“Oh!” I stepped back. People didn’t usually talk to one another in the street, not then or now, but the men were in a festive mood. Were they drunk? Down the steps in front of us, a shopkeeper and his two sons set off a long string of firecrackers.

“We don’t mean to startle,” said the tall, dark man, also in perfect Cantonese. Not drunk. And very well spoken. “I’m Isadore Davis Wong. I work with ZBW Radio.” His eyes were very warm.

Amah, always cautious of those she didn’t know, but extra cautious now because the interaction was so unexpected, pulled at my arm. “Come on, Missy. Can you imagine if the neighbours saw you talking to strange men in the street?” Her disdain and distrust dripped off her like wet paint.

“I’m Tanaka Shigeru,” said the pale and slender man. “We want to start a band. We need a singer. You have a beautiful voice.”

His words pleased me, but I kept my face straight.

Wong spoke to Tanaka in English. “Maybe we shouldn’t have stopped the lady in public.”

“Come on, Missy,” said Amah.

My legs followed her, but my gaze followed Tanaka Shigeru and Isadore Davis Wong.

“We might never see her again, man,” Tanaka said. He hurried after us and switched back to Cantonese. “Isadore plays bass. I play piano. Truly, we mean no harm. Look, here’s my card. If you’re not interested, you don’t need to call me. But if you are, we could meet you, maybe at the Metropole Hotel, to discuss.”

I liked the Metropole Hotel. I extended my hand a few inches forward in the direction of the card.

“Missy, come on,” said Amah, yanking me back. “You’ll make your father very angry.”

“I don’t think so,” I said to Tanaka, though I know he saw the longing in my eyes.

He smiled, his own eyes light and hopeful. “Just think about it.” He was still holding out the card.

I managed to snatch it from his hand before Amah pulled me away.

So that was how I became a singer with Isadore Davis Wong and His Cosmopolitan Elites. Izzy had come to Hong Kong from Jamaica five years earlier because his Chinese father wanted him to marry a Chinese girl from the home village. He got a job at the General Post Office and its offshoot, ZBW Radio, and ended up staying many years longer than he had intended. Tanaka Shigeru was born in Hong Kong and spoke fluent Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, and English. He worked as a translator, like his father before him. We played Buck Clayton’s tunes. We played “Rose, Rose I Love You,” “Waiting for You” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön.” We sang a song that Izzy and Shige wrote themselves called “Moon and Stars over Sai Kung,” for which we became just a little bit famous.