“Hong Kong invention,” says Great-Aunt Violet. “Neither traditionally Chinese nor traditionally British. And yet so very delicious. Come on, try it.”

Ophelia takes a small bite. The combination of creamy tapioca and rich red bean paste sends straight-up bliss to her taste buds. She swallows and asks, “Were Emily and Raymond okay in the end? Did you and the others manage to get her to Chek Keng?”

CHAPTER 48THE SEA AT NIGHT

October 13, 1942

Captain Lee was waiting for us at the Oolong in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. Ting-Yan and Professor Duffy had arrived ahead of us and explained Emily’s rescue and the need to depart as soon as everyone was aboard. We scrambled onto the boat: Tanaka, Courchene, me, Emily, and little Raymond, strapped to Emily’s back in the sling she’d grabbed as she fled the Tai Hang house. Ting-Yan untied the boat from the jetty and Old Lee started the motor. We cut onto the dark, frothy waves as the moon rose over the Kowloon hills. The harbour was full of watercraft. I had no idea which were loyal to whom. We had to assume they were all at least nominally loyal to the Japanese, or they wouldn’t be out here. Lee’s boat was loyal to the Japanese on paper too. As a seafood supplier for the Japanese Recreation Club (what the Japanese called the Hong Kong Cricket Club), he had a permit from the Kempeitai to continue operating on these waters. Still, I wasn’t entirely comfortable out there. There were so many dead in these waters. But that night, the harbour was quiet. The Oolong’s motor, though neither large nor powerful, seemed to roar in our ears.

All of the passengers looked a little grim and a little scared.

Bruised, skinny Emily cradled Raymond in her arms. He didn’t cry, but gurgled and muttered like an old man. Courchene sat beside her, too close yet not close enough. Though they tried to hide it, their attachment to each to each other was obvious.

Tanaka and Horace sat opposite them. Courchene had helped Horace to scribble a quick letter to Isadore Davis Wong, encode it, and place it in a messenger’s hand before we pushed off, even though it might well be that Horace got to Wong before the letter did. The Oolong was going to Chek Keng first though, so maybe the letter would get to Wong first. Old Lee told them that Wong’s village was called Tai Kang, and knowing the name seemed to cheer them up.

Kathy Duffy wanted to go on to Free China; she planned go to Tai Kang village with them because an escape party from Sham Shui Po was meant to pass through there in a few days en route to Chungking.

Only Lee and Ting-Yan seem relaxed. They were more at home on these waters than they were on land, having lived on boats for generations.