At the bottom of a great river lived many carp.
The river was wide, and it was very old.
Its water came down from far away, from the mountains.
Between the water weeds, in the cracks of the stones, they lived.
In the daytime the sun came down, and the riverbed was bright.
At night the stars fell on the water, one by one.
The little golden carp lived there too.
She had one gold scale, just one, on her left side.
Her mother said it was a good sign.
She was smaller than the others.
But she was a very fast swimmer.
Every evening, Mother Carp told the little fish one thing.
This was their favorite time.
The little fish gathered around her and moved their tails.
They liked to swim up near the light, and then down into the dark.
“Up at the top of this river, there is a dragon gate,” she said.
“The gate is very high.”
“Any carp that jumps over it becomes a dragon.”
“What does a dragon look like?”
“It flies in the sky. It sleeps in the clouds.”
“Does it walk?”
“It flies.”
The little fish were very happy to hear this.
The little golden carp listened the closest.
When the story was over, the little fish went to their sleeping places.
Each one found a soft spot in the weeds.
Some slept under a stone. Some slept in the shadow of the bank.
And the little golden carp remembered every word.
That night the moon was bright.
The other fish were asleep.
The little golden carp was not sleepy.
She wanted to see the dragon gate.
She slipped out quietly.
The dark water was cool on her sides.
She swam upstream.
The water was cold.
The stones were hard.
She kept swimming.
She did not stop to rest.
She swam past a patch of water weeds.
She swam past a big stone.
She swam under a small stone bridge.
She swam over a shallow place.
There was a moon on the water, and it followed her.
The water above her was black, and then it was gray.
Just before the sky turned light, she arrived.
The dragon gate was very high.
On each side of the gate was a great stone.
Water came down from above, rushing and white.
The sound was loud.
A cold mist hung in the air.
Far off, one light was on, in a house on the bank.
The other carp came too.
One by one, they jumped up.
Up, and back down.
Up, and back down.
Water splashed everywhere.
Some landed on the stones.
Some fell back into the river.
The water was loud, and the stones were wet.
They jumped for a long time.
Then, one by one, they swam away.
The little golden carp watched.
She was the last one there.
She went back a little.
She heard her own heart.
Then she used all her strength.
She shot forward.
She jumped.
And she saw the moon beside her.
She was flying, and she was swimming, both at once.
She went over the dragon gate.
Below her, the river ran on and on.
The water up there was bright.
She fell into the water above.
When she came up again, something felt different.
The wind moved along her back.
She shook herself.
She opened her eyes wide.
She had become a little dragon.
She looked back, down below.
Mother Carp was still asleep at the bottom of the river.
She flew a short way along the water.
There was a small moon in every scale.
There were many stars in the sky.
She curled into a ring and settled on a cloud.
The cloud was soft and warm.
It was the softest cloud she had ever felt.
The sound of the water below grew quieter and quieter.
Below her, the river was a long silver line.
She thought: tomorrow morning, I will go home and see my mother.
Nothing up here was in a hurry.
The carp and the dragon gate is an old Chinese folktale, and it is still a favorite Chinese fairy tale at bedtime.
In China, this story has been told to children for more than a thousand years.
One small fish. One gate.
They call it The Little Carp and the Dragon Gate.
Mother Carp slept on, and did not know.
The river grew smooth.
On the cloud, the little dragon closed her eyes.
There.
So put your head down.
Good night, little carp.
Good night, dragon gate.
This is a very old Chinese bedtime story. It is not long, and it is very gentle. Best read slowly, with the lights low.
