Ch. 23 – Close the Door on Your Way Out

The floor was practically rumbling with the movement of all the White Leopards in the shop, who were scrambling to get to the operating room door after Tony’s announcement that he would be letting everyone inside. Derrick gulped and moved up behind Tony, arms up and ready to brace against Tony’s back. If the crowd was wild enough, he didn’t want Tony to get knocked back and crack his head on the floor.

“ARE YOU ALL READY? I’M GOING TO OPEN THE DOOR IN THREE, TWO ONE . . .”

He opened the door, and Alan fell back against it, grabbing the doorknob for leverage, before righting himself and pushing a few of the White Leopards back beyond the door frame. They strained their heads this way and that to see past Alan, their anxious gazes scanning across the operating room, before landing on Ah Jun.

“Come on, boss, Ah Jun wants to tell us!” one White Leopard yelled.

“Yea, we’ve been waiting here like sitting ducks for too long,” yelled another. “Let’s just hear what the big boss has to say, and go fuck up the Hermanos.”

“Wait outside the fucking room, and let me go in alone first,” Alan screamed. “The big boss said he would tell Ah Jun, and that Ah Jun would tell me.”

The human wave subsided, but a wave of grumbling took its place.

“The big boss is gonna be hella mad if we take too long to find the Hermanos.”

“Yeah, it’s faster if we all hear it together.”

Theo’s voice came through the door, clear and sharp. “Stop fooling around! If you keep shouting like that, we won’t be able to hear anything. Ah Jun’s supposed to pass this message on to a leader, not the whole lot of us. Plus, you know how the big boss thinks cellphones are spying on him. His message to Ah Jun’s gonna be on a private line, so anyone who wants to listen to Ah Jun tell us the message better turn their cellphones off right now before their enter the room. Alan, you’ve already turned yours off, right?”

Alan was still straddling the doorway, and glared, apparently at Theo, into the shop as he straightened his shirt, which had gotten rumpled in his attempt at crowd control. “Yeah, I’ve got mine off already.”

The crowed grumbled again, and started fishing things out of their pockets.

Tony whistled and waved his arm for quiet. “Hold on, boys. Before you get all excited about this call through the receiver or what not, I need to warn you that Ah Jun’s been fading in and out of consciousness. He might not be coherent when your boss calls, so don’t count on him being able to tell you the news you’ve been waiting for.” Tony crouched down by Ah Jun, and tapped him on he cheek. “Wake up, Ah Jun. Your friends are here to see you.”

Ah Jun groaned and shook his head.

Theo had pushed his way up to the door, and half-whispered to Alan. “The receiver—why do you guys keep talking about the receiver—”

“—OKAY,” Alan shouted, cutting Theo off. Without looking away from the other Leopards, he jabbed a thumb back into the operating room. He turned his head toward the operating table where Ah Jun was lying.

The old man gave no response, and just continued shaking his head.

Alan snapped his fingers and let two of the White Leopards in, while barring Theo. The Leopards got halfway to the operating table before Tony blocked their path.

Tony said.

Derrick hefted the patient up and into the chair with Tony, and together with the two White Leopards, they carried the chair into the shop and towards the front door. The crowd of White Leopards parted before them, with Alan and Theo walking right next to them.

Theo insisted, keeping pace.

Alan said.

what, exactly? What was going on back there?>

Alan said nothing and pulled his phone out of his pocket and stared at it.

They set the chair down at the door, and blood flowed back into Derrick left hand. The night had been brutal. He stood up and stretched, feeling a few cracks in his back.

Ping walked up to the front door and popped it off again with a crack. The pattering sound of rain came into the shop once again.

“You’ll have to take him the rest of the way to your car, wherever that is,” Tony said, wiping the sweat off his forehead. “Don’t remove his cervical collar until you set him down in a bed he can rest in for a long time. Derrick will give you the instructions for his care.”

Derrick pulled the folded piece of paper out of his pocket—it was a bit damp with sweat—and handed it to Alan, who snatched it out of Derrick’s hand.

“Get me an umbrella,” Alan said, snapping at one of the other White Leopards. “And one for Ah Jun, too.”

“Good luck,” Tony said. “You’re gonna need it. If he lives past this week, he oughta go play the lottery.”

“After we get to the safehouse, we’re going to find out if the boss can call Ah Jun,” Alan said, glaring at Tony, “And if it doesn’t, you’re on the hook.” He took the umbrella, and stepped out into the rain, motioning for the rest of the Leopards to follow him. “Come on, let’s go.”

The gangsters filed out of the shop one by one, kicking aside trash that they had left on the ground, and waking up their buddies who had fallen asleep.

In just a few minutes, they were almost all gone. Ping came back to the door, stooping so he could move his head under the frame, and grinned.

“Almost forgot about the door, sorry guys.”

The rainfall plinked on his exoskeleton as he pulled the door most of the way into place.

His voice came from the crack between the door and the doorway. “I’ll leave a bit of a gap so you guys don’t get stuck in here tomorrow morning.” And then his heavy footsteps disappeared into the rain.

Tony sighed, and plopped down into a chair. “I’m really feeling my age right now.”

“I’m feeling older than my age, after those two operations,” Derrick said. His knees threatened to buckle as he walked over to the wall to lean against it, not daring to sit down. There was a real chance that he’d fall asleep on the spot, and there was still a lot of clean up to do. A draft came in through the cracks in the door, and blew through the shop, sending some napkins fluttering through the air. Derrick shivered. He would have to put some tape over the cracks in the doorway too, or stuff it with rags.

“You think they’ll be back?” Derrick asked.

“If we did our job right, hopefully not,” Tony said. “You can save a man’s life, but you can’t stop people from being stupid. If that patient dies, it’s on his pals.”

“Goddamit,” Derrick said. “I can’t believe I just spent the entire evening fixing up a White Leopard. And now he’s going back on the streets. If he dies, I’ve wasted my time. If he lives, he’ll make all our lives worse. How do you live with it, Tony?”

“I’m a doctor, Derrick,” Tony replied, the exhaustion leaking out of his voice. He dragged out his words, as if it took a monumental effort to pull them out from his mouth. “It comes with the job.”

After all this time of being Tony’s apprentice, and working at Hack Alley, Derrick thought he had known what came with the job of being a mod-doctor. But it felt wrong that night. “Can I be honest with you for a second?”

Tony nodded his head, eyes closed.

“I . . . didn’t want to save that man. And I mean why would I? He’s a gangster, and an old one too; probably personally killed tons of people. When we were doing the surgery, I had these thoughts, like: ‘what if I moved a bit slower, or didn’t hand you a tool on time?’ Maybe the patient would’ve bled out. Maybe he would’ve died, and then there’d be one less gangster in Chinatown.”

Derrick paused. “What am I saying . . . I guess I’m saying that I’m sorry . . . ? I was this close to sabotaging the surgery. I could’ve gotten us both killed.”

“Derrick, you—” Tony coughed, grimaced, and grabbed a drinking glass before getting up to fill it at the sink. “Did I ever tell you why we look after Granny Chu?”

Derrick rubbed his eyes. He was so tired that the question seemed silly. Was Tony mad? Was he going to start yelling? Well, if it was a trick question, Derrick had no energy to puzzle through it; an honest answer was the only thing that came to mind.

“Because she’s all on her own since her son moved away, right?”

“Yeah, that too. She had two sons though. The one that moved away recently was the younger one.”

“Really? I’ve never seen anyone else at her house.”

“The older son was the king of assholes, a complete dick. Actually, I take that back. He was a complete dick only to me; treated everyone else fine but really had it out for me, and I still have no idea why.

“Anyway, I had known him for a few years, but then I got started working here, under my uncle. He owned the shop at the time, and taught me everything I know, basically.

“One day, the kid gets wheeled in a cart. Had crushed ribs, doing god knows what stupid sort of thing we got into back then—those were better times than now, so of course we had to make them harder on ourselves.

“My uncle and I wheeled him into the operating room, where we are right now, and got to work.

“But I remember the whole time thinking, ‘Why am I helping this asshole? He’s the guy who gave me wedgies, pushed me down the stairs that one time, shit like that.’

“And so, when my uncle told me to staunch the blood, I pushed down hard—too hard. The dumb kid I was, I tried to play it off like an accident, but my uncle knew. He fucking saw right through me.”

“He belted me right across the face, after the kid passed away. Dragged me out of the operating room into the shop, where Granny Chu was waiting, crying, praying. Her eyes were so red back then, I could see them even though I was crying like a bitch. And I was scared, scared that I had to explain to her what I had done, when my uncle told her.

“But he didn’t tell her, about me, I mean. He told her that her son had passed away, and we couldn’t save him.

“And her cries when she heard that were horrible. I mean, imagine the cops busting down your door, back before they moved out of Chinatown. They were scarier than that.

“After that, my uncle made me come with him to visit Granny Chu, every day. We brought her fruit, did her chores for her, sent her younger son to school.”

“She had no idea in the first place what I’d done, so it was like a blessing for her. And it ate at my fucking heart, the whole time. My uncle, though, he never forgot.

“After that, after I had worked for him for years and we had saved more together than I can remember, that’s all he could see of me. When he left for China, and left me the shop, that’s the last thing he told me. ‘Do no harm, Tony. That’s the first rule to being a doctor, and mod-doctors are doctors. I want you to remember that.’ I’ve always tried to follow his words, and I’ve tried to teach you the same thing too. It’s what you do in times like this, which are hard for everyone, where it truly counts.”

“But . . . you actually do harm pretty often, right?” Derrick asked. “You remember the time when you beat up a few White Leopards who were loitering in front of the store?

Tony rubbed his chin. “Oh yeah, I think I do remember that. But there’s a difference; those Leopards weren’t our patients. Once you take someone on as a patient, even if you were forced to, like we were tonight, you need to treat them right. Because sometimes, like with that asshole kid, you’re the only one they can count on. And they might have others who depend on them too, like Granny Chu.”

“Wow. That’s . . . . I didn’t know.” Derrick realized he had been holding his breath through the whole story. Integrity. An sense of responsibility to his patients and his duties as a doctor. Tony seemed like he had always possessed both of those; he made it seem so natural, as if doing the right thing as a doctor was the only thing he knew. “. . . So are you angry with me?”

Tony smiled. “Not angry. I get it.” He sighed. “You’re young; you’ll learn. I just hope that one day, when I’m not here to tell you what’s what, you’ll be able to make the right choices on your own.”

“. . . I’ll try.”

“I know you’ll make me proud. One day at least. Me, I’m still trying to make my uncle proud”—Tony choked up, a tear falling down his cheek—“so I guess I’m not quite there either, huh?”

Derrick came over to the chair, patting Tony on the back. “You alright?”

“I’m fine. Go get some sleep, Derrick, you earned it.” Tony struggled to his feet, clapped Derrick on the shoulder, and starting going through a dusty cabinet.

“What’re you looking for?”

Tony paused, and pulled out a bottle of vodka, holding it up in the air like a trophy. “My secret stash.”

“Come on, put that away,” Derrick tried to grab the bottle out of Tony’s hand, but the bigger man kept it away. “I don’t want you passing out in the shop tonight. It’s gonna be cold as hell from this gap in the doorway.”

“Just let me do what I want for one night.” Tony said, grimacing. “I need some me time, or I’ll go insane. Please?” Even under the pressure and uncertainty of the surgery, Tony had never looked so troubled.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll be here in the shop, cleaning things up, but I’ll leave you alone. Just make sure to go sleep in your bed, alright?”

Tony unscrewed the bottle and took a swig, before stomping back to his chair and plopping his ass down. “Thanks,” he said, with his eyes half-closed.

Derrick sighed, and surveyed the wreck that was Hack Alley’s shop. It would be a long night ahead of him.