Essay Forty Eight, age 52, 1998

Pete had made a deal with Yan Jun and it had been one year since then, the business was expanding to eleven states, with sales up each month. He said to me that he thought he had at least ten good years left, and in a year or two we would probably be able to sell the business for a few million. He wanted to live in Spain. Nvertheless he was studying Mandarin every day, writing characters on index cards and leaving them in stacks all over the house. He was completely fascinated with the language, the business, and the prospects ahead of us. But as the year passed, he was showing signs of fatigue, his climbing the stair labored, tired. He took a narrow military cot to the warehouse, put it in the upstairs room so that he could lie down for a bit in the afternoon. He would not stop, and the work was wearing him down. I was at a loss... he was a man out to prove something to himself and to me.
Each morning I went off to teach and he went to the warehouse. After the teaching day ended, I attended law classes three nights each week. Getting home at around midnight, I had to go to bed right away to get enough sleep because I got up at 5 each morning. This went on from 1994 till 1999. Near Christmas vacation, Pete told me we were going to London for the holiday. I was thrilled, but I had to take my law review materials with me, as the midyear exams were to be given in early January. I had to try to review during the trip as much as possible. We stayed in Kensington, on a street lined with hotels. The hotel we chose to stay at had a desk clerk who was a Serbian. Bosnians and Serbians were at war then, and the U.S. had intervened. The Serbians hated the Americans, and this one particularly so. His parents were still in Serbia, where the killing was going on. He looked at us with pure hate in his eyes. And this man had a key to our room. That worried me. Despite my concerns, nothing happened. The lobby of the hotel was decorated with a large Christmas tree adorned with ribbons and glass balls. There were several round tables with chairs where you could sit and converse with other guests with brandy or scotch. It was charming. The bay window behind the table fronted on the street, and the outdoor scenery was a pleasure to look at. Our room was on the second floor. It was small, and we had two single beds with a small bath.