Part 1g. The Handle Puller
Herman and George went down the back basement stairs and in through the boiler room brick breakaway that led to the first set of tunnels.
The only way to get to Wo Hop for Herman, meaning without leaving the building, was through a series of tunnels and hallways which led to the back kitchen entrance.
The back hallway tunnels moved through and connected the basements of the houses swallowed up by the building through time, forming a honeycomb of underground trenches as the building weaved the other properties into the evolving structure.
Strings of misaligned gas pipes embedded in a wide groove in the ceiling, white blue flames under glass in a cage spotted the darkness every few feet.
You might be thinking there could be problems regarding Herman and dark places. And I appreciate your consideration.
However being Herman has been here from the first moment of the building's structural changes, even sometimes appearing to encourage the patterns of change himself, he was comfortable with any pathway within the expanding property, no matter how spooky it might seem to a regular person.
Plus, even if Herman were afraid of the dark, which he isn't, George was there with him and Herman was very much aware of how fiercely protective George was.
George doesn't give a crap about the dark. You likely figured that already.
So after George and Herman crossed through the entire series of tunnels, they finally arrived back into the proper hallways that sat under the original building footprint front basement section.
There was a series of doors with paper notes written for Herman and placed there by the basement people. Each note was written in a combination of Russian, English, and with small incidental notes on the bottom in both Mandarin and Korean lettering.
You may be wondering why the basement people, who are the Chinese owners and workers of Wo Hop, are writing notes in a combination of Mandarin, Russian, English and Korean. I wondered that myself for a while. But then I got distracted and went off to do something else.
I personally don't understand written Mandarin, though I can tell it when I hear it spoken. I don't understand any Korean at all. Written Russian is easy for me as long as the word is one I know, like
PECTOPAH. Which is what restaurant in Russian looks like even though that's not how it sounds.
I hope I mentioned that back in the last chapter what PECTOPAH means. It would be pretty irresponsible for me to use a word as the title of a section of the book and not explain what it means until the next section. If you're reading this, and I did explain it in the last chapter then it means I either did it already and am wrong about forgetting, or I went back and fixed it. If you don't see it up there it either means I forgot, which is unlikely being my obsessive editing process means I get to read each sentence 500 times, or it means I decided I'd rather just explain it now instead. The Wo Hop waiters are probably giving odds on that right now. That last sentence won't make sense until a little later even though it's important.
Ok, enough with the that nonsense, back to the stupid story already with George and Herman in the tunnels and reading the note on the door put there for him by the basement people.
The single English word on the note simply said Herman written inside a sharpie drawn arrow pointing the way through the halls to the back entrance of Wo Hop.
Herman got very excited when he saw the notes were written for him there personally by the basement people. And even though of course he didn't need directions through the tunnels to Wo Hop, the notes gave him a sense of pending importance.
Herman stopped walking and pulled out his drugstore reading glasses. He ran a finger under the line of Mandarin, reading it out loud. "Nee how Herman." He turned around and looked at George. "George, what does nee how mean?"
George looked at the sign and lit a cigarette. "Um... Got me bub, I don't understand Chinese."
Herman put away his glasses. "It's Mandarin, I don't think there's an actual Chinese language." He checked his pocket to make sure his fork was still in it.
George noticed he was checking for the fork. "Got your fork?" "Yep" Herman slipped it out slightly visible.
George fixed the tassel on Herman's Shriner hat which had become bunched up on top somehow. He put his hand on Herman's shoulder. "Ok then my friend. Let's go."
Our adventurers walked through the first in a series of doorways on their way to the dinner for Herman as given by the basement people at Wo Hop.
Meanwhile, back upstairs I finished the rituals and habits forced on my self by the homunculus and sat in the kitchen area waiting for the tralazaplazm to take effect. Tick tock. Click clock. Clack clack.
After around 28 minutes I felt the warm rush of chemically induced semi normalcy and it was time to go. I got out of the chair and grabbed the coin sitting on top of the ice box.
I looked at my coin, the one I somehow assigned a world changing power of importance to one day without thinking, and decided which way to place it in my front pants pocket.
Heads facing out to keep luck in as it relates to interaction with other people, or tails facing out to project luck under the same terms. All as dictated by the homunculus.
After a full ten minutes of self debate over what may happen when I walk out the door and into the world on my way to Wo Hop, a total of 38 steps from my own front door outside the building, I finally
decided how to place the stupid coin in my pocket and got myself out of the dwelling area and down the front stairs.
First one step, then every second one, then third, then go to the other railing, up one step, kick my shoe heel on the step below, and repeat.
This is one reason I rarely go out on appointment. A simple 5 minute task can take over an hour of preplanning to be on time.
Being I was mostly capable of leaving the building, yay for me and my stunning abilities, I was able to take the front door route to the restaurant. Which means I walked out the Kings Highway side of the building, rounded a corner and went down the stairs under the red and yellow backlit sign reading Wo Hop.
I got down the short concrete steps and in through the glass doors, a note saying 'Closed a For Private Party' was taped to the handle.