GUANXI

Richard Fontain could not concentrate. To avoid a commuting day he was attempting to work at home, but from the balcony above him the deafening sound of bass guitar at 30 watts was thumping out. It was his first big architectural mistake – this house. He had wanted to have a split level. The living room space went clear up to the roof and was overlooked by a balcony behind which were the bedrooms.

It gave a sense of immensity; light flooded down from the glass panel in the roof but privacy was diminished; physical privacy and crucially, sound privacy. His daughter complained of late night noise when he and his wife had a dinner party and now this. He hadn’t planned for teenage angst and expression descending from above.

He moved his dad’s old heavy bald eagle paperweight to the corner of the plan roll and went upstairs. A loud knock produced silence. His daughter opened the door, a slim adolescent girl in jeans and a red top with “USA Goth Chicks” emblazoned on it. Green highlights streaking short spiky dark hair framed a pretty oval oriental face statemented by a slash of deep red lipstick; a necklace of nails circled her slim neck.

“Mom said I could, “she said before he could speak.

“Can you please use the headphones?” He requested.

“OK, but it’s not the same.” The door slammed.

Zixin was 14. She was in a newly formed school based girl band. Musically raw, they needed and demanded hours of uninterrupted practice. Normally he didn’t encounter it; he was at work, or away at meetings and site discussions. He was making progress up the ladder in a large firm of New York based architects,

McKenny, Skorski and Levins. They were winning bigger and bigger contracts for bigger and bigger buildings; huge skyscrapers, high rises, increasingly popular in countries abroad. An “American cultural export” his wife had said, but Richard was excited; he was making more money, the firm was increasing in prestige, they were on a roll.

The Malayan contract for a high bank building had just finished and then this Shanghai thing had emerged; a really huge tower.

He was to be given a key role. It would mean relocating. His wife Fei was not yet committed to the idea. She was ethnically Chinese, but second generation American Chinese. She had never visited China but spoke a little Mandarin.

The reaction of Zixin his daughter, he felt was selfish. Instead of being excited at the chance to explore a new country, one that had become so dynamic, she only thought of having to leave her friends and her girl band.

He had phoned Rob Hansen, his long-term friend from college, to discuss

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: alastair macleod
Bildmaterialien: alastair macleod: "chinese lantern," purchased from Dreamstime royalty free photos.
Lektorat: alastair macleod
Übersetzung: title typeset in classical
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 18.12.2012
ISBN: 978-3-7309-0485-5

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Widmung:
"for harmonious relationships." Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.