Xian couldn’t have been more grateful for the opportunity this contest presented. She was the youngest of the group. She was also the only attractive woman in a group of men. She needed to prove that she deserved their friendship and contacts because of her own merit. She winced, because she’d forgotten about Lydia. She was a woman of course, but had long since made the turn from beautiful to ‘handsome’.

As soon as James announced the contest she saw that this was her way in. As soon as she reasonably could, she agreed to join it. This was her way. She had always been good at seizing some small opportunity and making it pay out. Her meteoric rise through the telecomm ranks was proof of that.

She quickly glanced at her phone but decided not to make any calls just yet. She had a vague idea of what she wanted to make. More importantly, she thought she had an idea of what kind of mistakes the others would make and she knew enough to avoid them.

The bet was split into two pieces. The first part was the garish one. A strict appeal to the popular taste. It would be easy enough to put together some circus like thing, loud with lots of music and maybe a whiff of danger. You could always attract attention if you were loud enough.

But the most important part of a circus is what happens after the show. That’s when they take down the tents and move on to the next city. Something new for a new crowd. If they stayed in the same spot night after night, they would die off. There would be big shows and record crowds for a few nights and then the receipts would drop off and the whole thing would go bankrupt.

The winner of the first half of the bet would be 30 million dollars richer, no small sum indeed, but they would utterly fail on the second part. A true Wonder must be timeless. It would have to make a person stop in their tracks and pause. It must be something spiritual.

Right then and there she decided not to worry about winning the tourist bet. She’d gladly lose the five million. No, she corrected herself, she wouldn’t really lose it. Her boast about making a profit one way or another wasn’t idle. She was very certain that she could minimize any financial loss.

Besides, that wasn’t the important part to her. Having the other six members of her circle praising her in public was the goal. She’d have to keep her eyes on that. That was where the true gold lie.

So what should she do? It would be almost impossible to ignore her heritage while considering this. Not just impossible but probably foolish as well. There was a rich vein to be tapped here. Maybe some kind of combination between East and West. What would seem more common to her ancestors would be new over here. The taste of the exotic, that would her angle.

And maybe this would open up another opportunity for her. Her mother had long worried that she was falling away from the old ways. Maybe she could consult with her and find a way of honoring her mother here. That would also be a worthy goal.

The thought of her mother brought a slight frown to her face. A small woman who was filled with enormous power. Some slight disapproval and it felt like the sun had gone behind the clouds and winter had arrived. When was the last time they had been together? A dinner meeting at Xian’s penthouse, that’s when. They had tried to pass off small talk and it had been a total disaster. The only nice thing that came of it was the lovely wind chime her mother had brought.

Wind chime? Maybe that was the key. It was undoubtedly a spiritual item. The soft pings and thwacks communicated the wind, nature’s most constant presence to people all around. If she could construct some unique and powerful chimes, she could create something wonderful.

Did anyone have a wind chime garden?

The more she thought of it, the better the idea seemed. She could already picture groves of trees with stone benches so patrons could sit and quietly contemplate the eternal. A small manufactured stream with some koi would complete the picture. She knew that there were many such places scattered here and there throughout the country. What she needed was to create one that would redefine the concept. Perhaps a combination of chimes and bells?

In her mind she could see a lush landscape. Xian wasn’t sure she’d find that type of terrain in northern California. Maybe she could find a small valley that would work? It might require a sacrifice in the lush department but she could still make it work. Towering redwoods and sequoias entered her plans. Yes, that would work just fine.

She’d have to make a call to some real estate agent or other. The next few weeks would find her driving up north to look at this or that piece of land. All in a good cause she knew, even if that didn’t make the idea more appealing.

She began to love the idea more and more. Let’s see, what calls to make? A quick one to her attorney so they could go over the contract. Then a call to James to reserve the idea of a garden. Or maybe she should make plans with her mother first. Yes, that was the way to go.