White Tiger (32 page)

A
couple of weeks later I was doing a tai chi set in the training room when Mr Chen came in with Bai Hu. Both of them ignored me completely and I returned the favour, continuing the set.

‘There,’ Mr Chen said, indicating the hole in the wall. It was close to the ceiling, about the size of a basketball; a huge dent in the concrete. If it had been an ordinary Western plaster wall it would have gone right through and possibly injured somebody. He hadn’t had it painted over, and the paint was blistered and blackened around the edges, like a fireball had hit it. ‘Whoa,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Impressive.’ ‘First time she did it,’ Mr Chen said. ‘What made her lose it?’ ‘Broken concentration.’ ‘Really? That’s surprising,’ Bai Hu said. I ignored them. ‘Tea?’ Mr Chen said.

‘Got any beer in this dump?’ Bai Hu growled.

‘Get your own.’ Mr Chen went out.

Bai Hu stopped at the doorway. ‘That is the most impressive damn thing I’ve seen in a hundred years. More than that. Shit, girl, you’re talented. Any time you
want to give this loser the flick, let me know. There’s a nice suite in the Palace waiting for you.’ I still ignored him.

‘Move your tail,’ Mr Chen said from the hallway. Bai Hu chuckled, a throaty growl, and went out.

Two Sundays later I was almost back to normal. I sneaked home early from my day off: the finals of the cricket were on and I hoped Simone and Mr Chen were out so I could watch it on the big screen in the TV room.

I stopped in the hallway and listened carefully. Nobody home. I made myself a pot of tea in the kitchen, grabbed some nuts, and settled myself in front of the television to watch the game. I desperately longed for a beer but I stuck with the tea.

About halfway through Australia’s innings Mr Chen opened the door and poked his head around, nearly giving me a heart attack.

He glanced at the screen. ‘Cricket?’

I shot to my feet. ‘I’ll be out of your way in a second.’

His hand snaked around the door and pointed at me. ‘Don’t you go anywhere. You stay right there. That’s an order.’ He pulled out and closed the door.

I cursed my stupidity as I cleared the table. This was the only day of the week that they didn’t have the rest of us hanging around at home with them and I’d spoiled it for them.

The door opened and Simone toddled in, carrying her drawing equipment. She settled on the floor between the coffee table and the television and tipped out her pencils.

Mr Chen came in wearing his torn cotton pants and a faded black T-shirt and carrying a teacup. He threw himself to sit on the couch next to me and filled his cup from my pot.

‘What’s the score?’ he said, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged.

‘India won the toss. They sent Australia in to bat. It’s two for a hundred and thirty-two.’

‘Bad move, India, letting the Aussies bat first. They’ll be thrashed again. The Australian team are so good right now it’s disgusting. We don’t have a hope.’

‘
You
don’t have a hope?’

‘England.’ He leaned to grab some nuts. ‘I’ve half a mind to go bowl for them. Too far from the Centre though. They might even take a Chinese on the national team now. I was selected, but the old…’ He took a breath and changed the word he was about to say. ‘…
gentlemen
on the board wouldn’t have me on the team back then.’

I stared at him.

‘Shame the next Ashes series isn’t for a couple of years. I hope I can see it before I go,’ he said without a hint of remorse. ‘Damn. I could really do with a pint.’

That was it. I fell over sideways on the couch laughing. He watched me with bewilderment. ‘What?’

I pulled myself upright. ‘You’ve had beer?’

‘Right now this old Shen is on a strict diet for health reasons,’ he said amiably.

‘So you’re not vegetarian by choice?’

‘Mostly vegetarian, but I do like the occasional bit of high-quality “cat food”. Tuna’s absolutely no good cooked, but pilchard is particularly tasty. Missed that. I wonder if the tins in the bottom of the cupboard are still good.’

My mouth flopped open.

‘Oh,
human form
,’ he said, smiling broadly. ‘Strictly vegetarian. Right now I have to be careful. Mind my energy, don’t you know.’

Later, we made some noodles for a snack in the kitchen together.

‘Which saucepan, Daddy?’ Simone said from behind the cupboard door.

‘The medium-sized one,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Emma, there are some boxes of vegetable stock in the cupboard—could you get a couple out?’

‘Sure,’ I said, and went to the cupboard. The vegetable stock was on the middle shelf.

I quickly checked down the bottom. There were about ten tins of expensive ‘cat food’ there—mostly pilchards, but some prawn and cuttlefish too. There was also a perfectly ordinary cat’s food bowl.

I grabbed the stock and handed it to him. His eyes sparkled as he took it. ‘Now there should be ho fan in the fridge. Emma?’

I went to fetch the noodles while he poured the stock into the saucepan and turned on the heat.

‘I want to stir, Daddy,’ Simone said.

‘Are you sure you won’t “do a Simone”?’ he said.

She paused, looking at him.

I handed him the noodle packet and he turned to open it.

‘You’d better stir, Daddy,’ Simone said.

We ate the noodles messily on the coffee table. They were even better than Monica’s.

There was a tap on the door. It opened and Leo poked his nose in.

‘We’re watching the cricket,’ Mr Chen said through a mouthful of noodles.

Leo snorted with disdain and closed the door.

‘Too complicated for an American to understand,’ Mr Chen said scathingly.

‘I heard that,’ Leo growled from the corridor.

I didn’t know why we clapped and cheered when the game finished. It was a complete walkover; it was over
before the required number of balls had even been bowled.

‘You two are silly,’ Simone said from the floor. ‘Who do you think is more silly?’ Mr Chen said. ‘Oh, you are, Daddy, definitely.’

‘Well, there you have it, Emma: the expert says that I am much sillier than you.’ ‘It’s a close contest though.’ His grin didn’t shift. ‘Yep.’

The phone next to my computer rang. ‘Emma,’ I said.

‘Call for you,’ Monica said, and clicked it through.

I sighed. I hoped it wasn’t Kitty Kwok again.

‘Hi, Emma, long time no see. What you been doing with yourself?’

‘Busy, Louise. How about you?’

‘Lunch, Sha Tin, day after tomorrow? We can talk all about it. I want to hear exactly what’s keeping you so busy.’

‘Sure.’

I put the phone down and went down the hall. When I reached Mr Chen’s office I raised my hand to tap on the door. Before I even touched it, he called from inside. ‘Come on in, Emma.’

I went in and sat across from him. I sighed when I saw the pile of papers on his desk. ‘I only tidied this three weeks ago. You hate me.’

He smiled slightly.

‘And you knew I was coming as well. Stop wasting your energy.’

His gentle smile didn’t shift.

‘I’m going to lunch with Louise the day after tomorrow. It’ll be in Sha Tin, so I’ll probably be back late.’

‘Are you asking my permission?’ ‘I don’t know, am I?’

‘You know you don’t need to.’ ‘Yeah, I know.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be here to mind Simone.’

‘Good.’ I rose to go out. ‘When will Jade be back? I miss her. And Gold. It’s quiet without them coming and going.’

He watched me silently.

‘Where are they, John?’

He shook his head.

‘How long? They’ve already been gone for two months.’

‘A few more weeks. Give it time.’

‘Are they okay? Nobody’s hurting them?’

He smiled slightly again. ‘Don’t worry about them. They’re fine.’

I turned to open the door.

‘Emma.’

I turned back.

‘Don’t bother asking them where they were when they return. Don’t ask, because if they tell you anything they are in serious trouble.’

I went back to my room and shuffled through my notes on Shen. When Shen died, they were supposed to go to Hell for a while and then return to Earth.

Hell. I had quite a lot of information about Hell. A complicated place; very bureaucratic. Ten levels. Judges at each level, meting out punishment. A lot of Hells.

I wished I’d visited the Tiger Balm Gardens in Causeway Bay before they’d been torn down. There had been detailed depictions of all of the Hells there.

Louise met me at the round atrium connecting Sha Tin station with the shopping mall. She looked just the same: blonde, bony and full of freckles and mischief.

She stopped dead when she saw me and her eyes widened. ‘Is that you, Emma?’

‘Of course it’s me.’ I linked my arm in hers.

‘You look completely different,’ she said. ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight. And you have a great tan. Stop.’ She pulled her arm from mine, grabbed my forearm and prodded it like a side of meat.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ I said, bewildered.

‘Muscles. And you walk differently, like you own the world.’

‘Well, I don’t.’

‘Your skin is glowing, your hair is shining, you have muscles—who’s your personal trainer? Or are you pregnant?’

‘I am definitely not pregnant,’ I said grimly. ‘Absolutely no chance of that.’

‘What a shame,’ Louise said cheerfully. ‘I lose.’ ‘What do you lose?’

‘I had a bet with April. She bet that you wouldn’t be doing it with him by March. Looks like she was right.’ ‘Have you heard from her?’ ‘When we’re in the restaurant.’

We walked through the central atrium of Sha Tin Town Centre. It was five storeys high, and open to the ceiling. A large oval musical fountain stood in the middle, but we walked past, ignoring it.

I looked around. ‘Where are we going? It’s all changed.’

‘Downstairs,’ Louise said. ‘New food court. Some nice places.’

‘But it has to be vegetarian for me.’

She stopped and stared at me. ‘What?’

I shrugged and took her arm to start her walking again. ‘Strictly vegetarian. I hope we can find something.’

She shook her head. ‘What the hell for? Is it something to do with this Chen man who you’re so most definitely
not
sleeping with?’

‘Something like that,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you about it when we get there. Is there anywhere we don’t have to wait too long?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said, grinning. ‘This is Hong Kong, remember.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘You have to queue up for everything. Sometimes I wonder if the kids have to take a number and queue for a room at the love hotels.’

She cackled with delight. ‘I love it.’

We found an Italian restaurant serving food adjusted for Chinese taste and took a number to wait. It would only be twenty minutes; not too bad for a weekday lunch.

‘So why vegetarian?’ Louise said.

I rolled out a story that I’d heard other vegetarians use successfully in the past. ‘I eat so much vegetarian in the Chen household that if I eat meat now I don’t feel well.’ I shrugged. ‘It’s easier just to stay off it.’

‘I couldn’t do that,’ Louise said.

A gruff male voice with a Cantonese accent interrupted us. ‘Hi, Emma, who’s your gorgeous friend? Look at the two of you. Good enough to eat.’

I turned to look at him. He appeared to be a perfectly ordinary good-looking Chinese in his mid-thirties, wearing tennis gear and holding a sports bag with a few tennis racquets in the pocket on the side.

Then I recognised him. He looked completely different with black hair. ‘Bai Hu.’

Bai Hu bent over Louise. ‘Who’s your delicious friend, Emma?’

‘Louise. Louise Wilson.’ She grinned like a predator, then moved closer and held out her hand for him to shake.

He held it for much longer than necessary and didn’t let go. I could almost see the sparks flying. ‘Hi, Louise.’

‘No
way
is she going to be number one hundred and one,’ I hissed.

‘Don’t worry about Emma, she’s an old fuddyduddy,’ Louise whispered to Bai Hu.

‘Are you two waiting for lunch?’ Bai Hu said without shifting his eyes from Louise’s. He dropped his voice. ‘How about I take you somewhere where you don’t have to wait?’

‘Disappear,
Tiger
,’ I said fiercely. ‘I am having lunch with my friend and you will not interfere.’

‘No, please, Emma,’ Louise said meaningfully. ‘Let’s go with him.’ She used his hand to pull herself in closer and turned to stand next to him. She even nudged him with her hips.

Bai Hu shrugged. ‘If the lady wants me along then I must concede. How about some Japanese? I know a good place upstairs, you won’t have to wait.’ He smiled down at Louise, still holding her hand. ‘I’ll buy.’

‘If you’re buying then you can have whatever you want,’ Louise purred.

Bai Hu threw his bag over his shoulder and linked arms with Louise. ‘Let me show you the way,’ he said, completely ignoring me. ‘It’s really very good. Do you eat raw fish?’

‘I’m willing to give it a try,’ Louise said. ‘I’m willing to give anything you like a try.’

‘Get your paws off my friend!’ I snarled, but he ignored me. ‘Xuan Wu will hear about this!’

‘What, Emma?’ Louise said, without looking away from the Tiger.

‘I’m a friend of Miss Donahoe’s employer, Mr Chen,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Tiger Bak. Pleased to meet you.’

‘Oh, very cute,’ I said under my breath. ‘Tiger White. Excellent.’

Louise glared at me. ‘What’s the problem, Emma?’

‘Yeah, Emma, what’s your problem?’ Bai Hu said. ‘Come and have lunch with your friend, just like you said you would.’

‘I’m strictly vegetarian right now,’ I said.

‘Yes, of course you are. Don’t worry, we’ll find something for you up there.’ He pulled Louise closer as they walked to the lifts. ‘How much can you generate?’

‘About a tennis ball, slightly more.’ I dropped my voice. ‘
Get your paws off my friend
!’

‘What are you talking about?’ Louise said, bewildered.

‘Oh, didn’t you know? Young Emma here is learning martial arts from the Master himself,’ Bai Hu said with relish.

‘Your tail is in serious trouble,’ I growled under my breath.

‘No wonder you look so different,’ Louise said without shifting her eyes from Bai Hu. ‘Where are you taking me?’