In the Age of Love and Chocolate

  “I thought I liked your Juliet for some reason,” I said.

  “The director thought my take was unique, so I guess you could say my choice to play you worked out well. The reviews have been nice, too. Not that those matter. But it’s better than bad ones.”

  “Congratulations,” I said. “I mean it. And I’m flattered for any small part I might have had in it.”

  “The only thing I have trouble with is the end, because I know you would never plunge a dagger into your chest, no matter how bleak the plot.”

  “Probably not.” Someone else’s chest maybe.

  “Let’s get dessert, okay? I don’t want to go home yet. The truth about Romeo and Juliet,” Scarlet said, “is that they lack perspective. That’s what I think. She’s so young, and he’s not much older. And what they don’t know is that sometimes life works itself out, if given a little time. Everyone’s parents cool off. And once that happened, that’s when they’d know if they were truly in love.”

  My cheeks grew warm. I suddenly felt like we weren’t talking about the play anymore. “To whom have you been speaking?”

  “To whom do you think? You don’t imagine I could play Juliet without asking Romeo a couple of questions first?” Scarlet asked.

  “We aren’t together yet, Scarlet.”

  “But you will be,” she said. “I know it. I’ve known it all along.”

  * * *

  The club’s expansion had continued without me. There were decisions I might not have approved (locations I did not agree with, hires I might not have made), but I was almost disappointed to note how little an effect my absence had left. Theo said it was testimony to what a good infrastructure I had built that the business had run so smoothly without me. As that sentiment will no doubt indicate, he wasn’t angry with me anymore. He had a girlfriend—Lucy, the mixologist. They seemed happy, but what did I know of happiness? I suppose what I mean is that he seemed charmed by that woman and also to have forgotten that he had ever loved me at all.

  Mouse had heard very little from the Russians. Perhaps killing Fats had been enough of a statement or perhaps it was out of respect for my incapacitation or perhaps they had other problems with which to deal or perhaps the thought of taking on two crime families at once was too much for them (as Yuji had hoped). We made plans to begin production and distribution of our own line of cacao “candy” bars.

  I flew around the country to check the progress on our other locations. My final stop was in San Francisco to see Leo and Noriko. I had not seen my brother since I’d been hurt, and I had even missed the opening of the San Francisco club last October. In its first eleven months of business, receipts had been strong, and we were considering opening a second San Francisco location. By any standard, Leo, Noriko, and Simon Green had been a good team.

  Leo held me to him. “Noriko can’t wait to see you, and I can’t wait for you to see the club,” he said.

  We rode a ferry to an island off the coast of San Francisco. The ferry reminded me a bit of the trip to Liberty, but I tried to push such associations from my mind and enjoy the breeze on my face. This was the new Zen Anya.

  We got off the boat and walked up a set of stairs that led to the rocky island. “What did this place use to be again?” I asked Leo.

  “It was a prison,” he said. “And then a tourist attraction. And now it’s a nightclub. So life is funny, right?”

  Inside the club, Noriko and Simon were waiting.

  “Anya,” Noriko said, “we are so glad to see that you are well again.”

  I wasn’t 100 percent. I still had a cane and felt I moved at a glacial pace. But I wasn’t in much pain anymore, and it wasn’t as if I had to go through life in a bathing suit.

  Simon shook my hand. “Let’s give her the tour,” he said.

  Alcatraz was truly the strangest place for a nightclub. There were private tables in little rooms that used to be jail cells. Silver curtains had been hung over the bars, and the cells were painted bright white. The main bar and the dance floor were in a former prison cafeteria. They’d hung crystal-and-chrome chandeliers from the ceilings, and everything was so gleaming and sparkling that it was easy to forget you were in a former prison. I was beyond impressed with what they had done. Honestly, my hopes had not been particularly high when I’d sent Leo and Noriko to San Francisco. I’d made the decision not from logic but from love and loyalty. I’d thought that maybe in a year I’d have to hire someone new to run or revamp the club. But my brother and his wife had surprised me. I hugged Leo. “Leo, this is wonderful! Well done, you.”

  He gestured toward Simon and Noriko, who were grinning like crazy. “You really like it?”

  “I do. I thought it was weird when I heard that you wanted to open it in a prison, but I decided to wait and see what happened”—and also I’d been sort of totally incapacitated, but that was neither here nor there—“and what happened is brilliant. You’ve turned a prison, a dark place, into something fun and cheerful, and I’m so proud of you all. I know I keep saying it. I can’t seem to stop.”

  “Simon thought it was a good metaphor for what you had done with the first club. Take something illegal and make it legal,” Noriko said.

  “From darkness, light,” Simon said shyly. “Isn’t that what they say?”

  * * *

  Leo and I went to lunch by ourselves at a noodle shop back on the mainland. “I’ve been thinking of you a lot this past year,” I said to my brother.

  “That’s nice,” he said.

  “Since I was hurt,” I said, “I’ve wanted to say I was sorry.”

  “Sorry?” Leo asked. “For what?”

  “When you were recovering from your accident, I don’t know that I was always as patient with you as I should have been. I didn’t understand what it was to be seriously injured or how long it took to get back to normal.”

  “Annie,” Leo said, “don’t apologize to me ever. You are the best sister in the world. You’ve done everything for me.”

  “I’ve tried, but…”

  “No, you have done everything. You protected me from the Family. You got me out of the country. You went to jail for me. You trusted me with this job. And that’s not counting the little deeds you did for me every day. Do you see my life, Annie? I run a nightclub where I am important and people listen to me! I have a beautiful and smart wife who is going to have a baby! I have friends and love and everything a person could possibly want. I have two great sisters, who have both achieved so much. I am the luckiest person on the whole planet, Annie. And I have the most amazing little sister that anyone ever had.” He grabbed my head with both his hands and kissed me on the forehead. “Please don’t ever doubt it.”

  “Leo,” I asked, “did you say that Noriko is pregnant?”

  He put his hand over his mouth. “We aren’t telling people yet. It’s only six weeks.”

  “I won’t let on I know.”

  “Darn it,” Leo said. “She wanted to tell you herself. Noriko’s going to ask you to be the godmother.”

  “Me?”

  “Who else would be a better godmother than you?”

  * * *

  Simon Green saw me to the airport. “I know our relationship hasn’t always been the best—probably most of that’s my fault,” I said before we were to part. “But I truly appreciate what you’ve done here. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”

  “Well, I’ll be in New York in October,” Simon said. “My birthday. Maybe we could get together.”

  “I’d like that,” I said. I realized that I meant it.

  “I’ve wondered,” he said, “what’s happening with Mr. Delacroix’s job?”

  “Are you interested in it?”

  “I love San Francisco, but New York is my home, Anya. Even with the terrible things that happened to me there, nowhere else will ever be home to me.”

  “I feel the same way,” I said. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do with Mr. Delacroix’s job, but I promised Simon G
reen that I would keep him in mind.

  XXVI

  I DISCOVER WHERE THE ADULTS ARE KEPT; DEFEND MY OWN HONOR ONE MORE TIME BEFORE THE END

  BY OCTOBER, THE WEATHER had cooled in New York, and Japan had begun to seem like a dream. I did not hear from Win, though I’m not sure I expected to. He had said he would wait for me to contact him, and he was keeping his word. I did not talk much to his father either, though I saw him a great deal. His face was on the sides of buses once again.

  From my desk at the Dark Room, I could hear what I thought of as the symphony of my club: the blenders whirring, the shoes dancing, and, occasionally, the glasses breaking or the couples fighting. I was thinking how I loved this music more than any other when a siren began to wail.

  I rushed out to the hallway. Through a bullhorn, an official-sounding voice announced, “This is the New York City Police Department. By order of the Department of Health and the laws of the state of New York, the Dark Room will be shut down until further notice. Please proceed in an orderly fashion to the nearest exit. If you have chocolate on your person, please surrender it to the trash cans by the door. Those displaying signs of chocolate intoxication should be prepared to show their prescriptions on their way out. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  To get a better sense of what was happening, I pushed my way to the main room of the club. People were flooding out in every direction, and the flow of the crowd ran opposite to where I wanted to be. Peripherally, I saw one policeman checking a woman’s prescription, and another putting a man in handcuffs. A woman tripped on her dress and would have been trampled if Jones hadn’t helped her up.

  I found Theo by the stockroom. He was gesturing wildly at a police officer who was using a dolly to wheel away a sack of cacao.

  “You have no business stealing this,” Theo said. “This is property of the Dark Room.”

  “It’s evidence,” the police officer said.

  “Evidence of what?” Theo countered.

  “Theo!” I yelled. “Stay cool! Let them have it. We can get more cacao once we sort this out. I can’t afford for you to be arrested.”

  He nodded. “Should we call Delacroix?” he asked.

  I had yet to hire another lawyer, but I didn’t think we should call Mr. Delacroix. “No,” I said. “He doesn’t work with us anymore. We’ll be fine. I’m going outside to see if I can get some answers from whoever’s in charge.”

  Jones stood guard near the front. “Anya, I don’t know why, but the cops have blocked the door from the outside. It’s making people panic. You’ll have to go around.” I pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. I could hear a rhythmic banging coming from the other side. I had counseled Theo to stay cool but I was starting to feel not very cool myself.

  I forced my way through the crowd and out the side doors. I ran—or I should say I did what passed for running for me, more like hopping/limping—back around to the front. Police jammed the steps, and reporters had begun to arrive, too. Barricades had been erected. Several wooden boards were being nailed across the front door.

  I pulled myself awkwardly over a barricade. A cop tried to stop me, but I was too quick. When I got close enough, I could see a different cop was posting a sign that read: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

  “What is going on?” I demanded of the man who was nailing my door shut.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Anya Balanchine. This is my place. Why are you closing it?”

  “Orders.” He pointed to the sign. “I’d stay back if I were you, lady.”

  I wasn’t thinking; I was feeling. My heart was beating in the jaunty, familiar way that let me know I was about to do something stupid. I lunged toward the cop and tried to grab the hammer from his hand. For the record, it is never a great idea to try to grab someone’s hammer. The hammer smacked me in the shoulder. It hurt like hell, but I was grateful it wasn’t my head and besides, I had gotten quite good at pain management. I stumbled back a few paces, at which point I was immediately pinned to the ground by several police officers.

  “You have the right to remain silent…” You know the drill.

  Wisely, Theo, who had followed me out, did not try to get between the police officers and me. I could see him pulling out his phone.

  “Call Simon Green,” I yelled. I had planned to have dinner with him the next evening, and I knew he was already in town.

  * * *

  When you are a minor and you are arrested, they put you in an isolated cell. But now I was a grown woman of twenty-one, which meant I had graduated to the adults’ communal holding cell. I kept to myself and tried to determine whether my shoulder was broken. I concluded it wasn’t though actually I wasn’t even sure if a shoulder could be broken.

  I’d been there about an hour when I was summoned to the visiting area.

  “That was foolish.” Mr. Delacroix glared at me from across the glass.

  “I told Theo to call Simon Green,” I said. “I told him not to bother you. You do not work for me anymore.”

  “Fortunately, Theo didn’t have Simon’s number so he called me. You’re bleeding. Show me your shoulder.”

  I did. He shook his head, but did not speak. He took out his phone and snapped a picture.

  “They want to leave you in here overnight, and I’m not sure it’s a bad idea.”

  I didn’t answer him.

  “But luckily for you, I still know a few people. I’ve woken a judge, and there’ll be a bail hearing later tonight, where they will probably set some exorbitant number. You’ll happily pay it and then you’ll go home.” He looked at me sternly, and I felt sixteen again. “You always have to go and make matters worse, don’t you? Seemed a grand idea to you to assault a police officer, eh?”

  “They were shutting down the club! And I didn’t assault anyone. I only tried to grab his hammer. What even happened tonight?”

  “Someone tipped off the cops that there were people at the Dark Room without prescriptions. They started checking everyone’s prescriptions and some people got upset and when people get upset, they get rowdy. The cops began confiscating the cacao, saying the club was dealing chocolate illegally, which, as we know, isn’t true.”

  “What’s the upshot?” I asked.

  “The upshot is that the Dark Room is shut down until the city decides what to do.”

  I worried how the shutdown could affect our other locations. “When’s that Department of Health hearing?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Why are they suddenly interested in the Dark Room? Why now? We’ve been open for over three years.”

  “I thought about that,” Mr. Delacroix said. “And the answer can only be politics. It’s an election year, as you well know. And I think this is a plan to make me look like I was involved in illegal dealings. My campaign is predicated on the idea that bad legislation needs to go, that we change the laws and bring new business to the city. The Dark Room is an accomplishment for me. Shut it down, and it takes away from that.”

  “You’re wrong, Mr. Delacroix. Your accomplishments extend beyond the Dark Room. Maybe it’s best to cut ties with me and the club altogether. Say you were only involved in contracts and such. It isn’t far from true.”

  “Yes, that could be a way to go,” he said.

  “Listen, I’m going to bring on Simon Green tomorrow. He’s my half brother, and I trust him. It was foolish of me to put off hiring your replacement. You can’t take this on right now. The election is in less than two months. I won’t let you take this on.”

  “You won’t let me?”

  “I want you to be mayor. And by the way, I am glad to see you.” I leaned casually on the glass. I don’t know why, but it was easier to speak from the heart with a six-inch-thick panel of glass between us. “I am sorry for the way we parted. I’ve been trying to tell you that for weeks. I just didn’t know how.”

  “So you thought you’d attack a police officer? There are easier ways to contact me. Pick up the phone. If you wer
e feeling old-fashioned, a slate message.”

  “Several times I apologized to your face on the side of a bus.”

  “Yes, I don’t always get those messages.”

  “And also, I’m thankful to you. You owe me nothing, Mr. Delacroix. We are even, and I don’t expect you to ruin your campaign to try to help me out.”

  Mr. Delacroix considered this. “Fine, Anya. There is no point in arguing. But let me hire a lawyer for you. It isn’t that I doubt your ability to do it, but you won’t have much time before the hearing tomorrow, and Simon Green is too—forgive the pun—green for such a responsibility.”

  “Simon’s not so bad.”

  “In a few years, he’ll be perfect. And I am glad you’ve made peace with him, but he doesn’t know the ins and outs of how this city is run. You require someone who does.”

  * * *

  I got very little sleep that night, but in the morning, I received a message from Mr. Delacroix that the new lawyer would meet me at the Department of Health, where the hearing was to be held.

  When I arrived, Mr. Delacroix was waiting for me. “Where is the new lawyer?” I asked.

  “I am the new lawyer,” he said. “I couldn’t find anyone on such short notice.”

  “Mr. Delacroix, you can’t do this.”

  “I can. And really, I have to. Look, I’ve made mistakes. That is no secret. But you can’t run a campaign by trying to separate yourself from your accomplishments. Not a successful one, at least. I am proud of the Dark Room. I am going to defend it even if it costs me the campaign. Yes, that’s how strongly I feel about this. But listen, you have to hire me again, or I can’t defend you.”

  “I won’t,” I said. “I’d rather defend myself.”

  “Don’t be a martyr. Hire me. I am your friend. I want to help and I have the skills to do so.”

  “I don’t need anyone to rescue me, if that’s what you think you are doing.”