The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,114
about the wedding plans.”
( 42 )
The afternoon was all loose ends for Ava. Amanda left Man Wah just after one thirty after filling Ava’s head with details about the wedding. Ava had been to one other wedding in her life — her sister’s, which had been held, out of deference to Bruce, in a Unitarian church in Ottawa.
Amanda’s was going to be a different animal, as befitted the only child of a wealthy Hong Konger marrying the oldest son of one who was probably richer. A large bridal party, various gift registries, pre-wedding events, the Catholic cathedral, the Grand Hyatt. At first Ava found it distracting, but then it became mind-numbing and she found herself tuning out, until Amanda asked, “Is it possible you could come to Hong Kong a while before the wedding to help?”
“Was that implied when I said I would be maid of honour?”
“Sort of,” Amanda said, looking away from the table.
“Then I’ll try to organize myself to make that possible,” Ava said.
After saying goodbye to Amanda, she had returned to her room. The lunch had gone well in that it hadn’t generated any unexpected emotions, and she had been able to handle the call from her mother. Maybe she was getting a grip on herself. She thought about calling Maria and then put the notion aside. It was the middle of the night in Toronto. There was no one more tender, more vulnerable, more loving than Maria when she had just woken up, and Ava wasn’t sure how she would react to that.
Maria was Ava’s first real girlfriend. There had been relationships before, but none that she had ever thought of as permanent . . . Ava paused at the thought. She had never discussed the future with Maria.
She went to the desk, opened the computer, and began to write to Maria. I am sitting here in my hotel room and all I can think about is how much I miss you and how much I love you. When I get back to Toronto, we need to sit down and talk about us. Then she stopped. What did she actually mean by “talk about us”? Was she prepared to make a commitment to live together, to marry? She didn’t know. Then she imagined Maria reading those words and the meaning she might ascribe to them. She deleted the message and started a new one. I miss you and I love you. See you soon.
Ava walked over to the window and looked out at Victoria Harbour. The afternoon was going to drag and the room was beginning to feel like a prison. She phoned Uncle. Lourdes answered, her voice again filled with worry. “He is sleeping,” she said.
“Don’t bother him. I’m going over to the Kowloon side to shop, so if he wants to have dinner with me, tell him to call me on my cell.”
She left the hotel and walked to the Star Ferry terminal. At mid-afternoon it wasn’t that busy, and she was able to get a seat in the rear that gave her a clear view of the Hong Kong skyline. When she stood among the skyscrapers that lined the harbour, she felt overwhelmed, almost oppressed, by their size and number. As the ferry moved across the harbour, the density and variety of the buildings changed and they became less ominous. They ringed the harbour in a solid line, most of them soaring sixty storeys or more, reflecting the energy and ego of the new China, each built to draw one’s eye through clever combinations of steel and glass and colour. Ava thought of them as sentinels, projecting power, protecting the city.
The ferry berthed at Tsim Sha Tsui. She strolled over to the nearby Harbour City shopping centre and began to explore its more than seven hundred shops. Three hours later she re-emerged with a pair of Ferragamo shoes and two new Brooks Brothers shirts. It had been an afternoon of complete calm. The centre, like all the others in Hong Kong and the New Territories, was swamped with people on weekends, but on this Monday afternoon Ava had been the lone shopper in many stores, and she never felt hurried or crowded. Her sense of calm was enhanced by the fact that her phone didn’t ring. Twice she checked it to make sure it was on.
Near the Ocean Terminal part of Harbour City was a row of restaurants, including a McDonald’s and a congee shop that Ava and Uncle had eaten at many