“Maybe that’s what he was afraid of,” said Doc. “Lee wrote to me about it. I couldn’t advise him—I was too far away—so he was safe.”

“You can’t never find out what a Chink’s got on his mind,” said Mack. “Doc, who would of thought he was what you might say—plotting?”

Oh, it had been a shocking thing. Lee Chong had operated his emporium for so long that no one could possibly have foreseen that he would sell out. He was so mixed up in the feeding and clothing of Cannery Row that he was considered permanent. Who could have suspected the secret turnings of his paradoxical Oriental mind, which seems to have paralleled the paradoxical Occidental mind?

It is customary to think of a sea captain sitting in his cabin, planning a future grocery store not subject to wind or bottom-fouling. Lee Chong dreamed while he worked his abacus and passed out pints of Old Tennis Shoes and delicately sliced bacon with his big knife. He dreamed all right—he dreamed of the sea. He did not share his plans or ask advice. He would have got lots of advice.

One day Lee Chong sold out and bought a schooner. He wanted to go trading in the South Seas. He dreamed of palms and Polynesians. In the hold of his schooner he loaded the entire stock of his store—all the canned goods, the rubber boots, the caps and needles and small tools, the fireworks and calendars, even the glass-fronted showcases where he kept gold-plated collar buttons and cigarette lighters. He took it all with him. And the last anyone saw of him, he was waving his blue naval cap from the flying bridge of his dream ship as he passed the whistle buoy at Point Pinos

“Why do you suppose he done it?” Mack asked.

“Who knows?” said Doc. “Who knows what lies deep in any man’s mind? Who knows what any man wants?”

“He won’t be happy there,” said Mack. “He’ll be lonely out among them foreigners. You know, Doc, I figured it out. It was them goddam movies done it. You remember, he used to close up every Thursday night. That’s because there was a change of bill at the movie house. He never missed a movie. That’s what done it, the movies. I and you, Doc, we know what liars the movies are. He won’t be happy out there. He’ll just be miserable to come back.”