An American in China

[aine]

Santiago whispers back, "As long as you don't mind being a pretend daughter!" And gives her a brief hug. "Look, that man is selling chestnuts; shall we try to buy some before the train moves off again?" He opens the carriage door and helps Posie down, then he leads her to the hawker and fishes out some change. "Keep a tight hold of my hand, Posie, it would be terrible to miss the train; what would poor Henry do?!" He points to five bags of nuts and holds out some small change.

[Tabs]

"Thanks, awfully," grins Posie. She adds: "Can I have a kiwi fruit, too?" She hangs upon Santiago's arm and swings playfully.

[Cearlan]

"As we are heading to the West, perhaps his localised knowledge may be beneficial, or is it that he is to the extreme West of the country?" Henry asks looking down as he shuffles the cards. Looking up at Wu he continues "Where does he come from do you happen to know, would I or Santiago know of it?"

[aine]

Santiago raises an eyebrow and looks down at Posie swinging on his arm. "Is this how a young lady behaves in a foreign land? Here are some coins, I'll come with you but you can buy the kiwi fruit." He picks up the nuts and walks with Posie to the kiwi fruit vendor. Being so tall, he towers over most of the milling people and he keeps a casual but sharp lookout as he goes.

[Tabs]

Cearlan,Wu will reply to the Doctor shortly.

"Oh, how exciting!" giggles Posie. "You know, I've never been alowed to buy anything." She repeats with disgust: "Anything!"

Santiago locks eyes with . . .

Santiago,. . . the next tallest person in the mini market: [img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/makken123/c4e90820-b0e0-4897-907a-ceb7b91ff077_zpse3afebd3.jpg[/img] [b]Caroline [/b]turns around, her hair gracefully cascading as she purposely ignores [b]Santiago [/b]but makes sure he knows he's being ignored and curses and swears her way in pidgin mandarin through the crowd to buy some more nuts.

[aine]

Santiago watches Caroline prowl through the crowd and smiles grimly to himself, "What a woman! Damned attractive but too hot to handle- hats off to the man who could tame her." He has a whimsical image of a trail of chewed and charred corpses: weaker men who were brave enough to try a dalliance with the she-demon.

He is pulled from his musings by Posie tugging on his hand, "Okay, okay, I'm watching; give the man the coins." He waits patiently as Posie pours over the kiwi fruits looking for the very best ones. "This is another likely one, when she grows up." He thinks.

[Tabs]

Renwick,[img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/makken123/8af728cb-1858-4ef9-b435-3ced5395f67c_zps6faac26d.jpg[/img] "Bo is from the city of Urumchi, in Sinkiang province," answers Wu. "He fled from the Tungan rebels--or was it the Bolsheviks?--and now ports luggage on a locomotive!" Wu shouts at Bo: "Tungans or Bolsheviks, Bo?" Bo simply smiles. [img]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/makken123/Bo_zpsbda205ad.jpg[/img] Wu continues: "Don't mind Bo, his first language is Turki or Mongol."

[Tabs]

"I think it'll be this one," decides Posie, selecting a plump kiwi after squeezing several.





Deng, the conductor, shouts: "Suǒyǒu dēng jī!" and waves a flag.

[Cearlan]

I nod my head in contemplation of the information given by Wu. "So the rebels are a big problem then, if they are in such a position so as to cause our friend to up sticks from his home, and resort to porting the luggage of others - not that I mean any disrespect for this of course. The fact that they could be either Bolsheviks or Tungans may be useful information. You know what they say, forewarned is forearmed.

[aine]

Santiago looks up as the whistle blows, "Good, pay the man and it's time to get back on board, Posie. The train's about to leave." Once she has paid, Santiago will lead her to the carriage and board the train where the women were seated.

[Tabs]

[ooc: aine, move back to "Peking-Hankow Express" topic.]



"A dangerous province Sinkiang," says Wu, "it's worse there than down south in Szechwan where the Chinese communists are." Deng returns and interrupts the conversation:

"The game is over"--throwing $10 onto the table--"go back to your compartment."

[Cearlan]

"If I have said or done anything to offend ..." I offer as I rise to a standing position, trying to think of a reason why Deng should take on so. I look to the others to see if they can offer any clue as to his sudden and abrupt change in demeanour.

[Tabs]

"We have work to do," answers a severe Deng. Wu grabs his green tea urn and mutters, "My rounds--the other compartments"; and Bo stands, "Xing!" he whistles in disgust, and exits the compartment.

[aine]

Santiago stops to allow several grumpy looking guardsmen past before he enters the compartment. "What have you done, Henry? They look very fed-up."

[Cearlan]

I look towards Santiago with a dumbfounded look upon my face. "I .... errr I'm not exactly sure. Come along Santiago, let us walk awhile to return to the ladies shall we?" I nod towards whoever is left at the table. "My thanks for the game gentlemen ... Sorry I did not grasp the game you were playing originally. I feel my friend and I should return to our companions now."

When clear of the guards and conductors I pull Santiago to one side and talk to him, informing him of events in the guards van whilst he was away with Posie. "Perhaps we can have a word with Bo to one side. The fact that he is fleeing from bandits, be they Tungans or Bolsheviks may or may not be relevant" Unfortunately he only speaks a minimum amount of Chinese as his dialect is from the Western part of the country, somewhere in Sinkiang I believe."

[aine]

"Well done; I couldn't understand a word. Interesting, he may be a good companion if we can persuade him to travel home with us." Santiago looks at Henry, "And the bandits? Maybe they'll cause some trouble for the people following us. I'm not worried about them. Perhaps we can help him." He looks out of the window as the country speeds up. "Are you ready to face Ms. American again? I saw her on the platform and she hasn't relented one bit." He grins, "If it wasn't for Elizabeth I'd play her at her own game; see how she likes it. And I still don't trust her."

[Tabs]

[ ooc : Return to the other topic. ]

[Tabs]

Caroline makes her way towards the front of the locomotive and the baggage car. There is a small compartment for the guards, inside is sat the porter, Bo.

[DrPeterson]

Caroline inclines her head at the porter and greets him in very American Mandarin.

Very American Mandarin,[color=#0000BF]Ni Hao! I need getting off in station. Luggage need loading for truck, but first storage at station.[/color]

OOC:,Do you want me to roll for greater fluency or is it okay if I use this level of pidgin?

[Tabs]

Bo gives Caroline an appraising look and the benefit of his smile. He is the one who Dr. Renwick said did not speak Chinese well, just his own languages of Turki and Mongol; however, he does understand why a foreigner would need his services. He glances at the pockets of Caroline's slacks, and rubs thumb and forefinger together, but otherwise he doesn't move.