They went straight to the Dauks’ home, where Mrs. Hian and Dauk Sana were preparing an enormous welcome dinner of broiled pepper fish, braised greens, five mushroom soup, and fried short noodles. Dauk Losun sat Anden at the head of the dinner table, and throughout the evening, Anden was plied with food and conversation. Old friends and acquaintances came by: Derek, who now owned and ran an auto repair shop; Sammy and two other Green Bones named Rick and Kuno; Tod, now a Navy Angels corporal, home on leave; Tami, who was working in a dental office and doing freelance photography. All of them were friendly but a little reserved, speaking to Anden less casually than they used to when he’d lived in the Southtrap neighborhood, as if he’d aged ten years during the past two, and was now older instead of younger than they were. Anden felt conscious that he was being treated so well not simply because people remembered him fondly from when he was a student boarding with the Hians, but because he was a representative of the No Peak clan, an important visitor from Janloon sent by the Kaul family.
Perhaps they’d also come out of curiosity, because they’d heard stories: He’d planned the assassination of an international jade smuggler; he’d nearly been executed by the Crews along with Rohn Toro; he was secretly a powerful Green Bone who’d put on jade to bring a woman back to life.
Cory arrived after dinner, claiming that he’d had to work late at the office. As usual, his entrance caused a minor stir of friendly shouting, backslapping, and laughter. He said hello to half a dozen people and came over to shake Anden’s hand, smiling as if they were old but distant friends. He had a petite Espenian woman with him, whom he introduced as “Daria, a friend of mine from law school.” Anden felt his mouth go uncomfortably dry. He had a hard time keeping up his end of the conversation when Cory asked him how he was doing, how he liked being back in Janloon, how his studies were going.
“I never pegged you as a doctor, Anden, though I’m sure you’ll be toppers at it,” Cory said with a laugh that was only slightly forced. “Goes to show what I know, right?” He used Anden’s name and did not once call him islander in the affectionate, teasing way that he used to. Anden wondered painfully how Cory did it—how was he able to forgive and move on and act so normal?—but then again, his sunny disposition and easygoing nature were things Anden had admired about him and found endearing. Cory didn’t stay at the house long, departing with his friend after less than an hour and leaving Anden sad and relieved.
At the end of the evening, as Mrs. Hian and Dauk Sana cleared dishes and tidied the kitchen, Dauk Losun stretched and said to Anden, “I’d like to go for a walk around the block to work off some of that meal. Will you join me?”
It was a warm summer evening, with enough humidity hanging in the air to threaten a thunderstorm later in the night. As Dauk and Anden strolled through Southtrap, people touched their foreheads in greeting, dipping into shallow salutes toward the man they called the Pillar. Anden slowed his stride to match Dauk’s leisurely pace.
“I’m sorry, Anden, for the way my daughter treated you,” Dauk said. “In truth, I’m ashamed.”
“There’s no need to apologize, Dauk-jen,” Anden said.
“Kelishon is very independent, very driven,” Dauk explained, shaking his head. “She’s always chased achievement, and she wants nothing to do with what she sees as the old Kekonese ways, her parents’ ways. So she lives by the rules of Espenia. Now that she’s reached a high position in government, I hoped she would remember where she came from and be willing to help her own people, but it seems she’s even more rigid and aloof and set on distancing herself from us.”
“Some people turn out differently from the rest of their family, regardless of blood or upbringing,” Anden pointed out. “It’s no one’s fault.” He wasn’t going to embarrass Dauk by showing any of his own disappointment, though he couldn’t help but wonder how it was that in Espenia someone who was faithless to their family could still rise to such a high position in society.
“Maybe I should’ve tried harder to train my daughters to be Green Bones,” Dauk said with a sigh. “When I was young it simply wasn’t done, unless they were lay healers like Sana, or maybe penitents. Now you tell me there are women Green Bones in Kekon, including your own cousin, and even a woman Pillar. The world changes so quickly, and I’m an old man.”
“You’re not old yet, Dauk-jen,” Anden said. Dauk was sixty-four and still possessed a hearty appetite and energetic laugh, although in the two years since the death of his good friend Rohn Toro, the Pillar of Southtrap seemed to have indeed aged quickly. There were heavy lines around his mouth now, his hairline had receded even farther, and Anden had seen him swallow pills with his meal.