Chapter 63

Arif came out of the R&B bar just as a cable car passed by. It clanged several times as it negotiated the steep gradient. This was one of the steepest of 'Frisco's 40-odd hills and the cable car looked as if it was standing on end as it reached the top. He shook his head, thinking that back in aamchi Mumbai, there would probably have been a hundred accidents involving runaway cable cars every year.

He grinned and waved at a black kid sitting in the last rear seat of the car, face pressed up against the window. The black kid's night-black mouth cracked open to reveal a mouthful of gleaming pearl-white teeth. He waved back just as the car topped the rise and was silhouetted by the late afternoon sun. It went over and out of sight, like an image in a Hollywood film.

Arif felt good, alive, refreshed. Coming to San Francisco had been a great idea. He had gotten into a rut back in Bombay. Depressed, confused, disgusted with himself, his work, his clients, his life, his marriage.

I was on the verge of committing suicide, he thought. Ready to blow my brains out with my father's old revolver kept in the drawer of his desk in the Reay Road godown office.

Standing here right now, in the pleasant afternoon sunshine of beautiful 'Frisco, within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge with its inspiring arches, he couldn't imagine how he could have reached that state of mind. It was like a previous avatar, another life.

A different Arif Merchant. Not the man standing here. The man who had hopped on a plane at a moment's notice and flown here with a beautiful, slightly older woman named Lena.

And who had spent the last week or so living it up to the hilt, feasting on the sights and sounds of the most liberated city in the world, meeting exciting new people every day, seeing the most amazing new things, discovering that there was so much more to life than just making a living and struggling to make the best of a bad marriage.

He couldn't imagine becoming that Arif again, the man who was so determined to kill himself. This man was a different man altogether.

He smiled, remembering the reason that had brought him here in the first place: Sarla. His wife. He wanted to find out why she had left him. And his desperation had dove-tailed with Lena's own desire to penetrate that group, The Perfumed Garden, and expose the leader of the group, Myanmar.

Now, Arif couldn't care less what had happened to Sarla, where she was, what she was doing. He was too happy enjoying his much-needed impromptu vacation.

His cellphone rang. He answered it without even checking the caller ID. "Hi, Arif here."

"Arif, we're going in tonight." Lena's familiar, husky voice sounded urgent, commanding.

He saw another cable car starting down the opposite hill. Maybe he would catch this one and ride a few blocks. He found the slow, lazy ride very relaxing.

"Go in where, Lena? Chinatown? We went there night before last already."

He grinned, remembering the uproarious time Lena and he had with their group of friends after the Chinese dinner, playing dumb charades with their fortune cookie messages. Even the restaurant's owners had joined in!

"You know what I mean, Arif. This is the reason I brought you here to Frisco, remember?"

He stopped smiling. Shit, trust Lena to know just when to fuck a guy's mood up royally. "Tonight? It can't be tonight, Lena. We have tickets to the softball game."

"Dammit, Arif. Why do you think we've been cooling our heels these past eight days? I just got word. It has to be tonight."

"If we've waited eight days already, then what difference does another day or two make?"

He heard her suck in her breath, inhaling deeply as she always did when she got mad. But she didn't raise her voice. She spoke very clearly, enunciating each syllable with that faint Brit accent she had acquired during the twelve years of schooling she had undergone in London.

"Because, Arif, I can't go as myself. Myanmar will recognize me and have my ass thrown out in a second. And tonight is Moon Mask Night. They have one every full moon. There won't be another full moon for another 28 days. Now, do you understand why it has to be tonight or do you want me to come over there and spell it out to you letter by letter?"

"All right, I understand. I'm coming back to the apartment. We'll go tonight, just as you say."

He flagged down an approaching cab, got in and told him the address of the apartment house where Lena and he were staying.

The vacation was over.