|
|
Somewhere
up in Yaumatei, on the wrong side of Jordan Street.
A rather
normal looking side-street, wide enough (on bad days) for
two tanks to roll by side by side, tearing up the tarmc with their tracks,
looking for trouble.
Midway along the street, there's a rather normal
looking, dark yellow, old four storeis
building.
Ground Floor
BB Street n. 13
The CB (that stands for "Casual Boutique" but it's supposedly cooler), catering for the tastes of...
Ehm...
Ok, somebody probably likes this kind of stuff, anyway...
A long rack on wheels holding scores of assorted coats, jackets, sintethic furs in strange colors and dresses of varying lenght and size on coat-hangers occupies the right wall, in front of the long counter.
Boxes full of printed T-shirts (leftovers from various now-forgotten pop concerts held in HK through the years) are propped in front of the counter with a big "Get Two for the Price of One" notice - Sheena is usually the only one to get the Abba quote.Further stuff (ties, shawls, feathered boas) pours out of large crates by the entrance, and various other accessories are in straw baskets at the back of the room, where a silk, four-panels screen turns a corner into a dressing room with a horse mirror.
The walls are decorated with old posters. Chimes jingle when the door opens.BB Street n. 15
A few steps leading up, to an anonymous hall with tin mailboxes lined on the left wall, an old coin up telephone hanging on the right wall with lots of numbers and notes scrawled around it, quite a few freshly filledbulletholes and stairs leading up...
BB Street n. 17
The Laughing Dragon Restaurant (was once "Gaetano's Original Italian Brick-Oven Pizza Palace"), allegedly serving the best food this side of Jordan Street, and beyond; the place is more or less traditionally furnished and equipped with four 12-places round tables, six 6-places tables, 12 small 2-places tables, a 4-stool bar by the entrance.The kitchens and the freezing cell occupy the largest part of the basement and can be reached by a stair hidden by a screen at the far end of the room, and by a service stair leading to the alley in the back.
First
Floor
BB Street 15/1
Home of the Chows, Youen and Rita - in charge of the Laughing Dragon's kitchen and morals. A very quiet apartment with flower and spices growing in vases on the window-sills.BB Street 15/2
Vacant, sometimes used as a 'safe house'. Even quieter.
Second Floor
BB Street 15/3
This apartment is shared by Sheena Lee, founder and co-owner of the CB, and by the ladies in the team, one bedroom each. Music is generally playing loud, ranging from 80s pop to hard-rock to opera, or otherwise the TV's on with no one (apparently) watching it. Sheena furnished the place herself, according to her somehow... retro tastes and uneven finances.
A large card thumb-thacked on the bathroom door records the shower and washing-up turns schedule for the week.BB Street 15/4
The Haunted Apartment, formerly inhabited by the fearful Blakadder Witch Ghost, and now preternatural home to beautiful Liu's lost soul (when she's not at Sheena's watching the TV). Creakings and a faint echo can be heard through the wooden door.
The last room at the end of the corridor, left, tends to be larger than it should, and it is often filled with cobwebs and strange echoes. So does the bathroom, that on bad nights houses a misty pond.
Spooky.
Only the team's Techie/restaurant manager had the nerve to sleep here, but it's notorious that the ghost had gone sweet on him.
Third Floor
BB Street 15/5
Vacant apartment. Very quiet indeed.
Except when one of the guys in the team decides he needs "some space".BB Street 15/6
Meet the Chu Shais! And don't mind the noise!
- Hong 'Elvis' Chu Shai - dock-hand and part time rock'n'roll singer
- Teresa Chu Shai - housewife
- Debbie Chu Shai - daughter number 1, nurse-in-training to a dentist
- Tracy Chu Shai - daughter number 2, gangbanger, rotten apple
- Lin Chu Shai - daughter number 3, hairdresser
Odds and ends, a pair of old deck-chairs and a Pepsi-sponsored umbrella, strings to hang out the washing up, a cheap satellite dish, an old anti-aircraft gun under a worn-out camouflage sheet.
The hen coop is gone (pity, it was great for fights), but there are some pidgeons.
