Meet Marly

by Alice Pung

  ‘Why didn’t your family go with you too?’ asked Marly.

  ‘Oh, dear child, re-education is not what you think it might mean. It’s not like sending you to school. It is more like a very hard gaol where they put you to work from early in the morning until late at night. They took me away because I was a Chinese merchant. Your aunty is Vietnamese. I saw my son for the first time only last year.’

  Last year! No wonder DaWei was so close to his mum, Marly thought. She wondered what she would be like if she had only met her father last year. There was a boy at her school, Toady, who bragged that his dad was in Pentridge Prison for armed robbery, but Marly didn’t know whether he was lying to show off or not. It seemed cool that Toady had this interesting family story. Now Marly had her own interesting family members.

  ‘All done!’ said Uncle Beng. ‘Now bring out that difficult cousin of yours for her haircut!’

  Marly went inside and told Tuyet it was her turn. Then she looked in the mirror. She didn’t look too bad, she thought. Her hair was short, even, and not too bowl-like.

  That evening, lying in the small single bed pushed against the side of her parents’ bed, Marly could not get to sleep. It was not her dad’s snoring, but the excitement of seeing her friends at school tomorrow. She couldn’t wait to tell them all about the recent unexpected changes in her family. She would explain to them that they now had a very important responsibility to look after these two poor new arrivals, who had suffered so much back in their home country.

  ‘Ooh, look, it’s Marly!’

  Marly was waving madly in the playground at Kylie and Jessica, while her cousins stood behind her.

  ‘Oh woah,’ exclaimed Jessica. ‘And hey, now there’s three of you!’

  All summer Marly had forgotten what she looked like, because she was too busy showing her cousins new things. True, Uncle Beng had given them all short haircuts, but there weren’t three of her.

  ‘These are my cousins, Jermaine and Jackie.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘Yes, way. It’s true, they came from Hong Kong . . .’ began Marly, but Kylie interrupted her.

  ‘I mean, no way are they really named that! Jermaine and Jackie? What kind of names are those? What, are youse the Jackson 5 now?’ teased Jessica.

  Marly suddenly didn’t want to confess that she was the one responsible for her cousins’ new Australian identities. She realised that perhaps not everyone thought the Jackson 5 were cool.

  ‘Which one is Jackie?’

  Marly pointed to DaWei.

  ‘Oh noo!’ Kylie laughed. ‘You have got to be kidding me. So that is Jermaine?’ She pointed to Tuyet. ‘Jermaine?’

  Tuyet jolted back, as if Kylie had actually poked her.

  ‘Hey, MyLinh, what are they talking and laughing about?’ she asked Marly in Cantonese.

  ‘That girl is just happy to hear what your name is,’ lied Marly, while Kylie kept laughing.

  ‘Hey Marly, what did you just say? Were you speaking a different language? Don’t backstab us to your cousins!’ Kylie puffed out her lower lip. ‘Jackie and Jermaine. Doesn’t she realise that Jermaine is a boy’s name?’

  Marly said nothing, but she noticed Tuyet’s eyes widen slightly. Tuyet didn’t say anything either.

  ‘My godmother from America sent me some My Little Ponies for Christmas,’ said Jessica, holding up a purple plastic case. ‘We’re going over to the wooden seats to play with them. What did you get, Marly?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘For Christmas,’ said Kylie.

  For the first time, Marly realised that Kylie and Jessica spoke the same way to her as Marly sometimes did to her cousins. Marly often had to speak slowly to her cousins who didn’t know anything and even thought the toilet brush was to clean themselves with after doing number twos until she told them otherwise. But it hurt when her friends did it to her! They knew Marly never got anything for Christmas because her family didn’t celebrate it. One year she got a plastic stocking filled with Cadbury treats from her Grade Three teacher when all of the other kids had gone home and Marly was waiting for her mother to pick her up. But aside from that, nothing. She used to wake up early on Christmas morning with the small hope that perhaps Santa might have come overnight, even though deep in her belly she knew it was like any other day for her family. After a while, she gave up this dream.

  Before Marly could answer or lie, Jessica said, ‘I know what you got.’

  Marly braced herself for being outed by her friends.

  ‘You got two new cousins.’

  Marly’s shoulders slumped with relief. ‘Ha ha. You’re right, Jessica. I did. They came in a set. Two for the price of one.’ The moment Marly blurted this out, she felt guilty. She didn’t want to be the butt of anyone’s joke, so she’d picked on her cousins instead. She hoped they had not caught what she’d said about them.

  Her friends laughed, but this time the tone of their laughter was different. This time it was with her, and not at her. Marly was quietly relieved – she was still part of the group.

  ‘Do they speak English?’ asked Kylie.

  ‘A little bit,’ said Marly. ‘But we’ll have to teach them some more. They only just got here.’

  ‘Huh,’ said Kylie without much interest. ‘Well, once you’re done showing them around, we’ll be at the wooden benches.’

  Just then the bell rang. It was time for assembly. Marly directed her cousins where to go. The whole school lined up in their different classes on the concrete lawn. Mr O’Farrell raised the Australian flag on the flagpole, and everyone began to sing the national anthem.

  ‘Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free . . .’

  Marly looked towards Tuyet in Grade Five, and DaWei in Grade One. They were the only two not singing.

  When Marly got out at lunchtime, her cousins were waiting for her at the door of her classroom.

  ‘Wah, they sure speak really fast English here,’ exclaimed Tuyet in Cantonese. ‘I couldn’t follow what the teacher was saying at all!’

  ‘But you can spell words like equator and difficult,’ said Marly, ‘so how come your English is so bad when you talk?’

  ‘We learned English from textbooks,’ said Tuyet. ‘No one actually spoke English to us in Vietnam or Hong Kong.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Marly led her cousins around the corridors, showing them the sick bay and then the Principal’s office, as well as the art room and the music room. Then she led them outside to the drinking taps and toilets, the oval, the multi-purpose room where they had assemblies every Monday morning and did P.E. if it was raining, and the play equipment. They were followed by a small group of kids that grew larger as the tour progressed.

  ‘Ning Nong Ching Chong!’ yelled Jesse as he made fun of Marly’s explanations to her cousins in Cantonese.

  ‘What are they saying?’ asked DaWei.

  ‘Nothing,’ muttered Marly. ‘They’re just making words up to sound like Chinese.’

  ‘Why would they do that?’ he asked. ‘We could teach them real Chinese words.’

  ‘Don’t worry. They wouldn’t want to know,’ said Marly. ‘Or if they did, they’d just want to know the bad words.’

  ‘Cha Cha Long Fong Gook!’ yelled a girl named Kimberly.

  ‘Get lost, Kimberly,’ said Marly.

  ‘Oooh! She speaks English now!’ said Kimberly. ‘Solly mi no spik Ingliss. Nong Pong Wah Pah?’

  ‘Get lost, the tour’s finished.’

  ‘I’m going to tell on you,’ said Kimberly. ‘I’m going to tell Mr O’Farrell you’re speaking another language at school.’

  The group scattered away, seeing that there was no more fun to be had. Marly felt relieved. It was kind of horrible to be followed around by a massive group of kids shouting out random fake Asian words at you. When Hai had been around, the kids hadn’t been such idiots. Or maybe Marly just hadn’t noticed it as much, because she and Hai had both been too busy having adventures.

&
nbsp; ‘Okay, so go and play now,’ she commanded her cousins. ‘The playground is over there.’

  Tuyet and DaWei stood where they were.

  Marly walked towards the oval until she got to the wooden benches where Kylie and Jessica were sitting, with the new My Little Ponies spread out. ‘Hey, I’m back.’

  ‘Everyone was watching you!’ exclaimed Kylie. ‘Weren’t you embarrassed?’

  ‘Nah,’ lied Marly. ‘I told them to get lost. Can I play?’

  Kylie handed her the yellow pony. ‘You can have this one. Her name is Buttercup.’

  Suddenly, Marly looked up and realised that her cousins were standing there, watching her. ‘Tell your friends to share their toys,’ demanded Tuyet. ‘I’m older, and they should respect that. They’re being selfish. They have six of those tiny horses.’

  ‘What is your cousin doing, standing over us and speaking her chinky language?’ said Kylie.

  ‘She wants you to share your toys.’

  ‘Oh. So she thinks she can just make a grab for our My Little Ponies? Where are her My Little Ponies to share, huh?’

  ‘She doesn’t mean it like that,’ protested Marly, but she could also see it from Jessica and Kylie’s side. You shouldn’t have to share your stuff if you didn’t want to, especially to people you might not like. Oh, if only Tuyet would show them how fun she was, how good she was at making up stories, how she could use boring things like lolly wrappers and leaves and hard berries and seeds and nutshells to make bowls and clothes and amazing things for toys. If only she could – but they couldn’t even understand a single word that came out of Tuyet’s mouth. And Tuyet was pretty fierce when she wanted to be.

  Kylie, who was used to being the most popular girl in school, was not scared. ‘Yes, Jermajesty.’

  Jessica cackled. ‘Whatever you say, Jermajesty! Ha ha, good one, Kylie!’

  Tuyet glared at them, but they ignored her and went back to playing with their My Little Ponies.

  Marly turned to her cousins. ‘You both better go and find something else to do,’ she told them.

  ‘But you’re supposed to play with us!’ protested DaWei.

  ‘Go away! You need to find your own friends,’ said Marly.

  ‘Oh no. There you go, talking that weird talk again, Marly!’ said Kylie.

  As her cousins sadly walked away, Marly knew she had started something terrible. She felt a stab of guilt, because they reminded her of when she’d first started school, before she met Hai. At least her cousins weren’t alone, she told herself. At least they had each other. If Marly joined them, all her hard work at belonging would be completely wasted – she’d just be another ching-chong who other kids and new teachers might think couldn’t even speak English properly.

  She knew that if her cousins dobbed on her at home, she would be in big trouble. But she couldn’t help it. It was only in the middle of last year that Kylie and Jessica let her hang around with them, after Mrs Horton read them a story about a boy who escaped the war in Vietnam and came on a boat to Australia. For about a week, they were fascinated by the fact that Marly had come to Australia by boat as well, and kept hounding her for details.

  Marly told them about seasickness, pirates with eye patches and gimpy legs, hungry sharks, and a family of dolphins. She had only been two years old on the boat and couldn’t really remember very much, so she made it up. Then she suggested they play pirates and shipwreck, and that was how the friendship began.

  For the first time, Marly had felt accepted at school by the other kids, and more than that, liked for her imagination. It was only later, when Kylie started getting toys sent to her from her godmother in America, that Marly’s made-up games started to become a little stale.

  She asked Kylie, ‘Hey, what would happen if you told your parents that you didn’t want Richard hanging around you all the time?’ Richard was Kylie’s six-year-old brother.

  ‘Why would he hang around me? He’s got his own friends. He wouldn’t be caught dead near me and my things.’

  Marly didn’t particularly like playing with those stupid ponies either, but she wasn’t about to say that now. ‘But just say he really wanted to,’ she insisted.

  ‘Then my parents would tell him to leave me alone.’

  This made Marly certain of what a crazy, unfair family she had. She saw her cousins all the time at home, so why couldn’t they understand that she needed her own friends at school?

  Every lunchtime Marly’s cousins kept appearing at the wooden benches where she and her friends played, and every lunchtime Marly had to tell them to get lost.

  ‘But I have your lunch!’ said Tuyet. She handed Marly a blue plastic container. It made a rattling noise. She also gave Marly a metal drinking flask.

  ‘No, Tuyet, I already ate my lunch,’ Marly lied. She had forgotten her lunch that morning, she’d been so eager to walk to school ahead of her cousins.

  ‘But it’s your favourite lunch. Look!’ Tuyet peeled open the plastic lid of the container.

  ‘Oh, did you just see that?’ exclaimed Jessica. ‘Coco Pops! She brought you Coco Pops for lunch!’

  ‘Crazy, crazy Jermajesty. Where’s the milk?’ Kylie joked.

  Tuyet pointed to the metal flask. ‘In there.’ She even handed Marly a spoon.

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ laughed Jessica. ‘I can’t believe it! This is too funny!’

  ‘Go away, Tuyet! I don’t want it!’

  ‘Ooh, there you go speaking in chink again,’ said Jessica.

  Tuyet looked at Marly and Marly knew that she understood and wanted to say something back to Jessica, but she didn’t. ‘Come on brother, let’s go,’ she said. They turned and walked away.

  Marly looked at the opened container of Coco Pops. She was hungry, but not hungry enough to humiliate herself.

  ‘Neiigghh!’ said Kylie’s My Little Pony Blue Belle as she dug her nose into Marly’s meal. Jessica made her pony join in too. ‘Come on, horseys, feed time! Ooh!’ exclaimed Kylie, ‘I’m going to take a bath in oats.’ She dumped her My Little Pony in the container and made it smoosh around. ‘This is such fun!’

  There was no way Marly was going to be able to eat her Coco Pops now, so she did the same with Buttercup. As the other girls laughed, Marly pretended not to notice her cousins standing a little way off, watching in horror at what to them was a waste of perfectly good food.

  Don’t walk so close to me,’ demanded Marly.

  ‘We have to go home together. We live in the same house, remember?’ said Tuyet.

  ‘But you don’t have to walk so close!’

  Every afternoon when they walked out the school gate and down the first three streets of the neighbourhood, Marly made sure she walked in front of her cousins while Tuyet and DaWei walked behind her, yelling, ‘You can’t trick them, you stupid girl! We look alike – they know we are with you!’

  This made Marly really mad.

  ‘I’m meant to look out for you, I’m your older cousin,’ said Tuyet.

  ‘You’re not even that much older than me! Two years, big deal.’ Something had shifted in Marly. The more effort her cousins made to be close to her at school, the more embarrassed she felt for them.

  Why are they trying to steal me away? Marly thought angrily. They’re just trying to make me into the girl I was three years ago with Hai, the crazy, tree-climbing, rock-tossing tomboy who chose not to speak English at school. Marly remembered the looks of disapproval from teachers, who constantly reminded her to ‘Speak English, Marly! You’re in Australia now!’ And the students who laughed because her best friend was a boy who used a sock as a pencilcase.

  The days grew hotter and hotter. After school the three of them would sit listlessly n front of the television. Marly and DaWei didn’t even play together outside anymore. Their school lives had changed their home lives. They would sit silently and watch the children’s programs on the ABC. At night, all the programs were constantly interrupted by updates about the bushfires burning all around Melbourne
.

  ‘The worst in the history of the state,’ the news reporter said grimly one Wednesday.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Uncle Beng. ‘Terrible things can happen anywhere. Even so close to home. Where’s Tuyet?’

  ‘In the back shed,’ replied Marly.

  ‘What is she doing there?’ asked Uncle Beng. Marly didn’t know, so she went to find out.

  ‘Can I help you, Aunt y?’ asked Tuyet, standing by Marly’s mother’s sewing machine. It was boiling in the back shed and Aunty Tam was even ironing shirts.

  ‘I suppose you could, Tuyet. I have to go and get some dinner ready before your dad gets home.’ Marly’s mother got out of her seat, and Tuyet took her place and started the machine. Marly couldn’t believe it!

  ‘How come she gets to help sew?’ complained Marly.

  ‘She’s capable and sensible. See what a straight line she is sewing.’

  The praise tipped Marly over the edge. ‘It’s not fair, you never let me do anything! If you’d let me sew I could do that!’

  ‘You’re too easily distracted, Marlin,’ said her mother. ‘Look at your cousin. She knows how to be still.’

  Marly glared at Tuyet sitting there so smug, sewing perfect lines. Being still was for trees. Being still was for very fat grannies who sat in their rocking chairs drinking tea and eating Tic Toc biscuits from a packet.

  ‘When did you learn how to sew anyway?’ Marly asked her cousin.

  ‘While you and DaWei were outside mucking about, I asked your mum to teach me.’

  Marly turned to her aunty Tam. She didn’t really want to iron, but she offered anyway. ‘Hey Aunty, can I help you?’

  Aunty Tam looked down at the shirt on the ironing board that had taken them three hours to make. ‘Uhh, sweet pup, maybe you could help your mum make some dinner?’ she suggested.

  ‘No fair!’ cried Marly as she stormed back into the house. She didn’t want to help anyone now. She would only be in the way, not like perfect Tuyet. She went back and sat in front of the television, hoping that something good would come on, like the video clip to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ or ‘Beat It’, which sometimes played in between TV programs.