Water Lily (17 page)

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She would seek out the two men who were fighting. Not that she was so attracted to one of them—she barely saw their faces—but
Nanao would want to cheek that neither was seriously hurt, that they were not intending to take their quarrel further. Now
that she thought about it, so would Runa.

She stepped out of the bathroom, into the narrow corridor that she was tired of seeing. She looked up and there they were,
right in front of her. The two men had changed their clothes and were wearing identical soft white T-shirts with jeans. Their
faces were bruised and bloodied. One had a black eye and a swollen lip. The other had a gash down his cheek. If it weren’t
for the specks of dried blood hanging off, Runa thought, the wound would almost be attractive.

“Hello.” She stood right in front of them. They stopped and regarded her with surprise.

“Oh. It’s you. Hello.” The one with the gash smiled, then winced. His eyes were large, black, and shiny. Runa was re-minded
of some kind of insect.

“I was worried about you.”

“Were you? Oh, our fight. Don’t worry about that. It was nothing. I’ve got a bottle of sake in my cabin that was supposed
to be a present for my uncle in China, but we’ve decided to drink it ourselves. This place is so boring, I don’t think I can
last two more days. How do people stand it? Can you imagine going on a cruise and being stuck on a boat for a week or more?
No way. Would you care to join us for a drink?”

“Thanks.” She was fascinated.

“I’m Sam. He’s Shin. I’m half-Japanese and half-Chinese. But he’s completely Japanese.”

“I see.”

“Come on then. Let’s have a drink.”

She followed them along the corridor. Already she was for-getting why she was with them. She had recognized them by their
bruises but those marks seemed to be fading by the second. At any rate, there she was, falling asleep on her feet. Why was
Sam dong all the talking? She wondered why he had an English name.

Sam opened the door. There were two bunks so Runa assumed the pair were sharing a cabin, but it seemed Shin was a visitor
too.

“It’s very nice,” Shin said. “I
wish I
could have afforded a cabin.” His expression when he spoke was droopy, pathetic, but when he turned quiet his features set
into rough crags, like a face carved into a mountain or cliff.

“Here we are.” Sam took a bottle of sake from a bag on the floor. “Aren’t there a couple of glasses in the bathroom?” He looked
at Shin with impatience. “Go on and find them, then.”

Shin, stood, slouching like a teenager, and went to check. He returned with two glasses then went out into the corridor.

Runa remembered the fight and wondered about their relationship.

“Are you related?”

“No. Just friends.” He shrugged as though the friendship were something that couldn’t be helped. He smiled pleasantly at Runa.
Normally she would take this opportunity of being alone with him to flirt a little and see if there was a possibility of knowing
him better but she was being Nanao and Nanao would sit politely and not say too much and probably not drink too much sake.

Shin returned with a paper cup. He poured sake into it and the two glasses. He held the paper cup out to Sam who snorted and
told him to keep the crappy one for himself. Shin poured himself an extra measure and drank it sulkily. Runa tried to start
a conversation.

“I’ve never been to China before.” She thought, if she got on with these men, perhaps she could ask them for help, tell them
what had happened to her.

“I have. I’ve got some relatives there. Mind you, I’ve only met them once, so really I’m a tourist. Shin’s coming with me
for fun.”

She wondered which of them would be having fun. She turned to Shin and asked, “It’s your first visit, then?”

Sam answered for him. “Yes. He can’t speak any Chinese so I’ll be doing all the work. I’ll probably have to pay for every-thing,
too, since he doesn’t earn any money.”

“What do you do?”

Sam allowed Shin to answer. “I’m a student. It’s my final year.”

“He’s at the university in Yokohama that I graduated from two years ago. We were in the baseball team together. I was the
captain.”

Shin spoke. “I teach, too, in my spare time.”

“Do you?”

Sam burst out laughing. He rolled around on the bunk making a noise like a barking dog. Shin’s expression darkened but he
said nothing. Sam finally calmed down, wiping his eyes and whimpering.

“Tell her what you teach.”

Shin rubbed his neck. “I teach aerobics at the local gym.”

Sam spluttered. “Imagine. Jumping up and down with all those women in leotards.”

Shin’s hand moved up to the side of his chin, covered a faint patch of acne.

“I’ve tried it.” Runa smiled at Shin. “It’s much harder than it looks. You’d have to be fit to teach it.”

“You do have to be fit.” Shin nodded appreciatively and his face disappeared behind the paper cup.

“You wouldn’t catch me teaching aerobics.” Sam had stretched out with his legs wide apart and his arms behind his head.

Runa watched as he stared at the wall. He was miles away but not in a daze, as she would be. His pupils were darting from
side to side as if, whatever he was thinking, it was fast and absorbing. He might be having a conversation in his head.

Shin drank up his sake. Runa took the bottle and poured more for him.

“Don’t give him all of it,” Sam snapped and sat up to measure the amount in Shin’s cup.

Runa laughed. “Sorry.”

Shin took the bottle from her hand and filled up her glass then added a splash to Sam’s. She wondered if she would man-age
to have a conversation with them that didn’t involve the humiliation of Shin. She was curious to know what had sparked their
fight.

“The sake is good.”

“It’s not my favorite kind.” Sam was lying back on the bed, sipping slowly.

“I like it.” Shin shuffled on the other bunk to get comfort-able. Sam kicked him.

“No one asked you.”

“I wasn’t answering anyone. I was just saying.”

Runa tried again. “I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do in China. I’ve got a friend in Shanghai. I wonder if I’ll be
able to find her.”

“You’ve got her address?”

“I’ve got it, but I don’t know how to find the street. Do you know Shanghai well?”

She took Ping’s address from her pocket.

“No. But I know a bit. Show me.” Sam took the paper, unfolded it. “That can’t be it.”

“It is. What’s wrong with it?”

“That’s not a home address. It’s the name of a hotel.” “Are you sure?”

“Definitely. That’s what it says. Have you mixed it up with another piece of paper?”

“No. This is it. And it’s her handwriting.”

“Maybe she’s staying at this hotel?”

“But she wrote this seven years ago.”

“Her family run a hotel?”

“No. I’m sure they don’t.”

“Oh dear. You really must have got something wrong. Do you have her phone number?”

“Yes, but—”

“Well then, all you need to do is give her a call and find out where she is. Shanghai’s a big city but there you go, Eriko.”
“Eriko?”

“Is that not your name? What did you say your name was?”

“I don’t think I did. My name is Nanao.”

Runa was about to explain that she had already tried the telephone number when she noticed a figure in the doorway. It was
the man who wanted to make her speak English.

She didn’t pay much attention to him at first. She was trying to absorb the news that Ping had given her a false address.
She did have a faint memory of Ping mentioning a hotel. Had she said something about staying in one for a few days before
re-turning to her family. Or was Runa’s mind inventing this now? But when Sam and Shin introduced themselves to the man, she
took a closer look. He seemed shocked to see her there. His mouth opened wide and, because his nose was large and sharp, the
effect was of a beak. Runa was reminded of some leggy bird, a heron.

“Hello, all.” He entered, tentatively. “I’m in this cabin, too.”

She saw how nervous he was introducing himself to his roommate. Sam’s English was good. She hoped the heron would leave soon
because she didn’t want to keep pretending she didn’t speak much English. She wished she had never decided to be Nanao. It
wasn’t going to help her and gave her too much to think about. She would finish her sake and leave. It didn’t taste right
in a toothbrush glass anyway.

“Hello there Nanao,” he said, as if she were a little girl.

“Oh. Hello.” She talked in a voice that was more breath than muscle. It made her sound a little more like her sister.

He sat on his bunk. Shin moved to the floor. Ralph picked something off the blanket—a magazine or catalog with English on
the front—and flipped it quickly over, concealing the English. Runa had noticed the magazine but had taken no notice of its
title. On the back though, were sentences in several East Asian languages. Perhaps Ralph thought that the Chinese, Thai, and
Korean characters were just pretty patterns and that if he couldn’t understand them, no one else would be able to.

The top one was Japanese and it said,
Oriental Brides for English Gentlemen. Interviews and Mail Order
. Runa looked away. She wanted to laugh and she wanted to hit him. Now she wondered if he had been flirting with her before.
When he was promising to teach her English, was he making a move? Did he think she might marry him? Surely not. Ralph glanced
at her just as she was looking at him. Their eyes caught for a second and she knew from the shine in his that she was his
target. She shivered. Before, she had thought that the heron was a sweet old man but now she found him a little disturbing.

“I think I’m going for a nap. Drinking during the day, you know …”

She must get away from him. She needed to think about Ping, why the address was wrong. It was a problem that she had to solve
before they reached Shanghai. There was no time to deal with this man, his strange book or whatever it was, and his English
lessons.

“Would you like me to walk you back to your cabin?”

“No, thank you.” She must remember to keep her English basic.

“It’s no trouble.” He was on his feet and was holding the door open for her. “Mustn’t leave a lady wandering around on her
own.

He followed her into the corridor and padded along just behind.

She yawned. “I’ve very tired.”

“Were you all right in there?”

“Yes, fine.” She yawned again, tried to sound bored as well as tired.

“Of course, I’m sure you were having a nice time. I was just concerned, you know, about a woman being in a room with two men
she doesn’t know.”

Runa didn’t answer.

He raised the volume and spoke slowly. “I said, I worried about you. In there. With two men.”

They went down a flight of stairs and Runa found the door to her room. He was still right behind her. She wanted to turn and
scream at him but she walked steadily and said nothing. Nanao would not tell him to get lost, he would just know. She hoped
there would be other people in the room.

There were clothes, books, and shoes all over the tatami and shelves, but there were no people. A silky pink negligee was
spread over the space next to Runa’s. She felt she ought to re-member the woman it belonged to, but she didn’t.

She pointed to her own futon.

“I sleep here,” she said and wished instantly that she hadn’t. He was standing close behind her, not touching but hovering.
He was thin, gangly and looked far taller than he actually was. His legs were about ten centimeters too long for his body.
His arms almost reached his knees. And he looked sick. She couldn’t say exactly how, but his skin was an odd color and had
a clammy, congealed quality. He smelled of baby soap or shampoo.

“Very cozy. You’ll have a nice sleep here. Now is very quiet.

” “Yes. I hope so.”

He pushed the mat with his fingertips. “Is this what they call tatami? I’ve never seen it before. Is it nice to sleep on?”

“Yes. It’s soft.”

“How lovely.” He chuckles. “The traditional ways are the best, aren’t they? There’s really no need for big bulky beds when
you think about it. But what about the other people in here? It’s not mixed, is it? I wouldn’t want to think there were men
sleeping in here, too.”

“No. Only women.” She wished she could tell him other-wise, just to see his face.

She thought for a second of the man that she and Ping had beaten up, the pain on his face, the bewilderment in his piggy features
as he staggered, lost on his own doorstep. How she had hated him but also how deeply she pitied him. She didn’t understand
it but she had the same painful mixture of feelings now for Ralph. He swayed from one foot to the other, wrinkling his nose.
His pink eyes watered. at kind of woman would want him for a husband? Even using catalogs, you had to have something to offer,
surely. But she knew the answer. The kind of woman whose only desire was a ticket to another country. A woman who had little
going for her at home, who, perhaps, was being chased by danger. Runa sat on the edge of the tatami. This was too much. It
was as if someone—Ping?—had sent the heron to her as a joke solution to her problem.

A joke, but nonetheless a possible solution.

She looked up at his tearful, irritated eyes and smiled right into them. She let him see her perfect white teeth, her soft
dimples. There was a flush of excitement and confusion in his face. She broadened her smile, just a touch, until she knew
she had him. This was so easy; she could do it in her sleep.

T
he cabin felt different. Last night Ralph hadn’t heard his cabin-mate come in, had no idea who he was. Now he knew. His name
was Sam. He spoke good English, he had an odd relationship with his odd friend, and he knew Nanao. All of that made him a
strong presence up there on the top bunk. Ralph was finding it hard to relax and it was far too early to sleep.

It had been upsetting to find Nanao in the cabin with those two hooligans, as if they were all friends. He wondered if she
had known them before the fight—it would explain why she tried to stop them—but he thought not. She should have had more sense
than to hang around with strangers who were clearly volatile. Just because they were all the same nationality didn’t mean
they needed to form a clique and sit around drinking together like lifelong chums.