to visit his family.”
“So, no criminal activity?”
“Nothing on record.”
“I guess I’m going to be visiting Ho Chi Minh.”
“If you do, you will come through Hong Kong?”
“Of course.”
“It will be good to see you,” Uncle said.
He sounds sentimental, she thought, and that’s not like him. “You too,” she replied, wondering what exactly was going on in his head. “But before I book anything, could you get confirmation for me that Lam is still there? You mentioned his brother’s house . . .”
“He is there, in the house. Our people saw him puttering around the garden.”
“How did they know it was him?
“Ava, they have his passport photo.”
“Of course,” she said, feeling silly. “They didn’t talk to him, did they?”
“Do not worry. They did not approach him.”
“So that settles it. I’ll try to leave tonight. I’ll catch the Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong and connect from there.”
“Don’t book anything to Ho Chi Minh until late morning or early afternoon. That way we can have breakfast before you leave.”
“I’ll do that, and I’ll email you my flight information once I have it.”
“It is good to have you back,” he said.
“I’ll see you in Hong Kong,” she said, ending the call.
I’m going back to work, she thought.
( 8 )
Ava slept fitfully, her father back in her dreams and her half-brother Michael lingering at the edges. They were in some big city in the United States, staying in a complex of offices and factories and floors of hotel rooms all intermingled, and they had to get to the airport. Her father sent her to get their bags while he checked out. She got lost in a warren of corridors, madly taking elevator after elevator as time ticked away. Doors opened onto rooms filled with conveyor belts, other rooms crammed with desks and office workers who thought she was crazy when she demanded to know where the entrance to the hotel was. As their departure time drew closer, her panic increased. That was when Michael appeared, in an atrium two floors above her, yelling at her to join him. Afraid to try the elevators, she took the stairs. But when she had climbed the two flights, there was no exit door. In fact there was no door at all.
She woke with a start and glanced quickly at her bedside clock. It was just past seven, and she was glad to get out of bed, thinking it odd that the dream, with its recurring theme of a lost father and a distant brother, should come back to her on the second night she was in the city. Up north she had slept like a stone.
Ava went to the door to retrieve her newspaper and then made herself an instant coffee. She sat at the table by the window and read with a bit more urgency than she had the day before. She had other things to do now.
After showering, dressing, and drinking two more cups of coffee, she went through her clothes three times before finally choosing two pairs of slacks, a short skirt, four dress shirts, and two pairs of shoes. She placed them on her bed and then added her travel toilet kit, bras, panties, three T-shirts, running shoes, shorts, and her Adidas nylon jacket and training pants. I’m going to need a real suitcase if I take all this stuff, she thought as she looked down at the piles. Two shirts, the skirt, and a pair of shoes went back into the closet. If she wore the runners and the Adidas outfit, she’d get everything else into her Shanghai Tang leather carry-on.
When she’d finished packing, she sat down in the kitchen and picked up the phone. In rapid succession she called Maria, Mimi, and her sister, Marian, and told them she’d taken a job and was leaving the country for at least a few days. None of them seemed surprised. Marian said, “I was wondering how long it would take for you to get back at it.” Mimi told her to stay in touch. And Maria, who Ava had anticipated would feel bereft, just said, “That woman at the church?” Ava felt slightly put out by their lack of concern, until she realized that none of them knew the soul-searching she’d been doing the past few months. They thought that it was business as usual, and that meant Ava getting on a plane to somewhere.
She called her mother last. It was still a bit early for Jennie and her voice was heavy with sleep.