“Bunk! You fix your little door and run back and tell Chang Li Ching I want to see him.”
“No can do! No savvy Chang.”
“You tell him I’m here,” I said, turning my back on the door. I sat down on the top step, and added, without looking around, “I’ll wait.”
While I got my cigarettes out there was silence behind me. Then the door closed softly and the scraping and clicking broke out behind it. I smoked a cigarette and another and let time go by, trying to look like I had all the patience there was. I hoped this yellow man wasn’t going to make a chump of me by letting me sit there until I got tired of it.
Chinese passed up and down the alley, scuffling along in American shoes that can never be made to fit them. Some of them looked curiously at me, some gave me no attention at all. An hour went to waste, and a few minutes, and then the familiar scraping and clicking disturbed the door.
The chain rattled as the door swung open. I wouldn’t turn my head.
“Go ’way! No catch ’em Chang!”
I said nothing. If he wasn’t going to let me in he would have let me sit there without further attention.
A pause.
“Whata wan’?”
“I want to see Chang Li Ching,” I said without looking around.
Another pause, ended by the banging of the chain against the doorframe.
“All light.”