Lee Weeks - The Trophy Taker

Gradually, over the course of the following day, the shock subsided, until, by reworking the events in her mind, they changed shape and became something of far less consequence. She began to reassess the situation. She had survived worse – she would survive this. But now her survival was out of her hands. Lucy had unwittingly made a pact with the devil.

23

She waited in the Dressing Room for two hours before her name was called. She knew when she followed Mamasan Linda past the dance floor that they were heading to Chan’s favourite seat. She knew he would be watching her walk the length of the club, his eyes fixed on her. She knew she had to try every trick in her book to make this work.

‘Hello, Ka Mei, how’s things?’ His cold eyes fixed on her face.

It was the first time Chan had ever called Lucy by her Chinese name. It did not bode well. She was momentarily startled into letting her guard down. In the half-light she could see he was sneering rather than smiling. She looked downwards at her lap, trying to compose herself. Stick to the plan , she told herself, just as rehearsed: slightly submissive, slightly flirty – humble yet brave . She had been over this meeting a hundred times in her head.

Chan was sprawled in his usual place, and as Lucy sat down he extended one arm so that his hand rested on the nape of her neck.

‘Good evening, Mr Chan,’ she said, and waited for an answer. She felt the electricity in his fingertips commute to a burning sensation as he rubbed the same spot at the base of her neck repeatedly. He was a tightened band that threatened to snap at any moment. ‘I have been a bit worried, Mr Chan,’ she said, tilting her head sideways to look at him.

‘Worried?’ He played along, and carried on stroking her neck. ‘Worried about what, Ka Mei?’

Lucy summoned up all her courage. She locked her gaze on his. ‘About the money I owe you, Mr Chan.’

Chan nodded his head slowly, deliberately, like a judge considering the gravity of the situation before passing sentence.

‘Yes, Lucy. You did borrow a lot of money. I hardly remember how much it was now.’ Lucy caught a glimmer of hope and looked up from her lap to see him still nodding. ‘But it was more than is prudent for a girl in your position.’

She would do the ‘ what a silly girl I’ve been ’ act if that’s what it took.

‘I do have some money to return to you, Mr Chan.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘But I do not have it all … at the moment.’

Chan raised an eyebrow.

‘How much do you have for me … at the moment ?’

‘I have thirty thousand dollars. My savings, everything.’ She pleaded silently, trying every trick in her extensive book to find that deeply buried corner of Chan that cared.

Chan switched from nodding his head to swinging it from side to side. ‘Not really enough, is it, Lucy?’

Lucy felt the fluttering of panic begin in her gut. Chan slipped into his soliloquy:

‘You know you borrowed a lot of money from me, and not just from me, from the Wo Shing Shing. And you say to me, “Sorry, Mr Chan, I can only afford to repay you a measly thirty thousand dollars at the moment ”, when you owe ten times that amount. Do you think that is fair?’

Lucy shook her head, feeling the blood drain from her face. The actual sum she had borrowed was being inflated as she sat there. Suddenly it seemed insurmountable. She hadn’t reckoned on such calculated cruelty. He couldn’t really expect her to pay all that, could he?

‘So, Lucy, what do you think I should do?’

There was a pause and Lucy returned to staring at her lap and shaking her head miserably.

‘Have you no one to help you?’

Lucy was puzzled. What could he be driving at? He was waiting to spring a trap on her, all her instincts told her so.

‘I know that your sister – Ka Lei, isn’t it? I know that she works at the hospital. She relies on you, doesn’t she, Lucy?’

Lucy’s eyes flitted back and forth across his face, searching desperately.

‘You live with your sister, don’t you? She’s young, isn’t she? She is training to be a nurse. Is that right? There’s just the two of you?’

Lucy nodded her head almost imperceptibly while twisting her hands as they lay in her lap.

‘Not just the two of you at the moment, is there, Lucy? Your English cousin is staying with you. She’s a very attractive girl, I hear. Maybe she can help you? She can’t live off you forever, can she? Plus, she’s family – and this debt is a family debt. You didn’t just borrow from me personally, you borrowed from the Wo Shing Shing. You understand the implications of that, don’t you, Lucy?’

Lucy nodded her head miserably.

‘Maybe she can help you?’

He knew everything. Every small detail of her life. She was doomed. They were all doomed.

‘Georgina’s parents are dead. My sister and I are her only family. I don’t see how she can help, Mr Chan.’ Lucy looked up, suddenly sensing an awful point to Chan’s questions.

‘She can come and work here. We are always in need of good foreign hostesses. Chinese girls are as plentiful as grains of rice; a good foreigner can bring a lot of new customers. Bring her in tomorrow and I will wipe a quarter of the debt away immediately. Then I will see what else I can do to help you. Because …’ Chan placed his hand over hers, ‘I like you, Lucy … really, I do.’ He moved his hand to her thigh and squeezed it hard. Lucy winced. ‘But Daddy has to be strict sometimes.’

24

‘Anyway, juz be for a little while. You like to work with me, huh? Family, huh?’ Lucy put the suggestion to Georgina over breakfast the next morning.

‘I’ve never done any waitressing or anything like this before. Are you sure I can do it?’

‘You got to believe me, it’s perfec job for you,’ Lucy assured her.

‘Is no .’ Ka Lei stood with her arms folded across her flat chest. Her English wasn’t as good as Lucy’s. When she was trying her hardest to find the word she wanted, her hands flitted in front of her face in expressive gestures and her head tilted to one side, then she lifted her eyes skyward and twittered like a starling. Now, she stamped her foot and dug her hands deeper into her sides, and looked much younger than her seventeen years as she blocked Lucy’s way, preventing her from reaching Georgina.

‘Club no goo for Georgie. No goo place. She petter do nudder job.’

They quarrelled in Cantonese. Lucy looked past Ka Lei to Georgina.

‘Juz want show off my beautiful cousin from England. Juz for few days. That’s all.’

‘What would I have to do? …’

‘Juz sit an talk. Drink a little. If the client like you, he buy you out of club for a few hours – take you to dinner, nice expensive restaurant. No problem, huh? Goo money. Nice place.’

With a sigh and a smile Georgina gave in. ‘Okay, Lucy. I’ll give it a go.’

Ka Lei also eventually agreed. After all, hadn’t Lucy always made the decisions for her? And now she would make them for Georgina too. It seemed only natural.

She would start on the coming Saturday. That gave her three days to find a dress.

While Ka Lei was at work, Lucy and Georgina began their search of the shopping malls. It was no good. They were never going to find one to fit. Georgina was too tall, too curvy. One had to be made.

Lucy took her to a tailor in Western District. The tailor stood on a chair to measure Georgina’s chest. After much wrangling and deliberation between Lucy and the tailor, a dress was decided upon. It was black with spaghetti straps and a split up one leg.

The next day she went for a fitting. On Saturday they picked it up. Georgina tried it on for Ka Lei.