After dim sum today in the International District, I and my lunch companions set out in search of crazy-looking fish in a couple of pet stores. Along the way, I became intent on finally seeing the Wah Mee, so after the first pet store I asked a couple of my companions where it was. As we stood outside the pet store arguing about where it was, I looked at the doorway right beside me and realized we were standing right next to it.
That's it with the gouged, filthy adobe facade and filthy glass block window. The doors were chained, but were hanging open a couple of inches. Not exactly highly secure.
The ID is not exactly swank. It's not pretty to look at in most places. Yet it's still bloody expensive. And the Wah Mee, right in the middle of the ID, has remained vacant for 22 years due to respect and fear of ghosts and bad luck. There's something comforting about the fact that a neighborhood still has that kind of memory and that kind of heart. I hope it remains vacant forever.
Though it would be the ultimate 'infiltration' project. Just a little chain secures the door. Well, a little chain and a pack of demons from hell...
1 comment:
Places haunt us, young son. I spent most of college trying to purge the shambling ghost of my Aunt Dot's tumbledown Victorian in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
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