“Your brains are scrambled. The Christians wants to unite people under the white man’s God. Then the white man will be our master forever.”

“Better the white man than a Manchu emperor puppeting for the Japanese,” said Lee.

“I don’t want either,” said Cheung.

“Then we are back where we started,” Lee said.

The sunset over Fragrant Harbour was a beautiful misty pink and purple. The men began the long journey back toward the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, trying to forget their differences and dreaming of the feast they would have with Cheung’s family at Tai Hang once they got there, even if there would be no fish.

CHAPTER 6Typhoon ShelterTHE TROUBLES OF CAPTAIN LEE

June 30, 1997

Great-Aunt Violet has been talking so much, she’s forgotten to eat. Though it would be more polite to leave some for her, the crabmeat is so sweet, tender, and garlicky that Ophelia can’t stop munching. She sucks the meat from the shell and then uses her teeth to scrape the peppery, crunchy deep-fried coating onto her palate. She eats the slivers of fried garlic by themselves as though they were potato chips. The crab’s head stares balefully at her, so she picks it up, turns it over, and scoops out its creamy, grey insides. A little bitter, yet redolent of the sea.

You want to be a hero or a zero? If you want to be hero, you should try to be like Captain Lee Cho-Lam. He’s the closest thing our family has to a hero. Not a zero like Cheung Chiu-Wai or Cheung Tak-Wing. Or your uncle Raymond. Captain Lee wasn’t born a hero, you know. He came from humble beginnings, very humble. He was a boat person, what we call “on-water people” in polite company. But you know, Cantonese people are not very polite. They call them “Tanka” or “sea gypsies.” Don’t ever say that to your Auntie Ting-Yan. She’ll be very upset because she is part Tanka. I don’t judge her when I say that. You know me, I treat everyone as equal. And besides, she is very dear to me, my nearest dearest one. But she is one of them. These are the people who used to live on the water in houseboats, fishing boats, and sampans, down in Aberdeen and up on the Sai Kung Peninsula. They’ve mostly come ashore now, but you might have seen some of their boats when we passed through Aberdeen to visit your Great-Aunt Hok-Yee in her care home last week. There are all kinds of theories about them. Do you know what a theory is? It’s when people have an idea about something, but they don’t know for sure, so they make their best guess based on intuition and gossip. I know, I know, you’ve been to university. You have a degree in sociology. Why didn’t you study biochemistry so you could be a doctor? I guess with sociology you could still go into law. Just don’t be a writer, whatever you decide to do.