Beijing

As far as Harry knew, 26 Feb 2005 was not a significantdate in history, but it was a very special day for him—itwas the day he first met Lucy. The chance of him meeting herwas millions to one. He was living and working in Beijing with apopulation of over sixteen million, and she was living some sixtymiles away in the city of Tianjin, with a population of over twelvemillion. Their meeting really was millions to one, and it musthave been destined by the gods.

How had the gods managed to arrange that the these twoshould meet at an education exhibition that was being held inthe China World conference centre in Beijing, next door to theChina World Hotel? It was nothing short of miraculous thatthey should both be there at the same time, so their meeting eachother must have been pre-ordained. He was taking part in theexhibition, trying to promote a new idea for his education andimmigration business by assisting Chinese students to identifywhich career path would be most suitable for them. Lucy wasthere representing a Chinese education agent from Tianjin.

He saw her briefly as she walked—or as he always said,floated like an angel—by the stand he was working on, and hewas immediately attracted to her. As soon as he could get awayfrom a crowd of students who were asking him lots of questionsabout the computer programme he was promoting, he walkedin the general direction she had taken, praying for a miracle thathe would be able to find her. There were thousands of peopleat the exhibition, which occupied two floors of the exhibitioncentre. Five hundred different universities and colleges fromthirty-five countries all around the world had purchased standsto try to encourage the thousands of Chinese students visitingthe exhibition to undertake secondary and tertiary studies attheir particular educational establishment. Harry was going tohave to be very lucky to be able to find her in such a heaving massof humanity.

Thankfully his prayers were answered, and he eventuallyspotted her standing in one of the corridors which ran alongsidethe exhibition hall, handing out flyers to potential clients as theywalked into the exhibition. She looked absolutely stunning in herlight brown business suit, and she seemed very confident in whatshe was doing. Her skin was slightly darker than most Chinese; itwas a light honey colour, more like a Filipino or Thai. She lookedso beautiful, and her hair, which was naturally black and straightlike most Chinese, was dyed a dark brown colour; she had hadit permed so it cascaded down her neck in gentle waves. Shehad high cheekbones, and her sparkling eyes, which were verymischievous, were almond shaped and were quite wide apart.

He was truly smitten. He decided that the only thing hecould do was to go and stand near her and hand out some flyersfor his own company. After a few encouraging smiles, he managedto overcome his natural shyness and introduce himself. HerEnglish was very good, and they spent quite a long time talkingin between handing out flyers, before she had to go back to thestand which her agent had commandeered; he had not actuallypaid for the stand, like all the other exhibitors, but had takenover one which was not being used. Lucy spoke English with anAmerican accent, because all of her English language teachers ather university, Tianjin University, were from America. She toldhim that she was in the last couple of months of her four-yearbachelor's degree in English and international business. Beforethey parted company, he managed to persuade her to give him here-mail address so that they could keep in touch with each other,and he gave her one of his business cards, which had his name,e-mail address, and mobile phone number on it.

Harry was looking forward to seeing Lucy on the secondand final day of the exhibition so that he could invite her to havelunch, but she was nowhere to be found. He neglected promotinghis business ideas for a couple of hours and searched both floorsof the exhibition centre two or three times over, but he could notfind her anywhere. He couldn't even find the stand which theagent she had been helping had been using. She had completelyvaporised into thin air just like the morning mist.

That evening, once the exhibition was over, he sent her ane-mail, hoping upon hope that she had given her a real one. Heasked how she was and told her how nice it was to have met her.He mentioned that he had been hoping to see her on the finalday of the exhibition, in order to invite her out for lunch.

To his absolute delight, he received an e-mail from her thefollowing morning saying how nice it was to have met him. Sheexplained that she was sorry that she was not able to see him onthe second day, but the agent she had been helping had decidedto return to Tianjin after the first day of the exhibition insteadof staying for the second day. She also told him that she was busypreparing for her final examinations.

Once their initial contact had been established, theyexchanged polite e-mails every few days, and he was beginning tosuspect that he had found a pen friend, or at least someone whojust wanted to practice her English writing skills, and that was allit was going to be.

Much to his surprise and absolute joy, she sent him an e-mailthree weeks after their first meeting saying that she was comingup to Beijing that weekend with an aunt, and asked whether hewould like to meet up. He was thrilled at the prospect of seeingher again and immediately sent her an e-mail saying that hewould love to meet her again. He gave her the name and addressof a German bar and restaurant, Schindler's Anlegestelle (or inEnglish, Filling Station), and he suggested a time they shouldmeet.

The owner of the restaurant, which was situated at theedge of Ritan Park along Guang Hua Lu, not far from theBritish embassy, had a very interesting history. He had been themilitary attaché at the East German embassy in Beijing untilthe two Germanys combined, when he found himself out of ajob. He therefore returned to Germany briefly to do a butcherscourse—an unusual decision for a former senior military officer,but one which proved very lucrative for him. Upon returning toBeijing, he opened a butcher's shop, selling lots of really goodmeat and German-style sausages, which were made in his shop.He sold mostly to Western diplomats, Western businessmen, andthe more affluent Chinese. He ran this business very successfullyfor a number of years before opening the German bar andrestaurant, and his butcher's shop, which his wife continued tomanage, sourced all of the meat for his restaurant. One of therestaurant's specialities, and the most expensive dish on the menu,was pork elbow, a massive piece of meat which was so big thatlots of people who ordered them couldn't manage to eat themall. The only person ever known to have eaten it all at one sittingwas an enormous German man who had been drinking litresof German beer before his meal—and then completely amazedeveryone in the restaurant by drinking two or three more litresof beer afterwards. He must have had the stomach capacity of anelephant.

The German bar, as it was known locally, was a bit like aNissen hut or an elongated igloo. It had a semi-circular shapedbrick ceiling, and there were little alcoves along one side whichhad tables and benches in and were separated from each otherby small walls topped with glass display cabinets containingtoy German cars; diners could sit up to six at a table and havea virtual room of their own. Down the centre were lots of othertables where guests could sit, and along the other wall was thebar, where the drinks were poured. At the back of the restaurantwere the kitchen and toilets.

Harry had reserved one of the little alcoves nearest the doorfor their first dinner together, because it was the most private ofthe alcoves and would allow them to talk quietly without havingto raise their voices and be overheard by other guests sitting atthe tables in the centre of the restaurant.

At the agreed time—well, slightly before—Harry was in thebar waiting for her to arrive trying to keep his excitement undercontrol. He started to get a little anxious as the appointed timecame and went, but after fifteen more minutes she phoned himsaying that she was in a taxi at a petrol station about half a mileaway. When she had asked the taxi driver to take her to the fillingstation on Guang Hua Lu, he had assumed that she wanted togo to the petrol station near the Japanese embassy. They laughedabout it when she arrived, and it was a real ice breaker. They hada really enjoyable evening, and he began to realise what a veryspecial and beautiful girl she was. She had an amazing vocabularyand was also extremely intelligent, with an excellent sense ofhumour—British humour, at that.

They talked non-stop all evening about lots of differentthings. She told him that she was living in a dormitory at theuniversity with a group of other girls, even though the apartmentwhere her parents lived was not very far away. Their apartment,which was in an old compound, was a little bit on the small side,with only a kitchen, a toilet and shower room, and a lounge. Thebed where her parents slept was in the lounge, along with a settee,table, and television, so there was not very much room for her tostay now that she was a young lady. She slept on a camp bed onthe small, enclosed veranda when she did go home, which was notvery often.

She also told him that she did not get on very well with herfather, mainly because of the way he had treated her mother overthe years. He had had some very good jobs in the past in the fruitand vegetable industry, which involved him travelling to differentparts of China to source fresh produce for various markets, andhe had earned a lot of money but gave most of it to his girlfriendsand very little to his wife. His wife and Lucy had to make dowith what little he gave them and on what her mother could earnworking as a kindergarten teacher and assistant. It had been astruggle for them both. On top of this, her father's family did notparticularly like Lucy or her mother, and they made it abundantlyclear to them that they were not part of `their family'. It was a verysad situation, especially because Lucy's mother seemed to be avery kind lady.

During the course of their dinner, Harry told her howbeautiful she was, and much to his surprise she told him thatChinese people thought she was ugly because her skin wasslightly darker than theirs. He could hardly believe that theirvision of beauty was so different to his, but he thought himselflucky—their loss was going to be his gain. At the end of theevening, they walked back hand in hand to the small hotel whereshe and her aunt were staying. When they parted company, theyhad their first kiss, which Harry thought was really somethingelse. Her lips were so full, soft, and tender. It was a wonderful,sensual kiss like he had never had before. He could have kissedher all night long and was reluctant to let her go. It was a caseof one last kiss—over and over again. Eventually the cold Beijingwinter weather got the better of them, and they managed to prisethemselves apart before their lips got stuck together. They saidtheir goodbyes with the promise of meeting up again as soon asher studies would allow. Their relationship was taking off andseemed to be moving to the next level.

He was walking on air as he returned to his apartment buthad to decide whether he wanted their relationship to move asfast as it appeared to be doing. It was not a difficult decisionfor him to make—a no-brainer, as far as he was concerned. Hewanted to be with her on a long-term basis. She was simply tooperfect, and he could not let her go. She had everything—beauty,intelligence, good social skills, honesty, and kindness, as well as agreat sense of humour.

There were a couple of minor problems, however. He wasmarried in the UK and was already seeing another Chinese girltwo or three times a week of whom he was quite fond. But aftermeeting Lucy, he realised that she was definitely the one forhim and that he could not let his wife or his girlfriend stand inthe way of developing a relationship with Lucy. The followingMonday he informed his girlfriend that he had met someone else,and their relationship came to an end. Now there was the otherminor problem for him to resolve—his wife.

After that first evening together, Lucy travelled up toBeijing every other Saturday so that they could meet up, havesome lunch, and enjoy their time together before she caught thetrain back to Tianjin in the late afternoon. They spoke on thetelephone almost every day and exchanged e-mails, with both ofthem looking forward to the next time she would be able to comeup to Beijing, even if it was only for a short space of time.

It was during the course of lunch one Saturday that hetold her that he was too old for her. He was thirty-seven yearsolder than she was, and if their relationship became serious, hewould probably be depriving her of her youth—she was onlytwenty-two. Twelve years younger than Harry's daughter. Heexplained that his feelings for her were getting stronger andstronger, so it was probably best for both of them if she foundsomeone younger before they became too attached to each other.

To his amazement, she said that she did not want someyoung man using her body to work off his excess energy. Shewanted more than that—love and affection, and someone whowould take care of her and protect her for the rest of her life. Thedifference in their ages was not a big issue for her—she simplywanted them to be together. Harry was so pleased and somewhatrelieved to hear this and it made him feel even more stronglyabout her. There was no doubt about it, he was falling madly inlove with her.

The next time she came up to Beijing, he had to tell her thathe was married. She was heartbroken and sobbed uncontrollablyas they sat outside the Bleu Marine restaurant. She said that hewas just trying again to get rid of her. This was the last thing on hismind—he simply wanted to be honest with her. He told her thathis relationship with his wife was not a happy one, that he hardlyever saw her and had been thinking of getting a divorce from herfor a number of years. However, because they basically lived apart,he had not found a strong enough reason for doing so—until hehad met Lucy. Lucy was really sad and said that she did not want tobe the catalyst that caused pain to someone she didn't even know,but he assured her that he wanted to be with only her and that sheshould not worry because he would sort everything out.

Just before Lucy graduated in June 2005, she told him thatshe was coming up to Beijing for the weekend. When he askedwhether she was coming up with her aunt again and where shewould be staying, she said that she was coming alone as usualand thought she would stay with him in his apartment. He wasexcited to have her come and stay with him. She already knewthat he only had one bedroom, so he assumed—correctly, as itturned out—that they would be sleeping together.

He couldn't wait for Saturday to arrive. They met againin Harry's favourite restaurant, the Bleu Marine, which as thename suggested was a small French restaurant situated just offChang An Avenue and almost directly across the road from theSilk Market. It is a very small restaurant with eight tables insideand eight tables outside on the patio, which ran alongside thepavement. It got quite busy at lunchtime and in the evening,but in the late afternoon it was generally quiet, a good place tostop off for a drink and watch the world go by. Their specialitywas steak, and it was the best steak one could get in Beijing.The atmosphere in the restaurant was always very friendly, withCeline and her Danish husband Torben always made everyonefeel very welcome. Harry used to go there quite often, and whenhe took Lucy along, the owners immediately befriended her aswell.