He had heard the story from a few different sources. That there was a woman now residing in Chinatown who gave the most incredible massages in the world. She went by the name of Madame Tay, but that was all he knew. As the legend was told, more than one man had succumbed to heart failure while "under her hand" and quite a few more were driven insane. So this had been the start of his obsession to find her.
People usually told him he was a shmuck when he informed them about these quests he often went on, but he liked to think of himself as a "man of the world". He was an experience junkie and he wanted to feel everything that life had to offer. So he went to Chinatown that day on a mission to locate this mysterious, elusive Madame Tay and discover what pleasures she could bestow.
When he arrived in the city he looked in the phone directory under "Tay" and found twenty odd listings. He called them all but got nowhere until he spoke to a Mr. Tay who said his mother was a "reader of tea leaves" and sometimes went by the title "Madame". So he arranged to meet this woman under the pretext that he needed advice.
Her office turned out to be a room over her family's dry cleaning business and she turned out to be a woman in her eighties. She brought him upstairs accompanied by her nephew and read the tealeaves in the bottom of his cup after he was finished.
"You are a chaser of shadows but you will soon make a great discovery!" she predicted.
He thanked her and paid her more than she asked for and then inquired if there was another Madame Tay that she knew of there. The old woman spoke to her nephew back and forth in Cantonese for awhile before the nephew addressed him.
"My aunt believes you may be looking for our relative who works at the dim sum kitchen on Panda Avenue." he announced.
He thanked the woman and her nephew before leaving but he had little faith in their referral. How could he find Madame Tay in a dim sum restaurant, he wondered?
The vision he had of Madame Tay was right out of central casting. He saw her as a swan-like creature with intense eyes that glittered with intrigue. She would, of course, be dressed in a traditional, full-length silk robe with her hands hidden in the sleeves. He envisioned her emerging from behind a curtain as a gong sounded and jasmine incense curled through the air. Then she would gracefully and ominously glide toward him...
When he arrived at Panda Avenue he realized this was not a good part of town. It was where the newly arrived Chinese lived in crowded little spaces that stunk of rotting food. Inside the dim sum kitchen itself, hordes of Chinese were noisily consuming their daily fare. He approached the cashier and had to shout to make himself heard.
"Do you have a Madame Tay that works here?" he queried.
The cashier looked perplexed but then summoned the manager. When the manager arrived he seemed to recognize the name and lead him to the back of the restaurant into the kitchen. They continued through the kitchen into another room where women were cutting vegetables. The manager asked him to wait there and then went behind a curtained door. Moments later a middle-aged woman peeked out at him and then disappeared. Then the manager came back out and held the curtain open for him.
"Madame see you now." he announced with a weird smile.
He entered the room and saw that it was set up like a small apartment with a table and chairs, a TV and a bed in the corner. It also had a small kitchen area where food was being cooked. Then the woman he had seen peek out from the curtain came out of the bathroom.
"Please to sit." she said, motioning toward the table.
"Are you Madame Tay?" he asked hesitantly.
"Yes, yes." she replied pushing a chair under him.
"Are you the same Madame Tay that...gives massages?"
"Yes, yes!" she relied again, patting his arm.
He wondered if this whole thing had been a mistake at that moment. She was a somewhat plump, gray-haired grandma and nothing about her said "dangerous" or "mysterious" to him. Although he understood from his experiences that the best massages were rarely given by the young cuties, he did have certain standards. He looked around the room again.
"So where do you...do your work?" he asked.
"Here, here!" she replied with a smile, pointing to the long dining table they were sitting at.
"Here!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, this table good for massage!" she insisted.
She got up and returned with a sleeping mat and rolled it out over the table and then placed a sheet over it.
"One hundred dollars, please." she said, holding her hand out.
He was uncomfortable with the whole situation, but then hadn't danger been what he had come there to find?
He paid her and then looked around for a place to change.
"Okay, you give me clothes now." she ordered.
He hesitated and then handed over his shirt and pants and shoes after removing his wallet and keys.
"Underwear too." she commanded.
