“Henry and I are going to the Snoga Synagogue. It’s the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere.” She turned to her husband. “Henry, when was it built?”
“Sixteen something.”
“In the sixteen hundreds. Crazy, huh?”
“Sephardic Jews from Amsterdam,” Henry said. “They modelled it after the Esnoga Synagogue there.”
“It’s not far from here,” Bella said. “Would you like to join us? It’ll be interesting.”
Ava was in theory a Roman Catholic. She had been raised in the Church and her mother and sister were still devout. But in her mind the Church had rejected her with its views on homosexuality. She now preferred to think of herself as a Buddhist — live and let live. But she couldn’t explain why she still prayed to St. Jude in times of crisis and wore a gold crucifix around her neck.
“Sure, why not?” Ava said.
They paid their bills and left the restaurant. After walking past stores, cafes, and small office buildings, they stopped outside a bright gold stucco building. It was three storeys high, with a red tile roof; the windows and double doors were painted white. Henry and Bella led her into an inner courtyard, where they were greeted by a woman seated at a table.
“The synagogue is there to the right,” the woman said. “It was built in 1692, and some additions were made in 1732.”
Henry and Bella walked tentatively towards the entrance, Ava trailing behind them. As they stepped inside, she heard them gasp. Ava peered over Bella’s shoulder and saw an almost perfect jewel box of a building. A straight line from the doorway led to a wooden pulpit at the opposite end; along either side of the aisle were rows of dark wooden benches. Just above, balconies ran down both sides, and four marble columns extended upwards to an arched ceiling from which hung three huge chandeliers.
They took several steps into the synagogue. As she entered, Ava noticed that Henry and Bella’s eyes were transfixed by the floor. She looked down and saw that it was covered entirely in thick white sand.
She watched as Bella and Henry pressed their feet into the sand. Then Bella began to cry. Henry put his arm around her shoulders and started to sob as well. Ava didn’t know why they were crying, but she felt their emotion all the same.
“The sand is the Sinai Desert,” Henry said. “They brought it here to remind them of Sinai.” He kneeled, picked up a handful, and pressed it to his lips.
“This isn’t common?” Ava asked softly.
“There’s maybe one other synagogue in the world with a floor like this,” he said.
Ava was about to follow Henry and Bella farther into the synagogue when her phone rang. She apologized and excused herself, stepping outside. “Ava Lee,” she answered.
“Ava, it is Uncle.”
Uncle was her partner and mentor; they had been in the debt collection business together for more than ten years. He was in his seventies, but he showed no signs of slowing down and still maintained a massive network of contacts that provided them with business and support. It was a common rumour that in his past life he had ties to the triads. Ava didn’t know for certain; she had only the deepest respect for the man she knew.
“Uncle,” she said, glancing at her watch. It was two a.m. in Hong Kong, and he was usually asleep well before that. “You’re up late.”
“Am I disturbing you?”
“I’m in Curacao. I’m sightseeing.”
“Still on that cruise?”
“Yes.”
“Can you talk?”
“Sure.”
“Are you ready to come back to work?”
She took a deep breath. “That depends on what you have. I have no interest in chasing after some scumbag from General Santos City who cheated people with tuna sashimi that’s been gas-flushed twenty times.”
“So you are ready.”
“What do you have?”
“How soon can you get to Hong Kong?”
“Uncle, is it that important?” she asked, knowing already that it probably was.
“Wong Changxing.”
“The Emperor of Hubei?”
“He hates being called that. Even if it is said respectfully, he worries that it is offensive to the government and military officials whose support he needs.”
“I’m sorry. Do you know him from Wuhan?”
Uncle had been born in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. He had escaped the Communist regime and fled to Hong Kong when he was a young man, but he still maintained close ties there and had built a big enough reputation that his Wuhan roots were a source of pride to many people who lived there. “He knows me from Wuhan,” Uncle said.
“Ah.”
“He has a problem.”
“What is it?”
“I am not sure, but he sounded distressed.”
“Something personal?”
“Certainly pressing, if I read his manner correctly.”
“So it’s urgent?”
“He asked us to come to Wuhan to talk. He offered to pay our expenses and a fee of fifty thousand dollars for our time.”
“I’m still on the cruise for another week.”
“He said he needs to see us as soon as possible.”
“You mean, Uncle, that he needs to see you.”
“No, Ava. He was very specific that you come with me.”
“How does he know — ”
“That does not matter. He does.”
“The cruise — ”
“When he says as soon as possible, he does not mean a week from now.”
Ava paused. The idea of working for Wong Changxing intrigued her, and if her father hadn’t been on the cruise she wouldn’t have hesitated to leave for Hong Kong. But she couldn’t abandon him so easily. “I’ll have to talk to my father,” she said.
“He is a man who has always understood the demands of business,” Uncle said.
“Perhaps, but I still need to talk to him, and I can’t assume he’ll be that understanding. So let me call you back.”
“I will wait up.”
She called her father’s cellphone, which he answered on the first ring. She could hear kids shouting and water splashing in the background.
“Can you talk?” she asked.
“I’m at a dolphin sanctuary, or show, or something. Bruce paid several hundred dollars so that he, Marian, and the girls could swim with the dolphins. They’re in the water now. I’m supposed to be taking pictures.”
“Something has come up,” she said.
“Business?”
“Yes, I just got a call from Uncle. He wants me to go to Hong Kong right away.”
Her father had heard the rumours about Uncle’s past and was quietly disapproving about her association with him. “Is it that important?”
“Wong Changxing.”
“The Emperor of Hubei.”
“I’m told we shouldn’t refer to him as that.”
