16. Where’s Nqong?

“People, I’m alarmed.”

The circle on the library carpet nodded. This was alarming, all right.

“The water in the baths has been stone cold for three days,” Karen continued. “This has never happened before. Not on my watch anyway.”

“I can see why you’re alarmed,” Casey said. “The future of this hotel is on shaky ground again. Here I thought we were all set to get started. Now we have more to worry about. And this time the yellow beetles won’t come to our rescue.”

“Can’t it be fixed?” Emily asked. “Arthur, you’re the mechanic. Can you get the hot water flowing again?”

Arthur shrugged. “Doubtful. The hot water pipe must be clogged, or more likely broken. Those pipes have been in the ground for almost a hundred years. It’s a miracle they’ve lasted this long, frankly. Besides, locating the break would be more than difficult, and fixing it would be next to impossible.”

“A typical Arthurian response,” Casey remarked. “How come it’s always bad news when you assess a situation?”

Beatrice said, “Shut up, Casey. Arthur knows more about this than you do.”

Diana said, “Beatrice, it’s Casey’s job to find solutions, not throw up his hands and call everything hopeless.”

“But it is hopeless,” Theresa cried. “If we don’t have hot water, we don’t have a business. Without the hot water we’re sunk. After all we’ve been through!”

Casey turned to Arthur and tried again. “Are you saying the water can’t be fixed? How serious is this problem, really, other than being the end of the world, which everything is as far as you’re concerned?”

“I’m not a plumber,” Arthur replied. “But it doesn’t look good. I guess you could call Roto-Rooter and tell them to bring a snake three miles long. But they don’t have snakes that long, and if they did, the snake would probably just cause more damage, ruin what’s left of the pipes. Of course you could replace the whole aqueduct system, but that would cost millions and take years.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, will you people all just shut up?” Karen shrieked. She collected herself, lifted her yellow tee shirt to wipe the tears from her face, and said, softly, “The hot water isn’t the issue. The future of the hotel’s not what I’m alarmed about. Can’t you see? Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me,” Casey said. “I mean, the hotel—”

“Screw the hotel. The reason the water’s gone cold is that Nqong’s not taking care of business. That’s not at all like our Nqong. Something must have happened to him. He may be sick. Or…” Tears flowed again down Karen’s cheeks. “…or worse.”

The staff squirmed in their circle.

“We have to check up on him,” Karen said. “Right now. Casey, you’re going up to the water house with me. You too, Arthur. Meeting dismissed, God damn it.”

“I’ll pack you a lunch,” Diana offered. “TLT sandwiches. One for Nqong, too.”

———

Karen, Casey, and Arthur sat on the warm, sunny stone terrace in front of the water house, with their legs dangling over the ledge. They munched their tofu, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches and shared the thermos of cold mint tea. Yellow beetles danced in the air in front of them.

Karen broke the silence. “No sign of him.”

Casey and Arthur shook their heads. Casey said, “Well, Arthur, do you think you can figure out how this waterworks works?”

“It’s a matter of controlling the flow through two big pipes, cutting back the cold water and letting more hot go through. But it won’t be easy to get it right. I have no idea what combination of settings will make the right temperature. Then there’s the matter of changing the settings daily to account for the weather. Nqong knew how to do all that. Whoever takes this on won’t have a clue.”

“Stop it,” Karen snapped. “Quit talking about Nqong in the past tense. He’ll be back.”

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Arthur added. “I’m not taking this on. I couldn’t live up here on the mountain all by myself, and I’m not into climbing up here every day.”

“Nqong will be back,” Karen insisted.

“You’re sure of that?” Casey asked.

“If he’s alive, he’ll come back. He’s loyal.”

“He hasn’t hung out with us for years,” Arthur pointed out. “I’m not sure ‘loyal’ is the right word.”

“Loyal is what he is,” Karen said. “Maybe not to the yellow people, but he’s loyal to the yellow bugs. They need him, and he knows it. He’ll be back.”

———

Hot and sweaty from their long hike back down to the valley, they entered the hotel. Arthur lumbered down the hallway toward the kitchen, and Karen took Casey aside in the lobby. “Casey, honey, I need to have a talk with you and Diana. Would you see if you can find her? I’ll be up in my apartment.”

“Okay,” Casey said. “What’s this about?”

Karen’s mouth twitched into a shaky smile, and she said, “Get Diana. I don’t want to have to say this twice.” She turned and plodded up the stairs.

Casey found Diana in the pantry behind the kitchen. “Karen wants to see us in her apartment,” he said.

“Okay. What about?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t seem happy about it, whatever it is.”

“So I gather you didn’t find Nqong?”

“No such luck.”

The two of them went up the back stairs to the third floor and down the hall to the apartment. Casey rapped his knuckles on the open door as they walked in.

Karen met them in the sitting room. “Thanks,” she said. “Have a seat. Would either of you like a glass of wine? No? I wish I could offer you something to smoke. I wish I had something to smoke myself, as a matter of fact. Shit, this is difficult.”

Diana put a hand on Karen’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Sit down, both of you.”

Casey and Diana sat on the couch, holding hands. Karen sat in a straight-backed chair, facing them across the coffee table. “Okay, here’s the deal,” she said. “Oh, crap. How to put this? This hotel thing? The whole hotel thing? It was Nellie’s idea, not mine. Following orders set forth in our father’s will, we were supposed to have joint custody of Hope Springs during the nineteen-eighties. I wanted to keep my community, the so-called yellow people, and Nellie wanted to revive the old Hollywood hotel thing our parents had going back in the twenties. So, after a good deal of bickering, as you can imagine, we came up with a compromise. I could keep my community of friends, and we’d live as a commune during the week; and on weekends we’d open the hotel up to Nellie’s friends from Malibu, with the yellow people taking on the roles of hotel staff. We both hoped you, Diana, would stay on as cook for both the yellows and the guests. You, Casey, walked into the role of staff manager during the week and live-in host and entertainer on weekends. You with me so far?”

Diana and Casey nodded.

“Right. So everybody was happy, even Nellie. Especially Nellie, once she got hooked up with Baxter. I never made a big deal of it, but I didn’t much care for the hotel idea. And now that Nellie’s moved out, I’m not all that sure I want to go through with it. As for Nellie, she was bored with the idea of living in a commune from day one, except for the Baxter part, and now that Baxter’s gone to the other side of the earth, she doesn’t want anything to do with Hope Springs anymore. Kids, what I’m trying to tell you is we may not have a hotel after all. How do you think the staff, the yellows, will react to this idea? How do you two feel about it?”

The silence that followed lasted a long time and ended softly with Casey saying, “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Me too,” Diana said.

“Very well,” Karen said. “Do that. Each of you think your feelings through, and then talk to each other and see how that feels, and then come back to me with your answers, or your answer. Take as long as you need, and let me know as soon as possible. That’s intentionally confusing. I want you to be as confused as I am, I suppose. I feel rotten, but I feel on the verge of relief. I am terribly worried about Nqong, needless to say. Now please leave me alone for a while. I need to meditate, if I can manage to. Otherwise, I need to take a nap.”

———

Diana and Casey sat side by side in Adirondack chairs on the verandah in front of the hotel.

“I don’t want to leave my friends,” she said. “What about you?”

“I haven’t played piano professionally for over nine months.” Casey said. “I miss it.”

“Are you saying you’re ready to move on?”

“I’m sad thinking about this place without the hotel. That would have been the ideal job for me.”

“So you’re saying you want to go. Go where?”

“Would you want to come with me?”

“Tag along? Where?”

“I don’t know where, Diana. That’s part of the fun.”

“Doesn’t sound like fun to me.”

“What if I were to go, find a gig someplace, steady work, then send for you?”

“Send for me? Get real.”

“Come and get you, I mean. I’d come and get you.”

“That’s too big an if, Casey. Leave my friends, my home for the past ten years almost, just to follow you someplace you don’t even know where yet? How can I possibly say yes to that? So you get a gig in, I don’t know, Los Angeles. You expect me to live in L.A., after living in this beautiful place? I don’t want to live in L.A.”

“I didn’t say Los Angeles.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What is the point, then? The point is you want to stay safe and quiet here till you’re too old to enjoy surprises. I feel trapped, Diana. No, not by you. I don’t feel trapped by you. Now stop that. Don’t cry.” Casey handed her a handkerchief.

Diana wiped the tears off her face and handed the handkerchief back. She turned to face him, and forced a fragile smile onto her face. “I thought this place would be our future,” she said. “Thought we’d live here and work together. Doing what we each love to do: you making music, me making food. Now you want to go make music somewhere else? Fine, I understand that. What I don’t understand is what I’d do.”

“The world needs cooks, Diana. And you’re a great cook.”

“Shit. And you’d be out all night, flirting with your adoring cute fans.”

“Not all night.”

She shook her head. “How reassuring. Never mind. I’m staying here. You’re moving on, obviously. I guess we’re ready to let Karen know. Do you want to go first, or shall I? Or should we tell her together?”

“How about we tell her in the morning. After we have a chance to sleep on it.”

“Sleep together, you mean?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Sleep as in ‘sleep’? Or what?”

“Your call.”

“My, how flexible of you. What the hell are you smiling about?”

“It’s our first fight,” Casey said.

“And probably our last,” Diana added. “Oh, Casey, I’ve loved you so much, for months. I’ll love you for months after you’re gone. And Jesus, what a fine piano player you are.” She smiled and reached across the distance to take the handkerchief from his hand and wipe the tears from his eyes. “You handsome traveling minstrel man, you.”