Ah Sook and Lydia Wells’s reunion in Hokitika turns an unexpected call at Anna Wetherell’s door into a collision between an old courtroom betrayal and Lydia’s new séance business. Ah Sook recognizes the woman whose testimony once identified him in a murder trial; Lydia recognizes him in turn, but quickly redirects that history into a chance to display him as an “Oriental presence.”

The Encounter at Anna’s Door

Ah Sook arrives while Anna is struggling to explain that she can no longer feel the effect of what he has sold her. He understands neither her distress nor the change she describes. When he refers to the last piece he gave her, Anna begins to answer, but Lydia appears beside her before she can continue. The interruption shifts control of the conversation: Anna retreats from the doorway, and Lydia takes charge of the visitor.

At first, Ah Sook steps back in shock rather than submission. He has not seen Lydia for nearly thirteen years. The last occasion was the Sydney courthouse, where he stood in the dock and she sat in the gallery. He remembers her embroidered sandalwood fan and pale-green gown, but most consequentially her short testimony: she pointed him out to the court. He did not understand her words, except that gesture identifying him. When he was acquitted of the murder, Lydia showed no emotion and left without looking back. The present meeting makes that old encounter physically immediate again.

Recognition and Reversal

Lydia’s first response is unusually unguarded. Her carefully controlled expression slackens, her eyes widen, and she says she knows Ah Sook. Anna, who has only just met him as the dealer from Kaniere, cannot understand how the two could be acquainted. Lydia asks what Anna called him; on hearing his name and occupation, she connects him with opium. Recognition arrives not through an account of their shared past but through the trade that has brought him to this particular doorway.

Ah Sook adjusts as soon as he realizes Lydia remembers him. Rather than explain or challenge her, he turns back to Anna and declares that he will buy her at the highest price. The abrupt offer is a tactical change within the same encounter: a moment earlier, he had been selling her opium; now, faced with Lydia’s recognition, he presents himself as a prospective purchaser. The scene leaves the proposal alongside Anna’s retreat and Lydia’s intervention, making clear how readily the conversation shifts between commerce, personal history, and control over Anna.

From Acquaintance to Séance Attraction

Lydia does not let Ah Sook simply leave. She grips his forearm and insists that he attend the séance that evening, despite Anna pointing out that he has no ticket. Lydia treats his presence as useful in itself, proposing that he sit among the guests as an exotic figure who can lend an air of judgment to the gathering. Her suggested roles—the Eastern Oracle, the Living Statue of the Orient, or the Dynastic Spirit—reduce him to a staged symbol before he has agreed to participate.

Ah Sook does not know the word séance. He does understand the word Oriental and guesses that he is the subject of their discussion. Looking down at Lydia’s hand around his arm, he notices the gold band on her finger and identifies her as Carver’s wife. Lydia answers that she is not Mrs Carver: her husband is dead, and she is a widow called Mrs Wells. The ring, his mistaken identification, and her correction make her altered status part of the reunion rather than a separate explanation. His recognition of her is entwined with the changes in her life that he can read from her appearance and disclose by pointing to the ring.

The Past Recast as Performance

Ah Sook asks whether Francis Carver was in Guangdong. Lydia mistakes his question for a statement and replies that Carver was based in Canton for many years. The exchange reveals a gap between what Ah Sook is trying to establish and what Lydia assumes she already understands; she folds his knowledge into her account of Carver’s connections without pausing to ask why he has raised the subject.

She then guides Ah Sook into the parlour and directs him to a cushion in the far corner, where he is to observe the faces around him. Their reunion thus ends not with an exchange about the Sydney trial, but with Lydia assigning him a place in her séance. The reversal is sharp: the woman whose testimony once helped identify him to a court now wants to exhibit him before an audience. Ah Sook’s history with Lydia remains present, but in Hokitika she recasts their connection as a spectacle, turning a remembered defendant into an “oracle” for the evening.