by Gail Cleare
“I’m glad she didn’t screw things up for us today,” he said seriously. “But I get the feeling she’s not done trying.”
“Don’t worry about Lexi,” I reassured him. “She carries around a lot of bad karma for all the nasty things she does.”
“Yeah, I guess what goes around, comes around, right?” Rocco said. His mother had come up behind us and was listening.
“You talkin’ about that skinny woman with the bleached hair?” Josie asked, to the point as always. “Grouchy, isn’t she?”
“She just needs more fiber in her diet,” said Laurel, coming up to join us. She smiled innocently, and we all laughed.
“I guess we should schedule our next meeting for after I talk to the DBA,” I said. “What they say will probably affect the budget, so my numbers aren’t accurate anymore.”
Everyone agreed, so Rocco made the announcement and the merchants started to file out the door and back to their places of business. Sarah Bennett promised to call me soon with the date and time of my presentation to the DBA. Rocco and Josie said goodbye and headed across the street, the big man bending over to listen as she chattered away. John had vanished into the kitchen. Soon, Laurie and I were the only ones left in the room.
“So, what’s new?” she asked, with a speculating look at the big smile on my face.
“Guess who just moved in upstairs across the street?”
“Moved in? I can’t imagine.”
“It’s him,” I said, “He’s back!”
“Aha! Our wandering hero returns! Well, well, well!”
“Yes, I found him there when I got in this morning. And guess what else?”
Wisely, she waited for me to tell her. I did, explaining the whole situation. When I described his sudden decision to sell his house and move back to the U.S., she looked at me with a serious expression.
“Now you be careful, Em! Maybe there’s more to the story.”
“You mean, like, maybe he’s a spy or running from the law or something?”
I pretended to be serious, but she wasn’t pretending.
“I mean, like, maybe he wanted to leave something behind in London, or someone.”
Now, that was a thought. I had figured he was probably dating somebody over there, back when I hadn’t heard from him for so long.
“He did say something about getting rid of old baggage,” I mused.
“See?” Laurie said warningly. “Be careful! You don’t want to get too involved if he just split up with somebody. Rebound love doesn’t last long.”
I agreed to proceed with caution. I wondered how I could find out more about Tony Novak’s personal life, without seeming to intrude. I suspected that Mr. Paradis might know, if they were as close as it appeared. My employer had definitely encouraged my interest in his friend. He had said that Margaret would approve. That meant as far as the old man knew, there was nothing to hold us back from developing a relationship. But there might be things, or people, of which he was not aware. I tossed these ideas back and forth in my mind.
I waited for the walk light and crossed the intersection diagonally, thinking about what had happened with Lexi. It was clear to me that she felt totally justified in trying to ruin my plans. The action that I had taken in self-defense all those months ago, she regarded as an unwarranted attack. Even though I had behaved in a passive way, not engaging her in debate or putting up a fight. In her world, anything that inconvenienced or diminished her in any way was wrong, evil. She thought I had deliberately tried to hurt her business by leaving them in the lurch when some new clients were on the way over. I wondered who had finally cleaned the toilet that day. I could guarantee it wasn’t Lexi. But in any case, I doubted she sacrificed any art sales because of my unexpected absence.
It was ironic how things had turned out today. Lexi had tried to make us change the date of our event so we wouldn’t get any benefit from the DBA’s planned promotion, hoping our plans would fail and I would look stupid. But instead, now it looked like they were going to end up paying part of the tab and giving us some additional advertising power. Well, it served her right!
I realized that was only true from my point of view. In addition to the scales, Lady Justice holds a double-edged sword and it cuts with both sides. We all need to think very carefully before we decide that our views are perfectly justified, and our opponents are totally in the wrong. In fact, that is probably a very rare occurrence. Because every action has a reaction. You can never really be sure where people are coming from when they act negative or unpleasant. Sometimes they think they’re defending themselves. I hoped that I hadn’t inadvertently set something in motion that we would all regret when it came time to weigh the final outcome.
The Hanged Man
SURRENDER TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Description: A man hangs upside down by one foot, and appears quite comfortable. Rays surround his head, where amazing realizations are taking place.
Meaning: Deliberately attempting to achieve a higher consciousness, contemplation of universal truths, meditation.
When I returned to the shop, I found Siri serving tea to two elderly matrons dressed in floral print dresses who sat at one of the little tables in the back of the showroom. They were discussing birds and looking at a couple of framed Audubon prints, obviously under consideration for purchase, which Siri had displayed nearby on an easel.
“Yes it was, dear, it was a Great Blue Heron!” one of the ladies insisted triumphantly, speaking in a small quavering voice.
“No, dear, we saw the Great Blue when we went birding in North Carolina. You’ve forgotten!” the other piped up emphatically, trembling with vehemence.
The two frail, gray-haired women sipped their tea and bickered affectionately. They seemed to be having a wonderful time. Siri looked over at me and smiled, the picture of graceful self-control. She was always patient, always considerate, always polite, and she always seemed to be truly happy. She was a paragon. I yearned to be as composed and balanced as Siri. Today she was dressed in one of her saris, various shades of purple and blue. She looked like a water goddess, cool and deep.
“Hi Em!” she said in a bright voice. “Cup of jasmine tea?”
I accepted gratefully. The two bird ladies had fallen silent and were looking at me attentively. I drank tea and chatted with them for a few minutes. They were very talkative. We considered the Audubons, which were very nicely framed in gold. I mentioned the prices I had seen on the Internet for similar pieces. Looking at each other and nodding, the ladies both said, “We’ll take them!” We clinked teacups all around.
“Oh I do think Father would have approved of the expenditure, don’t you dear?”
“Oh yes, dear! He would have adored these prints.”
“They’ll look lovely in the breakfast nook, don’t you think?”
“Lovely, yes, or in the hall by the mirror, perhaps?”
“Well as long as Father would approve, it is his money after all.”
“Oh yes, it is. I think he would feel it is a good investment, you know. After all, you can’t go wrong with these collectible prints.”
“That is true, dear, very true.”
Each of the ladies was carrying a little black pocketbook, nearly identical, and they both pulled out reading glasses and wrote checks for exactly half the total due. They had different last names, but we learned that they were sisters. They had both been married and were now widows with grown children. The sisters lived together in the house where they had grown up. When their father died, he left it to them.
“We didn’t want to move in with any of the kids,” said Irene, the little one.
Her sister Rose nodded.
“Young families need their space, especially when the babies are growing,” she said.
“Anyhow, “ said Irene, “We like our independence!”
They looked at each other and chuckled mischievously. In their eighties, they still had plenty of joie de vivre. And they obviously adored one anothe
r. It was inspiring. After the upsetting scene across the street, I started to feel less anxious. Being near Siri was like a balm in itself. After saying goodbye to our new customers, we cleared off the tea table and brought the dirty dishes into the kitchen. I told Siri what had happened at the meeting. She looked at me with concern.
“Emily! This is the time for you to finally deal with your feelings about this woman! You see what happens when you allow things like this to drag on?”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked. “How can I deal with it? We just hate each other, apparently.”
“That is a terrible thing to say!” she cried, getting excited and waving her hands.
“Why is it so terrible?”
“Because if you accept this reality, if you allow this terrible negative emotional state to exist, then you bind it to you. It becomes a part of your existence. It attracts more negativity. You’ve got to abandon the hate, not embrace it.”
“How do I do that, though?”
Siri put her arms around me and held me.
“You will find the way, Em. You just need to think about it.”
“I don’t like the way I feel about her. And she…she attacked me!”
“She probably doesn’t like the way she feels about you, either.”
“I don’t know, she’s hard to understand. We’re so different, we would never react to things the same way.”
“Perhaps that is the key to understanding,” Siri suggested. I stared at her, thinking about what she had said.
“I’ll work on that,” I agreed. “I think you’re right!”
What if I could use my knowledge of Lexi’s character to somehow convince her that she didn’t really want to destroy me, after all? That would be an improvement. I was more than ready to let go of my side of it, now. I realized that until today, I hadn’t had an angry moment since I came to work on Market Street. My life had been filled with creativity, friendship and happiness. I had been feeling terrific—empowered, productive and successful. Siri was right, there wasn’t room or time in my life for this kind of trouble.
That evening, Mr. Paradis decided to celebrate the arrival of his new housemate by taking Tony and me out to dinner. I found out about this at closing time, when the two of them came down the front stairs and appeared in the doorway to the showroom, obviously dressed for an excursion. Tony had added a black leather jacket and running shoes to his jeans and T-shirt, and Henry wore a colorful Moroccan cap and vest over his habitual black sweats and slippers. It seemed we had reservations at Buddha, the restaurant owned by Mei’s family. The men stood side by side and looked at me appealingly.
“We will be honored if you would join us, Emily?” Henry said, on his best behavior.
“If you’re not busy tonight?” Tony added. “I hear the food is very good!”
I liked the fact that he didn’t assume I would automatically drop everything to go out with him on his first night back in town. I would probably have done so in a flash, if I had plans, which I did not, so it wasn’t an issue.
“I heard the same thing,” I said. “I met one of the owners recently. I’d love to, thank you!” My two dates looked pleased, and we all went outside together.
I locked up the shop and the three of us strolled down the sidewalk enjoying the balmy summer evening. Mr. Paradis walked along slowly with his hands clasped behind his back, surveying the neighborhood. I realized that I had no idea what he normally did in the evenings, though I suspected he didn’t get out much. There were usually signs to be found in the morning that he had cooked a meal and eaten it at the table in the sitting room. Tony walked along next to me, letting his hand bump lightly against mine every few steps.
“How was your day, Emily?” he asked.
“Eventful. Not very good, I guess. Challenging.”
“What happened?”
“I ran into my arch enemy at the meeting about our big neighborhood promotion. She tried to ruin the whole thing.”
“The art gallery woman?” Henry had been listening.
“Yes, how did you know that?” I asked him, surprised.
“Oh, believe me, I could tell she was no friend of yours, when she called.”
“She called? When?”
“She called me back, after I called her. Checking your references.”
“What did she say about me?” I was curious.
“Oh, not much,” my employer said, “I gathered she was not happy with your abrupt departure.”
He seemed unconcerned, while I was nonplussed to discover he had known all about it. It was embarrassing to me for some reason. I felt guilty.
“Don’t worry, my dear,” he said, patting my shoulder. “I could immediately tell from the way she spoke why you decided to leave!”
We arrived in front of the restaurant and I looked into the big windows as we approached the entrance. The interior was decorated in a warm red with black accents. A screen of live bamboo grew nearly to the ceiling and a long black-and-gray speckled granite sushi bar stretched along one side of the room. A young man wearing a neat white shirt and black pants met us at the door smiling, a stack of menus in his hands.
A moment later I saw Mei coming from the back of the restaurant, saying, “Hello! Emily! It’s so good to see you again!” She took the menus from the young man and he turned to seat another party as she led us inside. Mei brought us to a table near the open window where we settled down to sniff the delicious aromas that were emerging from the kitchen. I introduced Mei to my employer, who greeted her with compliments for the handsome décor. Then I introduced her to Tony Novak, who said something totally unintelligible that caused her to react with delight. I suddenly remembered that he spoke Chinese.
She uttered a cascade of melodious syllables in response, and said to me, “Your friend speaks very well! He’s nice!” She took our drink orders and headed back to the bar. We all perused the menu, enjoying a little breeze and watching the passersby on the sidewalk as we sat and talked.
Mei came back with the drinks and her sister, who was very happy to meet us. Then she brought her mother over to the table, a graceful elegant woman in her fifties who said hello to us in English, then quite a lot more to Tony in Chinese. He spoke with her at length. She seemed quite taken with him. Henry gave me an I-told-you-so look over the top of his menu. Apparently Henry spoke some Chinese too, presumably from his travels. He chimed in with a few words here and there.
Then Mei ducked into the kitchen and came out with her father, who greeted us enthusiastically. Tony stood up to shake his hand, so Henry did also. I just waved from the back of the table. I couldn’t understand a word any of them were saying, but it was a lively conversation. Eventually our hosts bowed and went back to their work, leaving us to study our menus again. About five minutes later, Mei appeared with plate of something that looked delicious.
“My father sends this appetizer to you,” she said, giving us each a small white plate. “We call it the Caterpillar. It is eel, rice and avocado. Very good!”
It looked like a caterpillar, too, covered with fuzzy hair made from toasted shredded coconut, with two slim carrot sticks for antennae. We thanked her and gave our orders, then shared the dish. It was delicious, mild and not fishy at all. The two men were adept at using their chopsticks to pick up chunks of food and dip it into the little bowls of sauce. I usually drop more on the table than I can get into my mouth, so I opted for a fork.
Mei and her family showered us with treats throughout our meal, ending with a warm banana dessert that was the perfect sweet finale. They were all very kind, and obviously thrilled to entertain someone who spoke their language. Tony and Henry had a marvelous time, remembering their travels together and the unusual dinners they had shared. I enjoyed watching them and listening, but held back somewhat, distracted by a slight headache.
As the three of us walked back up the sidewalk towards the shop, Tony repeated some of what Mei’s parents had been saying to him.
“Mr. S
un learned to cook in Peking, making the famous Peking Duck. That is the only place in the world where it is made. You know how it’s done? The ducks hang from hooks over a large cauldron of hot broth and secret herbs, which is scooped up and poured into the body cavity of the ducks, over and over again, for hours, to cook them from the inside out.”
“That seems like a lot of trouble,” I remarked.
Tony looked at me with shocked disapproval.
“But it tastes like nothing else, “ he said firmly. “It is the most tender, delicious duck in the world!”
“Oh I see!”
“A lot of trouble is worth it sometimes, Emily.”
“I suppose so.”
“Take now, for example.” He looked at me pointedly, and grinned.
“Oh? You’re suggesting that I am a lot of trouble?”
“Yes, but you’re worth it, aren’t you?”
“Ha! And wouldn’t you like to find out!”
“Yes, please,” he said simply. “That is my plan.”
“Oh? You have a plan, do you?” I asked, not sure whether to be annoyed, or flattered.
We had reached our destination, and Mr. Paradis began to climb up the stairs to the front door. He stopped and turned around to interrupt with a wave of his hand.
“Does the plan include delivering Emily safely home tonight, Tony, or should I call her a cab?” He peered down at us from the top step, a twinkle in his eye.
“Want to try out the Prius?” Tony dug the keys out of his pants pocket and dangled them in front of me invitingly. I reached out quickly and plucked them from his hand.
I thanked Mr. Paradis for the dinner, which had been magnificent and entertaining. Henry observed happily that we had received more food for free than what we had purchased. We all agreed that Mei’s family was charming and her father was an inspired chef. With a fond “Farewell!” and a wave, Mr. Paradis went inside the front door and closed it with a snap of the latch.
