by James Church
Chapter Four
When I got to the street, Li’s car came around the corner and stopped in front of me. “Don’t argue,” he said. “Get in.”
We drove for a few minutes before Li said anything else. “I don’t suppose you’re interested in knowing about Major Kim.” He rolled down his window. “You notice how stuffy it gets in a car this time of year?”
“No, I’m not interested in the major. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Clear enough?”
We turned into the hotel parking lot. A big blue car with two men in the front and all the windows open was waiting not far from the hotel entrance. One of the men jumped out and opened the rear door. A woman emerged from the restaurant attached to the hotel, walked straight to the car, and got in. The car pulled away in a hurry.
“I don’t suppose you’re interested in that, either.” Li watched the car disappear.
“Should I be?”
“The lady didn’t catch your eye? Very fashionable, don’t you think? Quite a looker.”
“Fashion was never my style. Expensive shoes, expensive coat, expensive scarf, that’s what it looked like from here. Everything looks expensive on a body like that.”
“So, who do you think wears expensive clothes these days?”
“Could be someone with money.” I got out of the car.
“What’s your hurry, Inspector? No way he’s going to let you go home. Incidentally, I hope you locked the front door on your mountain retreat. They took the guard off the road this morning.”
I got back in the car. “All right, you win. Who is Kim? I’m interested, after all. And you seem to know something you’re dying to tell me.”
“Wrong. I’m not dying for anyone, not anymore. That’s done with.”
“Who is Kim?”
“I’m not sure about everything, even though I’m in and out of his office. They don’t want us to know too much. He appeared about six months ago. After that, there were a lot of meetings up top, cars racing around, aircraft coming in at odd hours, street closings for high-speed convoys. I got pulled off my normal assignment and put into his group, or at least the group that sits up whenever he calls. We do a lot of bowing and scraping.”
“He’s a major. Since when do we cringe at majors?”
“Funny, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, funny. He acts like he owns the place. This morning I met him in an office I never knew existed. You must know what it was before he got there. It wasn’t a Ministry building; we don’t have that many chairs.” I opened my window. “The air smells different in autumn, don’t you think?”
“I hadn’t noticed. I just breathe the stuff. And I intend to keep breathing.” He gave me a sharp look.
“Noble goal,” I said. The conversation was over. If he knew anything else, he was going to wait to tell me. Maybe it was actually everything he knew, though I had a feeling he had something he was saving. Everyone was saving something. The lady in the market, the bellboy, maybe even the ferret. “What about the lady?” I said.
“Which one?”
“The one with the nice shoes we were talking about.”
“Forget you saw her; forget you saw her come out of that restaurant and get into that car.”
“What car? I think you need to have your medication adjusted.”
He laughed. “You think I’m edgy, you should see the people in the Minister’s office.” He laughed again, only this time it came out more like dead leaves in the wind. Dead tree limbs, dead leaves-laughs weren’t what they used to be. We used to laugh a lot in the office. It helped sometimes.
“Give me a call,” I said, though I don’t think he heard me. His eyes were on the rearview mirror, watching a black car creep into the parking lot. As soon as I closed the door, he gunned the motor and was gone. The black car didn’t follow, though I was pretty sure the driver said something to the person in the back before he got out and looked at me. He was missing most of his left ear.
Strange, I thought. Nice-looking woman like that. It seems a shame to pretend she was never there.
When I went back into the hotel, the man with the vacant look was leaning against one of the pillars. He had on a red-checked shirt, but it didn’t make any difference. As he shifted his gaze to me, everything around him turned gray; foghorns sounded in the distance; seabirds lost their way and plunged into the ocean. I nodded at him, and it appeared that he blinked, like the lamp in a lighthouse that swings around every minute to keep ships off the rocks.
2
Things seemed jumpy, but not in the normal way. People had always looked over their shoulders, and no one thought twice about it. That’s why your neck swivels, we used to say, to see who’s following you. This was different.
“You’ve been away a long time,” Li said when we met in a noodle place the next day.
“A long time,” I said, “but not forever. I can still tell the difference between a routine twitch and something more serious.”
“You’re imagining things. Relax.”
Only I wasn’t imagining anything. Li was nervous; each time I’d met him over the past few days, he’d become more antsy. Kim was nervous, too. That was harder to spot. From the few times I’d seen him so far, he was good at cloaking himself in an unflappable air. People who were scared didn’t look too closely at the cloak. But Kim didn’t scare me, so I could afford to watch him carefully.
I’d been out of my hotel a couple of times to get my mental bearings. Normal people walking along the street weren’t on edge; whatever the problem was, it hadn’t come down to their level. People had a certain stride, a certain way of moving when they sensed a big storm coming. I’d patrolled my sector long enough to spot that move, that odd swing of the shoulders. I wasn’t seeing anything like that, and it wasn’t just the particular part of town around my hotel. All the barometers were holding steady at street level, that’s how it seemed. The problem-whatever it was-had so far been kept over the horizon, as if one circle was wound tight and wasn’t interested in letting anyone else know. That usually meant things were going to get a lot worse.
“If you think you’re fooling me,” I said, “forget it. You’re about to jump out of your skin. When you saw that lady heading for the car yesterday afternoon, I thought you were going to have a stroke.”
“She’s a looker, that’s all.”
“Sure, and I’m the King of Siam. You have secrets? That’s fine with me. I don’t like secrets anymore. They ruin the digestion.”
“I told you before. I’ll tell you again, O. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
“Yes-and I can’t even guess. How about you tell me a little bit of what I don’t know. Maybe it would help me keep my balance.”
Li stared at the table.
“You want another bowl?” I said.
He shook his head. “You said you owed me a meal. We’ll let this one count.” An alarm went off, and he looked at his watch.
“You in a hurry?”
“Unlike you, Inspector, I have no choice.” He pressed a button on the watch and the alarm stopped. “It’s Swiss.” He held it up for me to see. “I don’t use all the dials, but it doesn’t matter. I like to look at it sometimes. It makes me think I’m someone else.”
I decided to sit at the table and relax for a while after he left. The restaurant was on a corner not far from the subway. That meant a steady stream of people passed by. Watching people relaxed me. It also kept me alert. That was the only thing I missed all those years living on the mountain, watching people. I like trees, but they don’t move much.
Years ago, in Pakistan, I had learned something special about observing people. Pakistan was not something I wanted to remember. I was young and had been on an operation there that went badly. After racing away through the crowds and the dust and the awful heat, I had rested in the shade of a walnut tree, sweating from exertion and sick with fear.
“You are not well,” a quavering voice came from the other side of the tree.
“That disturbs the harmony of this place.”
“How about water?” I said. “Anything around here?”
“Sit in the shade a moment.”
A minute later, a gnarled old man slid over beside me. He held out several leaves. “These will slake your thirst,” he said. “They’ll also calm you down.”
I didn’t bother to ask what the leaves were. My mood was such that if they killed me, so much the better. Just then, a woman walked by, the pale scarf over her head flowing behind.
“Did you see?” asked the gnarled man.
The shade had deepened; it had become a being separate from the tree, something different from a mere shadow. I could feel myself relaxing.
“There is a trail of existence that follows everyone, threads of life that people spin out and leave behind wherever they go,” said the old man. “Threads cross all the time. Threads cross and cross again-time and place, if in no other way-even when the people appear unaware of each other. That girl who walked by, did you see the thread?”
“You have a few more of those leaves?”
“You’ve had enough. Listen to me.” His voice became musical. “No one pays much attention to others around them unless the overlap happens again. Sometimes, people miss each other only by a few seconds, yet they are connected. Sometimes place is the reason for the overlap, but time is not. Sometimes the overlap is purposeful, other times happenstance. The threads are there, no matter. When they glow, they are one destiny.” He put his hand on my forehead. “Cooler now?”
I sat at the restaurant table, looking out the window. The threads stretched in all directions, shimmering in the afternoon sun, as unthreatening and deeply peaceful as the longest sleep. Maybe the threads were reality and people were merely the vessels containing their existence. A woman walked by. Something made me pay attention. She was dressed plainly, no fancy coat, no fancy shoes, no fancy scarf. I watched the thread. It glowed slightly as it crossed the one Li had left behind.
Chapter Five
When the mountain rumbled, it was usually on Thursdays around noon. Living alone, you pick up patterns pretty quickly. At first I thought it might be a passing train. The tracks were a distance away, but when I hiked to the top of my mountain, a couple of hundred meters above my house, I could see the rail line that went all the way to the Amnok River. There were rarely trains on Thursday, but the rumbling went on anyway.
I wasn’t supposed to see anyone without permission, but it didn’t take long for the farmers in a nearby village to notice the smoke from my cooking fire and come up to find out what was going on. There were four of them. They watched from a distance until I waved them over.
“Welcome,” I said.
They nodded.
“May I offer you something to drink? You must be thirsty after the climb.”
They shuffled their feet and talked among themselves.
“Perhaps you could clear up something for me,” I said. “The rumbling, the way the mountain shakes-do you know what it is?”
The tallest of the four looked at a group of big pine trees that stood in front of my house. “It’s the blasting,” he said slowly. “They are building dams, supposed to stop the flooding we get in the summer, and maybe give us some electricity to run the pumps. The army boys are doing it.” He pointed vaguely to the north. “On a clear day, you might spot it from up here when trucks and whatnot aren’t raising a lot of dust. Take good care of those trees.” He leaned back in order to see all the way to the top. “If you don’t, someone will chop them down, sure as I’m standing here.”
The other three looked anxious to go.
“It was good of you to come,” I said. “But you’ll have to leave. This mountain is badly off-limits.”
One of the four laughed. He was short, red-brown from the sun, a little better dressed than the others, and quicker in his gestures. “I’m the manager of the farm at the foot of this mountain, and that means-in case you didn’t know-this mountain is technically my responsibility. I have to make sure no one is breaking regulations.” He looked at me with an expression so serious that anyone would have believed he was a serious man. “I can’t at this point say that you are; I can’t say that you aren’t.”
The others began to walk back toward the road, as if they had heard the speech before. “Also, we all know that this mountain has been here a lot longer than any of us, longer than any dynasty, longer than any king.”
I nodded. He nodded. And the four of them went away.
That first spring, before planting season, the manager returned by himself. “You made it through the winter,” he said. His face was still red-brown from the sun.
“I did.”
“The others thought you might not. I said you would.”
“You were right. That’s why you’re in charge, I guess.”
“You could be low on food about now.”
“I’m doing fine.”
“That old man in the truck won’t be able to get up the road for a few more weeks. If it gets bad enough, come down to the farm. We have a little extra this year. I hear there will be more coming from over there.” He nodded toward the south. “Next week, we’re having our spring music show. You like music?”
“What’s not to like?”
“It’s an accordion group. Six of them, very spirited. We won the county competition last year.”
“Is that so? They must be good.”
Accordion music was a Russian plot, the old men in our village used to say after a few drinks. It was something the Russians left behind to drive us crazy when it dawned on them that we weren’t going to be like Eastern Europeans and lick their boots. When I was in the army, headquarters sent down squads of accordionists. It lowered morale alarmingly, though no one would admit it. Even the Ministry had its own accordion troupe that performed overseas every other year. They told me they needed someone to stand on the stage with his hat pushed back and a big grin on his face while the troupe played. The sound of even a single accordion set my teeth on edge. I told them if I had to smile during that much noise I’d murder someone.
During my first year on the mountain, in the spring after the snow had melted and when the road was passable again for a fancy car, my brother drove up to see me. My brother was now very prominent in the party. His name was listed high in the ranks at important occasions; he sat solemnly on the podium among other old men, gave speeches on holidays to schoolchildren. Despite all this, he must have known he had failed; he was not and would never be part of the inner group. If he had done something wrong, I couldn’t figure out what it was. He seemed the perfect halberd. For someone like my brother, it was worse than nettlesome to face this knowledge every day. It ate away at him and boiled up the anger that he had carried inside ever since we were young.
When his car stopped in the clearing next to the pine trees, he said something to his driver and they both laughed. Then my brother came into the house. I could see that he was shocked.
“This is where you live? Is this a joke?”
“It’s pleasant,” I said.
“I thought they had provided you a place to live. I know dogs with better shelters than this. It doesn’t even deserve to be called a shack.”
“It is not a shack. It’s sturdy. I built it myself.”
My brother ran his hands along the walls; he reached up and touched the ceiling, which was barely two meters from the ground. “You built this?” He pulled himself together. “This is a disgrace. Why didn’t someone tell me things were so bad? Why didn’t that fool of a doctor put it in one of his chatty reports? I can help get you out of here. It will mean moving a few files and changing a few orders.” He pursed his lips. “This isn’t the best time for that, but it can be done.”
I said that things were fine as they were and I planned to stay.
“Really?” The shock in his voice gave way to sarcasm. “I forgot; you must be in ecstasy, just you and these trees.”
“I have my reasons for being h
ere.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. They were planning to send you to a camp. The only reason you’re here is because I convinced them to put you on this hill instead. They assured me you’d have a house.”
“Am I supposed to be grateful? I don’t need your help. I never did. We agreed we were not brothers anymore, or have you forgotten?”
He wasn’t listening. “The longer you stay, the more they will be convinced that you deserve what you got. Maybe they’ll be right.”
“The longer I stay, the more I realize I don’t want to go back to that madness.”
This stopped the conversation.
“Never wise with your words,” my brother said finally. “Lucky for you, no one heard it but me.”
“Are we done?” I went to the door. “Because if we are, I’m sure you have things to do, memos to write, all of those things that the Center has to have or the world will grind to a halt.”
“As always,” he said, “you are your own worst enemy. Have it your way; stay up here until you rot.” He never came back.
2
After the first load of lumber was used up, I decided to test the limits and phone for more. It wasn’t clear who was on the other end of the line.
“Seasoned lumber,” I said. “Galvanized nails, otherwise they rust. And wood screws-try to get the ones with the flat heads. That way I can countersink them. Wait, I also need sandpaper. Two sheets of fine, one medium, and one coarse.”
“That’s it? Nothing else?” The voice on the other end sounded surprised. “Screws and sandpaper?”
“Can you get them?”
“Sure I can get them. I’m a magician. I wave my magic wand and everyone gets everything they want. Last week, a man called from another place-I can’t say where-and asked for fresh fruit. He said his gums were bleeding. I’m still looking for fruit. Screws will be no problem.”
About two months later, the old man in the old truck was back with a shipment of boards, a box of nails mixed with screws of various sizes and types, and three or four torn sheets of sandpaper.
