Act of God

Act of God by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Act of God by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani Read Free Book Online
Authors: John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction
likeable. She was so tired of interchangeable government automatons.
    "What an amazing place," Laine said as they emerged. "Boomerangs to moon rockets. That's a very large cultural jump." The streetlights were beginning to come on around the mall. "We must have lost track of time. I had no idea it was so late."
    "Are you hungry?" Sam asked. "I'm starved."
    She was ravenous and told him so. "Would you like to have dinner in Chinatown? It's only a few blocks from here."
    "Chinatown? That sounds exotic. Yes, I would be delighted, if it doesn't interfere with your personal plans for the evening. I was resigned to eating alone at the hotel restaurant."
    She got her first taste of Washington rush-hour traffic on the way to Chinatown. It took nearly half an hour to cover less than two miles. Unlike Sam, Laine did not fret over the delay. She was enthralled by the cosmopolitan quality of Washington life which was apparent even on the sidewalks. Blocks of slum housing stood cheek-by-jowl with rows of brightly-lit shops displaying expensive wares. Here, away from the tourists, the street life took on a kaleidoscopic quality that reminded her of some of the very strange films she had seen while she was in Italy. Young black men balanced huge, blaring radios on their shoulders. Teenagers strolled about in makeup and hairstyles from other planets. Dark arcades were momentarily lit by lurid flashes from the screens of video games. She pointed at a group of shaven-headed youths in orange robes and tennis shoes who stood on a street corner shaking tambourines and chanting and holding bowls out to passing pedestrians. "Who are those?"
    "Hare Krishnas," Sam said. "Actually, they call themselves the Krishna Consciousness Movement or something like that. It's an American version of some Hindu sect. It was very popular for a few years. You don't see so much of them any more. If you think this place is weird, wait till you see California. It'll send you right into culture shock. Someone once said that America has a continental tilt and everything that's loose rolls down into Southern California."
    Laine laughed. "Actually, I find this all terribly exciting and fascinating. So much color and variety! You have no idea how dull things are in the Soviet Union and the satellite states."
    "Oh yes I have," Sam said, changing gears, "I've been there."
    Chinatown turned out to be a small area of nondescript, rather dilapidated buildings. Laine was a little disappointed. She had expected buildings with pagoda facades and strange neon lighting and tong gangsters lurking in the alleyways.
    "It's not like the San Francisco Chinatown," Sam said, as if in answer to her thought, "but there are some pretty good restaurants here if you know where to find them." He pulled into a customer's reserved parking space next to a restaurant whose exterior was nothing but a shabby storefront. Across the plate glass window was lettered, with incongruous grandiloquence, Pearl of the Orient . Inside, it was no more distinguished, but was scrupulously clean. All the other customers appeared to be Chinese, which Laine took as a good sign. As before, Sam chose a table in the rear, near the kitchen, and sat with his back against the window-less wall. A puffy-cheeked Chinese doll of a waitress brought them menus, but a middle-aged man came from the kitchen and spoke to her briefly in rapid Cantonese and she went to wait on another table.
    "It's been a while, Sam," the man said with a smile that exposed several gold teeth.
    "I've been out of town." He turned to Laine. "Would Tsin-Tao beer suit you to start with?" She nodded affirmatively. "Would you like for me to order? I know the menu pretty well here." Again she nodded. He turned to the Chinese man. "We'll start with the shark's fin soup and barbecued ribs, then the Peking duck and the Moses pork—"
    "That's moshi pork," said the Chinese.
    "You mean it's not kosher?" Sam said in mock-horror.
    The man looked at Laine, deadpan.

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