In Denial (10 page)

‘
That’s as may be but -’

‘
There are no buts. The Colombo Dragon is here to stay.’

Joseph became pensive. ‘What is the collective noun for more than one dragon?’

Christina looked at him. ‘I’ve … I’ve no idea. A coven? A brand? I’ve really no idea. Why?’

‘
Because that’s what you’ll have soon. You’ll have a collection of Colombo Dragons.’

‘
They’ll be as much yours, Joseph, as they will be mine.’

*  *  *

And now there was this smooth stranger who could make that dream come true, or so she thought.

Was it too soon?

Filling one restaurant was down to the quality of the chefs and waiters she employed; more than one would move the business on to a different plain.

‘
It’s not a contradiction, Christina. I use the words so that they are complementary. Expansion of the idea and consolidation of what’s within. I thought by combining Sri Lankan and Chinese cuisines you’d finish up with nothing more than Thai food. Don’t get me wrong. I love Thai cuisine but what you have done is so, so different. It’s a tremendous success already, so now is the time to show it to the whole of Kowloon and Hong Kong.’ He smiled. ‘There’s a well known Chinese proverb -
If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people
. You have sown the rice, let me help you plant the trees and educate the people.’

‘
These are words, and words do not make a business.’

‘
But let me try a few more words on you and these are from the mouth of Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and her physiology of taste: the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.’ He paused as he saw Christina’s eyes brighten. ‘And, Christina, you have certainly introduced not one, not two, but many new dishes.’

‘
Do you really think the time is right? It’s not too early?’

‘
I never gamble, Christina. I only bet on certainties.’

*  *  *

Five years later, when Joseph’s promises, and therefore Christina’s dreams, had already come true; there were now five Colombo Dragons in Kowloon, five on Hong Kong Island, three in Macao and three each planned for Tokyo and Hiroshima.

According to Peter Walker the next stage would be Europe and then the United States of America.

*  *  *

‘
Daddy,’ Lucinda said at her father’s shoulder, ‘Patrick is being horrible.’

Joseph shook his mind back to the present. ‘And why is that, angel?’

‘
He’s calling Adam names.’

‘
Is he?’ Whereas Lucinda and Adam were inseparable, Patrick never accepted Adam’s presence. Joseph and Christina hoped the two boys would become the best of friends, albeit there were two years between them, but the friendship had not materialised. When the three children got home from school, Patrick always took himself off to his bedroom to do his homework and then, after eating, would go back to his room to read. On the occasions when they watched television or played a game as a family, the rivalry between the two boys was always evident, though tempered.

‘
Yes, he’s saying awful things.’

‘
So why is Adam over there with the others, laughing?’ Christina asked, pleased that Lucinda had distracted them from talking about Peter Walker. Yes, Peter was a flirt and he’d continued to be rather obvious with what he wanted, but for Joseph to feel jealous was suggesting that he didn’t trust her.

‘
Because he just shrugs. He won’t even try to get back at him.’ Lucinda’s lips were set in the inevitable pout.

‘
That’s because he ignores such things, as perhaps you should do,’ her mother suggested.

‘
I can’t. It’s not just now, it’s all the time.’

‘
May I suggest you try, Lucinda. If Adam can, then you can.’

Lucinda glared at her mother, then looked at her father for support. But when she didn’t get it, the pout became more prominent and she turned away.

‘
She has a point,’ Joseph said as he watched his daughter rejoin the group.

‘
It’s just three kids growing up,’ Christina told him. ‘I can see why Patrick feels the way he does. Adam and Lucinda haven’t exactly cut him off but they do tend to ignore him.’

‘
At their ages they are merely establishing relationships. They’re only ten for God’s sake. Kids of their age do that sort of thing.’

Christina looked surprised. ‘Since when have you been a child psychologist? It’s all right at the moment but it’s what happens in a few years time that might just cause a little more concern.’

‘
If you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, that will never happen. They are brother and sister, it -’

‘…
would be perfectly natural. Adam has been our son for five years, but he’s still adopted.’

‘
Even so, it wouldn’t be right.’ Joseph looked sideways at his wife. ‘What are we going to do about Patrick?’

She wanted to ask,
What am I going to do about Patrick?
but instead she said, ‘It will sort itself out, don’t worry.’ She sighed. ‘Now I must go and throw some salad into a bowl. It’s time everybody had something to eat.’

Another four years passed since Lucinda and Adam celebrated their tenth birthday.

Both had now moved on to King George V School in Homantin and were in Year Nine, with Patrick already in Year Eleven. It was 1986 and in the July of that year the Yong household was in the throes of change but not all were aware of the changes that were about to affect the rest of all of their lives.

The first was in many ways a discovery rather than a change because the change had occurred over six months earlier. It was fortunate also that it was Christina who did the discovering because Joseph’s words of four years earlier, although not repeated, had stayed with her for a very long time. He hadn’t been blind to what might occur but he had, for his own reasons, dismissed it as an option. Christina wasn’t any more open-minded than her husband but she was more of a realist. It was evident from the day Adam moved in with them that the future wasn’t going to follow a course that perhaps Joseph had mapped out.

*  *  *

In May 1985 the Joint Declaration signed in Peking five months earlier was ratified and Hong Kong’s fate was sealed. In many people’s opinion the Hong Kong Chinese, who were told they would be consulted, and others who knew no home but Hong Kong, had been lied to. In a short twelve years Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories would be handed over lock, stock and barrel to China. Joseph may not have seen how his son’s and daughter’s relationship was developing into something totally unacceptable but he had seen the writing on the wall in connection with Hong Kong’s future. He’d hoped beyond hope that the British would see sense. They didn’t, so on Wednesday 5th July 1986, having given the British as long as he dared, he queued along with many others outside Government House hoping to plan for a new home for his family in England.

At the time he had no idea it would be another three years before his wish would be granted.

*  *  *

This particular Wednesday morning Christina Yong did not feel well when she woke up; in fact she hadn’t felt well for nearly a week. At just after three o’clock in the afternoon she could not take any more and went home. She drove to their house above Clear Water Bay in a daze of pain and nausea.

It was bed for her the moment she got in. For a change the rest of the family would have to fend for themselves.

As she kicked off her shoes at the front door she only half-noticed the other shoes lying neatly side-by-side in the hallway. It was Ah Ho’s day off so Christina would be on her own. She padded across the marble floor to the stairs feeling as though even death had to be better than the way she felt.

As she walked down the corridor off the main landing towards the bedroom she heard giggling coming from Lucinda’s room. Thinking she’d imagined it she only slowed down but when she heard the giggling again she stopped.

She looked at her watch.

None of the children should be at home. It was only four o’clock and they were never home on a Tuesday before five at the earliest. Closing her eyes she sighed but then retraced her steps back to her daughter’s bedroom door.

She listened.

She could hear the murmur of voices.

Opening the door she got as far as saying ‘What -?’ before her brain reluctantly accepted what she was looking at.

Lucinda’s back was towards her and she was completely naked. The long mane of black shiny hair could not even begin to disguise what she was doing.

Everything then seemed to happen in slow motion.

As Lucinda turned her head and saw her mother, her hand shot to her mouth as she attempted to stifle a scream. At the same time Adam looked round Lucinda, his eyes wide as he realised they had been discovered.

Time stood still as none of them knew what they should do next.

Christina could not, did not want to, believe what she was witnessing. Her naked fourteen-year old daughter was straddled across her naked fourteen-year old son’s thighs. She didn’t want either of them to move because what she would have to witness next was so unthinkable, she would question her own sanity.

*  *  *

Adam’s mind rushed from one corner to another.

His eyes darted from his mother’s disbelieving stare to his sister’s nudity, her head twisted away from him, her hands still on his chest, her nails biting into his skin. Her body, which had been perspiring, now felt icy cold. She looked neither at her mother nor at Adam. He knew that she didn’t know whether to feel stupid, ludicrous or just very, very embarrassed and ashamed.

He closed his eyes, wishing he could turn the clock back thirty minutes.

Their science teacher had been off sick for a few days and for that afternoon’s double period the headmaster was unable to find a stand-in. The whole class, with accompanying delight, was given the rest of the afternoon off. He and Lucinda came home and knowing it was Ah Ho’s day off they had, after Lucinda had dared him, started with an innocent skinny dip.

They had swum naked together before when they’d been able to snatch a few minutes alone, but the circumstances had never allowed them to progress any further, not in the house.

On this occasion, though, things were different.

They saw the note from their father to say it was unlikely he would be home before six o’clock; their mother was never home before seven on a Tuesday; and Patrick was staying overnight with a friend in Tsimshatsui.

Adam and Lucinda thought they had at least two hours to share with each other.

It wasn’t their first time: that had happened a few months earlier when they went down to the beach one evening ostensibly for a walk. They found a secluded spot both agreeing it was time for them to move their relationship on.

In their eyes, their ages were irrelevant.

They loved each other and that’s what two people who were in love did. They had seen each other naked on many occasions. They had exchanged what they believed was their first real kiss after their tenth birthday party and then they’d started exploring each other at every opportunity. Waiting as long as they had was excruciatingly frustrating, or so they believed, but at fourteen and on the day they went to the beach, they ceased to be inquisitive children and became, in their opinion, consenting adults.

As they walked back from the beach hand in hand - willing to risk the fact that they might be seen - they knew what they had done would be wrong in everybody else’s eyes, but for them it was the culmination of their childhood and the start of an adult relationship.

They had watched each other grow; they had seen how their bodies developed; they had touched, investigated and reacted; they believed what they did was their right.

In their young minds they believed the law and society had no right to tell them that what they were doing was wrong.

Their bodies told them differently. They both wanted it to happen and it had happened. They made sure - and they swore they would always make sure - that they would never bring disgrace on the family, but they also swore that when the opportunity arose they would share each other again and again.

What their mother was witnessing was only their third time.

*  *  *

‘
Both of you get dressed,’ Christina said slowly, surprised that she could find her voice, ‘and I will see you downstairs in five minutes.’ She took a few steps back and closed the bedroom door as gently as she could. She had no idea whether this was the first time it had happened. It could have been the tenth, twentieth, fiftieth time. Even if she knew, it would not make it any less unacceptable.