Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Read Online Free PDF

seemed excited, so he knew it must be good news.
    ‘I even got a cancellation gig at the Black Elks Club– tonight. The regular sax player got thrown in jail for something, so they call the union and the union called me . Can you believe that? Me, playing at the Black Elks …’
    ‘With Oscar Holden!’ Henry finished. He’d never heard the man play, but he’d seen his posters all over town, and Sheldon always talked about him in tones normally reserved for heroes and legends.
    ‘With Oscar Holden.’ Sheldon nodded, then belted out a few happy bars on his sax. ‘It’s only for tonight, but hey, it’s a good gig, with a good man.’
    ‘I’m so excited!’ Henry grinned. ‘That’s really big news.’
    ‘Speaking of big news, who’s that little girl I’ve seen you walking home with, huh? Something I should know about?’
    Henry felt blood flushing his cheeks. ‘She’s … just a friend from school.’
    ‘Uh-huh. Would that be a girl friend, perhaps?’
    Henry quickly answered in defense. ‘No, she’s a Japanese friend. My parents would kill me if they found out.’ He pointed to the button on his shirt, a new one his father had made him wear after the other one was ripped off by Chaz.
    ‘I am Chinese. I am Lebanese. I am Pekinese. I am the ever-loving bees’ knees.’ Sheldon just shook his head. ‘Well, the next time you see your Japanese friend , you tell her oai deki te ureshii desu .’
    ‘Oh I decky tay ooh ree she day sue,’ Henry mimicked.
    ‘Close enough – it’s a compliment in Japanese, it means “How are you today, beautiful—”’
    ‘I can’t say that,’ Henry interrupted.
    ‘Go on, she’ll like it. I use it on all the local geisha girls around here, they always take it the right way, plus she’llappreciate it being in her native tongue. Very sophisticated that way. Mysterious .’
    Henry tried the phrase out loud a few more times. And a few more times quietly in his head. Oai deki te ureshii desu.
    ‘Now why don’t you head on over to Japantown and try it out – I’m closing up early today anyway,’ Sheldon said. ‘One more performance, then I’m saving my wind for my big spotlight gig with Oscar tonight.’
    Henry wished he could see and hear Sheldon play with the famed jazz pianist. Wished he could see what the inside of a real jazz club looked like. Sheldon had told him that most of the clubs had dancing, but when Oscar played, people just sat back and listened. He was that good. Henry liked to imagine a dark room, everyone clad in their fine suits and dresses, holding long-stemmed glasses, listening to music drift out of the spotlight onstage, cool fog rolling in off a stretch of cold black water.
    ‘I know you’ll do great tonight,’ Henry said, turning to head south toward Japantown, instead of east toward his family’s apartment.
    Sheldon flashed him his gold-capped smile. ‘Thank you, sir, you have a fine day now,’ he said and went back to his next performance.
    Henry practiced the Japanese words, saying them over and over as he kept walking – until the faces on the street turned from black to white to Japanese.
     
    Japantown was bigger than Henry realized – at least four times the size of Chinatown, and the farther he walked through the crowded streets, the more he realized that finding Keikomight be impossible. Sure, he’d walked her partway home from school, but that was just to the fringes of the neighborhood. They’d walk as far as the Hatsunekai Dance School, then he’d say goodbye, watching her head in the direction of the Mount Fuji Hotel. From there he’d cut back over to Jackson and on to South King in the direction of home. Walking down Maynard Avenue was like being dropped into another world. There were Japanese banks, barbers, tailors, even dentists and newspaper publishers. The glowing neon signs still flashed by day, paper lanterns hung outside the stoop of each apartment dwelling, while small children pitched baseball cards of