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.They both bowed to Hunter and then Shu-shu led her upstairs to their apartment.He waved at them to advise that they should wait for his return.They listened to the muffled sobs trail off as the door closed.“That was interesting,” Hunter said with some relief.He didn’t like being accosted in any manner, but a grief-stricken woman demanding answers he didn’t have would probably top the list of improbabilities he thought he would ever experience.Although, the more he thought about it, the more he realized how many improbabilities seemed to have occurred since he had met Dillon.“Where the hell did you come up with that answer?” Dillon asked.Hunter shrugged.“Something my grandmother said when I asked why my father died.”“Sorry,” Dillon said.“I didn’t know anything about this.I honestly thought she was screaming at me for bringing you here until she mentioned Bao.”“Don’t worry about it,” Hunter replied, shrugging it off.“Maybe it will help.”“But why would she think that about you? They have cameras for the store upstairs…she must have seen you at the shrine.”“Could be,” Hunter said.“Weird.”“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, but his mind was still recalling the tactile memories of his grandmother’s embrace, the rose scented perfume she wore, and how she would sit for hours and let him explore her face when he wanted to.She was the only person in his life that had ever allowed him to do that, and he was ashamed he had forgotten.He made a mental note to ask his mother about his grandparents the next time he went home.The door to the upstairs apartment opened again and Shu-shu called out to them instead of coming back down.“He wants us to come up,” Dillon said in surprise.“I thought you said you’d never been invited upstairs before.”“I haven’t.You must have said the right thing.”Hunter’s brow folded.This was just a little too convenient.Blind master shows up, throws down some ancient wisdom, and the world is suddenly all hunky-dory.He wasn’t buying it.The apartment was a clutter of boxes from downstairs, foreign smells, and a woman who had quickly put aside her grief and intended to offer Hunter her thanks in any way she could find.Apparently that meant food, and lots of it.Shu-shu led them into a small dining area while his wife buzzed around them chattering.In just a few moments a pot of tea was set on the table and Shu-shu was pouring as if it were an official ceremony.He and his wife went back and forth in Chinese for a few moments and Dillon told him that Shu-shu was telling her that the tea was enough.She didn’t have to cook too.“I could eat,” Hunter said.Dillon translated and the woman turned and beamed at him.She gave a small scowl to her husband and turned back to what she was doing.Dillon chuckled and told him what happened.Shu-shu spoke again and Dillon quietly translated for him.“Shu-shu says thank you.You seem to have given him back his wife.”“Is that a good thing?” Hunter asked.Dillon translated and Shu-shu boomed with laughter.“We’ll see,” he replied.“He also just gave me a nod of approval about you,” Dillon said with a smile in his voice.“Ah, didn’t know I was on the block,” Hunter smirked.“Now I know how you felt meeting my mom.”“Your mom was easy.It was Margie that was hell.”Hunter smirked and listened to them go back and forth a little more.“Shu-shu speaks English,” he said aloud.He had listened to the different inflections of their speech and compared it with what little he knew about the Chinese language from his consistent ordering at the shop down the street.There was a very slight variation in nasal tonation in Shu-shu’s pronunciation which suggested that Shu-shu spoke more than one language.It was something he often heard in the voices of the bilingual people that came to read for him.Dillon chuckled.“Of course he does.He wouldn’t be able to operate the store if he didn’t.But we made an agreement years ago that we would only speak Chinese to each other.It helped me to learn the language faster and he said it gave his wife some assurance of what we were talking about.”“Ah,” Hunter nodded and turned to Shu-shu’s voice.“You knew I wasn’t a master.Why?” Hunter asked, thrusting his chin in the direction of where he thought Shu-shu’s wife was cooking.“She has waited many years.It was time,” Shu-shu answered.Hunter heard his affection and the desire for a better existence for his wife.In English his voice sounded weary and old, almost beaten.But now he understood the man’s logic.Shu-shu was a practical man.He saw the opportunity in Hunter’s presence and took it with the hope that it would yield the results he sought.It made Hunter wonder if some of that same pragmatism had rubbed off on Dillon through the years.He was certainly more level-headed than Hunter would ever have assumed, considering everything he had been through.The smell of cooking food quickly began to fill the room and Dillon asked Shu-shu about who was minding the store and how things were with the business.He kept translating for Hunter as they switched back to Chinese so he wouldn’t be left out of the conversation.Food started hitting the table on large plates.Hunter was served before it was passed on to Dillon and Shu-shu.“This is awesome,” Hunter said and listened as Dillon translated.Shu-shu’s wife beamed again and Dillon passed on the nonverbal compliment.Shu-shu began talking in earnest.Hunter noticed the din of cooking noises diminish as Shu-shu’s wife turned her attention to the conversation between Hunter and Shu-shu.He knew something had changed but he wasn’t sure what.Shu-shu’s wife interrupted a few times with more than a hint of irritation and disbelief, but Hunter didn’t know what was said.Shu-shu seemed to close her arguments down rather quickly, but, once again, it seemed to be an argument which they had hashed through before.Dillon was participating in the conversation but no longer translating.His articulation said he was more than surprised at what Shu-shu was saying, the sharp intake of his breath said he was stunned.Rather than interrupt, Hunter continued eating.He liked the curious enthusiasm he heard building in Dillon’s voice.Over the last few weeks Dillon had been filled with despair, but this conversation was infused with the eloquence of hope.“Shu-shu wants me to go into business with him,” Dillon said after a few minutes of further dialogue.“He said it would have been Bao’s place but now that he’s gone…”“Doesn’t he have a daughter?” Hunter asked.“That’s what they’re arguing about,” he said of Shu-shu and his wife.“She’s in college in New York and Shu-shu says she doesn’t have any interest.”“Do they want you to take over the store?” Hunter asked.“No, I don’t think so.He hasn’t given me specifics.I think he wants me to help him expand into something different.His original plan was to do import/export.He says with my grasp of the language I could do well.”Hunter tilted his head.“International sales kind of thing?”Dillon laughed, a hidden excitement in his voice.“Yeah, can you believe that?”Hunter stuffed more rice in his mouth.“Completely.” Well, not completely, but he wasn’t about to tell Dillon that
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