The Scottish Banker of Surabaya

( 52 )

She met Sonny in the hotel lobby at one thirty. She wore a plain white shirt, black slacks, low-heeled pumps, and no makeup. The simple clothing fitted her mood. She still wore her Cartier watch and jade cufflinks, however, and her hair was fastened with the ivory chignon pin. This was Hong Kong, after all. She knew the jewellery signified money, and money meant influence. If the hospital staff knew she had guanxi, then they might not be so reluctant to waive visiting-hour rules.

Sonny dropped her off at the main entrance to R Block, on Gascoigne Road. She stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes, looking up at it and gathering herself. Queen Elizabeth was the most massive hospital Ava had ever seen. The main building was thirteen storeys high, and it was surrounded by others even higher, including R Block. Now that she was actually there, some of the bravado that had fuelled her since meeting Sonny at the airport began to ebb. What’s the worst thing that could happen? she thought. They won’t let me see him until five thirty?

Ava walked through the front doors into an immense lobby that was almost as busy as an MTR station. There was an information desk directly ahead, with a line of about ten people waiting for help. She saw a hospital directory off to the left and went to it. She had no idea exactly what she was looking for, but when saw “Cancer Patient Resource Centre” on the sixth floor, she figured it was as good a place to start as anywhere.

She rode the elevator with two people in wheelchairs who were surrounded by what looked like anxious family members. Ava hated hospitals — not for what they did, but simply for the pain and suffering they represented. She had never had a prolonged stay in one herself. Even the bullet in her thigh hadn’t kept her in the private hospital in Macau for more than a day. Marian had been less lucky. She had had her tonsils removed and then her appendix, and Jennie had insisted on dragging Ava along to visit her sister. It had been more than awkward, with Ava hopping up and down on one leg, hardly able to look at the patient.

The patient resource centre was as crowded as the lobby had been. Ava went to the reception desk and got in line. When she finally reached the desk, she found herself looking down at a small, chubby woman with dark skin and white teeth. “How can I help you today?” she asked in a Filipino accent.

“My name is Ava Lee. I’m here to see my grandfather, Chow Tung. I’ve just flown in from Canada and came directly to the hospital. I don’t know what room he’s in.”

The woman typed the name into her computer. “Yes, Mr. Chow is here, but visiting hours aren’t until five thirty.”

“I’m a family member.”

“There are no family members listed in his profile,” the woman said as she checked her screen.

“Probably because he wasn’t expecting me to fly here so soon.”

“There are no members listed.”

“Please . . . Margarita,” Ava said, reading the woman’s nametag. “I’m all the family he has left in this world and I’ve flown all the way from Canada to see him. Please don’t make me go back to my hotel. Please don’t make me wait.”

She returned to her computer. “He was scheduled to have brachytherapy this morning at nine. He could still be feeling the side effects.”

“I thought he was getting radiation therapy,” Ava said.

“Don’t be alarmed. Brachytherapy is just a specialized form of radiation therapy.”

“Just?”

The woman looked up at Ava. “I’m not trying to scare you.”

“I don’t know enough about this kind of thing.”

“No one really does until it’s necessary.”

Ava looked around the resource centre and said, “I feel so bad for all these people.”

The woman nodded. “Your grandfather may not be completely alert.”

“I need to see him. Even that would be enough.”

She looked back at her screen. “He’s in the patient ward on the seventh floor.”

“Can I go there?”

“I’ll have to clear it with the nursing station first.”

“Please.”

The woman pointed to a vacant chair by the wall. “You wait over there.”

Ava sat, her eyes fixed on the woman, who made one phone call, then quickly hung up and began to speak with the person who’d been in line behind Ava. She waited, trying not to stare at the other people in the resource centre, trying not to imagine why they were there.

After five minutes she began to steel herself to the idea of just leaving the area and taking the elevator to the seventh floor. Then the woman picked up the phone again, spoke rapidly to someone, and motioned to her. Ava walked back to the desk.

“Okay, you can go upstairs, but you need to check in with the nursing station.”

Ava exited the elevator on the seventh floor. An arrow on the wall directed her to the station. She walked down the hallway past open room doors, the only person not in some kind of uniform, feeling like a trespasser. The nursing station was bursting with activity; it took Ava a few minutes to get someone’s attention. When she did, the nurse said, “Why are you here?”

“I was sent here by Margarita from the resource centre downstairs. She spoke to someone here by phone and said it was okay for me to come. I’m Chow Tung’s granddaughter.”

“Wait a minute,” the nurse said.

She disappeared behind a wall in the middle of the station, and when she re-emerged, another nurse was with her. “You’re here to see Mr. Chow?”

“I am.”

The nurse was stout and grey-haired and had two red stripes on her uniform lapel. She looked Ava up and down. “This is unusual.”

“I know, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’ve just flown in from Canada. I had no idea he was so ill until yesterday.”

The senior nurse came through a gate in the counter. “He’s down at the end of the ward. I’ll walk you there,” she said.

“How is he feeling?” Ava asked.

“He’s just had a round of therapy, so he’ll be feeling a bit beat-up, but other than that he’s an ideal patient. Never complains.”

“How many rounds has he had?”

“This was his fourth. The others were in the day-patient clinic.”

“Why is he staying in hospital this time?”

“I can’t discuss that. You’ll have to speak to him or his doctor.”

“I understand.”

The nurse stopped at a closed door. “This is his room.” She looked at her watch. “I’m going to give you ten minutes. Don’t make me come and get you, and check in with me before you leave.”

“I will.”

“And, Ms. Lee, don’t expect to be able to do this again.”

Ava nodded.

The nurse opened the door. Uncle lay on his back, his eyes closed. His face was pale and drawn; he had lines under his eyes and beside his mouth that seemed to have sprung from nowhere. His mouth was slightly open, the skin under his chin hanging loose. Ava gasped. She had never seen him look so old. She had never once imagined him to be so frail.

The nurse walked to the bed and checked the intravenous tube. As she did, he turned his head towards them and opened his eyes. When he saw Ava, he closed them again but didn’t move his head.

“He’s all yours,” the nurse said.

There was a chair in the corner of the room. Ava lifted it and carried it next to the bed. She sat and put her hand on top of his. She then lowered her head onto the bed, her eyes tightly shut. She invoked St. Jude in a whisper, and as she did she felt tears trickle from the corners of her eyes. She began to sob.

“I will not be able to bear it if you cry,” Uncle whispered.

“I can’t bear the thought of your being here,” she said, raising her head to look at him.

“When I spoke to you this morning, I thought, She does not believe my story about a friend from Shanghai,” he said, his eyes still closed.

“I wanted to, but other thoughts kept intruding.”

“We know each other too well.”

“How can that be a bad thing?”

He opened his eyes and she saw they were gleaming. Her spirits rose.

“So your flight was on time?”

“Of course.”

“Did Sonny get you?”

“Yes.”

“He has been following me, he and that woman of his. He thinks I did not notice.”

“He thought you might have.”

“Well, I give him credit for that.”

“He’s just worried. We all are.”

“Who are ‘we’?”

“Him, me, Lourdes.”

“Anyone else?”

“No.”

“I want to keep it that way.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“Did they tell you what I have, the nurses?”

Ava stroked the back of his hand. The skin was soft and clear, his nails manicured. “No, but I know you’ve been getting brachytherapy, and I’ve been hearing about and seeing the stomach problems you’ve been having. When you threw up blood last week on the street . . . Well, I assumed the worst.”

“It started about six months ago, and fool that I am, I ignored it for three months. And then I could not let it go anymore.”

“Stomach cancer?”

“Yes.”

“What caused it?”

“Smoking, they think.”

“But you’re still smoking.”

“Yes. I went to a gweilo doctor named Parker when I first became aware of my symptoms. I figured he would not know who I was, and so there would be no gossip. When he gave me the diagnosis, I asked him if I should stop. He said, ‘Why? It won’t reverse the damage. And after all these years, the withdrawal would only cause you extra stress.’”

“But they’re treating the cancer.”

“There is not much they can do,” he said, his eyes closing again as if the words pained him. “It is into my liver and pancreas. They cannot perform surgery, and even if they could, at my age it would not be wise. They offered me chemotherapy, but after Parker described it to me I decided to pass. So I am taking the radiation treatment. It buys me some time.”

“Is there some treatment available anywhere else, like the United States?”

He placed his free hand on top of hers and squeezed. “Ava, I am eighty-four years old. Why would I want to become a desperate man now, when I have spent my entire life being in control? No, this is the process I have chosen, and I am going to see it through my way. I value my dignity — maybe even too much — and I have a reputation that I intend to uphold. So Ava, I am telling you, as much I respect you, do not try to do anything else, and please keep the rest of the world at bay. I understand about Sonny and Lourdes, and I also know them well enough to know they would not dare talk about me to anyone else. You are not quite so afraid of me.”

“Amanda gets married in January,” Ava said softly.

“What does that mean?”

“She needs me here, so I’ll be staying in Hong Kong until then at the least.”

“I am sure she will appreciate that.”

“When I’m not working on the wedding, I can spend time with you. I should be able to visit every day. We can meet in the mornings for jook.”

“I do not intend to live only on congee,” he said, a tiny smile playing on his lips.

“You know what I mean.”

“I think I do.” He opened his eyes and gazed at her.

She felt a flutter of panic, a fear of what she would see in them. But she saw the same resolute eyes she’d been looking into for more than ten years.

“There are some things I need to discuss with you,” he said. “If we do it now, then we never need to discuss these things again, do we.”

“Do we have to now?”

“It would give me some peace. I have been thinking about these things for some time now.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“You know I have no family left.”

“Yes.”

“And I have been in Hong Kong for so many years that my ties to Wuhan are more wishful thinking than real.”

Ava nodded.

“I met with a lawyer two months ago and did my will. I named you as executor.”

“Uncle, I do not want to talk about your will,” Ava said.

“Perhaps not, but I do. And then, as I said, it will be done, and it will be one less thing for me to worry about.”

“Uncle, please —”

“I am going to leave ten million Hong Kong for Lourdes, and I am also going to give her the apartment. If she wants to sell it and move back to the Philippines and live like a millionaire, she can do that. I am also leaving ten million to Uncle Fong. He did not save enough for his retirement and he does not have any children to care for him. So I am giving him the ten million and asking you to look in on him from time to time to make sure he is okay. He has been a good friend.”

Ava said, “Yes, he has been a good friend.”

“Sonny is a different matter,” Uncle said hesitantly. “I am leaving him the car and some money as well, but we need to do more than that for him.”

“Like what?”

“You must hire him.”

“Uncle, I have no need —”

“Listen to me, Ava. Sonny is not a man who can be left to his own devices. He needs structure; he needs to feel that he belongs to something, to someone. If he is on his own he will get into trouble, and the kind of trouble Sonny can get into is not the kind that will earn him just a slap on the wrist . . . Ava, no one could be more loyal.”

“I know that, Uncle, but I have no plans to live in Hong Kong.”

“That is not what I hear from Wong May Ling.”

“May Ling is saying what?” Ava said.

“Actually, it was the husband, Changxing, who has been telling me things. He says May Ling has a plan to start up a business with you, and she has put aside a hundred million U.S. dollars to fund it. He is not happy about it but he will not oppose her, because he is afraid of losing her.”

“I know nothing about any of this.”

“Now you do.”

“Uncle, I have no plans to live in Hong Kong, so I don’t know what you expect me to do about Sonny.”

He shook his head. “Anything will do. Tell him he is working for you but you need him to look after that half-brother of yours, or you need him to chauffeur your father or Amanda Yee. Come up with something, anything. We need to keep Sonny occupied.”

“All right,” Ava said, knowing it was useless to argue. “But about May Ling — she’s never discussed any plans with me. As far as I’m concerned I have only one partner, and that’s you.”

“I know, but as I told you months and months ago, I am not going to be around forever, and May Ling is a powerful and very intelligent woman. And as you found out in Macau, she is a woman with guanxi . . . Ava, what will you do when I am gone? Take vacations?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You would make a strong team.”

“If she puts up a hundred million dollars, we won’t be a team. She’ll be the boss. I would never work with her unless we were on an equal footing.”

“Why is that not possible?”

“I don’t have a hundred million dollars, or anything close to it.”

“When I die, you will.”

Ava lowered her head, her teeth biting into her lip. “I can’t talk about your money.”

“You need to talk to Parker. He brings clarity to things,” Uncle said. “If I had gone to a Chinese doctor who knew me or had heard about me, he would have given me two bags of herbs and told me what he thought I wanted to hear. When I asked Parker what he thought I should do, he told me I was an old man who had incurable cancer and that I should get my affairs in order. I appreciated his honesty and I have taken his advice. So, like it or not, you are going to inherit the bulk of my estate. What you do with it is up to you. All I ask is that you look after Uncle Fong and keep Sonny out of trouble.”

Ava felt tears well in her eyes again. She wiped at them with her loose hand. “Uncle, I don’t want any of this to happen.”

“Neither do I, but here we are.”

She felt herself starting to come apart. The feeling of helplessness that had overcome her in Surabaya was back. This isn’t my life anymore, she thought. This has to be happening to someone else.

“Ms. Lee,” a voice called.

Ava thought she was hearing things.

“Ms. Lee, I gave you ten minutes and it’s up. You need to leave now.”

The nurse stood in the doorway, looking severe.

“I’m sorry. I lost track of time,” Ava said.

“You’re abusing our kindness.”

“I’m sorry,” Ava said, standing.

Uncle looked up at her with what she could only think of as contentment. “I am glad things are settled,” he said. “I was worried about how I was going to tell you. You have made it easier for me.”

“I’ll be back tonight.”

“At regular visiting hours,” the nurse said.

“At five thirty,” Ava said to Uncle.

“I am out of here tomorrow.”

“And I’ll be here to get you.”

“Ms. Lee . . .” the nurse said.

Ava bent over and kissed him on the forehead. “I love you,” she whispered.

She was walking towards the door when she heard him say her name. She stopped and turned. “Yes, Uncle?”

He was on his back, his eyes closed. “Nothing, my girl, nothing at all.”