Last Days in Shanghai: A Novel by Walker Casey

Author:Walker, Casey [Walker, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Itzy, Kickass.so
ISBN: 9781619024113
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2014-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

THE BUS DROPPED us in a hotel complex, and the guides nipped at us like sheep dogs, hurrying our unwieldy group into a third-floor theater. The lights went down, and I felt safely shrouded. I wiped sweat and dirt from the back of my neck and finally took a normal breath.

It was an acrobatics show. The troupe built a precarious structure of chairs the shape of a house of cards. The littlest girl was catapulted from a seesaw, end over end, where she landed in the top seat. In the last act, a couple fell in love, and we were asked to believe that their love, not the cables linked under their clothing, made them light enough to soar through the air.

When the lights came up, I didn’t want to be the first one out of the theater. Most of the crowd mingled around the lead actress, and I played the part of one more of her admirers, standing in the clump waiting for her autograph. I spent so much time scanning the distance that I paid no attention to what was near. I looked up to find I’d been pushed to the front of the pack, face-to-face with the lovely acrobat. I sifted through a few Mandarin phrases and was about to attempt one when a handler thrust me aside and summoned the person behind me.

The audience leaked out every exit, and I followed them into the street hoping to retain my part in this dying group. Most waddled to a hotel adjoining the theater. I walked to the street and turned in the direction the crowd was thickest. My hands in my pockets felt the ridges of my keys, and I kept my eyes cast down. Men and women became their shoes. I wanted to vanish into them, like I was made of coins, and every person passing could take a handful, stash me jingling into a pocket, toss me away for luck, disperse me into every corner of the city, until I was spent and gone.

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