“It doesn’t change the fact that he’s the most powerful man in the province.”
“No matter, he’s asked us to go to Wuhan for a meeting. I asked if Uncle could go alone, and he said Wong specifically requested that I accompany him.”
“And you’re calling me to ask for permission.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do. This is your holiday, and if you think that my absence will cause any disruption I won’t go.”
“This holiday was the worst idea — ”
“I’ve spoken to Marian about Bruce.”
“And I’ve spoken to your mother.”
“Two immovable forces.”
“Bruce is a bureaucrat, professionally and personally. Your mother is every bureaucrat’s nightmare. He wants a plan for everything and your mother can’t think past her next meal.”
“So do you need me? Do you want me to stay?”
“No, you go,” he said quickly. “I’ll try to spend as much time as I can with Marian and the girls and hope time flies.”
“I love you.”
“Me too. Be careful.”
Ava went inside the synagogue to say goodbye to Henry and Bella. They were sitting on one of the benches, their eyes closed. She left as quietly as she could and made her way back to the ship to look for Jennie Lee.
She found her mother in the casino, sitting at the baccarat table with a stack of twenty-five-dollar chips in front of her.
“I have to leave,” Ava said. “Uncle just called. We have a client in Wuhan who needs us.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Your father won’t be happy.”
“I spoke to him first and asked his permission. He told me to go.”
Her mother shook her head. “You can’t leave me alone with them.”
“Marian and the girls love you to death. And Daddy is still here.”
“You are the only one who understands me.”
You mean who tolerates you, Ava thought. “That’s not true,” she said.
“Stay until we get back to Miami.”
“I can’t. It’s a crisis.”
Her mother stared at her. When Ava didn’t capitulate, she said, “I think Bruce may try to throw me into the sea somewhere between here and Miami.”
“He probably thinks the same of you.”
Her mother continued playing while she talked to Ava, her stack growing larger as she doubled her bet on the banker. When she won, she doubled her bet again, with success. “I suppose I can’t stop you from leaving, can I?”
“No.”
“Well, have a safe trip and call me whenever you can.”
“I need you to do something for me,” Ava said.
“What?”
“My clothes — I brought this ridiculous suitcase with me and I have all these clothes that I can’t wear anywhere else. Can you take them back to Toronto for me?”
“What will you wear?”
“I’ll take my running gear, some T-shirts, my toiletries, and some jewellery. I’ll throw everything in my carry-on. I can buy some business clothes when I get to Hong Kong. I need some new things anyway.”
Her mother sighed and passed her room key to Ava. “Leave your case in my room.”
Ava leaned over to kiss her mother on the forehead.
“Be careful,” Jennie said.
Ava went to her room and turned on her laptop. She found a flight that landed at eight a.m. in Hong Kong with a stop in Newark. She booked it and then called Uncle. He didn’t react when she told him she was coming, and she knew he had probably expected nothing less.
“There is an early Dragonair flight from Hong Kong to Wuhan,” he said.
“No, Uncle, I’m sorry. I have no business clothes with me and I need to shop. See if you can book something for later in the day.”
“Where do you want to shop?”
“There’s a Brooks Brothers store in Tsim Sha Tsui,” she said, knowing that his Kowloon apartment was no more than ten minutes from the popular shopping district and tourist destination.
“I will send Sonny to meet you at the airport. He will take you wherever you need to go. Wong will have to wait.” Uncle paused. “I hear that his wife is very attractive and a real power in their business. They should know that we have the whole package too.”
(2)
There was no Wi-Fi at Curacao’s Hato airport but there was an Internet cafe, where Ava bought fifteen minutes of time. She emailed Mimi to let her know about her change in plans. The two women had been friends since meeting at Havergal College, a private girls’ high school in Toronto, and there wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other.
In recent months Ava had had some worries about their friendship. Mimi had fallen in love with Derek Liang, Ava’s best male friend and at times associate, when she needed the extra muscle. Like her, he practised bak mei, an ancient and lethal martial art that was taught strictly one on one. Their teacher, Grandmaster Tang, had introduced them to each other; they were his only two students in the discipline. Derek joked that the Grandmaster had dreamed they would one day produce a baby he could turn into the perfect fighting machine. Instead they had become friends, and occasionally employer and employee.
Ava had inadvertently brought Mimi and Derek together, not anticipating that the two would fall so hard for each other. Within days of meeting they had moved in together. As it turned out, Ava’s concerns about how their relationship would affect her friendship with Mimi had been unfounded. Mimi was as available and open as she had ever been. The only negatives were that Ava had to listen to Mimi’s graphic descriptions of their sex life, and so long as they were together, she didn’t feel she could ask Derek to work with her. Over the years they had confronted knives and guns and chains and even been outnumbered by three or four men. Now she didn’t see how she could put Derek at risk, knowing how devastated Mimi would be if anything happened to him. I can’t, she thought, and she closed her email by writing and give Derek a big kiss for me.
Ava thought about phoning Maria but sent an email instead. For someone who was so beautiful and intelligent, there was something almost heartbreakingly simple about the girl. When they were together, Maria was unfailingly buoyant, but the second that Ava left her side she was overwhelmed by waves of self-doubt.
“You need to have more trust,” Ava told her.
“You don’t understand,” Maria said, her voice quivering. “I lived at home in Bogota before I came here to Toronto. I have never been apart from my family, and my very Catholic family — especially my mother — would never have accepted my sexuality. So I led a life of secrets. I hid my true self. It’s only now, living in a city where I’m anonymous, that I’ve finally been able to be open.”
When Ava told this to Mimi, her friend said, “You need to give her more time. She’s still learning how to be in a relationship.”
“What scares me is her intensity. I’m not ready to commit to being a life partner.”
“Has she asked you to be one?”
“No.”
