At the front desk,
she pulled out a wad of Canadian cash and paid up front for three nights of a
suite facing the water. The receptionist didn’t ask her to sign a room slip,
didn’t even ask for a name, and she wondered again about the man at the
Vancouver Hotel. Why would he, or Danny, want a sample of her handwriting? It
was only too easy to guess. She went back out to the cab.
“Drive us around to the underground parking,” she ordered
the driver.
“Why…” Aggie began.
“I don’t want you to get wet,” Angela explained.
Luckily the elevator was empty. Angela knew she had to keep
herself and her twin from being seen together, at least in downtown Vancouver.
They were too memorable a sight. She hurried Aggie along the hotel passageway
and breathed a sigh of relief when she closed and locked the door of the suite
behind her.
“This is nice!” Aggie exclaimed.
Angela followed her sister’s voice into the living room. The
furniture was shabby genteel. To the right was a small kitchenette with fridge,
two-burner stove and teakettle. The British habit of tea must prevail in
Vancouver too. The view from the living room windows was spectacular. Though
only on the fourth floor, they could see over the traffic and trees, across a
large body of water to the land on the other side.
“That’s Kitsilano directly opposite us,” Aggie explained.
“Then there’s Jericho Beach and the University Endowment Lands.”
“And the water must be English Bay. Is it another arm of the
Fraser River?” Angela asked.
“No. It leads to Burrard Inlet, after you get around Stanley
Park. We’ll have to walk around the park along the seawall. It’s one of the
sights of Vancouver.”
Angela murmured an assent, though she knew they couldn’t
risk exposure that close to downtown, at least not until after Monday. If the
man chose someone else for his extended romp in the sack, they could go
wherever they wanted.
“Let’s go to Chinatown for lunch,” Aggie’s enthusiastic
voice interrupted Angela’s thoughts.
“Sounds good to me,” she agreed. Surely they could lose
themselves in Chinatown.
Aggie donned rain boots she had providently packed and
Angela pulled on a dark red coat with a hood. With her hair covered, they
wouldn’t be so noticeable. She called a cab to meet them in the basement
parking lot.
The Chinese district was closer to downtown than Angela had
hoped, but even on a rainy Saturday it teemed with a jostling mix of tourists
and vociferous Chinese. She and Aggie ducked into the nearest restaurant and
were greeted with comforting indifference, even when Angela took off her coat
and their identicalness became obvious. The menu was written almost entirely in
Chinese characters, with only a few undescriptive English words scattered
throughout. Aggie asked the waitress to bring them something hot but not too
exotic.
A huge bowl of hot noodles with spicy chicken and thin
slices of green vegetables filled Angela and her sister to abundance. The total
bill came to an unbelievable $4.25 Canadian. No wonder Chinatown was a tourist
mecca. As they left the restaurant, Angela was careful to pull the hood back
over her hair even though the rain had dropped to a thin mizzle. No need to
take risks.
The young women spent the afternoon browsing the shops of
Chinatown. Aggie bought a Buddha figure in the first store they entered, then
learned that it was actually a Bodhisattva in the second. She explained to
Angela that a Bodhisattva was a Buddhist who decided to forgo entering nirvana,
or heaven, until he had helped everyone else on earth to become a Buddha.
They toured the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and
learned that it was built near where Sun Yat Sen had stayed when he visited
Vancouver. The garden was a replica of an ancient scholar’s home and had been
painstakingly built by Chinese hands of authentic materials. Angela felt a
welcome peace steal into her spirit as she listened to the patter of rain
she pulled out a wad of Canadian cash and paid up front for three nights of a
suite facing the water. The receptionist didn’t ask her to sign a room slip,
didn’t even ask for a name, and she wondered again about the man at the
Vancouver Hotel. Why would he, or Danny, want a sample of her handwriting? It
was only too easy to guess. She went back out to the cab.
“Drive us around to the underground parking,” she ordered
the driver.
“Why…” Aggie began.
“I don’t want you to get wet,” Angela explained.
Luckily the elevator was empty. Angela knew she had to keep
herself and her twin from being seen together, at least in downtown Vancouver.
They were too memorable a sight. She hurried Aggie along the hotel passageway
and breathed a sigh of relief when she closed and locked the door of the suite
behind her.
“This is nice!” Aggie exclaimed.
Angela followed her sister’s voice into the living room. The
furniture was shabby genteel. To the right was a small kitchenette with fridge,
two-burner stove and teakettle. The British habit of tea must prevail in
Vancouver too. The view from the living room windows was spectacular. Though
only on the fourth floor, they could see over the traffic and trees, across a
large body of water to the land on the other side.
“That’s Kitsilano directly opposite us,” Aggie explained.
“Then there’s Jericho Beach and the University Endowment Lands.”
“And the water must be English Bay. Is it another arm of the
Fraser River?” Angela asked.
“No. It leads to Burrard Inlet, after you get around Stanley
Park. We’ll have to walk around the park along the seawall. It’s one of the
sights of Vancouver.”
Angela murmured an assent, though she knew they couldn’t
risk exposure that close to downtown, at least not until after Monday. If the
man chose someone else for his extended romp in the sack, they could go
wherever they wanted.
“Let’s go to Chinatown for lunch,” Aggie’s enthusiastic
voice interrupted Angela’s thoughts.
“Sounds good to me,” she agreed. Surely they could lose
themselves in Chinatown.
Aggie donned rain boots she had providently packed and
Angela pulled on a dark red coat with a hood. With her hair covered, they
wouldn’t be so noticeable. She called a cab to meet them in the basement
parking lot.
The Chinese district was closer to downtown than Angela had
hoped, but even on a rainy Saturday it teemed with a jostling mix of tourists
and vociferous Chinese. She and Aggie ducked into the nearest restaurant and
were greeted with comforting indifference, even when Angela took off her coat
and their identicalness became obvious. The menu was written almost entirely in
Chinese characters, with only a few undescriptive English words scattered
throughout. Aggie asked the waitress to bring them something hot but not too
exotic.
A huge bowl of hot noodles with spicy chicken and thin
slices of green vegetables filled Angela and her sister to abundance. The total
bill came to an unbelievable $4.25 Canadian. No wonder Chinatown was a tourist
mecca. As they left the restaurant, Angela was careful to pull the hood back
over her hair even though the rain had dropped to a thin mizzle. No need to
take risks.
The young women spent the afternoon browsing the shops of
Chinatown. Aggie bought a Buddha figure in the first store they entered, then
learned that it was actually a Bodhisattva in the second. She explained to
Angela that a Bodhisattva was a Buddhist who decided to forgo entering nirvana,
or heaven, until he had helped everyone else on earth to become a Buddha.
They toured the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and
learned that it was built near where Sun Yat Sen had stayed when he visited
Vancouver. The garden was a replica of an ancient scholar’s home and had been
painstakingly built by Chinese hands of authentic materials. Angela felt a
welcome peace steal into her spirit as she listened to the patter of rain
Similar Books
