She turned and ran. Remo watched her, too stunned to move. A sudden gust of wind blew a shower of blossoms from the plurn tree to the ground. In a moment she was gone.
Chapter Thirty-One
Smith had finished scanning the Du Lac College computer tapes, and he finally went home for dinner. He had been gone for two weeks.
Irma was cooking.
"Hello, dear," she said, without turning from the stove.
"Hello, Irma," he said and gave her a peck on the cheek. She did not ask where he had been or what he had been doing. He was home, safely, and that was all that counted.
Dinner was burned pot roast and potatoes, cooked rock-hard in the center.
Dessert was rice pudding. Smith had never liked rice pudding, but he had been trained to finish what was put in front of him, and so Irma never knew. Thirty years ago, his mother had told Irma that he didn't like rice pudding.
Irma kept serving it. She was sure it was his mother's rice pudding that Harold Smith didn't like.
238
Chapter Thirty-Two
Remo never left his cabin on the long submarine ride back to the United States. It was not until Chiun, still wearing the white robes of mourning, told him that it was time to leave that Remo even moved from his bunk.
It was dark outside when the two of them walked down the dock toward a waiting automobile.
"I'll walk," Remo said.
Chiun nodded, dismissing the car.
"You don't have to come with me."
"You have been alone long enough," the old man said. His white robes billowed in the summer breeze. Remo felt a pang of conscience.
"I'm sorry about H'si Tang," he said.
"My father lived a full life, and his spirit continues through the boy. I cannot ask for more."
The moon was bright, and the sky was ablaze with stars. Remo kept his head down. He never wanted to look at stars again.
After a long silence, Chiun spoke softly. "I have been giving thought to many things," he said. "To legends and
239
240
traditions and the continuity of life. It is good that the Master's Trial has been abolished."
Remo spat.
"Was it so distasteful to you? Did you learn nothing from it?"
"Oh, I learned, all right," Remo said bitterly. "I learned a whole lot. "
"Such as?"
"Such as I should have stuck to bashing heads for Smitty. That's about all I'm good for."
"I see," Chiun said. "Then you found nothing of value in Ancion's sense of fairness? Or Kiree's humility? Or Emrys's courage?"
Remo looked over to him. "Yeah, I guess so. They were good. Better than me, I think, in a lot of ways."
"And the Dutchman?"
Remo hung his head. "He was a lot better."
"Was he?"
Remo knew what he meant. "Little Father, is there such a thing as ... well, opposite personalities in people? I mean, different parts of the same person, only in two different bodies?"
"The principle of yin and yang holds true for all things."
"But . . ."
"He is part of you," Chiun said.
Remo made a noise. "That stuff doesn't make any sense to me."
"If the force of the universe were so simple as to be understandable to all, life would be a very uninteresting experience."
"It's been too interesting for my taste. Anyway, he's gone now. I can live with him as long as he stays away from me."
241
Chiun shrugged. "Perhaps he will, perhaps not. If he ever returns, it will be different because now you know who you are. And Jilda?"
"What about her?" He worked to keep his voice natural.
"Have you learned from her as well?"
"What's anybody learn from women? They come and they go. They're all the same in the dark."
"That is unworthy of you," Chiun snapped. "Jilda was the equal of any man in the Master's Trial."
"She was all right," Remo said dismissively. "She had weird eyes."
"She possessed great courage. Greater than you know."