The Green Jade Dragon by Evelyn James

Author:Evelyn James [James, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Raven Publications
Published: 2017-08-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The Chinese district of London was certainly an eye-opener. It didn’t look like London for a start. All the shops had Chinese characters over their doors and were painted in shades of red, green and gold. Strange oriental arches seemed to come out of nowhere and shadow the street, and everyone was wearing robes of exotic colours. There was the odd Englishman or woman wandering about, buying unusual goods from the open market or popping into the shops, but mostly this area had the feel of another land. Clara was flummoxed, especially as neither she nor any of her companions spoke Chinese.

“How do we find Simon Clark?” she said to them, looking around the market where chickens squawked from cages and peculiar fruits and vegetables sat in crates waiting to be bought.

“Someone will soon point us in the direction of an opium den,” Captain O’Harris said knowledgeably. “Finding the right opium den is another matter.”

“There is more than one?” Clara said, not sure whether to be appalled or dismayed.

“And finding an Englishman in them is rather like finding tea leaves in a teapot,” O’Harris admitted. “The Chinese cater as much for the English as they do their own people. We might need a guide.”

That was all well and good to say, but finding a guide in the packed streets was not so simple. Most of the residents seemed to want to avoid the lost little group of English folk, who gave the impression of souls on a Sunday outing. Clara had the feeling they were being laughed at for their hopeless ignorance behind their backs. They exited the market and drifted down a side street that offered some respite from the hustle and bustle and noise of the main roads. There was something unsettling about being bombarded by loud voices speaking a language you could not understand.

The side street was virtually empty except for an old woman sitting on a doorstep. She was smoking a clay pipe while peeling potatoes, depositing the skinned vegetables into a large wicker basket. Clara went over to her, ever hopeful.

“Excuse me, could you direct me to the nearest opium den?” she asked, cringing at how silly her words sounded. No wonder people were laughing at her when she sounded so very much like a lost tourist.

The old woman made no response, did not even look up at Clara.

“Opium den?” Clara said, a bit louder thinking the woman might be deaf. With the level of noise she lived in, it would not surprise Clara if her hearing had been battered badly by it all. “You know, poppies?”

The woman smoked and peeled potatoes. She had a faint smile on her face.

“She won’t answer you.”

Clara glanced to her left at the new voice. A girl, late teens, leaned against a wall. She had just appeared from the doorway of a house. She was Chinese and very pretty, wearing a blue robe with wide sleeves, and her dark hair plaited down her back.

“She has lost her marbles,” the girl tapped the side of her head.

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