsby, we slowed down.


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[Assistant] I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.


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[Assistant] Over the great bridge with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars and the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non olfactory money.


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[Assistant] The city seen from the Queensborough Bridge is always the city seen for the first time in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.


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[Assistant] A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe.


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[Assistant] And I was glad that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car was included in their Samba holidays.


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[Assistant] As we crossed Blackwell's Island, a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl.


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[Assistant] I laughed aloud as the yokes of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.


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[Assistant] Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge. I thought anything at all. Even Gatsby could happen without any particular wonder.


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[Assistant] Roaring noon. In a well-fanned 42nd street cellar I met Gatsby for lunch. Blinking away the brightness of the street outside, my eyes picked him out obscurely in the anteroom talking to another man. Mr. Caraway, this is my friend Mr. Wolfsheim.


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[Assistant] A small, flat-nosed Jew raised his large head and regarded me with two fine growths of hair, which luxuriated in either nostril.


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[Assistant] After a moment I discovered his tiny eyes in the half darkness.


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[Assistant] What? I inquired politely, but evidently he was not addressing me, for he dropped my hand and covered Gatsby with his expressive nose.


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[Assistant] I handed the money to Catspar and I said, alright Catspar, don't pay him a penny till he shuts his mouth. He shut it, then and there.


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[Assistant] Gatsby took an arm of each of us and moved forward into the restaurant, whereupon Mr. Wolfsheim swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction. High balls? asked the head waiter.


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[Assistant] This is a nice restaurant here, said Mr. Wolfsheim, looking at the Presbyterian nymphs on the ceiling. But I like a Krasler Street better.


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[Assistant] Yes, high balls, agreed Gatsby, and then to Mr. Wolfsheim, it's too hot over there.


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[Assistant] The old metropole. The old metropole, brooded Mr. Wolfshine gloomily, Filled with faces dead and gone, Filled with friends gone now forever, I can't forget so long as I live, The night they shot Rosie Rosenthal there.


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[Assistant] It was six of us at the table and Rosie had eaten and drunk a lot all evening. When it was almost morning the waiter came up to him with a funny look and said somebody wants to speak to him outside. All right, says Rosie, begins to get up and I pulled him down in his chair.


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[Assistant] Let the bastards come in here if they want you, Rosie, but don't you so help me move outside this room.


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[Assistant] It was four o'clock in the morning then, and if we'd have raised our blinds, we'd have seen daylight.


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[Assistant] Did he go? I asked innocently. Sure he went. Mr. Wolfsheim's nose flashed at me indignantly. He turned around in the door and says, don't let that waiter take away my coffee. Then he went out on the sidewalk and they shot him three times in his full belly and drove away. Four of them were electrocuted, I said, remembering. Five with Becker. His nostrils turned to me in an interested way. I understand you're looking for a business connection.


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[Assistant] The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling. Gatsby answered for me. Oh no! He exclaimed. This isn't the man. No? Mr. Wolfsheim seemed disappointed. This is just a friend. I told you we'd talk about that some other time.


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[Assistant] And Mr. Wolfsheim, forgetting the more sentimental atmosphere of the old metropole, began to eat with ferocious delicacy.


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[Assistant] His eyes, meanwhile, roved very slowly all around the room. He completed the arc by turning to inspect the people directly behind.


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[Assistant] I think that, except from my presence, he would have taken one short glance beneath our own table. Look here, old sport, said Gatsby, leaning toward me. I'm afraid I made you a little angry this morning in the car. There was the smile again, but this time I held out against it.


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[Assistant] I don't like mysteries, I answered. And I don't understand why you won't come out frankly and tell me what you want. Why has it all got to come through Miss Baker?


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[Assistant] Oh, it's nothing underhand, he assured me. Miss Baker's a great sportswoman, you know, and she'd never do anything that wasn't alright.


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[Assistant] Suddenly he looked at his watch, jumped up and hurried from the room, leaving me with Mr. Wolfsheim at the table. He asked to telephone, said Mr. Wolfsheim, following him with his eyes. Fine fellow, isn't he? Handsome to look at, and a perfect gentleman. Yes. He's an Oxford man. Oh. Even to Oxford College in England. You know Oxford College?


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[Assistant] I've heard of it. It's one of the most famous colleges in the world!


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[Assistant] Have you known Gatsby for a long time? I am quiet. Several years, he answered in a gratified way.


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[Assistant] I made the pleasure of his acquaintance just after the war, but I knew I had discovered a man of fine breeding after I talked with him an hour. I said to myself, there's the kind of man you'd like to take home and introduce to your mother and sister. He paused. I see you looking at my cuff button.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, Gatsby's very careful about women. He would never so much as look at a friend's wife.


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[Assistant] When the subject of this instinctive trust returned to the table and sat down, Mr. Wolfsheim drank his coffee with a jerk and got to his feet. I have enjoyed my lunch, he said, and I'm going to run off from you two young men before I outstay my welcome. Don't hurry, Meyer, said Gatsby, without enthusiasm. Mr. Wolfsheim raised his hand in a sort of benediction.


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[Assistant] You're very polite, but I belong to another generation, he announced solemnly. You sit here and discuss your sports and your young ladies and your... He supplied an imaginary noun with another wave of his hand.


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[Assistant] As for me, I am 50 years old, and I won't impose myself on you any longer.


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[Assistant] As he shook hands and turned away, his tragic nose was trembling. I wondered if I had said anything to offend him.


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[Assistant] He becomes very sentimental sometimes, explained Gatsby.


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[Assistant] This is one of his sentimental days. He's quite a character around New York. A denizen of Broadway. Who is he, anyhow? An actor? No. A dentist?


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[Assistant] Meyer Wolfsheim, no, he's a gambler. Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly, he's the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919.


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[Assistant] Fixed the World Series? I repeated. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World Series had been fixed in 1919.


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[Assistant] But if I had thought of it at all, I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened. The end of some inevitable chain.


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[Assistant] It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people with the single mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe. How did he happen to do that? I asked after a minute. He just saw the opportunity. Why isn't he in jail? They can't get him, old sport, he's a smart man. I insisted on paying the check.


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[Assistant] As the waiter brought my change, I caught sight of Tom Buchanan across the crowded room. Come along with me for a minute, I said. I've gotta say hello to someone.


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[Assistant] When he saw us, Tom jumped up and took half a dozen steps in our direction.


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[Assistant] Where have you been? he demanded eagerly. Daisy's furious because you haven't called up. This is Mr. Gatsby, Mr. Buchanan. They shook hands briefly.


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[Assistant] And a strained, unfamiliar look of embarrassment came over Gatsby's face. How've you been, anyhow? demanded Tom of me. How'd you happen to come up this far to eat? I've been having lunch with Mr. Gatsby. I turned toward Mr. Gatsby, but he was no longer there.


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[Assistant] One October day in 1917, said Jordan Baker that afternoon, sitting up very straight on a straight chair in the tea garden at the Plaza Hotel.


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[Assistant] I was walking along from one place to another, half on the sidewalks and half on the lawns.


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[Assistant] I had on a new plaid skirt also that blew a little in the wind.


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[Assistant] And whenever this happened, the red, white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said tut tut tut tut in a disapproving way.


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[Assistant] The largest of the banners and the largest of the lawns belong to Daisy Fay's house.


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[Assistant] She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville. She dressed in whites and had a little white roadster, and all day long the telephone rang in her house, and excited young officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night. Anyways, for an hour.


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[Assistant] When I came opposite her house that morning, her white roadster was beside the curb and she was sitting in it with a lieutenant I had never seen before.


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[Assistant] They were so engrossed in each other that she didn't see me until I was five feet away. Hello Jordan, she called unexpectedly. Please come here.


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[Assistant] I was flattered that she wanted to speak to me because of all the older girls I admired her most.


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[Assistant] In a way that every young girl wants to be looked at at some time.


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[Assistant] And because it seemed romantic to me, I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby. And I didn't lay eyes on him again for over four years.


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[Assistant] By the next year I had a few bows myself and I began to play in tournaments so I didn't see Daisy very often. She went with a slightly older crowd when she went with anyone at all.


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[Assistant] Wild rumors were circulating about her. How her mother had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas.


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[Assistant] She was effectually prevented, but she wasn't on speaking terms with her family for several weeks.


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[Assistant] After that she didn't play around with the soldiers anymore, but only with a few flat-footed, short-sighted young men in town who couldn't get into the army at all. By the next autumn she was gay again, gay as ever. She had a debut after the armistice.


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[Assistant] And in February she was presumably engaged to a man from New Orleans.


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[Assistant] In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel


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[Assistant] And the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.


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[Assistant] I was a bridesmaid. I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress and as drunk as a monkey.


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[Assistant] She had a bottle of Saturn in one hand and a letter in the other. Gratulate me, she muttered.


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[Assistant] Never had a drink before, but oh how I do enjoy it. What's the matter, Daisy?


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[Assistant] I was scared, I can tell you. I'd never seen a girl like that before. Here, dears.


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[Assistant] She groped around in a waste basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls.


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[Assistant] Take him downstairs and give him back to whoever they belong to. Tell them all daisies change your mind. Say daisies change your mind.


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[Assistant] We gave her spirits of ammonia and put ice on her forehead and hooked her back into her dress and half an hour later when we walked out of the room the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over.


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[Assistant] Next day at five o'clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver and started off on a three-month trip to the South Seas. I saw them in Santa Barbara when they came back.


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[Assistant] And I thought I'd never seen a girl so mad about her husband. If he left the room for a minute, she'd look around uneasily and say, Where's Tom gone?


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[Assistant] And wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door.


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[Assistant] She used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight. I was touching to see them together.


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[Assistant] It made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way. That was in August.


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[Assistant] A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car.


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[Assistant] The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken. She was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.


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[Assistant] I saw them one spring in Cannes and later in Deauville, and then they came back to Chicago to settle down.


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[Assistant] Daisy was popular in Chicago as you know. They moved with a fast crowd all of them young and rich and wild.


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[Assistant] But she came out with an absolutely perfect reputation.


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[Assistant] Perhaps because she doesn't drink. It's a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and moreover you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care. Perhaps Daisy never went in for a moor at all, and yet there's something in that voice of hers.


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[Assistant] Well, about six weeks ago she heard the name Gatsby for the first time in years. It was when I asked you, do you remember, if you knew Gatsby in West Egg?


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[Assistant] After you had gone home she came into my room and woke me up and said, What Gatsby?


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[Assistant] And when I described him, I was half asleep. She said in the strangest voice that it must be the man she used to know.


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[Assistant] It wasn't until then that I connected this Gatsby with the officer in her white car.


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[Assistant] When Jordan Baker had finished telling all this, we had left the plaza for half an hour and were driving in a Victoria through Central Park.


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[Assistant] The sun had gone down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars in the West fifties, and the clear voices of little girls already gathered like crickets on the grass rose through the hot twilight. I'm the Sheik of Araby, your love belongs to me. At night when you're asleep into your tent I'll creep


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[Assistant] Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.


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[Assistant] Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me.


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[Assistant] Delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.


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[Assistant] He wants to know, continued Jordan, if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over. The modesty of the demand shook me.


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[Assistant] He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths


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[Assistant] So that he could come over some afternoon to a stranger's garden.


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[Assistant] Did I have to know all this before he could ask such a little thing? He's afraid. He's waited so long.


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[Assistant] He thought you might be offended. You see, he's a regular tough underneath it all. Something worried me. Why didn't he ask you to arrange a meeting?


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[Assistant] He wants her to see his house, she explained. And your house is right next door. Oh.


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[Assistant] I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties some night, went on Jordan. But she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found.


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[Assistant] It was that night he sent for me at his dance, and you should have heard the elaborate way he worked up to it.


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[Assistant] Of course I immediately suggested a luncheon in New York, and I thought he'd go mad.


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[Assistant] I don't want to do anything out of the way, he kept saying. I want to see her right next door.


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[Assistant] When I said you were a particular friend of Tom's, he started to abandon the whole idea.


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[Assistant] He doesn't know very much about Tom, though he says he's read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name.


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[Assistant] It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner.


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[Assistant] Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby anymore, but of this clean, hard, limited person who dealt in universal skepticism and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm.


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[Assistant] A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement. There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired. And Daisy ought to have something in her life, murmured Jordan to me. Does she want to see Gatsby? She's not to know about it. Gatsby doesn't want her to know. You're just supposed to invite her to tea.


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[Assistant] We passed a barrier of dark trees, and then the facade of 59th Street, a block of delicate pale light beamed down into the park.


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[Assistant] Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs. And so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms.


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[Assistant] And he could drown one of them easily in that deep water.


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[Assistant] The penguin and the panda went to Peru.


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[Assistant] Because the penguin and the panda always did as they


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[Assistant] Playing ping pong in pajamas The penguin and the panda


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[Assistant] Putting pineapple on a pizza. The penguin and the panda.


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[Assistant] I saw a big house on the outskirts of our village. We should buy that.


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[Assistant] We can get a very expensive car and many servants to serve us. We will wear the most expensive clothes and all these poor villagers will be jealous of us.


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[Assistant] How can you be happy in this small house? In this cow shed? Oh!


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[Assistant] Not for long. Mark my words.


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[Assistant] Someday, I will be the richest man in this whole village.


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[Assistant] Henry, this milk is so good and healthy.


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[Assistant] You must be taking such good care of your cows. Ah yes, yes I do. But not for long. Once I become rich, I will sell all those cows. I don't like that smell in my house.


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[Assistant] But these cows are your livelihood. You shouldn't complain about your work. It helps you survive.


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[Assistant] I sell eggs for a living. That is a smelly job too, but I don't mind it. That's my work. Well, well, well. Then maybe you were meant to sell eggs.


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[Assistant] This greed will take you nowhere, my friend. The sooner you understand that, the better.


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[Assistant] That's it? This is very less. How do I sell more milk? There has to be some way.


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[Assistant] My cows are all healthy. I can push them to give us more milk. Also, this is a small village. Even if I get more milk, who will I sell it to? Wait, I can go to the neighboring village. There are many families there.


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[Assistant] But then I will have to buy another cow. And right now, I don't have enough money for that. No! I have to do something! I will buy a bigger house! Let's see. I don't have enough money to buy another cow.


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[Assistant] How about I mix a little water in the milk?


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[Assistant] That way, I won't have to buy another cow. In the same time, I would be able to sell milk to the neighboring village. Oh! This is a brilliant idea!


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[Assistant] If I carry on like this, I will become a very rich soul.


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[Assistant] You all cannot appreciate the goodness. I work really hard.


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[Assistant] Go buy from somewhere else if you don't like it.


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[Assistant] I don't need you. I have many other villages who love the milk I sell.


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[Assistant] How dare he! This is not fair! This is how he is getting richer!


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[Assistant] He has the same number of cows, and yet he is selling milk to so many families.


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[Assistant] Huh? What is that? Did you cook the stones?


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[Assistant] No they are not. I don't believe this.


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[Assistant] The vendor sold you some old stones along with the pulses. How dare he! I will go see him tomorrow.


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[Assistant] The same way that we paid for milk and not water? Go buy from somewhere else if you don't like it. I don't need you.


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[Assistant] They are fooling us. This isn't fair.


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[Assistant] I agree, Gloria. I should have listened to you. I didn't just lose my money.


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[Assistant] I also lost respect and trust of the people.


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[Assistant] Listening Library presents Magic Treehouse Merlin Missions Book Number 12 Eve of the Emperor Penguin This is Mary Pope Osborne


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[Assistant] You always say that when you want me to stop what I'm doing and do something with you, said Jack. Maybe Teddy and Kathleen are waiting for us, said Annie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, said Jack.


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[Assistant] Maybe today's the day they want us to look for a fourth secret of happiness for Merlin, said Annie. Maybe they're going to send us to a super cool place. Good, hope they do, have fun, said Jack. I want to finish raking these leaves before dark. He glanced up at the late afternoon sky.


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[Assistant] Just in time to see a bright streak of light pass over the Frog Creek woods. Whoa. Jack turned to Annie with a smile. Did you see that? Hold that smile, said Annie as she took Jack's picture. Thanks, perfect. But did you see that? Jack asked. The light going over the woods. Ha ha, said Annie.


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[Assistant] No, I'm serious. It was a bright light. Wait a second. Jack put down his rake and dashed into the house.


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[Assistant] Mom, dad, he shouted. Annie and I are going for a walk, okay?


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[Assistant] Okay, call their dad, but be home before dark.


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[Assistant] And wear your scarves and hats, call their mom.


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[Assistant] We will. Jack grabbed their scarves, their hats and his backpack from the hall closet and ran back outside. Let's go, he said to Annie.


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[Assistant] Annie put her camera in her jacket pocket and took off running with Jack.


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[Assistant] They ran up the sidewalk, crossed the street, and headed into the shadowy Frog Creek woods.


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[Assistant] We were about to come looking for you said Kathleen. How did you know we were here? I saw the light said Jack. Climb up said Teddy. Jack and Annie hurried up the rope ladder.


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[Assistant] Morgan wants you to find the final secret of happiness today, said Teddy.


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[Assistant] And then you must return to Camelot to present all four secrets to Merlin. You remember the first three, do you not?"


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[Assistant] We have three gifts to help us remember. I kept them in my backpack.


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[Assistant] A poem, a drawing and a seashell, said Annie. Good, said Teddy. Here is where you will look for the final secret. He took a book from his cloak and handed it to Jack.


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[Assistant] On the cover was a picture of a volcano surrounded by snow and ice. The title said, the world of Antarctica. Antarctica, said Jack.


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[Assistant] We studied Antarctica in school. There's hardly anything there. Where would we find a secret of happiness in Antarctica? I do not know, said Kathleen, but Morgan has sent a rhyme to help your search. She handed Annie a slip of parchment. Annie read Morgan's rhyme aloud.


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[Assistant] For the final secret, you must go to a burning mountain of ice and snow.


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[Assistant] On wheels by air, then all fall down till you come to the cave of the ancient crown. Then speed to Camelot by close of day, lest grief take Merlin forever away. Forever away, said Annie. I fear so, said Teddy. I don't understand, said Jack.


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[Assistant] This rhyme sounds like we're going to a fantasy world. A place with a burning mountain and a cave of the ancient crown. But Antarctica's a real place, totally real.


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[Assistant] I, Morgan's rhyme is a mystery to me too, said Teddy. But you still have the wand of Dianthus to help you, do you not? Asked Kathleen. Yes, said Jack. But he looked inside his backpack just to make sure.


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[Assistant] There it was, the gleaming spiraled wand of the unicorn. Good, said Kathleen. And you remember the three rules of the wand? Sure, said Annie.


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[Assistant] The one's magic only works if our wish is for the good of others. It only works after we've tried our hardest. And it only works if our wish is five words. Excellent, said Teddy. I wish you guys could come with us, said Jack. We must return to Morgan and try to help Merlin, said Kathleen.


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[Assistant] But with your courage and intelligence, I know you will be able to find the secret by yourselves. Jack nodded embarrassed, but Kathleen's words did make him feel more confident.


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[Assistant] And after you have found it, you must hurry to meet us in Camelot, said Teddy.


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[Assistant] Just point to the word Camelot on the rhyme from Morgan and make a wish to go there. Got it, said Annie. Go now, quickly, said Kathleen and good luck. See you soon, said Annie. Jack took a deep breath, then pointed to the cover of the book. I wish we could go there, he said.


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[Assistant] The wind started to blow. The treehouse started to spin. It spun faster and faster. And everything was still. Absolutely still.


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[Assistant] Welcome to Antarctica, said Annie. Jack and Annie were bundled in cold weather gear.


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[Assistant] They both wore snow pants, gloves, boots with spikes, and thick red parkas with hoods. Goggles covered their eyes and wool masks covered their mouths and noses. A hiker's backpack had replaced Jack's own pack. Jack felt trapped by all the gear.


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[Assistant] Annie did the same. Their breath made clouds of mist in the freezing air.


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[Assistant] It's really cold here, said Jack. The wind stung his bare face and made his eyes water but he kept his mask and goggles off as he looked out the window with Annie.


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[Assistant] The treehouse was on the ground. It was tucked under the overhang of an ice cliff near the ocean. Icy sea water sparkled in the sunlight. The shore was silent and deserted. It looks totally empty out there, said Jack.


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[Assistant] I still don't get it. How did we find the cave of the ancient crown here? No king or queen ever ruled Antarctica. In fact, no people ever lived here at all until explorers came in recent times. Let's get started and try to figure it all out, said Annie. Not so fast, said Jack.


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[Assistant] He pulled off his glove and opened their research book to the first chapter. He read aloud.


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[Assistant] The continent of Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest place on earth.


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[Assistant] But Antarctica was not always a land of ice. Eons ago, it was part of a supercontinent scientists have named Gondwana.


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[Assistant] Over millions of years, Antarctica broke off from Gondwana and drifted south.


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[Assistant] Okay, I'm drifting now myself, Jack, said Annie. Byeee. She climbed out the window and disappeared from the treehouse.


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[Assistant] You won't believe this, said Annie. You have to come see. Jack put his glove back on and pulled on his backpack.


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[Assistant] He folded the paper with Morgan's rhyme and put it in his pocket.


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[Assistant] Then clutching the research book to his chest, he climbed out of the window. Jack followed the sound of Annie's laughter beyond the treehouse. On the frozen seashore was a group of penguins, grownups, and babies.


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[Assistant] The grown-ups had orange streaks on their cheeks, puffy white chests, and black wings they held straight by their sides. The babies were fluffy balls of gray fuzz. All the penguins were waddling toward Annie. They rocked from side to side, taking funny little steps.


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[Assistant] He opened the book and found a picture that looked like the group of penguins around Annie.


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[Assistant] Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of the penguin species and are also the most ancient.


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[Assistant] Over three feet tall, grown penguins can weigh up to 90 pounds. Researchers say the penguins closest ancestors lived 40 million years ago. 40 million years, said Jack.


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[Assistant] But I'll take a picture of them for my family project. They look like a little family, don't they?


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[Assistant] The shadow belonged to a giant bird circling above them.


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[Assistant] Jack dropped the book and scooped up a handful of snow to make a snowball. Before he could throw it, the petrol attacked again. Jack leapt toward the small penguin.


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[Assistant] Go, get out of here, she yelled waving her arms.


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[Assistant] All of you guys, back in the water now. You'll be safer there. Go, go.


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[Assistant] The penguins squawked and flapped their wings as if saying goodbye. Then they waddled across the icy shore, taking quick tiny steps toward the sea.


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[Assistant] One after another, they dove between cracks in the ice until they all disappeared. Bye guys, said Annie. Honk. What's that, said Jack. Honk. It sounds like some kind of horn, said Annie. That's weird, said Jack. It's coming from over there, said Annie.


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[Assistant] Jack picked up their book and followed Annie up the side of an icy slope.


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[Assistant] In the icy field below the slope were yellow-brown and green buildings, telephone poles, metal pipes, and storage tanks.


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[Assistant] The sound came from a red bus with gigantic wheels that was parked nearby.


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[Assistant] Jack looked in their book and found a photo that looked like the scene below. The caption read McMurdo Station. Jack read the paragraph under the photo.


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[Assistant] Antarctica has many scientific research stations, representing countries from all over the world. The largest is named McMurdo Station.


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[Assistant] Researchers live there for weeks or even months at a time. Honk. Jack looked up.


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[Assistant] He saw four people come out of a yellow building and start toward the bus.


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[Assistant] They were all bundled in red parkas with hoods, goggles and masks. They carried backpacks and camera bags. They must be researchers, said Jack. Let's go talk to them, said Annie. We can't, said Jack. They'll ask why two kids are traveling alone in Antarctica. Maybe they won't know we're kids, said Annie.


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[Assistant] Just then someone jumped off the bus. Hi folks! A woman shouted to the four researchers. I'm Nancy, your bus driver and guide today.