Avenue of Mysteries

The elongated passageway to the Regal Airport Hotel at Hong Kong International was bedecked with an incomplete assortment of Christmas memorabilia--happy-faced reindeer and Santa's elf-laborer types, but no sleigh, no gifts, no Santa himself.

"Santa's getting laid--he probably called an escort service," Dorothy explained to Juan Diego.

"Enough sex, Dorothy," her mother cautioned the wayward-looking girl.

From the testiness that infiltrated their seemingly more than mother-daughter banter, Juan Diego would have guessed this mother and daughter had been traveling together for years--improbably, for centuries.

"Santa is definitely staying here," Dorothy said to Juan Diego. "The Christmas shit is year-round."

"Dorothy, you're not here year-round," Miriam said. "You wouldn't know."

"We're here enough," the daughter sullenly said. "It feels like we're here year-round," she told Juan Diego.

They were on an ascending escalator, passing a creche. To Juan Diego, it seemed strange that they'd not once been outdoors--not since he'd arrived at JFK in all the snow. The creche was surrounded by the usual cast of characters, humans and barn animals--only one exotic creature among the animals. And the miraculous Virgin Mary could not have been entirely human, Juan Diego had always believed; here in Hong Kong she smiled shyly, averting her eyes from her admirers. At the creche moment, wasn't all the attention supposed to be paid to her precious son? Apparently not--the Virgin Mary was a scene-stealer. (Not only in Hong Kong, Juan Diego had always believed.)

There was Joseph--the poor fool, as Juan Diego thought of him. But if Mary truly was a virgin, Joseph appeared to be handling the childbirth episode as well as could be expected--no fiery glances or suspicious looks at the inquisitive kings and wise men and shepherds, or at the manger's other gawkers and hangers-on: a cow, a donkey, a rooster, a camel. (The camel, of course, was the one exotic creature.)

"I'll bet the father was one of the wise guys," Dorothy offered.

"Enough sex, Dorothy," her mother said.

Juan Diego wrongly surmised he was alone in noticing that the Christ Child was missing from the creche--or buried, perhaps smothered, in the hay. "The Baby Jesus--" he started to say.

"Someone kidnapped the Holy Infant years ago," Dorothy explained. "I don't think the Hong Kong Chinese care."

"Maybe the Christ Child is getting a face-lift," Miriam offered.

"Not everyone gets a face-lift, Mother," Dorothy said.

"That Holy Infant is no kid, Dorothy," her mother remarked. "Believe me--Jesus has ha

d a face-lift."

"The Catholic Church has done more to cosmetically enhance itself than a face-lift," Juan Diego said sharply--as if Christmas, and all the creche promotion, were strictly a Roman Catholic affair. Both mother and daughter looked inquiringly at him, as if puzzled by his angry tone. But surely Miriam and Dorothy couldn't have been surprised by the sting in Juan Diego's voice--not if they'd read his novels, which they had. He had an ax to grind--not with people of faith, or believers of any kind, but with certain social and political policies of the Catholic Church.

Yet the occasional sharpness when he spoke surprised everyone about Juan Diego; he looked so mild-mannered, and--because of the maimed right foot--he moved so slowly. Juan Diego didn't resemble a risk-taker, except when it came to his imagination.

At the top of the escalator, the three travelers arrived at a baffling intersection of underground passages--signs pointing to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, and to somewhere called the Sai Kung Peninsula.

"We're taking a train?" Juan Diego asked his lady admirers.

"Not now," Miriam told him, seizing his arm. They were connected to a train station, Juan Diego guessed, but there were confusing advertisements for tailor shops and restaurants and jewelry stores; for jewels, they were offering "endless opals."

"Why endless? What's so special about opals?" Juan Diego asked, but the women seemed strangely selective about listening.

"We'll check into the hotel first, just to freshen up," Dorothy was telling him; she'd grabbed his other arm.

Juan Diego limped forward; he imagined he wasn't limping as much as he usually did. But why? Dorothy was rolling Juan Diego's checked bag and her own--effortlessly, the two bags with one hand. How can she manage to do that? Juan Diego was wondering when they came upon a large floor-length mirror; it was near the registration desk for their hotel. But when Juan Diego quickly assessed himself in the mirror, his two companions weren't visible alongside him; curiously, he did not see these two efficient women reflected in the mirror. Maybe he'd given the mirror too quick a look.

"We'll take the train to Kowloon--we'll see the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island, their lights reflected in the water of the harbor. It's better to see it after dark," Miriam was murmuring in Juan Diego's ear.

"We'll grab a bite to eat--maybe have a drink or two--then take the train back to the hotel," Dorothy told him in his other ear. "We'll be sleepy then."

Something told Juan Diego that he had seen these two ladies before--but where, but when?

Was it in the taxi that had jumped the guardrail and got stuck in the waist-deep snow of the jogging path that ran alongside the East River? The cabbie was attempting to dig out his rear wheels--not with a snow shovel but with a windshield scraper.

"Where are you from, you jerk-off--fuckin' Mexico?" Juan Diego's limo driver had shouted.