by Ovidia Yu
Aunty Lee was sure that Nina would come round. After all, it was her future that Aunty Lee was concerned about. But perhaps it was best to leave her alone for a while. Unfortunately, she seemed to be getting along with Beth Kwuan and unlikely to ask to be sent back to Binjai Park.
Life and work went on in Aunty Lee’s Delights. Without Nina around, Aunty Lee depended more on Cherril, Avon, and Xuyie and, though there were mistakes and omissions, they learned faster in two weeks than they had in the previous six months. Much busier by day and more tired by night, the days sped past for Aunty Lee.
She made new friends too. The Guangs had come by to try Aunty Lee’s laksa and loved it. They said they came from Sichuan and it reminded them of their own hot and sour soup.
‘Your assam laksa is good. Put pig blood, taste better!’ Mr Guang earnestly advised. He was a retired professor, and Mrs Guang was an artist and calligrapher.
Aunty Lee obliged, presenting them a version of ‘hot sour laksa soup’ concocted by adding lily buds and wood ear fungus to the rice noodles in a stock flavoured with pork blood; Mr Guang had started climbing into the drain by his house to harvest bunches of kesum leaves for her.
‘Cut on top now, more grow,’ he explained when he brought them over to the shop.
Cherril liked the old couple too, though she did not understand how Aunty Lee had this effect on some people. They seemed to fall a little in love with her once she fed them.
‘We do t’ai chi in the garden in the morning. Very gentle. Very good for old people. You come and learn Yang style t’ai chi, 108 forms.’ Mrs Guang had invited Aunty Lee to join them. ‘Then you can collect weeds to cook after. Collect in the early morning is good, better, best!’
‘You come and learn to do push hands!’ Mr Guang had said. ‘Self-defence!’
Perhaps, Aunty Lee thought, and perhaps she might even learn some Mandarin herself from the Guangs.
Mr Guang had been in the shop one day when Jonny Ho dropped in to pick up a takeaway.
‘Samples,’ he said to Avon and Xuyie, not offering to pay for his food. Jonny spoke to them in rapid Mandarin, saying something that made Avon giggle and pout flirtatiously and Xuyie look worried.
‘What did he say?’ Aunty Lee had asked Mr Guang.
‘Bad language.’
‘You mean swear words?’
It had taken a moment for Mr Guang to translate question and answer in his head, then he said: ‘No. The man does not speak good Standard Mandarin. It is like your Singlish here. And a good man does not say such things to young girls, about finding love and money while they are young and beautiful.’
To Aunty Lee’s surprise, Cherril snorted.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’
With all this going on, Aunty Lee barely had time to worry about Nina. She had decided not to phone Beth’s house again until she heard from Nina. According to Selina there was still no sign of Julietta, and Beth was finding Nina very helpful. Of course Nina was very helpful, Aunty Lee thought crossly, that was why she wanted her back as soon as possible! And if Julietta didn’t come back, was Nina going to stay at Beth’s place indefinitely? Aunty Lee was working so hard to quash her dislike of Beth that she didn’t even allow herself to indulge in her normal delicious gossipy speculations about the woman. Beth was a mission school girl, like herself and Patty and Helen. Therefore, Beth could be trusted.
Selina seemed to think that once the renovations were completed, and KidStarters launched, things would settle into a routine and Beth would return Nina … if Nina wanted to come.
‘She seems very happy there! You better not say anything to that policeman always snooping around her. Don’t make more trouble for yourself!’ she said, as though forgetting she was the one who had threatened to expose Nina’s illegal hours at the café. Selina didn’t think it necessary to mention she had not seen Nina herself.
All this would be resolved once Julietta reappeared. Aunty Lee decided she had to find Julietta. It was not that she could not do without Nina … she had already succeeded in proving that. She wanted her friend and companion back. And she also missed Salim, who had stopped dropping in at the café.
It was so frustrating, given Salim could have helped her find out if Julietta had left the island but she wasn’t allowed to tell him the woman was missing. And she was sure Nina could have helped her trace Julietta by now, but Nina wasn’t around to talk to other helpers and their contacts. Beth might appreciate Nina as a good worker, but Aunty Lee was sure Nina’s special talents were wasted on her.
And there was something else Aunty Lee wanted to look into. If Mark and Selina were investing money in KidStarters, Aunty Lee felt duty-bound to find out more about it. She had only vague memories of Elizabeth Kwuan as a dull, officious school prefect not much different from the dull, officious woman she had grown into. In the old days it seemed Beth Kwuan had always been following her sister and Patty’s friends around, looking for the chance to report misbehaviour to parents or school authorities. Now it seemed she was doing the same to Patty’s young husband. Aunty Lee felt sorry for Jonny Ho.
Ordinarily, Aunty Lee would simply have asked Nina to go online and get hold of as much information on Elizabeth Kwuan and Jonny Ho as she could. Since Nina was out of reach, she was reduced to calling old schoolmates who would have known Beth in school.
Beth didn’t seem to have stayed in touch with any of the women she had been in school with. This surprised Aunty Lee, who thought Beth’s schooldays would have remained the high point of her life.
‘Beth was always willing to help organize reunions and meetups,’ one old friend told Aunty Lee. ‘But she always had to run things and boss people around. Most of us just wanted to meet up for drinks and have fun. After she tried to set up a subscription for cultural discussions most of us just stopped going.’
The people Aunty Lee spoke to at Beth’s church and the schools where she had taught said much the same thing: ‘She volunteered on a lot of committees and things. But she could be difficult if things weren’t done her way. And she was always claiming that people had personal vendettas against her.’
‘Did they?’
‘I doubt it. They just didn’t like doing things with her.’
Hearing all this made Aunty Lee feel guilty. She and her friends had avoided Beth Kwuan in much the same way in school and after school.
Patty Kwuan had also liked having things done her way. The difference was that Patty had been beautiful, confident, and charming. Aunty Lee felt sorry for Beth. What silly shallow little girls they had been!
‘Maybe if we had been nicer to Beth in the old days, she might be more easy-going now,’ Aunty Lee told Helen Chan.
‘No way,’ Helen Chan said. ‘Beth was already a fussy old woman when we were in school!’
Helen said she had called Beth as soon as she heard about Patty’s death.
‘I asked about helping with the funeral service. It’s been a long time but I thought we could all do something. You know, for old times’ sake. But Beth said it was for family only because that’s how Patty wanted it.’
‘The funeral was over by the time I heard about it,’ Aunty Lee said, thinking about the fine line between privacy and secrecy. ‘Maybe her husband wasn’t up to dealing with all her friends. I know M. L. used to run away when we all got together.’ Her late husband had said – affectionately – that Aunty Lee and her girlfriends cackled together like geese. ‘How did he seem that time when you met him at your house? Most of the girls were there, right?’
‘The beautiful Jonny? He was the only husband there that night but he didn’t seem to have any problem dealing with the old girls at my place. We were talking about retirement plans. The commune, you know?’
‘Still?’ Over the years it had ranged from a row of terraced houses near Gleneagles Hospital, a gated community in Johore, and beachfront villas in Thailand. ‘Why was he the only hubby there?’
‘It was a girls’ night out. Patty
just brought him to introduce him all round. I think he was supposed to come back and pick her up later, but he ended up staying. It was just fun, you know. Jonny Ho was way too young to be thinking about such things, at least not with us old fogeys, but he was saying how we ought to get people to come in and give us massage therapy … it was Patty who didn’t seem to want him to talk about it. I thought it was a bit funny, but Peng said it probably reminded her of their age difference.’
‘Beth Kwuan didn’t join you, did she?’ Aunty Lee asked, since Beth did not seem to have kept in touch with the girls from her own year in school.
‘No, lah! Why should she?’
‘Why not? She was staying with Patty and Jonny Ho at the time, right. Why didn’t you invite her with them?’
‘That one walks into a room and everybody inside gets depressed.’
Till now, Aunty Lee had shared Helen’s view of Beth Kwuan – and worse. But now Aunty Lee was afraid that some of her resentment came from jealousy. Nina had agreed to work for Beth. Now Nina didn’t want to talk to her, probably because she didn’t want to hear more Salim. That was so unfair, Aunty Lee thought. But it was Nina who was being unfair. Aunty Lee struggled not to make it another reason for not liking Beth Kwuan. Beth Kwuan was like cold banana fritters, Aunty Lee thought. They might look just as crispy as when they were freshly lifted out of hot oil, but the damp stains on the paper underneath them warned you off. Beth Kwuan was like that paper, always there in the background absorbing and revealing people’s weaknesses … no, stop. Aunty Lee resolutely pulled her thoughts back. The trouble was, it was so easy to think bad things about Beth.
‘Anyway, Patty was kicking her out,’ Helen said with relish.
‘What?’ Aunty Lee had missed the first part of the story.
‘Well, Beth only moved in with Patty after Ken died because she didn’t want Patty to be alone in the house. Fabian never even offered to come back to Singapore. Patty thought it was just temporary but, even though she had a live-in helper, Beth wouldn’t leave. She said Patty needed her to manage the helper. You know, I always wondered if Patty got married again so fast so that Beth would leave. But it didn’t work. Finally, she told Beth that Fabian was coming back to meet Jonny and she needed his room back. Actually I think Fabian just wanted to make sure Jonny didn’t get all his mum’s money! It was Fabian’s room Beth was staying in. Luckily Beth hadn’t managed to sell or rent out her own flat yet. But then Patty got sick and died before Beth moved out.’
‘And Beth is still at the house,’ Aunty Lee said. Patty would never have let her beautiful home be turned into an early education centre. She reminded herself that Patty was dead and noisy children running around couldn’t hurt her.
She had to get Fabian’s side of the story, Aunty Lee decided. Helen’s mention of money had made her wonder about the financial side of things. She knew her investment bank had also handled the late Patty Kwuan-Loo’s investments. And looking into money might distract her from sending nasty thoughts in Beth’s direction till Nina returned to her senses and to Binjai Park.
Mr Darren Sim, the investment manager at Cognate Finance who Aunty Lee had inherited from her late husband, told her he could not discuss anyone else’s accounts. Aunty Lee was prepared for this. After all, she would not want him discussing her investments with any of her nosy friends.
‘I know, lah. I don’t care about how much money she got. But I am interested in an investment that Patty’s sister told me about. Her sister is starting this early education school. She said that Patty also invested. I want to know whether that is true or not.’ For authenticity she repeated what Jonny Ho had told her about his investments on Patty’s behalf. ‘If my friend put money there, then it should be safe for me also.’
The banker’s alarm came loud and down the line: ‘Wait – Mrs Lee – No, please don’t. I strongly advise you not to make any investments without letting me look them over first.’
‘Patty’s husband said that if I go through you and the bank you all will charge me so much processing fees – profit all disappear.’
‘Mrs Lee, it’s not about profits, it’s about risk – risk to your capital.’
‘Exactly.’ Aunty Lee was pleased. She was fond of the young man who was delivering the precise script she expected. ‘That’s why I ask you to check for me how risky is this guy.’
A brief silence followed. Mr Sim was clearly debating the risk of this flighty old lady putting all her money into some doubtful get-rich-quick con.
‘I know Patricia Kwuan-Loo’s personal banker. I’ll talk to her and see what she says.’
Soon after, Aunty Lee got a call from the agent’s assistant saying that, while they couldn’t disclose details of Patty’s investments, there was nothing to worry about there. It was not much information, but so much more than Aunty Lee had expected that she worried a little about trusting her money to Darren Sim.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Cognate
Using the excuse of a missing granite mortar to break her resolution not to call, Aunty Lee finally managed to get Beth Kwuan to answer her landline. Beth told her Nina was fine but could not talk on the phone.
‘I will give her your message. I don’t believe in letting helpers use the phone. You only create bad habits and make more trouble for yourself. Mobile phones even worse. They can sneak away and make calls without you knowing! That is how they go and find boyfriends and get pregnant, and next thing you know you kenah forfeit your bond plus your medical deposit also! I’m only trying to watch out for you. It’s your money involved here. A lot of money, okay!’
The compulsory medical and personal accident insurance for domestic helpers was a sore point for many employers so Aunty Lee could understand Beth’s caution. But she had long ago stopped thinking of Nina as a pregnancy or flight risk.
‘Nina already has a mobile phone. I’m just worried why it’s not working. I tried to phone her but no answer.’
‘I’m keeping her phone locked up while she is working here. It’s you I’m watching out for you, you know, Rosie. You are too trusting!’
For once Aunty Lee was at a loss. She could decide what was best for Nina when Nina was under her own roof, but she could not tell Beth what to do. And taking away a phone could not be considered maid abuse, could it? Beth, like Aunty Lee, had grown up in an era before mobile phones. Aunty Lee could remember her parents going to use the ten-cent phone in the grocer’s shop when they wanted to talk to relatives up in Malaysia.
‘I need to talk to Nina. I want to ask her something.’
‘What do you want to ask her?’
‘Just where she stored something. My big mortar – the batu lesung. I need to use it and I can’t find it.’
That was true. In fact, not being able to ask Nina where something was one of the things Aunty Lee missed most. It was not that Nina knew where everything was, or that Aunty Lee expected her to solve every problem. But somehow the act of asking aloud and then responding to Nina’s calm questions: ‘When did you last use it?’ ‘What do you want to cook with 50 kg of unshelled ground nuts even if they are on sale cheap?’ helped Aunty Lee solve her own problems. It was not the same asking Cherril things. Cherril seemed to think Aunty Lee wanted her to come up with solutions, whereas Aunty Lee only needed to discuss her problems out loud.
She could have talked to M. L.’s photo portraits, of course. But Aunty Lee usually only told good things to her dead husband’s photos. That way she could believe that his warm eyes and serene smile were on her and happy for her. She would not go to those precious photos with her everyday problems and frustrations, and that was why she missed Nina so much.
‘What?’
‘My big granite mortar and pestle. The one I use to pound peanuts to make kueh. I want to know where she keeps it.’
‘Nina is busy right now,’ Beth said after a pause. ‘I will ask her and phone you back.’
Aunty Lee decided Nina had told Beth to tell her that because she didn’
t want to talk to her. Was Nina trying to show Beth what an ideal employee she was? For years Nina had tried to convince Aunty Lee that the phone didn’t have to be answered every time it rang … if it was anything important, people would leave a message. But Aunty Lee, who had never learned to retrieve phone messages without Nina’s help, could not continue with anything, even something as time crucial as deep frying, with a phone ringing in the vicinity. And she would not allow Nina to turn off the ringer, just in case it was Mathilda phoning from England with an emergency. Was Nina trying to show her that once away from Binjai Park she had stopped answering phones?
‘No need,’ Aunty Lee said. The impulse to hear Nina’s voice had passed. Cherril would pulverize the peanuts in the multipurpose blender as she did everything else. Aunty Lee was feeling cross with herself for going back on her decision not to phone Nina till Nina called her.
‘How is the renovation work going? Still no sign of Julietta? Don’t you think it’s time that you reported her to the agency for running away?’
Beth interrupted with: ‘Wait, Jonny wants to talk to you.’
There was a silence on the phone as Aunty Lee wondered whether she had gone too far. She wasn’t worried about Nina but she did not understand why Nina should be refusing to talk to her. Also, what Beth had said about taking away Nina’s phone had sunk in. It was true that Aunty Lee had lived most of her youth without a phone and survived, but Nina had used her smartphone to source ingredients, check suppliers, double-check goods prices, and look up locations and people for Aunty Lee. It was almost an extension of her.
‘Rosie, I have been wanting to talk to you. There is someone who wants to meet you. I will come and pick you up from your house in thirty minutes’ time,’ Jonny Ho said.
‘I’m not at the house! I’m at my shop!’ Aunty Lee said quickly.
‘I will come and pick you up from your shop in thirty minutes’ time.’
‘Maybe he wants to kidnap you and hold you for ransom,’ Cherril said when Aunty Lee told her who she was going out with. ‘Thanks a lot for running away that day he came. I thought he was going to stick around until you agreed to let him take over this place, but as soon as he saw you weren’t coming back he just turned and left. Didn’t even offer to pay for the drink.’