White Tiger

door.
    ‘The medium-sized one,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Emma, there are some boxes of vegetable stock in the cupboard—could you get a couple out?’
    ‘Sure,’ I said, and went to the cupboard. The vegetable stock was on the middle shelf.
    I quickly checked down the bottom. There were about ten tins of expensive ‘cat food’ there—mostly pilchards, but some prawn and cuttlefish too. There was also a perfectly ordinary cat’s food bowl.
    I grabbed the stock and handed it to him. His eyes sparkled as he took it. ‘Now there should be ho fan in the fridge. Emma?’
    I went to fetch the noodles while he poured the stock into the saucepan and turned on the heat.
    ‘I want to stir, Daddy,’ Simone said.
    ‘Are you sure you won’t “do a Simone”?’ he said.
    She paused, looking at him.
    I handed him the noodle packet and he turned to open it.
    ‘You’d better stir, Daddy,’ Simone said.
    We ate the noodles messily on the coffee table. They were even better than Monica’s.
    There was a tap on the door. It opened and Leo poked his nose in.
    ‘We’re watching the cricket,’ Mr Chen said through a mouthful of noodles.
    Leo snorted with disdain and closed the door.
    ‘Too complicated for an American to understand,’ Mr Chen said scathingly.
    ‘I heard that,’ Leo growled from the corridor.
    I didn’t know why we clapped and cheered when the game finished. It was a complete walkover; it was overbefore the required number of balls had even been bowled.
    ‘You two are silly,’ Simone said from the floor. ‘Who do you think is more silly?’ Mr Chen said. ‘Oh, you are, Daddy, definitely.’
    ‘Well, there you have it, Emma: the expert says that I am much sillier than you.’ ‘It’s a close contest though.’ His grin didn’t shift. ‘Yep.’
    The phone next to my computer rang. ‘Emma,’ I said.
    ‘Call for you,’ Monica said, and clicked it through.
    I sighed. I hoped it wasn’t Kitty Kwok again.
    ‘Hi, Emma, long time no see. What you been doing with yourself?’
    ‘Busy, Louise. How about you?’
    ‘Lunch, Sha Tin, day after tomorrow? We can talk all about it. I want to hear exactly what’s keeping you so busy.’
    ‘Sure.’
    I put the phone down and went down the hall. When I reached Mr Chen’s office I raised my hand to tap on the door. Before I even touched it, he called from inside. ‘Come on in, Emma.’
    I went in and sat across from him. I sighed when I saw the pile of papers on his desk. ‘I only tidied this three weeks ago. You hate me.’
    He smiled slightly.
    ‘And you knew I was coming as well. Stop wasting your energy.’
    His gentle smile didn’t shift.
    ‘I’m going to lunch with Louise the day after tomorrow. It’ll be in Sha Tin, so I’ll probably be back late.’
    ‘Are you asking my permission?’ ‘I don’t know, am I?’
    ‘You know you don’t need to.’ ‘Yeah, I know.’
    ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be here to mind Simone.’
    ‘Good.’ I rose to go out. ‘When will Jade be back? I miss her. And Gold. It’s quiet without them coming and going.’
    He watched me silently.
    ‘Where are they, John?’
    He shook his head.
    ‘How long? They’ve already been gone for two months.’
    ‘A few more weeks. Give it time.’
    ‘Are they okay? Nobody’s hurting them?’
    He smiled slightly again. ‘Don’t worry about them. They’re fine.’
    I turned to open the door.
    ‘Emma.’
    I turned back.
    ‘Don’t bother asking them where they were when they return. Don’t ask, because if they tell you anything they are in serious trouble.’
    I went back to my room and shuffled through my notes on Shen. When Shen died, they were supposed to go to Hell for a while and then return to Earth.
    Hell. I had quite a lot of information about Hell. A complicated place; very bureaucratic. Ten levels. Judges at each level, meting out punishment. A lot of Hells.
    I wished I’d visited the Tiger Balm Gardens in Causeway Bay before they’d been torn down. There had been detailed depictions of all of the Hells there.
    Louise met me at the round atrium connecting Sha Tin station with the shopping mall. She looked just the same: blonde, bony and full of freckles and mischief.
    She stopped dead when she saw me and her eyes widened. ‘Is that you, Emma?’
    ‘Of course it’s me.’ I linked my arm in hers.
    ‘You look completely different,’ she said. ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight. And you have a great tan. Stop.’ She pulled her arm from mine, grabbed my