Warrior Gentlemen

The Cold III

Checking his pocket watch for the fifth time that night, Adam bit his lower lip in worry. It was almost ten thirty and his pet had not returned from the pharmacy. There were possibilities he did not wish to think of which were probable as they were frightening. In the best case scenario, Kyung had wandered off somewhere and was otherwise unharmed. A kind soul might pick him up, drop him off at the nearest police station, and his owner could go look for him there. In the worst case scenario, the child was already cold and naked in a ditch. Receiving an urgent order, he'd gone out in his white silk robes with his long hair unbound, uncovered. A man who sees him like this might mistake him for a working Chinawoman and be emboldened to do horrible things.

Damn it! A responsible master shouldn't have let his baby run unsupervised in the dark. To pass the time, Adam tried burying his nose in Austen's humorless novel. The English tutor got to the part where Lizzy first meets her ten thousand and could go no further. Tolerable, not handsome enough to tempt me...Kyung never pronounced this sentence to his teacher's satisfaction. The Asian said: Tteo-reh-re-beru. Ttaem mi. Corrected, he would write the proper reading in annotations, right above the treacherous word. The next time he read, he'd make the same mistake. Ttaem mi. Objectively, it'd be better if the kid doesn't come back. A struggling artist would have one less mouth to feed and one less mind to enlighten. Alas, life without him was unthinkable.

Regretting his negligence, the master flipped through his textbook as a distraction. An accomplished woman, says Mr Darcy, must improve her mind with extensive reading. Likewise with men. Before an accomplished man could complete a page of reading, a cough bubbled up from his bronchial tubes, erupted from his throat, and hacked him. The hacking - ack, ack, ack —-  tortured his poor throat which by this time was paper dry and thirsted constantly for water. It hurt to open his mouth for frigid air would rush in, dry out the back of his mouth, and make it itch. Each gulp of water calmed the itch for twenty minutes at the maximum. The pitcher and two kettles, trusty vessels of three gallons together, had all run out, drained by his futile ministrations. From head to toe, he felt like a deflated rag doll with the added pains of a worrying heart.

The boy....

Adam put down his paperback, drained but determined. Just as he was forcing himself onto wobbling legs, the attic door swung open. The boy, in his white long frock, strode in carrying a brown paper bag from the pharmacy and a yellow cloth bag from the cookshop. Seeing the yellow pouch in his pet's possession, Adam could not keep down a hacking cough. Without a word, he confiscated the thing, loosened its drawstrings, and tipped out the contents onto the mattress.

Two pounds and a shilling.

That was how much Miss Hee had earned Fan Tanning with the Chinese. The Fan Tan money had come in small denominations of pennies and shilling coins; a note wishing the receiver good health had been packed in with the unexpected fortune.

We wish you dragon horse spirit

And fast blessings of children

The rude message, written in Mr Shing's hand, made his treasured tenant cringe. Who the 'we' referred to was no mystery. For a year and a half, the ghost of a drowned sailor had dwelled here and so he knew:

On the night of the full moon, every Ching, Chong, Wing, and Wong in a two-mile radius is drawn, as though by a natural and irresistible force, to the Many Prosper Tower. A square in a square, many circles within. An expertly wielded bamboo stick, sweeping circles into rows of four. The thrill of risking all on a fair, four-point game; the promise of wealth without advantage or discipline. Such follies attract pig tails to toss their money and repulse the senses of wiser men. When 'Mr Yuen' first declined to join their national pastime, it was not out of snobbery. Later on, as he realised that these men had no concept of cleanliness, were illiterate in their own language, and spat everywhere, it was foolish not to feel superior. For eight months, he'd been grooming his Asian charge, hoping to turn him into a finer gentleman than the coolies outside. It seemed like he was affecting real progress in the child's education, and yet....