THE SADDEST GIRL SINCE THE SONG DYNASTY

UNFORTUNATELY, DEATH - PART III

Just as she was informing Lady Zhao she would call for backup to physically escort her away (Ander had, at the first sign of aggression, drifted off to behind a vending machine), a general alarm sounded. It wailed for longer than a false alarm might have, and eventually the mass of people inside the terminal, looking riled, expressing hope the staff would remember who exactly had waited the longest, generally disparaging the whole ferry service, filed out into the drizzle that was getting heavier and proceeded loosely towards congregation zones.

Ander held onto his hat and craned his neck in search of Bingbing. This, whatever was going on, had surely destroyed all hope of a Sunday reunion with Pierre for her – she would have to settle for delay, for some more measured response. Who knew, Lady Zhao thought, it might improve her chances by demonstrating how Bingbing could be not a human doormat all the time. Maybe this, not the message, was the work of fate and Buddha.

As Lady Zhao and Ander pushed through the crowds keeping their senses primed for a distressed single lady in a gaudy cheetah print rain mac, they picked up samples of the latest gossip.

"... not sure what you heard, but I saw a dive team arrive. I don't know how long this will take..."

"... someone fell in, and they're searching now..."

"It's so awful. Think about her parents..."

"...exactly what I said when we arrived – they should have better barriers..."

For an hour, through the crowd of confused people whose hair had become dismally bedraggled from the rain, Lady Zhao and Ander searched without success for Bingbing. Twice or even three times they had conjectured the girl everyone was talking about, the girl who had caused all this chaos and ruined connection plans by falling into the sea, was in fact Bingbing. But neither took the throw-away comments seriously. It was absurd enough to joke about.

Until the guard from the door came. All color had gone from her face and even legs, her eyes looked like they had been crying, she was surrounded by serious looking people in suits and uniforms, and upon seeing Lady Zhao, pointed at her, directed the group she was at the center of to go and intercept Lady Zhao.

"Excuse me, this is a very delicate matter, but we need you to come with us please." The man who spoke was rather ancient, Ander judged, and smoked and had eccentric eye-brows and wore an overly long black blazer. Liver spots gave him a distinguished look. To Ander, he resembled death – the concept embodied, a walking reminder to everyone who was human of their certain future, their shared ultimate destiny. Suddenly, sure of what news the man would bring, sure that it really was Bingbing who had come to some kind of tragic and untimely demise, Ander realized that, at the young age of twenty-eight, he was surrounded by extinction, first by that of his life partner, the irreplaceable D'Misse, and now, less than a year on, by that of his emotional acquaintance, Bingbing. Just like that, all the spiritual healing he had experienced during the night delivered in the form of a vivid dream, a visitation from beyond the grave, dissolved in the mist and the rain.