Chapter 14
14
THURSDAY, 3 JULY, 2025 – HONG KONG
Moira
It was only the third day since she’d left home – one day travelling and two nights sleeping in this big comfy slab of a swanky super king bed – and already Moira felt like she’d been gone for a week.
She had her phone propped up on a pillow so that she could see and talk to her pal, Jacinta, back in Glasgow, while putting on her make-up. ‘Honestly, Jacinta, I’m heartbroken for the lass – Stevie. And devastated about Lisa. I still can’t believe it. We were so close to being together again and…’ A sob caught in the back of her throat and she raised her eyes to the sky, trying to halt the tears. This was the third time she’d tried to put her mascara on while telling Jacinta about the last couple of days, and she still hadn’t managed it. Not that superficial stuff like her make-up mattered in the least right now.
‘Change the subject until I get my act together here, love. Tell me what’s happening with you.’
‘Not much since my best pal deserted me.’ Jacinta said, and Moira knew she was just trying to do exactly as she’d asked, and raise her spirits. ‘I’m about to go to sleep since the same chum rudely wakened me at 1a.m.…’
Moira pulled the mascara away from her lashes. ‘I’ve already said sorry about that. Miscalculated the time difference.’
Jacinta’s smile told her she was forgiven. ‘But other than that, I’ve just been spending my days floating around here being windswept and interesting. The crowds outside have subsided since your son left for LA…’ Ollie’s fans had some kind of communication going on with social media, which alerted them to where Ollie was most of the time. Since he’d announced his involvement with the theatre academy in Glasgow, there was always a crowd outside, ready with their iPhones to film him or take selfies. Moira didn’t know how he dealt with the relentless public scrutiny, but he somehow managed not to let it get to him most of the time. ‘But the documentary crew are still here so I’ve had my lipstick on, my hair done, and I’ve been wearing two pairs of Spanx. I refuse to let them get me at a bad angle.’
Moira had finally got one eye done, so she moved on to the other one. ‘I admire that dedication to your craft, my love.’
‘Always the professional,’ Jacinta assured her, tongue firmly in cheek. ‘If this doesn’t get me an offer to do Strictly I’ll be outraged.’ Moira smiled, mostly because they both knew there was a bit of truth in there. Jacinta had been a jobbing actress for decades, bagged a couple of short-term soap parts and been killed once on Taggart and once on Shetland, but the roles had dried up now that she was circling her sixties. The offer to be an acting coach at Ollie’s academy couldn’t have come at a better time for her too and Moira knew she was grateful for it, but there was still a tiny bit of ambition in Jacinta that had her convinced that global stardom could be just around the corner. Moira, on the other hand, had a whole different set of priorities. Yes, she wanted to keep her feet on dry land and to be back in Scotland, putting her talents to good use, but now all her ambitions were for her work-life balance. She’d grafted for decades – time to focus on what made her happy outside work, if she could just figure out what that was.
‘Anyway, love, I’d better go. I’m meeting Carina and Stevie downstairs in ten minutes. We’re going to do a bit of a step back in time and show her our old haunts.’
Jacinta blew her a kiss. ‘Have a lovely day, darling. You know, the fact that Lisa was coming all that way to see you after all these years, says something about how much she loved you and Carina. I hope you see that.’
‘Aw, bugger, there’s the mascara away again,’ Moira said, swallowing back another sob. ‘Thanks, lovely. You’re not so bad really,’ she added, trying to keep herself together. ‘I’m away before I crumble again. I’ll buzz you later.’ With the blow of a kiss, she disconnected.
Keep busy. Keep going. That’s what she was going to do, starting right now. She went on the hunt for a pair of flat shoes that would go with the yellow, floaty linen trousers and T-shirt she’d picked for the day. Cool cotton covered everything up so she was less likely to die of sun stroke. She’d learned thirty-odd years ago that her Scottish DNA couldn’t cope with these kinds of temperatures. She grabbed her bag, slipped it over her head so that it sat across her body, pulled on a hat and sunspecs and was downstairs in time to meet Carina and Stevie, both already at the door and good to go.
She kissed them both. ‘How are we today, ma darlins?’
‘Tired, sad, stressed, but happy to be here and doing this,’ Carina summed it up perfectly.
‘What she said,’ Stevie added, and Moira thought again how hard this must be for her. They had to change that. Maybe give her something to smile about. Something good had to come out of this week for them all.
‘Right, well, let’s shake off the cobwebs and go hustle up some memories. But only the good ones.’ They’d already agreed last night that the first stop would be Kowloon and the guest house they’d once called home. Although Moira was fairly convinced it would have been condemned as an environmental hazard, torn down and turned into a car park by now.
‘I like the sound of that,’ Stevie agreed, with Lisa’s smile. Moira felt another tug on the heartstrings. Dear God, she was going to have to work hard to stay chipper today. ‘I can do it, Lisa,’ she sent the silent promise skywards.
Outside the hotel, they went down the steps to the MTR, Hong Kong’s underground system and Moira noticed the first change since they’d been here last. The station had been completely renovated and was now slick and spotless, with cookie shops and juice bars on the way to the platform. Carina had already advised them all to load a prepaid Octopus card onto their phones, so they breezed straight through, a quick scan replacing the need to buy tickets. When they got on to the train, Moira spotted another difference. Thirty-five years ago, the platforms were usually packed and there would be crowds of passengers pushing onto the trains, but now it was all far less busy and frantic. They even managed to slip into three seats when a group of teenagers left at the first stop. Moira watched Stevie looking around her, taking it all in, thinking this must be such a shock to the system. Only a few days ago she was at her mum’s funeral and now she was here.
‘The plan was to change at Admiralty, that’s a couple of stations along, to the line that takes us under the harbour over to Kowloon, but I’m thinking now that instead of doing that, we should just head to the Star Ferry and go across that way,’ Carina was saying to Stevie now. ‘It’s breathtaking and your mum insisted we took the Ferry every day coming the other way, from our hotel to work. She always said it was her favourite part of the day.’
Lisa also used to say that it blew out her hangover from the night before, but Moira chose not to share that. Stevie’s revelations about Lisa’s life had shocked them. It was clear that the mum who raised her was a completely different person to the one Moira and Carina had known. But then, Moira knew she was a different person now too. Age did that. Life did that. Having a family did that. Wasn’t that why she’d come here? To find her old self?
‘Yes, let’s do that. Right, this is us, then,’ Carina announced, standing up, and Moira felt another twinge of nostalgia that made her heart swell. Carina had always been the organiser, the planner, the one that got them where they were meant to be, when they were meant to be there. She’d slipped right back into that role and Moira was more than happy to go with it. It made a nice change from having to be totally self-sufficient and responsible for planning every detail of her day.
They got off the MTR, took the escalators back above ground, and then it was a ten-minute walk to the ferry, thankfully cutting through an air-conditioned shopping mall to get there. At the ferry, they scanned their Octopus cards again, and then got a shift on to catch the iconic green and white boat that was already filling up. ‘Top deck or bottom?’ Carina asked, speedwalking to the gangway.
‘Top!’ Moira shouted, focusing on keeping up. She should definitely have had a go at losing ten pounds before she got here.
They made it just in time, sliding into a row of wooden seats on the top deck just as the ferry began to move. ‘You sit nearest the window, because that’s where…’ Carina stopped, and Moira knew why. The words had been snatched by the bittersweet pain of the memory.
Stevie sensed it too. ‘That’s where my mum always sat?’
Moira nodded. ‘Yep, she’d climb over us to get there. Then she’d face out to the water and close her eyes the whole way.’
‘I think I’ll keep mine open,’ Stevie said, with a smile. ‘The view is way too stunning to miss.’
Moira didn’t disagree. The journey took about ten minutes, cost less than a British pound, yet it was one of the most iconic sailings on the planet. Moira jumped into the empty seat at the end of the row behind, so that she had the full view too, then watched as the ripples in the water took them from HK island to Kowloon, incredible skylines on both sides. How many times had they done this back in the day? Her, Carina and Lisa, in full face make-up and sometimes in their stage costumes too, hair lacquered to the size of a small bush, sipping from hip flasks of vodka and orange that were stashed in their handbags.
She felt her cheeks begin to ache and realised she was smiling. This was what she’d come for. The memories. The connection to a time when they thought they were going to have the most incredible lives and that anything was possible.
By the time they docked at Kowloon side, she felt ten years lighter and her shoulders, weighed down by stress and age, had risen an inch.
‘Let’s walk along the harbour. I’m not ready to let this view go yet,’ Moira suggested as they disembarked. They turned right out of the terminal and then made their way to the promenade that stretched right along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. As they walked, Moira decided she didn’t recognise some of what she saw. There were a couple of new buildings on this side of the road. New railings too. And glancing back over to Hong Kong island from here, she could see that the skyline had changed, with new structures added in front of the ones that had been there for decades. She’d read in the in-flight magazine on the way over that there had been a large swathe of land reclaimed from the harbour on both sides, and looking over from this side of the water, she could see it clearly now. So much change.
Across the road though, looking inland, there were still many familiar sights. Star House. Then the gorgeous old building that used to house the Marine Police HQ was still there, although ground level was now lined with luxury stores. Further along, she smiled when they reached the stunning facade of the Peninsula Hotel. ‘How many times did you walk past that and say you were going to be able to afford to stay there one day?’ Carina asked, reading her mind.
‘Weekly,’ Moira answered, touched that Carina remembered. ‘Big dreams back then. Thing is, I really believed it would happen. Still, it’s nothing a lottery win wouldn’t solve. Or, you know, a bit of breaking and entering.’
They were still laughing as they crossed over Salisbury Road at the lights, then turned the corner of the busy street onto Nathan Road. Another crossing, then they turned left and kept going up Nathan Road, past the Sheraton Hotel until they got to Middle Road. Moira felt her heart begin to race, and not just because it was 90-odd degrees and she had no business walking around in this heat. She pushed her sunglasses up on to her head to get a better look as they went down the street.
She squinted against the sun to see ahead of her, realising with depressing inevitability, that their former home wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there.
‘There it is.’ Carina said, almost in a whisper, as she stopped dead on the pavement.
Moira almost crashed into the back of her. She turned her head, trying to see something she recognised. It took her a moment but… yes. The doorway. The same doorway. Same frame. Although, it no longer had five coats of chipped paint and a battered old door hanging off it. Or a tatty sign above it saying:
Kowloon Star Guest House
Now, the door was glass with long brass handles, there were topiary balls in big steel planters on either side, and a large gold sign on the wall said:
The Bendon
in vintage letters, with:
Boutique Hotel
underneath.
‘Are we going in?’ Carina asked, clearly not fussed either way. Moira could understand why – other than the location, this modern, flash hotel clearly had no connection to the hovel they’d lived in.
Moira was too busy recreating a memory from her first day here. Carina answering the door. Walking up the rickety stairs. And there, at the reception, Nate.
Her Nate.
Moira managed to force out the words. ‘Yes, I think we are.’