White Tiger

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Freaked out?’

  ‘Ballet is in Central. You’ve worked out that I’m a bodyguard. Okay. I’ll take you down in the car and wait. You are not to take her anywhere without either me or Mr Chen along. It’s because of who her dad is.’

  ‘Who is he?’

  Leo smiled slightly. ‘Don’t take her on public transport. She must be driven by me or Mr Chen, and one of us must be with her at all times to guard her. I know it sounds strange, but her safety is paramount.’ ‘Who’s after her?’

  Leo pushed the papers over to me. ‘And that’s all. Oh,’ he said, suddenly remembering, ‘she goes out to Lo Wu on Saturday mornings to ride a pony. Any questions?’

  I studied the huge stack of papers on the table. ‘I thought he was paying me well. Now I think he’s not paying me enough.’

  ‘Don’t worry, as long as one of us is with you, you’ll be perfectly safe.’

  ‘Tell me, Leo.’

  ‘Right now, just settle in, get the feel for the job. I’ll tell you more later.’ ‘Promise?’

  He smiled. ‘Promise. Mr Chen teaches her Wu shu as well—he’ll tell you when they have a session. Drop her off in the training room, come back half an hour later…easy.’

  ‘What’s Wu shu?’

  ‘Martial arts. Kung fu. Ask her to show you; she’s really cute.’

  ‘It’s normal for children to learn off their parents, isn’t it?’

  ‘If there’s a family tradition, then it’s absolutely expected. He teaches me too.’

  ‘Mr Chen learnt from his father?’

  ‘What an interesting idea,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think so.’

  ‘Leo?’ I tapped on his bedroom door. ‘Come on in, Emma.’

  Leo sat at his desk reading a website on his computer. I raised the pile of books. ‘Someone left these on the desk in my room.’

  ‘Oh.’ He spun in his chair to face me. ‘The last nanny must have left them there. You can have them if you want.’

  ‘This one looks valuable,’ I said, indicating the large illustrated compendium of Chinese gods. He shrugged. ‘Keep ‘em.’

  I shrugged as well. ‘Okay. I’m interested in Chinese mythology, anyway. I go with my friend April when she has festival stuff to do, it’s really interesting.’

  That caught his attention. ‘You’re interested in the Chinese gods?’

  ‘Yeah.’ I raised the books again. ‘This is a good collection. I borrowed some of these from the library before.’

  He turned back to his computer. ‘Definitely keep them then. They’ll be useful.’

  ‘How come all the furniture’s new? Even though there was someone there before?’

  ‘Just is,’ Leo said.

  I shrugged again. ‘Whatever.’

  When I returned to my room I put the books on the desk and did an internet search on John Chen. It was a very common name and produced more than a million hits. When I narrowed it with his address, ‘One Black Road, Peak’, I found a news story in the English newspaper, a translation of an article in one of the Chinese tabloids. Apparently Mr Chen’s building was widely considered to be haunted because many people had seen dragons flying around the top floor. The reporter had asked the opinion of a number of local experts in the supernatural. Three said it was because the building was cursed; two said it was because the building had exceptionally good luck; and one said it was the spirit of a dragon that had died when the building was constructed.

  I shrugged, and opened the large compendium of Chinese gods. It was a good one; the introduction explained how Chinese mythology was a mishmash of Confucian precepts, Taoist alchemy and Buddhist philosophy. All three religions existed side by side in Chinese society (although Confucianism was widely regarded as a set of social rules rather than a true religion). Confucianism had sets of gods that were rather like saints: deified humans. Buddhism taught reincarnation and karma, and the eternal search for freedom of the soul and attainment of Nirvana; but there were also Buddhist gods who returned to Earth to help people attain Nirvana themselves.

  I found Taoism the most interesting. Taoism’s basic principle was similar to Buddhism, in the search for the Tao, or the Way, and attainment of Immortality, something similar to Nirvana. But Taoism also taught a variety of ways to gain Immortality, including physical and elemental alchemy and magic.

  I put the book down and returned to unpacking the last of my stuff from the boxes. I didn’t really have much to show for my four years in Hong Kong; I’d never had space to store very much in any of the places I’d lived. But it looked as though my life had taken a turn for the better: a tremendously attractive employer and his daughter, who was a delight to be with.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Later in the afternoon the door slammed and Simone yelled, ‘Is Emma here?’

  I went out to find them taking their shoes off at the front door, Simone and Mr Chen together. He hadn’t taken his sword, he’d left it on its hooks near the front door. Simone carefully put her little shoes in the shoe cupboard, then did the same for her father. He watched her with delight, then smiled at me. He looked right into my eyes, and for a split second those gorgeous dark eyes hypnotised me; then Simone charged to tackle me, nearly knocking me over.

  ‘Hello, Emma!’ she yelled. ‘Are you here all the time now?’

  I bent and picked her up, warm with pleasure at the thought of being full-time with her. ‘Yes, sweetheart, I’m all yours.’

  She threw her little arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek. Then she rested her forehead against mine and looked seriously into my eyes. ‘Good.’

  She wriggled out of my arms and took my hand. ‘Have you seen everything?’

  ‘Yes I have, Simone. Leo showed me around.’

  She screwed up her face. ‘I’m hungry.’

  ‘Dinner will be soon, Simone, don’t ruin your appetite,’ Mr Chen said from the doorway where he was watching us with amusement. ‘Did Leo tell you about meals, Miss Donahoe?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘When I am home at dinner time, we’ll have a family dinner together—me and Simone, you and Leo. We can discuss what we’ve done during the day. Is that acceptable?’

  ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Will I be able to go out occasionally? I’m supposed to be having dinner with some friends this evening. I usually go out on Saturday night.’

  ‘Of course. We don’t want to impinge too much on your private life. If you want to have dinner with someone outside, of course, go.’

  Louise didn’t bring a guy along for me for a change. She seemed to know every unattached male in Hong Kong and constantly set me up. Sometimes it worked and I would spend a few months in a pleasant casual relationship; sometimes it didn’t and I was left to my own devices. Either way suited me just fine. I couldn’t keep a relationship in Hong Kong for long anyway; people were always coming and going.

  We all drank far too much and stayed well past our welcome in the Thai restaurant in Wan Chai, but we continued to order food so the staff tolerated us.

  ‘You should go and see Miss Kwok,’ April said. ‘You should have talked to me if you were unhappy there. She’s very upset that you left.’

  ‘Of course she’s upset.’ I sipped my beer. ‘She’ll lose half the kids without me working there.’

  Louise’s blue eyes sparkled. ‘Don’t go back to working for that bitch, Emma. You can do better.’

  April was offended. ‘Don’t be mean. Miss Kwok is a nice person. She’s very rich; you should respect her.’

  ‘You’re just saying that because your fiancé’s related to her,’ Louise said. ‘She doesn’t even pay you to fix the computers at the kindergarten.’

  ‘How is Andy anyway?’ I said, attempting to change the subject.

  ‘The wedding’s all planned—we’ll have it with my family in Sydney.’ April was obviously happy. ‘I’m looking forward to it. My family is so pleased. Andy’s family are very wealthy. Very prestigious.’

  ‘God,’ Louise s
aid under her breath.

  ‘When is it?’ I tried to appear interested, but I agreed with Louise. Andy was always perfectly polite to us but there was something about him that I just didn’t like.

  ‘Next month.’ April leaned back and smiled with satisfaction. ‘It was easy to get a ceremony on a good day in Australia. The date will be very auspicious.’

  ‘God,’ Louise whispered again.

  April didn’t seem to hear her. ‘I’m going to the temple tomorrow to get the…’ she hesitated, searching for the English word, ‘blessing from the ancestors.’

  ‘Which temple?’ I said, interested.

  ‘The one in Pokfulam.’

  ‘The one in the cemetery?’ Louise said.

  April nodded.

  ‘Can I come along and have a look?’ I said. April shrugged. ‘Sure. Not much to see, though, just tablets. Ancestors and stuff.’ ‘What time?’

  ‘After yum cha. About twelve, one.’ ‘Can I meet you there?’

  April nodded, then leaned forward and rapped her fingertips on the table. ‘You should go back to Miss Kwok, Emma. She says she needs you at the kindergarten. Go ask the fortune sticks. They’ll tell you that you should stay with her.’

  ‘I already have a new job.’

  ‘But you only resigned yesterday,’ April said. ‘She moved out today,’ Louise said. ‘Fastest damn thing I’ve ever seen.’

  ‘You’ll be live-in?’ April said. ‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Live-in nanny.’

  ‘You can do better than that, Emma. Go back to Miss Kwok.’

  ‘You kidding?’ Louise said. ‘Nearly forty thousand a month, living with this gorgeous rich dude? I’d do it in a second.’

  ‘Strictly professional.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’

  ‘Forty thousand a month?’ April said, shocked. ‘Yep,’ Louise said.

  April scowled. ‘Everybody will think that you are more than nanny if he pays you that much.’ ‘I don’t care,’ I said.

  ‘Geez, you’re definitely the most cold-blooded chick I’ve ever met, Emma,’ Louise said. ‘Don’t even care.’

  ‘Don’t be mean,’ April said. ‘Emma is a lovely person.’

  I raised my beer. ‘Oh, no, April, I think I’m the most cold-blooded chick I’ve ever met too.’

  Louise snorted with amusement. ‘Sure you are. Look at how you adore his little girl. You have a soft spot for kids, Emma, don’t deny it.’

  ‘This one is special,’ I said, studying my beer. ‘She always worries about everybody else. She was really concerned that other children were missing out because I was spending all my time with her. She felt guilty about hogging me.’

  ‘Yeah, she’s a perfect little angel.’

  ‘In this case, I think she really is.’

  It was very late when I arrived back at the apartment building on the Peak. I hopped out of the taxi and it reversed away down the drive. I walked up to the gates, waved to the security guards and they opened the pedestrian gate for me.

  I saw the lights and turned. Another taxi pulled up. A smart-looking young European stepped out of the car, and Leo came out the other side. Leo stopped when he saw me, then walked up the drive to the gates.

  I held the gate open for them. Leo didn’t say anything, just nodded to me and went through.

  ‘Hi, I’m Emma, a friend of Leo’s,’ I said to the young man.

  ‘Hello.’ He held his hand out and I shook it. He was quite good-looking, tall, blond and slender. Looked to be in his mid-thirties, about the same age as Leo. He had a definite American accent. ‘Rob.’

  Leo walked in front of us and opened the ground-floor door to the lift lobby.

  We all entered the lift together.

  ‘You live here too?’ Rob said.

  ‘Yep, I’m the nanny.’

  Leo gazed at the numbers above the lift door without saying a word.

  ‘It’s really humid,’ Rob said.

  ‘Yeah. Summer’s here, all right.’

  ‘You been in Hong Kong long?’ Rob said.

  ‘About four years,’ I said. ‘But I never get used to the humidity in the summer.’

  ‘Are you English?’

  ‘No, Australian.’

  The lift doors opened and the three of us entered the lobby of the eleventh floor. Leo unlocked the gate and opened the front door for us. We went in and removed our shoes at the front entrance, then walked together down the hall towards the bedrooms.

  I stopped at my bedroom door. ‘Nice to meet you, Rob. ‘Night, Leo.’

  Rob nodded and smiled, and followed Leo to his room. Leo still didn’t say a word.

  I went into my room, carefully closed the door, and collapsed onto my bed laughing.

  ‘Emma?’

  I stopped laughing. I’d woken Simone.

  I opened the door between our bedrooms a crack. ‘Sorry, sweetheart. I woke you up.’

  Simone sat up in her bed, her face swollen with sleep and her honey-coloured hair tangled around her head. ‘Oh. Okay. Can you sit with me while I go back to sleep?’

  I slipped in and sat next to her on the bed. ‘Did you have a nightmare?’

  Simone slid under the covers and rolled onto her side. ‘Leo brought his boyfriend home again,’ she said. ‘He’s funny.’

  I rubbed her back under the covers.

  ‘I’m glad he has someone to love,’ she said, her voice sleepy. ‘It makes him happy.’

  ‘I’m glad too,’ I said softly.

  ‘Bad people take away the people you love.’ She curled up into a ball. ‘I hate the bad people.’

  ‘I’m here,’ I said softly, at a loss. I wondered what had happened to her mother. All I knew was that she had died. I opened my mouth to ask and closed it again.

  Simone sighed under the covers. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no bad people? If nobody had to be scared of them any more? If Daddy didn’t have to stay here and get hurt all the time to look after me, if he could go back to his Mountain and be happy, like he used to? Before—’ She choked it off, then her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Before the bad people came. We had a lot of fun. He did lots of secret stuff all the time, and we laughed.’

  ‘What secret stuff?’

  ‘You have to ask Daddy. I’m not allowed to tell you.’ Her voice filled with her cheeky smile. ‘Both Leo and Daddy said I’m not allowed to tell you, so you have to ask. Ask them about the secret stuff, it’s really fun.’ Then her voice saddened again. ‘I just wish we could have the secret stuff, and all of us together again, and no more bad people…and…’

  She sighed and curled up tighter. ‘Ask Daddy. I’ll be okay now, Emma, you go to sleep. I’m sorry I made you come in. Go to sleep, and we’ll have fun tomorrow, you and me. I’m glad you came to look after me. We’ll have fun.’

  ‘Yes, we will,’ I said, still stroking the covers. ‘I can stay here until you fall asleep.’

  ‘Ask Daddy,’ she said, almost a whisper, then her breathing softened and deepened into sleep.

  A taxi pulled into the lay-by outside the temple the next afternoon and April stepped out holding a large plastic shopping bag. She saw me and waved. ‘What’s in the bag?’ I said.

  ‘Stuff for the ancestors. So they bless my marriage and make it good. I’ll put it in front of the tablets.’ ‘The ancestral tablets?’ She nodded a reply.

  I stopped at the front gate to the temple and grinned. The wrought-iron fence and gate had swastikas worked into the metalwork. They were the reverse direction from the Nazi swastika, but still recognisable, picked out in red paint against the black fence.

  I pointed at one. ‘In the West, that’s a symbol of Nazi Germany and sort of…’ I searched for the word. ‘Bad.’

  April looked at the fence, bewildered. ‘What is?’ I outlined the swastika on the gate with my finger. ‘This symbol.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s just good luck.’

  ‘Do you know anything about the Nazi regime in Germany? Hitler?’

 
She hesitated, thinking, then said, ‘Hitler was a great European General, right? He conquered most of Europe.’

  I suppressed the laugh. ‘That’s one way of describing him. He tried to kill a whole race of people.’

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t know anything about that. We didn’t do much European history in school.’

  ‘Didn’t you go to school in Australia?’

  ‘No, I went to Australia to study IT at university, then got citizenship, then took my parents out there after Tiananmen.’

  She pressed the intercom button next to the gate and it unlocked for us. We went inside.

  The temple sat on top of the Pokfulam hill, overlooking the steeply terraced cemetery that led down to the sea below us. A few highrises were scattered at the base of the hill, mostly inhabited by expatriates who didn’t care about the bad fung shui of living near the cemetery.

  April led me past the main hall and towards the steps down to the tablet rooms.

  ‘What’s in the main hall?’ I said, pointing towards three huge statues inside.

  ‘The Three Big Gods,’ April said. ‘You know, the gods in charge of everything.’

  ‘This is a Taoist temple, right?’

  She hesitated for a moment, then said, ‘Just a temple.’

  ‘But the Three Big Gods are Taoist?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ April said. ‘They’re just the big Gods, but they’re different from the Buddha, so I suppose they are.’ She moved closer and whispered, ‘It’s all just old people’s superstition anyway, but it’s important to worship the ancestors, otherwise they get mad at you and you get bad luck. And I want good luck for my marriage.’

  We went down the steep steps to the tablet rooms at the back of the temple. Dark green and brown mosaic tiles covered the floor and walls, with a bare painted concrete ceiling. A family sat on grimy vinyl couches to one side, folding squares of gold paper into the shape of ancient gold bars and stuffing them into paper sacks.

  ‘Funeral,’ April whispered, and passed the people without glancing at them again.