“You are obviously lost—”
“I’m not lost. The damned brothel is lost—”
“We are going to a brothel?” That was Bahram, suddenly acquiring an interest.
“Not anytime soon,” Rashid said, under his breath.
“I’ll find it, okay?” I said, and snatched back the map that he’d tried to steal.
“Why are we going to a brothel?” Bahram inquired, as Louis-Cesare held up a hand.
I was about to answer when one of the guys at a nearby dim sum shop opened a door on the side and kicked out a set of wood stairs. They’d been folded up under the door, out of the way. But now they spread-out and down, allowing me to see that they were held together by sturdy metal hinges on the side of each step.
Rotating hinges, I realized, as the thing snaked around the skies for a moment, until the waiter pushed it in our direction. It reached all the way to the rickshaw and then some, falling another half story below us. And allowing the man in his fresh white apron to run down and stop by our side.
He took out a small note pad and looked at us inquiringly.
“Char Siu Bao,” Louis-Cesare said. He held up a thumb and two fingers. “Three, yes?”
The waiter guy nodded and wrote on the pad.
“Beer,” I said. “And we’re gonna need more of those barbeque buns.”
“I just ordered three,” Louis-Cesare protested.
“But I’m going to eat two orders myself.”
“I, too, would like barbeque buns,” Bahram said, leaning forward.
Louis-Cesare looked over his shoulder at Rashid, and cocked an eyebrow enquiringly.
“I would like to get where we are going!” Rashid said, and stole my map.
I decided to let him have it, because I couldn’t figure it out and eat at the same time.
“Char Siu Bao. Four,” Louis-Cesare corrected, holding up a thumb and three fingers.
“Six,” Bahram corrected. I looked at him. He shrugged. “I have an appetite.”
“Not for those,” Rashid said, his eyes searching the map.
“Why not?”
“They have pork.” He looked up at Louis-Cesare. “They do, yes?”
“Usually.” Louis-Cesare looked back at the menu. “Har Gow—shrimp dumplings?” He looked at Bahram.
“They are mukhruh,” Bahram said sadly
. “Not forbidden, but—”
“Not encouraged?” Louis-Cesare guessed.
Bahram nodded.
Louis-Cesare went back to perusing the menu. I leaned over the seat to look at the map. It was upside down, which gave me a new perspective, not that it helped.
I got out my phone.