400
PARTISAN REVIEW
looked at me and I looked at him and he said shouldn't we run
over to his apartment and start packing because we were going off
on an American honeymoon. I hadn't slept for nights worrying over
that moment. I thought: he'll uncover and discover and everything
will be over. And I remembered the little girl crying by the pond
and Minnie naked and all the world suddenly dark . . . But I
smiled bravely and said yes to him, only I would have to run up
and change first. So I ran up and changed and slipped down the
back way and into a taxi and off to the airport where I took a plane.
And here I am."
"Here" was Hong Kong, in midwinter, on Kowloon side.
And why
here?
wondered Pepe Monson, removing bewildered
eyes from her face ,and looking rather dazedly around the room;
feeling the room's furniture hovering vaguely- the faded rug on the
floor; the sofa near the doorway, against the wall; the two small
Filipino flags crossed under a picture of General Aguinaldo; the
bust of the Sacred Heart upon the bookshelf, between brass candle–
sticks; the tamaraw head above each of the two shut windows ...
Fog bulged against the windowpanes, as though elephants were
wedging past. Hawkers, four stories below, sounded miles away–
or whispering halfheartedly. Pepe Monson was grateful for the ele–
phants and hushed hawkers but would have preferred the usual view
at the window-of the harbor, gay with junks and ferry-boats; of
the downtown buildings standing up in white ranks across the water,
in the noon sun, the island's rock delicately ostentatious behind them;
with toylike houses necklacing the various peaks or stacked like steps
up the slopes or snuggling into private shelves and niches down the
sides. But there was a fog and no view, and the lights were on
in
the cold room, but the cold was only a mist her mouth made to
the woman sitting before his desk, insulated in black furs to her ears,
her hat's brim cutting an angle of shadow across her face, and
pearls gleaming at her throat when she leaned forward.
"But what on earth made you come here to me?" he asked.
"Had you heard about me?"
"-From Kikay Valero. She said you did a wonderful job on
her horse. So I thought I would look you up. Besides, you're a
fellow-countryman. You are, aren't you?"
"My father is a Filipino, and so was my mother. I suppose I
