Sharky's Machine by Diehl William

Author:Diehl, William [Diehl, William]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 0345402391
Publisher: AEI/Story Merchant Books
Published: 2012-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

14

From a table near the railing of the Tai Tak Restaurant Lowenthal watched as a beautiful young Chinese woman dressed in a red silk mandarin dress jumped lightly from the sampan and came up the walkway to the deck of the floating restaurant. She was a tiny flower of a girl, barely five feet tall with an almost perfect body and an ebony ponytail that cascaded over one shoulder.

Wan Shu, the chef of the restaurant, motioned her to the table. He was almost a parody of the stereotyped Chinese, a fat man, Buddhalike, with thin mustaches that drooped down over the corners of his mouth and a perpetual smile on his lips.

“Is Heida,” he said as she joined Lowenthal and DeLaroza, “from Wanchai section. Three weeks here. Okay?”

“A splendid choice, p’eng-yu,” DeLaroza said.

Wan Shu beamed. “You drink before dinner?”

DeLaroza nodded and turned to Lowenthal. “What would you like?”

“Would Scotch be irreverent in present company?”

“Hardly. You forget, Hong Kong is a crown colony. There is probably more Scotch consumed there than anything else. Ice?”

Lowenthal nodded and DeLaroza gave the order to Wan Shu in Chinese. He rushed away, snapping his fingers and issuing commands to waiters.

“Where do you live in Wanchai?” DeLaroza asked Heida.

“On Jaffe Road near O’Brien. I live with my brother who sews for Jau Pun in Kowloon.”

DeLaroza nodded. “I know him well. One of the finest of all tailors in the city. He has made many suits for me. How old are you?”

“I am nineteen,” she said in a high, melodic voice. “I have gone to the university for one year. I study history. I hope to work for one year here and save my money so I may finish.”

“What’re you going to do with the history?” Lowenthal asked.

“I hope to be a school teacher, perhaps in the British settlement at Tseun Wan.”

“Very ambitious,” DeLaroza said. “I assume you know the legend of Kowloon and T’un Hai well, then?”

“Hai. My father told me the story many times before he died. It was a special thing between us.”

“Mister Lowenthal here does not know the story. Would you honor us?”

“Of course, nin. It is my honor.”

“Would you like something to drink first?”

“Um, dor jeh. I have had too many Coca-Colas already. I will be fat like T’sai-Shen if I am not careful.”

“Who is T’sai-Shen?” Lowenthal asked.

“The god of wealth and happiness. He is so-o-o big,” she said, holding her arms in front of her in a large circle.

“I doubt that,” Lowenthal said with a smile.

“Should I begin then?”

“Please,” DeLaroza said.

She stood bowing, pressing her hands together in an attitude of prayer, and then began reciting the myth in her bell-like voice, acting it out in pantomime, moving slowly in place, each gesture a ballet of grace. Lowenthal could not take his eyes off her.

“In the land of my father the most wondrous and ancient of all creatures is the dragon, for the dragon represents both earth and water.

“The dragon has the power of the rains, he puts color in the cheeks of the flowers.

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