The Tower

The following is chapter 2 of the story, "There's One for All."

Chapter 1 is linked here.

Chapter 2; The Tower

Robert, feeling nauseous and hung-over when he came down this morning, decided to sit in the open area restaurant and have a glass of orange juice while waiting for John. Their regular server, Lisa, wasn't there, so a male server Robert had not seen before approached him when he sat by the window. The man was wearing a name tag that read "Billy," obviously a western take on his real name. Billy asked him if he would like breakfast. Robert told him that he would have orange juice as he was waiting for his friend to arrive before eating. He tried calling John's cell phone, while Billy was gone to get his drink. When he returned, Robert was leaving a message for John; "Hey John, I'm downstairs at the restaurant" "I guess you're a little sick, I'm just going to have juice. I’ll wait for you before eating."

As he laid the juice on the table, Billy asked, "Is your friend John, an older man from Canada?" "Yes he is," Robert replied. Billy told him that John had been there about twenty minutes before; he didn't eat but had asked for directions to the Canton Tower and left the hotel.

Robert was confused with this revelation and asked him if John had left any sort of message. Billy replied, "No, he just asked for directions and left through the front entrance."

He couldn't understand why John would leave without him; it made no sense. He asked for the same directions, and Billy said that he could easily walk to the subway, a fifteen-minute walk, or take the first bus that comes on the main road, just off the island. The bus would stop at the metro, and directions to Canton Tower would be posted there.

At first, Robert decided that he would walk to the subway, but as he approached the main road and felt the heat pushing down on him, he changed his mind and took the bus instead.

Billy was right; it was easy, except for the hordes of people on the bus and the subway. He followed the directions given at the station, and took metro line 3 to Canton Tower station, where he left the station at exit A.

He could see the tower as soon as he left the station. Standing on the south bank of the Pearl River, at a height of 600 meters or almost 2000 feet, it was an incredible sight. The brochure that he’d picked up at the subway was full of facts about the tower.

It was the tallest TV Tower in China and the third tallest in the world. From the top, you had a bird's eye view of the whole city. It had several restaurants and lookouts in the area, and boasted the world's highest spiral staircase, the world's highest Ferris wheel, and the world's highest sky drop. But what impressed Robert the most was the shape of the building. It was constructed along the female form, from the hip bone up. About halfway up, at the waist, it slimmed to about 30 meters across and gave the impression of a woman turning to look behind her.

As Robert walked towards the building, he could see the busy outdoor plaza surrounding the second floor.

He thought it must be a great place to take pictures, as it looked like every one of the hundreds of people had cameras in their hands. Being a major tourist attraction meant there would be lots of western faces here. Robert scanned the crowd slowly, trying to spot John, knowing he almost always wore a white shirt and hat in the sun.

As he walked, Robert looked up at the second-floor plaza trying to single out any older western men wearing a white shirt and a hat. It soon became apparent that this description suited, just about, every western man on the plaza. As he approached the building entrance, he noticed an older white man on the plaza, near the rail, talking to an Asian woman. He couldn't see the man clearly because the sun was bright and Robert was looking up. He tried shading his eyes with his hands, but still couldn't see the man's face. The man and woman were in a heated conversation, and the way the man was moving his hands as he spoke was the same way that John spoke when upset or excited.

Robert pulled his cell phone from his pocket and hit redial on John's number. He put the phone to his ear as he watched the man and woman on the plaza but couldn't see the man below the waist, because the safety rail blocked his view. But as the phone was ringing in his ear, Robert could see the man stop gesturing and look down towards his feet. He had both of his hands below the rail and looked around when the phone suddenly stopped ringing. He said something to the woman, and scanned the crowd one more time before turning and walking away, out of Roberts's sight.

Robert spent the next two hours travelling up and down the tower, stopping at all the lookouts trying to find John, or even the man he thought might be John. On his way back down from the top of the tower, Robert stopped at the second-floor plaza, one more time before leaving, just in case. He walked the full circle around the plaza twice but didn't see John, or the couple he had seen earlier. Feeling tired, he walked to the rail to rest a little before walking back to the station. He was looking towards the subway when he spotted, what looked like, the same man and woman walking towards it. He quickly grabbed his phone and hit John's number. He could see the man stop and pull something from his pocket, before he turned and said something to the woman as he took her hand and disappeared into the subway.

Robert arrived back at the hotel ninety minutes after seeing the western man and Asian woman enter the subway together. He was sure that the man was John, but couldn't understand why he wouldn't answer his phone calls. The hotel was busy that day with American families who were adopting Chinese children. The foyer was full of people, laughing and talking loudly, taking pictures at the waterfall with their new babies. The Riverside restaurant was also packed with these families, happily sharing lunch.

Robert watched the Americans show their new babies to each other for a few minutes before heading to the elevators on the Embassy side of the check-in. The elevators were down a hallway that led to a side exit that was beside the Embassy. While waiting at the elevators, Robert could see John standing outside and talking to someone out of sight. He started to walk towards the door when John turned and recognized him. John quickly said something to the person out of sight, opened the door, and entered the Hotel.

Robert feeling confused and angry as he approached John, said, "What the hell, man, what's going on?"

John looked at him, bewildered, and replied, "What do you mean?"

Robert getting angrier, said, "What do I mean? Are you kidding me? I came down this morning and found that you’d left for the Canton Tower without even letting me know."

He could see the wheels turning in John's head as he continued. "I was concerned and went to the Tower to look for you." "I was sure I saw you there a couple of times and tried calling your cell, but you wouldn't answer." "So, what the hell is going on, John?"

John told Robert that he had gotten a call in the morning from an old friend who was visiting Guangzhou. He said that he had left a message with Lisa for him. Robert couldn't believe that John was lying to him and said, "John, when I came down the guy in the restaurant, Billy, said that Lisa wasn't working today."

John looked taken aback at this and said, "Robert, I’m not lying; she was here when I came down. I gave her a written message for you."

They decided to go to the front desk together and find out what was going on. They talked to the front desk clerk, and he told them that Lisa was indeed in early this morning but had to leave for an unknown reason. He said that she had left a note at the desk for Robert, but he’d not seen Robert this morning. The clerk retrieved the missed message from behind the counter and handed it to Robert.

The note said that John had gotten a call from an old friend and was going to meet the said friend for tea. The message ended with John apologizing to Robert and saying he would see him back at the hotel later.

Robert could see that John was hiding something, as he never gave any information about who this friend was. On the walk back to the elevators, Robert could feel something was off and asked, "Why wouldn't you answer your phone?"

John paused for a second and stammered, "Oh, oh, I forgot to charge it last night, and it went dead before I noticed today, at tea."

When they got off the elevator on their floor, Robert's phone rang. He pulled it from his shirt pocket and was surprised to see; the call was from Lina, the girl he met the night before. They spoke for a minute and agreed that she would hire a car and pick him up in the morning for some sightseeing.

As Robert told him about the events of the night before, John seemed relieved to be talking about something else.

****

Chapter 3 of this story is linked here.