Nocturne in Black and Gold

Chapter 22: Clueless

Neal paused to check the address on his phone. Sara told him she'd discovered a sushi shop in his neighborhood. He was very familiar with 111th Street, but he didn't remember any Japanese restaurants at that location. She mentioned it had just opened. It may have happened while he was on the West Coast. Still, he passed the street all the time. Wouldn't he have noticed the preparations?

The Way of the Orchid this morning was a disaster. Billy was relentless in his demands for Neal to slow down his taiji. As if anything would soothe his rebellious qi. Adding to his frustration, Mozzie made it look easy. Their talk of being an orchid mantis lurking on a petal, poised to attack, wasn't helpful. Neal was wilting on the vine.

At the end of the session, Billy pronounced himself pleased and praised Neal for the progress he'd made. That had to be only in his imagination. Neal would have quit if it weren't for Henry. After his father tried to kill him, Henry went to India where he learned meditation to still his raging emotions. What Henry experienced with Robert was ten thousand times worse than what Neal had gone through. Maybe he should try meditation instead. But sitting motionless for minutes on end, thinking of nothing? That'd be worse than taiji.

In comparison, his session with Doc Jacob gave him hope. They discussed the Pre-Raphaelites in addition to Neal's virtual hell. He made significant progress on the puzzle. For a couple of hours, he felt more like his old self.

Now, where was that sushi shop? The quiet residential street in Morningside Heights was primarily apartment buildings. Sara said the number was 528 which put it between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues and one block south of the Aloha Emporium.

The address turned out to be an elegant Beaux Arts-style building. No sign of a sushi shop. What was Sara pulling? She'd said to ask for table 15. Neal scanned the list of occupants and grinned. Number 15 displayed S. Ellis. Her name had been written in ink and taped over the typed name of the occupant, Claire Groves.

When Sara opened the door, Neal greeted her in Japanese, "Is this the sushi shop?"

"Best sushi in town!" she replied with a bow.

Impressed, he asked, "When did you learn Japanese?"

"It's a good way to pass the time on those long plane flights," said Sara, reverting to English. "I figured a smattering of Japanese would come in handy."

"Especially now that you're running a restaurant." They were still standing in the doorway. Neal peered around her to check out the room ahead. "Are you going to let me in?"

"Of course. Your table awaits." She stood back and let him enter. A short corridor opened into a small but bright living room dominated by a long overstuffed couch in a soft fabric the color of milk chocolate. A cream-colored cashmere throw was draped over one end. The sofa faced an entertainment center which filled the opposite wall. Large windows offset the smallness of the room.

"Should I take off my shoes?" asked Neal mockingly.

"It's not required unless you're wearing patterned socks. Then it's mandatory."

"If only I'd known, I would have. But what's going on? Is Claire Groves a friend of yours?"

"It's a long story. Let me heat the sake first. I think I can manage cooking that. You don't have to worry about the sushi," she added with a grin. "It's quite safe since I didn't make it."

"Does Diana know about your cooking skills? Is that why Arkham Sara can't boil water?"

"So harsh! Arkham Sara can make a decent cup of tea, but I wouldn't test her on anything else. Diana might have asked me about personality traits. She was looking for something I wasn't good at."