“You yidianr duoxin?” I ask. A little paranoid?
She giggles. “Oh, you speak Mandarin. Yes, he maybe you yidian duoxin. Very good with building things, though.”
“Okay.” So maybe Russell is just a nut and I haven’t stepped in some big pile of shit. And if Jason is off his meds, who knows what kind of joint delusion they could have cooked up between them?
“I don’t know Russell,” I say. “But I heard he’s a friend of David’s. I’m a friend of David’s family. He worked here for a while, right?”
She nods, a small, smooth movement, like her neck’s been oiled.
“Do you know where he is?”
She tilts her head to the side. A hitch. Shakes it no.
There’s something she’s not saying, I’m pretty sure.
“Look, like I’ve told everyone else, I’m a friend of his brother. I can show you pictures. We just want to make sure he’s okay.”
“I really don’t know,” she says, and that part I believe.
“What about Daisy?”
“Daisy?”
“Your friend,” I say, and I’m starting to get a little pissed off at this innocent-pixie routine. “She’s David’s girlfriend, right? They left together?”
She tilts her head the other way. Actually puts a finger on her chin. “I think so, maybe.”
“Come on,” I say. “You know if they left together or not.”
“Okay. They left together.”
“How long ago?”
“Maybe… almost two months?”
“Are they together now?”
“Maybe not.”
“Would she know where he is?”
She gives a fractional shrug. “Don’t know.”
“Do you know where she is?”
Alice takes a moment to toy with the Hello Kitty charm dangling from her cell phone.
“I don’t know why I should tell you,” she finally says.
Well, shit, how am I supposed to answer that? “Because… it won’t hurt anything? Because David’s brother isn’t healthy, and knowing that David’s okay would make him happy?”
At that point a couple of Westerners come in and take seats close by-a man and a woman, my age, except all healthy and glowing, wearing yoga pants and groovy eco-spiritual T-shirts.
I switch to Mandarin. “I won’t cause Daisy a problem.”
“It’s not so simple,” she mutters.
“Okay, so the complicated part, what is it?”
“Who told you about David and Daisy?” she asks abruptly.
Now it’s my turn to hesitate. “Some people in Yangshuo.”
“Was it Kobe?” she demands in a rush. “Did he talk to you?”
And that’s when I put it together.
“You really like Kobe,” I say.
She blushes. “We’re friends.”
“But he thinks Daisy is a better friend.”
“Daisy is foolish. She’s not the right girl for him.”
“And you think you are.”
She looks up at me, her dark eyes flashing. “We want the same things. To build something, here, in China. We could have our own guesthouse, our own bar, but he is so stupid about Daisy. He can’t please her. She wants a car, a house, he can’t give her those things. So she runs off with David. And Kobe still wants her back.”
I’m thinking, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble here, but there’s no way David… Jason… can give her those things either.
“And if she stays away, maybe you have a chance with Kobe,” I say.
All this is making me think, after years of obsessing over a guy who didn’t want me anymore, that it’s a fucking huge relief to be single and not give a shit.
“You say you’re her friend, but you don’t want her to come back. I think you’re not a very good friend.”
Now her eyes brim with tears. “Daisy is my friend,” she says quietly. “I want her to be happy.”
“Wo mingbai,” I say. I get it. “But if she wants to come back, she comes back. I talk to her, I don’t talk to her, it doesn’t matter.”
She bats around the Hello Kitty charm some more.
“If you really are her friend, you want the best for her, right?” I ask. Twisting the Hello Kitty, as it were.
She lets out a sigh, and then she tells me.
CHAPTER TEN
THERE’S NO WAY I’M going to be able to sell Mom and Andy on a vacation where I need to go next.
We’re having dinner at a rooftop Italian restaurant in a prosperous village in the shadow of Yueliangshan-Moon Mountain-about a half hour by taxi from the Ancient Village Artist Retreat. I’m burned out on beer fish, so I figure why not ravioli and red wine for a change?
This was one of the first villages in the area to start farmers’ restaurants and take advantage of the tourist trade. Now a lot of the farmers have made some money, which they show off by adding upper stories to their skinny cement homes, a third and then a fourth or fifth that no one actually lives in.
Andy sips the wine. Wrinkles his forehead.
“Do you like it?” my mom asks him, a little anxiously.
“I…” He turns to me. “Ni zenme shuo, ‘wo buxiguan’?” How do you say…?
“You’re not used to it,” I tell him.
“Yes. I am not used to it.” He takes another sip. “But I think I can learn to like.”
He and my mom smile at each other. He lifts his wineglass. My mom blushes and raises hers. They clink.
This all makes what I need to say next so much easier.
“I’ve got some bad news. I have to leave Yangshuo. For business.”
“Oh, no!” my mom exclaims. “Really? Can’t it wait?”
“I wish… but… it’s kind of time-sensitive. So…”
“Where must you go?” Andy asks.
“Um… near Shantou.”
“Shantou.” Andy frowns. “But that is… factory area. Not very much art.”
“True,” I say. “But there’s this… emerging artist working there who’s doing some really cool stuff. With… recycled electronics. And stuff. And…”
I really should have thought of a cover story before I started drinking wine.
“If I go there now, I have a chance to represent him. If I wait, someone else might sign him. And I hear that he’s really good.”
My mom sighs. “I know that you need to take care of your business. But…”
“I can try to catch up with you later,” I say. “I don’t know how much time you have, Andy. Before you have to go back to Beijing.”
Andy takes in a deep breath as he appears to consider. “Maybe three days.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” my mom says.
Truth is, I can’t tell whether she’s upset or relieved. She sounds upset, but maybe she’d just as soon have Andy to herself for a few days, without me in the way.
Well, fine, Mom, I think. Here’s your chance. Have a blast with Anal Andy. Go ahead, do what you’re gonna do.
She always does.
I push that out of my mind. I have a mission, you know? I’ve got something to do. I’m going to find Jason because I told Dog I’d try, and any problems I have when compared to Dog’s seem pretty fucking trivial.
Even if he does have a wife who loves him. And kids he adores. I mean, so what if I don’t have any of that?
I can walk. I’ve got two arms and two legs. I can talk without having to fight my own brain to come up with the words. I can work, and I have a good job. I get to represent Lao Zhang’s art, which, even though I still don’t know that much about art, I know it’s good art, and important, and means something.
Except of course that I can’t sell it and the DSD is on my ass waiting for me to fuck something up. To lead them to Lao Zhang. To arrest me if they want to prove their point. That they have the power and I’m nothing.
Okay, so let’s not think about that right now. Let’s think about the mission. Operation Find Jason.
“Honey, you okay?” my mom asks.
“Sure. Fine.” I raise my arm to call the waitress. “Fuwuyuan! Zai lai yi ping hong putaojiu.” I’ll have some more wine.