by Ming Cher
“Ah Sou,” Yeow asked, addressing the cigarette woman. “Anybody looking for me?”
“Only Chai, he said not important,” she replied, then asked Kim and Kwang in a motherly way, “Did you all eat yet? Where do you all come from?”
Neither of them liked being treated as kids and felt uneasy. Kim looked at Kwang, Kwang didn’t bother to answer, instead he said, “Yeow, we make a move first. We have coffee together some other time.” He was hand in hand with Kim.
“All right, okay,” Yeow smiled. “I come and see you tomorrow.”
After the four took off, Yeow squatted next to the cigarette woman. She rolled up a cigarette and lit it on the small kerosene lamp. “I like him,” she said, puffing. “A lot of substance in that boy. Is he the one you talk about?”
“Yes.” Yeow squinted into empty space.
“What about that beautiful girl?”
“They grow up together in the same house.”
“A pair of yin yang, a dazzling flower on a patch of cow dung,” she commented. “Find out more about him first, bring him around for Cheong Pak to have another look at him. To rebuild Hon Moon you must have patience. Ten years is only a blink.”
Together with her husband, Cheong Pak, the woman was the caretaker of several houses bought by Yeow under both their names. The real knowledge of how Chinatown worked resided with them. Cheong Pak, a short and stocky man, walked as straight as a soldier even at nearly sixty years old. He was the financial adviser of the Hon Moon secret society. Hon Moon, or Red Gate, had been created by the Kuomintang in China to raise funds from overseas Chinese for Sun Yat Sen, whose plan was to topple the Manchu dynasty. The organisation was extinguished when the country turned red under Mao Zedong. Wong, San’s father, had held an important role in the organisation, but he retired after Mao took over.
Yeow jointly owned all the comic book rental stalls in Chinatown with the old couple, who had no children of their own. His newspaper boys were former street kids who now ran the distribution network in Chinatown. Almost all the coffeeshop boys got their jobs through Yeow, because he could guarantee honesty for his boys who dealt with cash. They became his ears.
Under Cheong Pak’s management and advice, Yeow’s business had grown so much he did not know for sure how much money he had. They also ran the tontine, an informal financial system that helped the Chinatown hawkers pool their money together and raise capital through bidding among them.
Cheong Pak had said, “Money glitters forever and holds the final cards. Society is made of big and small gangs of all kinds, the government is a gang, your friend is your gang. Secret societies nowadays are full of headless gangs. They have wrong guts and no fixed morals. That is why political gangs win in the end. Animal die for food, man die for money. Our business must be spiritually and economically sound. Two sounds. At the end, business is about spirit of cooperation. Those who cannot understand the virtue and strength of cooperation will never grow further. Don’t forget that. Rub shoulder with the brilliant will give you brilliance. I learnt my lesson.”
Yeow, who seldom smoked, took a menthol cigarette from a tin. Yeow smoked, biting on the filter, and said to the cigarette woman, “I am going to Bukit Ho Swee tomorrow like you and Cheong Pak say. Spend more time there. I am thinking of finding a place there too. If that Shark Head can bend all the spider boys away from Chai, he can easily lead all my boys in Chinatown—with him maybe taking the crown of spider boys this year, hmmm?” He smiled.
“Very soon you will have an army of impossibles,” she said with her rolled-up cigarette between her fingers. “When are you going back to Penang to bring back your auntie’s bones?”
“I will tell you when I am ready.”
“Pull the hands of Kwang and Chai together first,” she advised.
• • •
Yeow ate at his favourite Ho San coffeeshop next to the comic book rental stall. He then strolled toward Santeng, Kim and Kwang on his mind. At the busy foothill, he changed his mind and decided to go to Bukit Ho Swee for a surprise visit. He caught a taxi there, taking a torchlight with him.
Unlike Chinatown, which awoke at night, Bukit Ho Swee slept by night and woke early. Its silence at night, especially at the outskirts, had a contrasting atmosphere of peace and tranquility, which suited him.
At No Nose Bridge, he leaned on the railing to look down into Ho Swee river at the reflection of the pearly moon, a silver, romantic image on the black water, which made him lonely and emotional. The lone wolf was howling inside.
Someone came on the creaky bridge, and it started swaying. Yeow saw a figure pushing a bicycle, headlights shining, he suddenly wished that it could be Chai. Indeed it was.
“Hey! Yeow!” Chai shouted. He pushed his bike faster. “How come you are here? I looked for you everywhere!”
“Blown by the wind tonight,” Yeow said as they walked together.
“You’re talking strange,” Chai said. “What wind?”
“Coincidence,” he said in his usual quiet manner. “How is luck? Ah Sou said you’re looking for me.”
“Nothing much, luck’s good. Are you coming to the village to look for me?” Chai guessed delightedly.
“I met Kwang and Kim at Eu Tong Sen bridge today—Big Mole and Sachee will stay with them tonight.”
“What! Sachee is also there!” Chai pounded his bike handle. “I don’t feel comfortable with that little rat around!”
“Sachee is only a small boy. Don’t make small matters mount on him.” He pacified the other with a pat on Chai’s beefy shoulder. “Give me a lift.”
Chai shook his head, looking down with nothing else to say, and gave Yeow a lift down No Nose Bridge.
As Chai peddled, Yeow said, “I want to find a place to stay in this village. You arrange for me?”
“No problem. I’ll ask San to ask his father. He knows the village like that,” Chai flipped his hand left and right. “When?”
“Any time. I stay at your place tonight?”
“Sure,” Chai said and biked on.
Over the previous few months Chai’s friendship with Yeow had grown like brothers. He had learn to accept that Yeow was always right. The way Yeow ‘threw’ money around made his spider business look small. The wrangles with Kwang had come to a point where he had started to accept defeat and lose his sense of direction. At nearly fifteen years old, he also knew that it was time to retire from the childhood games of spider glory and spider money.
Yeow said, “Money easy to make. People hard to find.”
“What kind of people do you want?” Chai asked.
“People with brains and nerves, like you and Kwang; join together to run my street boys business.”
“How much will you pay me? Friendship is one thing, but we talk straight first.”
“Good,” Yeow said. “Straightforward between you and me is best, I will pay you three hundred dollars a month.”
“What? Three hundred dollars! That is more than five times I make in a month! I make more than any man makes in this village. What do I do?”
“Just round up my boys and see they don’t fight each other and steal things in Chinatown.”
“So easy? When!”
“Not easy. When you and Kwang become friends again.”
They had reached Kuan Yin Temple, where the whiff of burning incense and joss paper indicated that it was a late night on account of the full moon. In the village, people gossiped in the shadows while the children played near the old tree. Rubbish was burning in scattered patches. To Yeow, the night scene felt spooky.
Yeow started to talk. “Chai, I can smell it. This place is like Santeng, full of old bones who know a lot.”
Yeow’s world was too abstract for Chai most of the time, and he didn’t bother to understand it. “Over there!” he pointed ahead. “Can you see? That Shark Head and his boys are over there under the big beard tree.”
“Good one, see how he acts.” Yeow thought and asked, “Chai, you come with me?”
Chai lit up for a smoke and shook his head. “No, no, you go yourself. I wait for you in front of my place.”
“Come on,” Yeow insisted. “Grow up a bit and make small problems disappear. What is there to lose face? It’s good for all of us!”
Chai did not argue and went along reluctantly.
It wasn’t long before Kwang’s boys spotted them. They reported to Kwang.
“Chinatown Yeow here?” Ah Seow, the hero worshipper, asked in excitement.
“Spread the news,” Kwang said at once. “Tell all our people to come here, I introduce Chinatown Yeow to them.”
“That’s the way! Show them our numbers!” Ah Seow persuaded the kids.
Yeow was surprised. “Hey? Why are they moving away?” He watched the lone figure of Kwang stand up to walk towards them, Ah Seow following.
“They will come back to show off their numbers.” Chai grumbled. “I lost a lot of them to him!”
As they approached Yeow, Ah Seow asked his boss, “Do you know why he is coming with Chai here tonight?”
Kwang didn’t reply, but he had anticipated the question. “If I want something, I go to him. He wants something? He comes to me. Wait and see is the best.”
“Come to see you for a change,” Yeow smiled, with a knowing look at Kwang and Chai, who avoided eye contact with each other. He stretched his hand towards Ah Seow. He wanted to break the ice by softening up the less important member first. “I am Yeow,” he said, introducing himself.
Ah Seow eagerly stretched out to shake Yeow’s hand. “I am Seng!” He trembled nervously at the famous name.
“People here call him Ah Seow,” Chai joined in. “Ah Seow!” he asked. “Did you see San?”
“Just now he walk past with a bottle to catch fireflies, going uphill,” Kwang answered to make Chai feel easy.
Yeow took the opportunity to turn to Ah Seow. “Seng,” he said, “why not find a place and wait around here first?”
Overwhelmed by Yeow’s attention and addressed as Seng instead of a crazy nickname, “Okay, okay,” Ah Seow replied quickly and led the way.
Leaving Kwang and Chai behind, Yeow continued talking. “Seng, did you see a boy with a chubby face this tall, and a skinny girl about your height with a big mole under the eye?” Yeow held out a hand to indicate Sachee’s height.
“I know, I know,” Ah Seow said eagerly. “They went out with my sister to visit her friends.”
“Kim is your sister?” Yeow exclaimed quietly, and started a conversation with Ah Seow.
Following behind slowly, Kwang started to feel sorry and puzzled by the way Chai looked at and followed Yeow. He placed a hand on his bicycle as they walked. “How is luck outside? I may go to Pasir Panjang to test that area out in a day or two. Maybe we should join forces and have a look. Want to come?” He turned to Chai.
Chai thought about it. “Why go so far?”
“There is nothing much happening around.”
“I have been even farther—up to Changi! Everywhere is the same at this time. Wait for the kite season to finish in another month and then it will pick up.” Their friendship was united, like it was in the old days.
Kwang was quiet as they joined the gathering of spider boys crowding around Ah Seow’s new hero. When they arrived, the spider boys all stood up to make way for their reunion. They all cherished the night, especially Yeow, who quietly rubbed his hands with satisfaction.
9
Big Spider
AFTER KWANG AND Chai were reconciled, Yeow rented a house in the village for Big Mole and Sachee. Big Mole and Kim became close friends. Chinatown was not new to Kim anymore. Sometimes Kwang stayed away for a day, or for a few days, and he gave up schooling without his mother’s knowledge. Spider activities in the village had decreased with no major matches between Kwang and Chai.
One Saturday afternoon, it drizzled on and off. Big Mole was lying on the balcony at Kwang’s place, watching a gecko on the ceiling spring on mosquitoes. She said absent-mindedly, “I wish I have a lot of money.”
Kim, replaiting a pigtail, teased her, “Then you should marry a rich man, become second wife also never mind—right?”
“Third wife also never mind,” Big Mole replied. “But I am ugly, nobody want me—you see?” She pointed at her mole.
“Money also cannot make your mole disappear,” Kim said bluntly. “What do you want to do with money? Tell me first.”
“Why so stupid?” Big Mole said. “Money can do anything.”
Sachee, in the middle of teaching a new game of cards to Kwang’s brothers and some other boys of the same age, threw down his hand and scrambled to join Big Mole. “I like fighting fish! Start a fighting fish shop!”
“Sachee is right!” Big Mole sat up. “Maybe we can breed pet fish ourself. Anybody breeding pet fish in this village? No need big capital.”
“No, nobody,” Ah Seow answered as he fed bedbugs to Kwang’s spiders.
“Ask your boss to talk to Yeow,” Big Mole said, suddenly looking inspired and hopeful for a change.
“Better talk to Chai first,” Ah Seow advised. “Chai can smell money. If he agree, Yeow will agree.”
“Don’t talk to Chai!” Sachee shook his fist at Seow. “If he knows, nothing will be left for us… The most is only bones!”
“Big man! You talk so big,” Kim turned around to face Sachee. “How many kinds of fish do you want to breed?”
“Only fighting fish,” Sachee insisted.
“All kinds, any kind that sells,” Big Mole answered.
Ah Seow asked, “How are you going to feed them?”
“Mosquito larvae! Plenty around!” Sachee cried out.
“Yah! Mosquito larvae!” Big Mole exclaimed and hugged Sachee, “We know a lot of things you all don’t know.”
Kim challenged Big Mole impulsively. “What do you get for doing it? It is still not your business.”
Unlike the fiery Kim, Big Mole was more thoughtful. She mumbled quietly, “I want to have my own money—become rich one day for everybody to see.” Inwardly, she seethed with emotions beyond her own understanding. She wanted to burst into tears, but was able to hold herself together from a toughness that came from being the only street girl in Singapore. She cuddled Sachee more tightly.
“Don’t let Chai know,” Sachee warned again.
“Why?” Kim stretched out a leg to tickle his chubby body.
Offended at not being treated as an equal, he grabbed her leg with a forward push and yelled, “Don’t look small at me!” He was surprisingly fast and strong, and sent her falling backwards.
Rubbing her bumped head, she recovered to tickle him harder, to annoy him even more. “Why, why? Why?”
Knowing he could not win, Sachee pleaded playfully, “Don’t be like that lah! I don’t like to fight with girl.”
“Sachee.” Big Mole pushed him off her lap. “Go back and play your card, I talk to you later.”
Sachee took off. Ah Seow went back to his room to study, Big Mole on his mind. Ah Seow liked her curly eyebrows and smooth, brown skin. In his room, he could hear their girl talk.
“Want to see a movie tonight?” Kim’s voice.
“I don’t have money like you.” Big Mole’s voice.
“Don’t talk like that lah, I pay for you.”
“You pay for me all the time—no, I don’t feel like going anywhere.”
“Why so moody today?”
“Talk also no use, you cannot help.”
“About fish business?”
“Lots more than that—how old do you think I am?”
“About my age, maybe more. Nearly thirteen? Fourteen? Why?”
“I—I don’t even know my age,” Big Mole held back a sob. “I have no name… I am not Chinese… I am not sure…”
“Don’t cry, cry also no use. Where do you come from? Don’t be scared to tell me, tell me everything.”
The girls’ voices became softer, less clear. Ah Seow snuck into his parents’ room, w
hich had a wall next to his neighbour’s balcony, and peeped through a gap in the planks.
“Don’t tell anybody, I never told anybody about myself before.” Big Mole lifted the edge of her wraparound skirt to wipe her eyes. “I remember living on prahu boat with my dog and going to many places.” She doodled aimlessly on the floor with a finger. “One time many people rushed to our boat, my Papa screamed, my dog suddenly stopped barking. Mama carried me away and jumped into the sea near the bank, crawled with me to the street, many people were pushing and running, my Mama fell down—I got pushed away. I couldn’t see my Mama…” She sobbed uncontrollably as she recollected her ordeal during the Japanese Occupation.
Kim stroked her shoulder sympathetically. “And then?”
“A woman found me, took me away and I lived with her. She is a prostitute. Sometimes she got crazy and beat me.”
“So you ran away?”
“Yes, three or four years ago.” Big Mole managed a smile. “She sold me to another prostitute house in Keong Saik Road.” She lay down and stared at the gecko.
Kim also relaxed, lying on the floor, nibbling the end of her pigtail and watching Big Mole. The girls shared a moment of silence. Kim then asked, “They prostituted you? You prostituted before you ran away?”
“No, not old enough, slave girl. I’d bring a bucket of water into the room before the man went in, take the water out when he finished washing his stick after playing, and clean up all the dirty sponges in the wash room—”
“What dirty sponges?” Kim cut in, startled.
“That is what prostitutes use before they sleep with men.”
“How? Dirty sponge?”
“The dirty sponge has the fucking man’s juice—this size.” She squeezed her palm into a tight fist. “Like that… they push it in their hole to stop the man’s juice from making them sick inside, also to not make babies.” She squatted and demonstrated with a few thrusts under her wraparound. Kim watched closely, then asked intently, “Did you see them sleep together?”
“Common for me—see a lot.”
“Where is Ah Seow? Where is Ah Seow?” Ah Seow’s eaves-dropping was interrupted by Kwang, who had just climbed up the three flights of stairs, his clothes soaked by the rain.