A steep hill in Cathay by the calm, dazzling sea: here our story begins. Once long ago a poor fisherman named Jin lived in a bamboo hut at the top of this hill with his wife and daughter. From early morning until near lunchtime Jin drifted on the foamy waves in his fishing boat, catching anchovies and mackerels in his net, while his daughter played with her dolls and his wife cooked and kept the hut and yard tidy. In the afternoons Jin traveled to the nearby village to sell what he’d caught, and in the evenings he came home to eat dinner with his family.

When Jin’s daughter was very young, his wife caught a fever and died during the night in her sleep. In a grove of maidenhair trees near the yard the fisherman buried her, and set a simple stone monument near the mound. Now the daughter, whose name was Fan, had to care for herself, tidy the hut, and cook each day’s three meals of fish and rice. The tasks were long and laborious for such a small child. Fan cried often, both from being alone in the house through the dawdling hours of the day, and from the memory of her mother. But still she played with her dolls and stuffed animals, and often watched her father’s boat as it bobbed lazily with the tide in the far-off reaches of the ocean.

One morning Jin showed his daughter a new toy.

“It’s a top,” he said. “I saved a little money and bought it in the village.” Jin showed his daughter how to spin it.

Once her father was fishing, Fan gathered her dolls and stuffed animals around a overturned box in the yard to show them how to spin the top. But on the first spin, the top swerved wildly, fell off the box, and began rolling down the steep hill.

“My toy!” cried Fan. 

She tried to run after it, but could not catch up. She watched helplessly as it rolled onto the beach and disappeared in the surf.

For a long time Fan searched among the shallow waves, holding up her gown so the hem would not get wet, but she could not find the top. She was about to give up and go home, miserable, when a voice asked: “What are you looking for?”

Fan looked around and could see no one, until she noticed a mackerel poking its head out of the water.

“I lost my spinning top,” said Fan.

“What’s a spinning top?” asked the mackerel.

Fan thought about how to explain it.

“It’s sort of a little cone made of wood with a handle. You give the handle a twist and it stays up on its point for a moment, spinning.”

“You know,” said the mackerel, “I did see something like that rolling down the ocean floor a little while ago.”

“You did?” asked Fan, brightening. “Where is it? Can you get it for me?”

“Oh no,” said the fish. “I saw it fall down the hole that’s in the middle of the ocean. It’s dark there – I would never go down that deep.”

“Well, do you know someone who would?” asked Fan. “I’d really like my top back. It’s my favorite toy.”

“Tell you what,” said the mackerel. “I can carry you in my mouth and let you float down the hole and there you can look for it.”

“But how will I get out again?” said the girl.

The fish considered. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Maybe someone down there will help you. It’s your choice.”

Fan thought for a long time until she finally agreed to the mackerel’s plan.

“But how can I fit in your mouth?” she asked.

“I’m a magic mackerel,” said the fish. “Just hold still.”

All of a sudden the mackerel seemed to grow to an enormous size, yawning wide its mouth and taking Fan into a cold, pitch-black, clammy-feeling place. She pressed her palms against the inside of the fish’s cheeks while she listened to the ocean waves and currents rush outside. She closed her eyes. After a while Fan felt the mouth disappear around her, and sensed she was falling. She flailed about, eyes still closed, and felt her worried heart throbbing in her chest until her legs touched ground.

The girl looked around. To her surprise, it was not dark where she was, but bright, and the ground beneath her was covered with a strange, shiny golden grass. The water was warm and soothing, the currents rushing briskly in all directions. Fan could breathe easily, though bubbles tumbled upward from her lips every time she respired. Here and there, little silver trees, humble as mushrooms, sprouted from the soil, and in the distance rose many steep pink hills. At the top of one of them was a bamboo hut that looked very much like the one she lived in.

Fan started looking for the top. “This is a much bigger place than I was expecting,” she said. “How will I ever find my top in all this grass?” Not knowing what else to do, she began climbing the hill towards the hut. “Maybe the person who lives there will have an idea,” she thought.

Fan wandered into a yard that looked almost exactly like her own, and through a doorway that looked almost exactly like her own. Inside the single room, which also seemed so familiar, she searched about, and called to see if anyone was home. But it was quiet in the house. Now she opened the back door, expecting to walk outside again, but was surprised to find another room, one just like the room she was in. Fan went in, looked about, and opened the next door.

“Surely this one leads outside,” she thought.

But it didn’t – instead there waited yet another room, nearly identical to the other two and to the one she lived in. “How can a hut so small have so many rooms?” she wondered. The third room also had a door at its back. Feeling that something was very odd about this house, Fan backtracked and went outside again.

She looked around from the top of the hill. Two little figures were wandering towards her up the slope, bubbles escaping from their lips.

As they came close, Fan saw that they were short indeed –  only half as tall as she was, and Fan was nowise tall. “Who are you?” asked Fan when they came up to her.

“We are Lo and Li,” said the curious pair. “A husband and wife. This is Pink and Gold Land. Who are you? Where do you come from?”

Fan explained who she was and how she had gotten to their country. “Do you live in this hut?” she asked.

“Nay, we live in a smaller one by a copse of silver trees beyond yonder hill, the hill highest of them all,” said Lo, the husband. “We are sorry you cannot find your top.”

“I suppose I’ll never find it,” said Fan despondently. “The fish said it had fallen down here, but this is too big a country and it could be anywhere.”

“Well, if you mean to keep looking, why don’t you stay with us?” said Li, the wife. “We have a son you can play with.” The girl went with them.

In their small hut Fan drank a hot broth that Li had cooked in a pot over a fire. “This will make you feel better,” said the small woman.

It did. “I feel very calm and happy,” thought the girl. The couple’s son had many toys and dolls and was happy to let Fan play with them. Fan was put to bed under fine warm sheets of silk. 

Things were easy in the little couple’s home. The fire in the hearth was always roaring and hot, and the floor and yard always clean; the food they ate was always fine delicacies, and every tasty dish, when it was desired, seemed to appear magically in the pots, pans, and plates in the hut. Fan had nothing to do all day but to eat and to play with the couple’s son and his toys. 

“You like it very much here, I can tell,” said Lo, laughing. “You know, my wife and I have always wanted a daughter. You can stay here for a long time.” 

“You can marry our son,” said Li later on. “We will have grandchildren.”

Fan thought about what the little man and woman had said. Part of her was happy that life seemed so easy here, but part of her missed her father. How much time had passed since she left? It seemed but a few hours – yet how many times had she lain under the silk sheets and fallen asleep? It seemed too many times to count. Fan was confused. Had her father noticed she was gone by now, or not? But always the broth that Li cooked and gave to her in a cup made her feel sedate and unworried. 

Now later on, as Fan was playing with the son’s dolls, she noticed something pass quickly by the window. It seemed to make a faint noise as it passed. Fan went back to playing, but soon she noticed the same thing happen again. She went outside to see what was flying around.

“It’s my little top!” she exclaimed.

The ocean currents were carrying it hither and yon. Fan could hear the top somehow moaning lowly as it passed. When it passed close to her she snatched it.

“You caught me! Thank you!” said the top.

“You can speak!” marveled Fan.

“Yes, I can,” the top said.

“I’ve never met a toy that can talk,” said Fan. “I wish my dolls could talk.”

“I’m no ordinary toy,” said the top. “I’m the Spinning Top Spirit. I make wishes come true for children.”

“Really?” said Fan.

“Yes,” said the top. “A child has to play with me three times to be granted a favor. You’ve already spun me once. Spin me two more times and I can help make your fondest wish come true.”

Fan spun the top two more times on the ground. 

“Now, what do you wish?’ asked the top.

Fan thought for a long time, starting to speak on several occasions but always hesitating. Finally she said, “I wish to go back home and be with my father.”

“Then so it shall be,” said the top. And suddenly the toy was transformed into an umbrella. “Go back to the spot in the golden shiny grass where you first arrived,” the umbrella said. “Open me, and an ocean current will carry you back to the surface.”

Fan went back to the spot where the mackerel had dropped her. She opened the umbrella and began to rise, but noticed something was holding her down.

It was Lo and Li, grabbing her legs.

“Do not go,” said Li, “we wish so much for a daughter.”

“Do not go,” said Lo, “our son needs a playmate.”

“Do not go,” they both said, “life will be so much easier for you in Pink and Gold Land.”

The bubbles poured up from their mouths in a huge cascade.

“I am sorry,” said Fan, “I must go back to my father and not let him worry. He has no wife and I am the only one left for him.”

But the small couple only gripped tighter and tighter and tugged harder and harder. “Do not go,” they pleaded. The bubbles from their mouths gathered under Fan’s umbrella. 

“If you won’t choose to stay,” said Lo finally, “I’ll make you stay!”

And in an eye’s blink he transformed into the giant mackerel who had brought her into the ocean, opening wide his mouth and threatening to swallow Fan again. But so many bubbles had gathered under her umbrella that she was yanked out of Li’s grip and floated up on the ocean current. She went up through the hole in the middle of the ocean and came to the surface, bobbing on the waves. Soon she had swum to the shore, helped along by the tide’s frothy hands, and could see her father’s house. As she stood up on the beach, she noticed she had lost her umbrella somewhere back in the vast sea.

Fan shook the water from her clothes and walked up the hill to her home. It was very late in the day, and the sun was near to setting. How much time had passed since she’d left? She couldn’t tell if it had been only hours, or much, much longer. 

Fan looked around the hut, but her father was not there. Nor was his fishing boat anywhere along the shore. Finally Fan went out to the grove of maidenhair trees. Another mound and another stone monument rested beside her mother’s.

Fan bowed her head and remembered her father with reverence. Tears came to her eyes. She had been away too long. In the twilight she picked two bouquets of flowers and set them on the two mounds in the grove. 

As the night came and stars appeared in the sky, she gathered her possessions, including her dolls and stuffed animals, in a sack, then started off on a trip to the village, to find a family that would have her as a daughter.