| Out of This World: Page 17 | ||
decay, are nowhere to be seen. But Halley is the kind of city person she is accustomed to. She is unadorned, honest. I'll meet you at seven, or That's a beautiful dress, or I promise I'll do it: I won't forget. She means all of it. How could such a woman live in this town? Those who cannot commit always prey on those who can. Miho feels she has to protect this young woman, somehow preserve that integrity. She thinks: That poor Halley, maybe she has a small crush on me. Gun Duk, too. Aimless and cocky and yet always ready for a drink, for conversation, for friendship on demand. She wishes she could love them in return, but love disappeared from her long ago. Maybe it left with the sickness of her youth. Maybe that is it - she recognizes in them her own childhood, when she, also, was too decorous or romantic to make a full confes-sion of love. ***  | The dancer: She is a folk dancer who is also trained in the modern idiom. In bare feet, but with the blossomlike satin robes and braided hair of Chinese princesses past, she twirls as the sound system throbs with a melody that could belong to either East or West. One can easily accept it as a Verdi opera, what with that lush symphonic arrangement, but it also has the plaintive aus-terity of an evening spent alone in a pagoda, on an autumn lake. Likewise, her downward look suggests repose, reticence, elegance, but then a sudden twist of the arms or a forthright step betray brash modern confidence. Paul watches her spin and soar across the mammoth museum auditorium, and wonders: Have I seen her be-fore? Maybe in a past life. In Hong Kong, the same dancer performs the same routine in the Exhibition Centre, a spotlight staying on her with unerring precision. Cheng observes from a dis-tance. She, too, has a premonition: This dancer  | |
