His Master’s Voice
Diano looked up at the sky. There weren’t many tall buildings in that neighborhood of Tsim Sha Tsui. The clouds looked ominous. The Hong Kong Observatory had predicted a few thundershowers. Although he had read the forecast, he’d forgotten to pack his umbrella. He was becoming more and more forgetful these days. He often lost small objects like keys and pens. Or, at least, he couldn’t find them when he needed them. His bag was a big mess too. He knew what was inside it because he had dumped the items in there. But when it came to retrieving them, he ended up spending a good two minutes trying to locate anything.
How he wished he could forget other things too. The first on that list would be his past life. Forget Nyle. At least there he had almost succeeded. When he’d realized his love for Andy, it had made him get over Nyle. He remembered Nyle, but it wasn’t as bad as before. Nyle wasn’t the problem; Andy was. What had looked like real love, after so many years, had disappeared overnight. Sigh. Why was life cruel to him always?
He needed to cheer up. So he headed down to the Häagen Dazs shop on Hankow Road and ordered himself a Mango. He liked mangoes. He couldn’t resist them in any form. He chuckled. His friends at school had nicknamed him Mango Boy. It had irritated him at first because he didn’t like nicknames. But towards the end he’d gotten used to it. So there he was, Mango Boy, holding his cup of Mango ice-cream happily thinking about sad thoughts he no longer needed to think about.
He headed down to the HMV store a few paces down the street. It was his favourite store and he wanted to spend some time there.
He scanned through the western music section before walking up to the wall that displayed the albums and DVDs on the top hits charts. None of them appealed to him. He moved on to the Japanese—Korean section towards the back of the shop. Why did they put such ridiculous prices on the Korean albums?
“May I help you?” Somebody asked him from behind.
“M-sai,” he said, without turning around, and continued down the aisle.
“Are you sure?”
What a crazy salesman, thought Diano. When he turned around to take a look at the guy, his annoyance disappeared.
“You!” It was Norman.
“Hello.” Norman laughed. “How are you?”
“I’m fine. And you?”
“Not bad.”
“What’s up?” asked Diano.
“Nothing much. Totally mouh liu,” Norman said. “Didn’t know you liked HMV.”
“I like coming here. I think I can spend hours here.”
“Well, you’ve just come in.” Norman laughed. “You have the entire evening then.”
“How do you know I just arrived?”
“Your ice cream. It’s not melted yet.” Norman winked. “Is that Mango?”
“Yes. Want some?” Diano tempted him.
“Sure.”
Diano scooped up a big spoonful and held it up to Norman’s mouth, half-expecting him to take the spoon from his hands.
Norman bent down and ate it from Diano’s hand. Diano looked around quickly to see if anybody had seen them. He felt a little embarrassed.
“Yummy,” Norman said indicating he wanted some more.
“No more. That’s all you get today.”
“Just one more. Okay?”
“Alright.” Diano fed him another scoop.
“Thanks.” Norman smacked his lips. “What are you doing tonight?”
“Tonight? Don’t know. Nothing. Just at home.”
“Do you wanna go out?” asked Norman.
“Go where?”
“Well, we keep bumping into each other once every few weeks. Why can’t we plan and meet for once?”
“Plan? But this is like just a few hours away,” Diano said.
“So what? Do you wanna do dinner?”
“I’d love to, but I need to head back home to feed my kitten.”
“I see. What about afterwards?” asked Norman.
“You mean after dinner?”
“Yeah. How about a drink? Or a movie? Disco?”
“Hmm.” Diano thought for a moment.
“No pressure. Just that I’m very free tonight.” Norman smiled.
“I don’t know. I don’t feel like hanging out late tonight.”
“Well, that’s okay.”
“Well, let’s do it this way.” Diano didn’t want to say no to him but his mind was full of thoughts about Andy. He was afraid he’d end up getting drunk and cry again. “Let me go home and feed my cat first. If I can get out later, I’ll text you. Okay?”
“Okay. Cool. Better than nothing.” Norman laughed.
“But if you make some other plans then do let me know because I don’t wanna hold you up.”
“No plans. I’ll wait for your call.”
They hung around for a bit longer and then separated.
Diano took the MTR home. Along the journey he kept thinking about whether he should go out or not. The truth was he had no mood for drinks or loud music. Living in Causeway Bay had its effects. He was craving to go somewhere less crowded. Bars and discos would be overflowing. And what else could they do at night anyway? Karaoke?
Jai Jai let out a tiny meow and rubbed against Diano’s legs to welcome him. Diano cleaned his litter box and then fed him.
Summer had stuck a note on the refrigerator. She was out with her workmates for karaoke. That meant she wouldn’t be home for dinner. Diano dialed Cute’s number but reached his voicemail instead. That meant Cute didn’t want to be disturbed. Or maybe he was stuck somewhere in a basement or an elevator where the signal was too weak for the call to get through.
He boiled some water. Cup noodles weren’t healthy but he was too tired. As he sat down to eat, it started raining. When it hadn’t slowed down after two hours, he sent an SMS to Norman. Diano had decided to stay in that night.
