“Where do the rest of the family live?” she asked casually.
“Oh! The big master and mistress are in the eastern side of the building and Mistress Bai Choo is on the western side. The family don’t come to this part of the house often.”
They stopped when they reached a small courtyard. To call it a courtyard was an exaggeration. It was a little open space with a well in the middle. All round it were tubs and brushes. A big dish of soap and a wooden scrubbing board stood in between the tubs. Above them, hung a clothes line with washing on it.
“There,” whispered Ah Su apologetically. “I’ll leave this with you.” She hurried away, abandoning the basket on the floor.
Shao Peng looked around. She was troubled that Li Ling was relegated to such quarters. She raised a fist to the door and knocked. There was no reply. She pushed open the door.
Through the gloom, she could see a bed tucked at one end, its’ bed sheet crumpled, exposing the thin mattress and bare wooden boards beneath. At the other end of the bedroom was a heavy wardrobe. A dressing table with a mirror blotched and aged with black spots, stood next to it. She stepped inside. It was airless and still. She felt a movement behind her and, almost at the same instance, the sound of a door closing. She turned. Li Ling was standing behind her. She must have been hiding behind the door.
“Why have you come?” The words were spat out, terse.
“To see you. I have brought this for you.” Shao Peng tried to keep calm. She placed the basket on a chair.
“I don’t want it.”
Shao Peng went up to Li Ling. “Can we not just talk?”
“Go away! I don’t need your help.”
“Please Li Ling. Tell me what I have done wrong?” Shao Peng took a step closer. Her eyes became accustomed to the dark. Li Ling’s gaunt face shocked her. When she last saw her at the convent, she was a young girl. Now she seemed to have aged a decade. She reached out. Li Ling flung her hand away.
“I hate you! Don’t you know that? I hate you for building such hopes in me for a better life. You led me to believe that you loved me. I shared your bedroom. You said that you would make something out of me. Yet you allow them to send me away. I was not good enough for your brother.”
Li Ling shook with anger. The words she had bottled up in her weeks of self enforced silence rushed out. She hurled accusations at Shao Peng; she shouted and screamed; she knocked over a chair; she kicked a stool and then finally she cried. She stood with both palms on her face and sobbed and sobbed. Shao Peng tried to gather her in her arms. She couldn’t get close; their tummies were in the way. She tried again. The humour of the situation suddenly struck Li Ling. She began to giggle. Shao Peng took her by the hand and drew her to the bed. They sat with Shao Peng’s arms around her shoulders.
“I tried to persuade my stepmother to let you stay. I failed. It was not my house, not my decision. I am so, so sorry. I had no home to offer you until I had a home myself. I wanted you to come to me when I had a house I called my own. By then you were so upset you would not accept anything from me. I wanted you to make something of yourself. I wanted you to study. You can still do that.”
Shao Peng hugged Li Ling. “Shhh, shhh! Don’t cry.”
Spent, Li Ling laid down and pulled the sheets to her.
“Is he cruel to you? Does the family treat you badly?” Shao Peng swept her hand to encompass the room. “This ... this is not what I pictured for you.”
With a muffled sob and halting words, Li Ling described her married life.
***
Throughout her journey home, the horror of Li Ling’s tale replayed in Shao Peng’s mind. She shut her eyes tight as though shutting them would stop the images of violence in her mind eyes. She could not possibly let Li Ling stay a minute longer in that household. Yet how could she remove Li Ling from the clutches of her husband? She could not involve Siew Loong. He was recently married. She knew that he was fond of Li Ling. She had often wondered at the depth of his feelings. How would he react if he was told the full story? He might blame his mother and what use would that be, except to create turmoil within their family?
She leaned back against the seat. She was so preoccupied that she was unmindful of the jolts and bumps of the pony cart. The dirt road was filled with potholes. Floods had resulted in landslides so that the cart had to weave around mounds of earth and tree branches brought down from the hills. She recalled her first journey with Li Ling to the Convent. Life had been simpler then. How could things change so dramatically? How could a young innocent girl be so transformed? She winced each time she recalled the physical abuse Li Ling suffered. She felt nausea to think of the sexual violation. She clutched her belly protectively, cradling and stroking it. How could it be safe to bring up a child in such a world?
By the time she reached home, the sun had disappeared below the horizon. The house was covered in darkness except for the pool of light from a lantern held aloft. A tall silhouette stood beneath it. It must be Jack. She knew Jack would be worried. She had not intended to be late. It was not safe to travel in the evening with just the driver. She had been warned many times. Ah Sook would have been horrified that she had ventured out on her own with just the driver of the pony cart.
Jack was waiting at the top of the flight of steps to their bungalow. She hurried towards him. Her foot slid on a pebble, she righted herself. She heard him call out to her to slow down. She could not. She wanted to feel his arms around her, to feel safe. She ran and on reaching him, threw her arms around him. The lantern swayed precariously under the impact.
“Steady, I am here. It is all right.”
“I have seen Li Ling,” she said. “We must help her.”
Chapter 31
AFTER THE WEEKS of frantic preparation, the days following the wedding were dull in comparison. The banners and drapes that hung and covered every wall in the Ong household had long been taken down, the floors washed and buffed to their original shine and the dozens of chairs and tables brought out to cater for guests put away. The servants breathed a sigh of relief. Ah Tai took the opportunity to put her feet up. Even idle chatter in the kitchen died down to just the occasional word and comment. The weather was once more changing in preparation for the monsoon. At times the heat was unbearable. Ah Tai fanned herself. Humidity had taken its toll in the kitchen. Everything was damp to touch. She resisted the urge to get up and wipe down the table. She was too tired. She would rest first before attending to dinner.
In Rohani’s private rooms, Suet Ping was busy drawing a pattern for a pair of beaded slippers. With great concentration, she drew a chrysanthemum flower, its minute petals nestling on a sprig of green leaves. Spools of cotton and trays of coloured beads lay by her side.
“I’ll have to have gold beads for the flower,” she said to herself, “and I have run out.”
Rohani watched from a distance. She saw how Suet Ping held her brush, her long slim fingers with their shell pink nails pressed against the pen’s stem. After a while, Rohani patted the seat next to her. “Sit with me,” she said.
Suet Ping stopped what she was doing and went immediately to her mother-in-law. She sank gracefully on to the cushion and turned to smile at Rohani. She waited expectantly.
“Is my son treating you well?”
“Yes, mother. He is treating me well.”
Rohani dithered. Should she or should she not? she asked herself. It was almost two months since the wedding and she was disconcerted by what she had heard from the maids.
“Are you ... does he..? I mean are you feeling well? Do you have any signs of sickness, nausea, any craving for strange foods?”
“No. I don’t have any illness of any sort at all. Don’t worry about me. I am fine.”
Rohani’s eyes narrowed. It was clear that the child did not know why she was asking such questions. She tried her wheedling from another angle. “Siew Loong seems very preoccupied,” she commented. “He is out of the house early in the morning and does not come home until late at night.
Does he spend enough time with you?”
Suet Ping was not sure what her mother-in-law was driving at. She did not know what was expected of a husband. No one had told her what to expect or do. She knew that she had to be obedient to her mother-in-law and to her husband. Wishing to reassure her mother-in-law, she said, “Siew Loong is very good to me; he is like a brother and looks after me well.”
“A brother? Surely he has ... is he sleeping with you?” The words fell out of Rohani’s mouth before she could check herself.
Suet Ping blushed. She looked down on the floor. The first night, Siew Loong had offered her the bed and opted to sleep on the floor. She had felt bad and insisted that he shared the bed. Now they slept on the bed, separated by a bolster in the middle. She felt comfortable with the arrangement. She recalled the servants’ whispers when they came to tidy the room the morning after the wedding night. They had looked at the sheets and then at her and then back at the sheets as though something was wanting. She recalled her mother saying that she must show red on her wedding night although she did not elaborate on how this could occur. Perhaps what was missing was this red. Before she could ask, her mother had switched the topic to something else saying that it was good that Rohani was not a strict follower of Chinese traditions and had done away with the custom.
“Is he sleeping with you?” Rohani asked again, looking quite alarmed this time by Suet Ping’s silence.
“Yes. He sleeps on the bed with me,” came the reply. Suet Ping voice had dropped to a whisper. Something told her that her mother-in-law was not happy. There was a look of desperation in her face. She was bursting to say something and Suet Ping waited patiently to hear it.
Rohani clutched the ends of her kebaya top, her fingers digging into her own palms. Should she explain what she meant by sleeping? She couldn’t. Surely it was Suet Ping’s mother’s duty to do so. She should have checked before the wedding that Suet Ping was told what was involved. She supposed her mother had expected that Siew Loong would take the lead and all Suet Ping had to do was to comply. Rohani sighed. What a mess! She was sure that the marriage had yet to be consummated. She took the girl’s hand into her own and patted it.
“Have I done wrong?” asked Suet Ping.
“No, not at all. Go back to your beading.”
Rohani looked on as Suet Ping once more took up her pen brush. She recalled how she was with her late husband. Love was the most natural thing for them. They were two together, alone and in love. Perhaps she was wrong to force this marriage. Siew Loong did not love Suet Ping. It showed in his daily dealings with his wife. Yet Rohani was so sure that it was just a matter of time before he would. She made up her mind. She had to give them a little push in the right direction. But how?
Rohani got up and went to the window. Outside in the garden, Aishah was stripping the yellowed fronds from the banana tree. Bunches of bananas lay in a rattan basket by her feet. She reached out to cut another bunch, her buttocks strained against the thin cotton of her sarong when she leaned forward on tiptoe. With a sharp movement of her knife, she cut through the stem and the bunch fell. She caught it expertly and laid it alongside the others. She then tidied up the fronds that she had stripped, piling them up high for the gardener to collect. Her movements were fluid, strong and uninhibited. That Aishah was aware of her sexuality was in no doubt.
Rohani looked on as Aishah worked. She had learnt a lot about Aishah. When she went to fetch Aishah from her guardian, all her anger against the girl vanished. She was shocked at how she had been treated. Even now she could see the sores and cuts on the girl’s wrists and ankles. She had him unchain her. Rohani believed that Aishah’s misdeed was a moment of madness, and that she could help the girl reform. Who would not be maddened by such inhuman treatment? No wonder Aishah had a fixation on Jack who had been kind. They had talked and talked. She saw in Aishah, the daughter that she never had. With Shao Peng there was always a barrier; Shao Peng hankered after her own mother and her aunt Heong Yook. Aishah had no one.
Aishah, Rohani thought, would be a good teacher for Suet Ping. She would help her out of her innocence. Aishah could talk to Suet Ping without being embarrassed. It would be good for Siew Loong’s marriage.
***
In the kitchen, Ah Tai had dropped off to sleep. Her head lolled, jerking every now and then when it rolled too far back. Slowly her jaw slackened, her mouth fell open and she began to snore. The two undermaids in the kitchen looked at each other. Now was the time, they thought, to steal a little rest themselves. They dropped their paring knives in a basket and placed the turnips they were peeling aside. Between them they had peeled and shredded a dozen of these huge turnips. “Surely, that was enough,” they whispered to each other. With great concentration and care, they tiptoed out of the kitchen, stifling their impulse to giggle. Ah Sum and Ah Looi were two sisters employed to help Ah Tai when Ah Kew left to join Shao Peng’s household. Just thirteen and fourteen of age, they were mischievous.
“Come, let’s go out that way,” said Ah Sum pointing in the direction of the back garden. “Aishah is there harvesting bananas. We’ll get some from her. She won’t mind.”
“Do you know why we are not to tell anyone that Aishah is living here?” Ah Looi asked with one foot resting on her other calf while she bent over to scratch its sole. An ant had bitten her the other day and the bite had become an angry red weal.
“I don’t know. Probably in case the news reaches Miss Shao Peng. Big Mistress was particularly insistent that Miss Shao Peng should not know. Quick, come before Ah Tai wakes up.”
“What must I not know?” Shao Peng stepped into their view.
Ah Sum and Ah Looi started. “Nothing, nothing. We didn’t hear you,” they mumbled.
“I knocked and knocked. No one answered the front door so I came to the back. Where is everyone?”
“Big Mistress is upstairs with Mistress Suet Ping. They must be resting. They won’t be able to hear you. Ah Tai is also resting and we...” the sisters looked at each other guiltily, “we were going out to the back garden.”
“I won’t wake them up if they are resting. I’ll come with you to the garden. Is the gardener here? He can get me a bunch of those lovely golden bananas. I have a craving for those. “
The two girls stared at Shao Peng and then at each other.
“Don’t look so frightened, Mistress Rohani said that I am welcome to have them.”
“No ... we’ll get them for you.” Ah Looi dashed towards the back garden and bumped immediately into Aishah, knocking the basket of bananas out of Aishah’s hand. The fruits scattered onto the ground.
“Tengok mana anda pergi! Look where you are going!” Aishah dropped to her knees and began picking up the bananas. She did not see Shao Peng, who had rushed after Ah Looi when she heard the commotion.
Shao Peng could not believe her eyes. Instinctively she cradled her belly. She didn’t want Aishah to see her. She could not bear those cat eyes glaring at her with the ferocious intensity of a tiger. She wheeled, catching Ah Sum, who was tailing her. She placed a finger to her lips and hurried away.
Chapter 32
SHAO PENG HAD GONE back to her family home to speak to Rohani. She wanted to ask her to help Li Ling. She had discussed at length with Jack the various possibilities of rescuing Li Ling. None seemed viable. The biggest problem, explained Jack, was that in matters of civil law regarding the local and immigrant population, the British administration had adopted a principle of non-interference.
“My hands, even those of the Resident, are tied. In family matters we leave it to each ethnic group to administer the customary justice they feel most appropriate. In all my years here we have never intervened. The Sultan or his chiefs resolve any dispute amongst Malays in accordance with Muslim law. Similarly, the Indian community follow Indian rules and customs as practised in India. In the case of the Chinese community in Kuala Lumpur we leave it to their leader, the Kapitan China. Your brother is in a better position to talk to Kapi
tan Yap. Isn’t he his personal friend?
“I can’t believe you cannot use your office to intervene.”
“I am sorry. We are not in the Straits Settlements. The British Resident in Selangor has only an advisory role, even though in most situations our advice is followed and implemented. We must not be blatant about it. Our position is delicate. We reserve our intervention and advice for matters of state and economy, and never for personal matters. In personal matters, the leaders of the various ethnic groups have full power. Face is very important in this part of the world. We cannot take on family matters without causing a major outcry.”
“Is there no other way? Surely if there is abuse within the family, something could be done by your administration.” “Only the local leaders can intervene in family matters. It would be unfair for us to meddle in such matters. Let me give you an example. Polygamy is widely practised here. It is not allowed under English law. Even though we are against polygamy and it is illegal under British law, we would not make families with such arrangements cast away the secondary wives. That would be cruel. It wouldn’t be accepted. And as for wife battering, the issues involved are even more complex.”
“So what can we do? We cannot leave Li Ling with her husband. She will not survive. She will be giving birth in a few months. How could we leave her to be kicked and abused?”
“See your brother. Ask him to get help from the Kapitan. See him at his office. Don’t go to his house. There are too many distractions there.”
But Shao Peng couldn’t approach her brother on a matter relating to Li Ling without first consulting her stepmother. Rohani would consider such a step as treacherous. So Shao Peng had gone to see Rohani only to discover that she was harbouring Aishah. Shao Peng felt betrayed.
During her journey home she mulled over her discovery. How could Rohani do that to her? Did her brother know? she wondered. He must know. He lived in the same house. Yet she could not believe that her brother would do such a thing. The arguments in her mind went back and forth and she went from anger to recrimination to disappointment and sadness. Finally, Shao Peng took a deep breath. She had to rise above her own personal grievances and to focus on ways to rescue Li Ling. She could not allow herself to be distracted. Every minute wasted was a minute more that Li Ling had to endure abuse. She could not allow time to slip away. Yet how could she trust Rohani to help her? Rohani had chosen to give a home to Aishah when she had turned Li Ling out.
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