Callie laughed. “I didn’t know you had to be crazy to fly.”
“You gotta be nuts to fly and nuts to be in the navy,” Sammy said solemnly. “So we’ve got a double whammy. Only insane people could live for months cooped up on a ship like a bunch of monks.”
“How long have you two been inflicting craziness on each other?”
The men exchanged glances. “We’ve known each other a couple years, I guess,” Jake said.
“Yeah,” said Sammy. “And we’ve been living together for about a year, so I know all Jake’s faults. I can make up a list when we get back to our floating monastery and send it to you. That much paper will have to go freight- rate, though.”
Callie looked at Jake with raised eyebrows. Then she turned back to Sammy. “Not meaning to change the subject, but are you enjoying Hong Kong?”
“Definitely,” said Sammy. “I’m having a blast.”
Jake said, “Callie’s going to show me the real Hong Kong. She’s going to keep me out of the tourist traps.”
“With one exception,” said Callie. “We’re going to the Peak. That’s one tourist attraction nobody should miss.”
“I know,” said Sammy. “I was there last night.”
“Last night?” said Callie. “You couldn’t have seen a thing!”
“My friend and I didn’t mind.”
“Well,” said Jake. “I can see that months of contemplation and prayer have done you no good at all.”
“You and your friend should go back,” said Callie, “To check out the view.”
“I’ll seriously consider your advice,” said Sammy “Well, I must leave you young people.” He leaned down and spoke softly in Callie’s ear. “Jake’s list of faults isn’t so long. In fact, you’re lucky. He’s really a great guy.”
“What do you think of Sammy?” said Jake as he an Callie stepped out into the bright day.
“He’s funny,” she said. “Only a little crazy. I like him.” The sky was blue and cloudless, and the air was comfortably dry. It was breezy. Jake took Callie’s hand and they walked up Nathan Road. “Most of the stores are open, on a Sunday?” he said.
“They do a booming business. Tourists like to shop here.”
Callie led him down a narrow side street where vendors hawked fresh vegetables and plump fruits, the many colors, shapes, and textures overbrimming the large wicker baskets. “What are these?” asked Jake picking up a small fuzzy object.
“Kiwi fruits. Those are mangoes. They’re sweet an delicious.”
The air was heavy with the smell of produce and the street was thronged with shoppers, many carrying bulging plastic bags. Jake yanked Callie out of the path of a wobbling bicycle ridden by a boy of seven or eight “Bet he doesn’t have a driver’s license,” said Callie.
“He’s probably late for a date with his girlfriend.”
They passed a flower shop. The window bloomed with multicolored plastic flowers. An old woman wit missing teeth darted up from the doorway and grabbed Jake’s sleeve. “Flowers for the lady? Flowers for the lady?”
Jake smiled at Callie. “If she has some real ones, would you like some flowers?”
“Thanks, but I don’t know where I’d put them.”
The woman kept up her chant and tugged harder at Jake’s sleeve. “No flowers,” he said. “The lady doesn’t want flowers. No, thank you.” The old woman beamed and pulled all the harder at Jake. “No, no. No flowers!
No!”
Callie laughed. “She knows a soft touch when she sees one.” She then spoke to the woman in Cantonese. Her voice sounded to Jake like the other nasal, singsong voices he’d been hearing. He was startled. For a moment he felt as if Callie were an imposter: a Chinese woman wearing the skin of an American. The old woman immediately dropped Jake’s arm. But when she turned to Callie, her eyes were twinkling and she launched into a stream of comment, from which Jake and Callie fled down the street.
After a while, having walked street after street, Jake decided that just about anything a person might want could be bought in Kowloon. But he didn’t want any of it-no jade, no sequined sweaters, no watches, no sculptured ivory sampans or concentric bails, no gold trinkets, no enameled rings, no silks, no toys. Although he had gotten hungry, he didn’t want to try the duck a vendor was roasting over a charcoal fire, and he didn’t want to taste the golden egg yolks that had been salted and dried in the sun. In fact, he temporarily lost his appetite after seeing a butcher shop where chickens dangled by cords and cows’ heads lay in pools of blood. And he didn’t want his fortune told-that least of all.
Callie tried to talk him into having a suit and some shirts made. “You’re missing a terrific opportunity.”
“That’s all right. I don’t wear civilian clothes very often. Are you ready to go to Victoria Peak?”
“Are you tired?”
“Maybe,” he said. “All these people, everybody pushing you to buy something.”
Callie put her hand behind his head and massaged his neck. Then she kissed him. “I bet you’re hungry.”
She led him down an alley that was only as wide as a sidewalk. It was lined with racks of cassette tapes an books, some of which were in English.
“These books and tapes aren’t for sale,” Callie said “They’re part of a lending library.”
Farther down the alley Callie stopped. “This is it, she said, and opened the door to a very small room. Jake stepped inside and looked around.
There were only three tables, which were covered with newspaper and in the back of the room a middle-aged man an woman were busy cooking. A young Chinese couple were seated at a table. Callie led Jake to a table by the window, away from the other couple. As they sat down a fly landed on Jake’s forehead. He swept it away “Trust me,” said Callie. “It’s a lot better than it looks.
The blue walls were faded and a single wooden fan squeaked overhead. The woman came up to them wiping her hands on her apron. She smiled widely when she recognized Callie. Callie said to Jake, “I’ll order some dumplings. I think you’ll like them better fried Would you like a beer?”
“I sure would. I might not have anything else.”
“Ching-ni gei-womaner-shih-ssu-ge chao-tzu, lian ping pi-jyou, ” said Callie. Jake was startled again at her verbal metamorphosis.
“You’re really good,” said Jake when the woman had gone away.
Callie grinned. “How would you know?”
“If we get dumplings and beer, I’ll know you’re good. If we get fried snakes or toasted rabbit ears, I’m know you blew it.”
Callie threw back her head and laughed.
The woman brought a mound of dumplings on a single plate, which they shared. Jake gingerly picked one up. “Pretty tasty,” he said with his mouth full. He reached for another.
“I told you they’d be good.”
After the dumplings were gone, Jake thought about ordering another beer.
“Are you rejuvenated?” Callie asked.
“Like an actress with a facelift. I’m ready for anything.
“Good. Let’s go to the Peak, then. It’s a wonderful day for it.”
As they headed for the Star Ferry, Callie took him down side streets they had not been on before. Jake stopped to look at a man, sitting on a stool, who was writing while a gray-haired woman standing next to him spoke. The black Chinese characters seemed to flow from his pen. “He’s a calligrapher,” explained Callie. “He’s writing a letter for the woman because she doesn’t know how to write. She’ll pay him for it.”
“What’s the letter about?”
“Wait just a minute.” Callie eavesdropped. After a moment she said, “My goodness, Jake! Her granddaughter has had twins! There’s great rejoicing over this event, which portends many good things for the family. But I don’t know who she’s writing to.”
“That’s great news,” Jake said. “Congratulations,” he said to the woman, who looked up at him. Jake raised two fingers in a peace or victory sign. The great-grandmother smiled back and bowed her head in acknowledgment. When they started to walk away, the woman called out something to them. Jake asked, “What did she say to us?”
