Ghost Month Read Free

lives were over. There was no future and the dream was dead. Like my father and my father’s father, I was an uneducated yokel cooking up skewers at the night market.
    The only girl I’d ever loved was dead, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I couldn’t even cross the fucking road.

CHAPTER TWO
    A phalanx of mopeds and motorcycles that had formed at the last light blasted by as the traffic signal was finally winding down. Businessman riders wore dress shirts or short-sleeved polos. Young and elderly people wore hoodies. Some vehicles carried two people, some carried fully packed plastic crates and many of them carried more than what was probably a safe weight for steering or braking in time. It didn’t matter. As long as you wore a helmet, the cops would leave you alone.
    When Jianguo Road was mostly clear, I shuffled across the street and entered Da’an Forest Park. On a superficial level, I registered that it was a beautiful place as I walked among the maple and camphor trees. I should come here more often. If I had a better nose, I could probably pick up the magnolia and jasmine scents, but years of grill grease and smoke from the night-market stall have destroyed my ability to smell anything but a customer.
    It’s a fairly big park considering it’s in the middle of Taipei, about sixty-four acres. I had entered at the northern border, Xinyi, right where the MRT stop is. A group of melting Australian pensioners had tentatively entered the park and couldn’t decide whether to explore more or enter the subway.
    “Pardon me,” I interjected. “Are you all lost, mates?” I looked from face to face. About a dozen of them. I searched for the onewith the biggest smile. She was wearing a traditional Taiwanese farmer’s hat, which featured a wide brim topped with a cone.
    “It’s our first day here,” she said. “Do you think we should spend it in the park or go to Taipei 101?” We all looked up and to the east. Taipei 101, which had been the tallest building in the world from 2004 until 2010, loomed in the distance, a jade pendant hanging down from the sky.
    “I think you should be ambitious, since your flight wasn’t that long—not as long as it takes the Yanks to get here,” I said, pausing for the laughs I knew would come. “Go to Taipei 101, take the elevator up and see Taipei from all directions. Get your bearings and enjoy the air conditioning. You can come back to the park some other time, when you’re used to the humidity.”
    “That’s what we’ll do, then!”
    “Oh, by the way, tonight or any night, you should come to the Shilin Night Market and check out my stand, Unknown Pleasures.” I dealt my card out. “My name’s Johnny and I’ve got the best food in Taipei. Follow the map on the back.”
    “We will definitely stop by,” she pledged. I gave it a fifty–fifty chance.
    “Please come by,” I said, adding, “I’ll put a shrimp on the barbie for ya!” They laughed again. Maybe it was fifty-one–forty-nine now.
    I waved goodbye. Ah, the happy-go-lucky Johnny Taipei persona. Cultivated over years of calling out and bringing people in like a sideshow barker. Johnny was everybody’s best friend. As Jing-nan, I didn’t have any friends. Johnny loved being out with people, but Jing-nan wanted to be alone. Johnny was Mr. I Love Taipei. Jing-nan was distant and lost in his thoughts.
    With Julia’s death, I felt that much more removed from my Johnny personality, even as I slipped him off. I coughed and wiped my mouth. There. Now I was sad again.
    I WALKED BY THE children’s playground. The multicolored slides and tunnels made it look like a giant board game, big enough to climb over and crawl under. The kids in the sandpit tried to form mountains and monsters before pulverizing them to look for buried treasure.
    I continued walking south. The park was just like any in Los Angeles. Palm trees. Big bald spots in the grassy areas. Elderly men playing Chinese instruments.
    I