When lightning struck Widow Mingmei's tree, a dozen monkeys fell out
of its branches. As it was newly the Year of the Monkey, the Widow took this
as a sign of great fortune.
Six of the monkeys had fur the color of gold, and so the widow gave
them to the six poorest families in the village. Three of the monkeys had
bright red rings around their eyes, so she gifted them to the three villagers
who had suffered from the worst luck in the last year. Of the remaining three
monkeys, she gave the blue-furred one to her daughter, who had just lost
her only son to fever, and she gave the rice-white monkey to her sister Jin-
Hua, who had never tasted love.
But the black monkey, Mingmei kept for herself. It was smaller than the
others, smelled vaguely of ginger, and watched her constantly with its
glassy brown monkey eyes. She named it Tao, meaning long life, for she
hoped it would stay with her for many years.
Tao proved quite useful around the house. It washed dishes and chopped
wood, and even fetched fruit for Mingmei from the highest branches of her
trees. But at night, when Mingmei retired to the small cot in her bedroom,
the monkey would not follow. Mingmei fell asleep to the sounds of screeches
and clanking metal pots each night, but didn't dare look to see what Tao
was doing.
Months passed. The poor families grew wealthy, the unlucky ones found
themselves happier than they'd ever been. Mingmei's daughter was once
again pregnant, and her sister Jin-Hua had married a handsome man from
