by Kevin Kwan
“I’ll take a picture and send it to you right now,” Charlie said. He hung up his phone, got out of bed, and threw open the window shades. The setting sun streamed into the room, almost blinding him for a moment as he held the letter against the windowpane. He took a few pictures and sent the sharpest image to Janice.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Charlie went to the door and looked out the peephole. It was room service with his burger. As he opened the door to let the uniformed waiter in with his trolley, his phone began to ring again. He saw that it was Janice calling and rushed to pick it up.
“Charlie? This is your lucky day. I thought I would have to send your picture around, but I recognized that monogram from a mile away. I know those initials well.”
“Really? Who is it?”
“There is only one DSA in the whole world that matters, and that’s Diego San Antonio.”
“Who is Diego San Antonio?”
“He’s one of the leading social figures in the Philippines. He’s the host with the most in Manila.”
Charlie turned to the waiter just as he was lifting the silver dome to reveal a delicious, juicy burger. “Actually, I’m going to need that to go.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TYERSALL PARK, SINGAPORE
Rachel and her best friend Peik Lin stood on the veranda, looking at the figure of Nick in the distance as he disappeared into a wooded part of the garden.
“He’s been like this for the past week. Going off for walks on his own in the afternoons. I think he’s saying goodbye to the place, in his own way,” Rachel said.
“Is there nothing more that can be done?” Peik Lin asked.
Rachel shook her head sadly. “No, we already agreed to sell yesterday. I know it makes no sense, since we’ve just come into a huge windfall, but my heart still hurts for Nick. It’s like I’m in sync with his every emotion.”
“I wish I could find someone I could be in sync with like that,” Peik Lin sighed.
“I thought there was some secret new Mr. Perfect you promised to tell me about ‘when the time was right’?”
“Yeah, I thought so too. I thought I’d finally met a guy who wasn’t intimidated by me, but like all the other losers, he disappeared with no explanation.”
“I’m sorry.”
Peik Lin leaned on the veranda railing and squinted into the afternoon sun. “Sometimes I feel like it would be far easier not to tell guys that I went to Stanford, that I run a huge property development company, that I actually love what I do.”
“Peik Lin, that’s total bullshit and you know it. If a guy can’t handle exactly who you are, then he clearly doesn’t deserve you!” Rachel scoffed.
“Damn right he doesn’t! Now, let’s go get smashed. Where do they keep the vodka around here?” Peik Lin asked.
Rachel led Peik Lin back into her bedroom and showed her a small button by the bedside wall. “Now, here’s one thing I’m really going to miss about Tyersall Park. You press this button and a bell rings downstairs somewhere. And before you can even count to ten—”
Suddenly there was a soft knock on the door, and a young maid entered the room with a curtsy. “Yes, Mrs. Young?”
“Hi, Jiayi. We’d like some drinks. Can we have two vodka martinis on the rocks?”
“Extra olives, please,” Peik Lin added.
—
Nick walked down the pathway past the lily pond, entering the deepest part of the woods in the northwest section of the property. When he was a boy, this was the area of the estate he never dared to venture into, probably because one of the old Malay servants from ages past had told him this was where all the tree spirits lived, and they should be left undisturbed.
A bird high in one of the trees made a strange, piercing call that Nick had never heard before, and he looked up into the thick foliage, trying to spot what it was. Suddenly a blur of white flickered past his eyes, startling him for a second. Collecting himself, he saw it again, something white and shiny on the other side of a grove of trees. He crept slowly toward the trees, and as the bushes cleared, he saw the figure of Ah Ling facing a large tembusu tree, clutching a few joss sticks. As she prayed and bowed from the waist repeatedly, the smoke from the joss sticks wafted around her, and her white blouse would shimmer as it caught the rays of sunlight filtering through the low-hanging branches.
When Ah Ling was finished with her prayers, she took the joss sticks and stuck them inside an old Milo can that had been placed in the hollow of the bark. She turned around and smiled when she caught sight of Nick.
“I didn’t know you came out here to pray. I always thought you did your prayers in the garden behind the service wing,” Nick said.
“I go to different places to pray. This is my special tree, when I really want my prayers to be answered,” Ah Ling said in Cantonese.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who do you pray to here?”
“Sometimes to ancestors, sometimes to the Monkey God, and sometimes to my mother.”
It occurred to Nick that Ah Ling had seen her mother less than a dozen times since she had moved to Singapore as a teenager. Suddenly the memory of one day from his childhood came rushing back. He remembered going into Ah Ling’s bedroom and seeing her stuff a suitcase full of things—McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits, Rowntree’s sweets, packs of Lux soap, a few cheap plastic toys—and when he asked her what these were for, Ah Ling told him they were gifts for her family. She was going back to China for a month to visit them. Nick had thrown a tantrum, not wanting her to go.
Decades had passed since that day, but now Nick stood in the middle of a forest with his nanny overwhelmed with guilt. This was a woman who had dedicated nearly her entire life to serving his family, leaving her own parents and siblings behind in China and only seeing them once every few years when she had saved up enough to go back. Ah Ling, Ah Ching the head chef, Jacob the gardener, Ahmad the chauffeur, all these people had served his family for most of their lives. This was their home, and now they were about to lose it too. Now he was letting them all down.
As if reading his mind, Ah Ling came over and put her hand on his face. “Don’t look so sad, Nicky. It’s not the end of the world.”
Suddenly, tears began to spring from his eyes uncontrollably. Ah Ling embraced him, in the way she had so many times when he cried as a child, stroking the back of his head as he wept quietly against her shoulder. Nick hadn’t shed a single tear during the entire week of his grandmother’s funeral, and now he was letting it all out.
After he had recovered himself, Nick walked quietly next to Ah Ling along the wooded pathway. When they reached the lily pond, they sat on the stone bench at the water’s edge, watching a lone egret as it stepped gingerly among the shallow marshes looking for little minnows. Nick asked, “Do you think you’ll stay in Singapore?”
“I think I will go back to China, for a year at least. I want to build a house in my old village, and spend a little time with my family. My brothers are getting older, I have so many new grandnephews and grandnieces who I have never met. Now I can finally be the rich old auntie who spoils them.”
Nick chuckled at the thought. “I’m so glad Ah Ma provided for you in her will.”
“Your Ah Ma was very generous to me, and I will always be grateful to her. For the first few decades I worked here, she frightened me to death. She was not the easiest woman to please, but I think in the last twenty years or so, she came to see me as a friend and not just a servant. Did I ever tell you that a few years ago she invited me to take a room in the big house? She thought I was getting a bit old to be trudging back and forth from the servants’ wing to the house. But I turned her down. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in one of those grand bedrooms.”
Nick smiled, remaining silent.
“You know, Nicky, I really don’t think your grandmother wanted this house to go on after she was
gone. That’s why she prepared things the way she did. She wouldn’t have taken care of me and Ah Ching and everyone else like she did. She thought of every detail.”
“She may have thought of every detail, but for me, so many questions remain unanswered. I keep beating myself up about how stubborn I was, refusing to come back to make peace with her until the very end. I wasted so much time,” Nick lamented.
“We never know how much time any of us have. Your Ah Ma could have gone on living for many more months, or even years, you never know. Don’t regret anything. You are lucky you were back in time to say goodbye,” Ah Ling said soothingly.
“I know. I just wish I could talk to her again, to understand what she truly wanted,” Nick said.
Ah Ling suddenly sat up on the bench. “Alamak! I’m getting so absentminded, I almost forgot that I have a few things for you from your Ah Ma. Come, come to my room with me.”
Nick followed Ah Ling to her quarters, where she produced an old imitation Samsonite suitcase from the back of her closet. He recognized it as the suitcase she used when she had gone back to China all those decades ago. Ah Ling opened the suitcase on the floor, and Nick saw that it contained stacks and stacks of different-colored fabrics, the kind she used to make the beautiful silk patchwork quilts that hung at the foot of the bed in every guest room. At the bottom of the suitcase was a bundle tied in dark blue satin fabric.
“When your Ah Ma was in the hospital, she asked Astrid to gather a few things from the vault and various hiding places she had. Astrid brought these down to me, to be kept for you. I don’t think your Ah Ma wanted any of your aunties getting their hands on these,” Ah Ling said, handing Nick the bundle. He undid the knotted satin and found a small rectangular leather box. Inside was a vintage pocket watch on a gold chain signed Patek, Philippe & Cie, a silk coin purse full of gold sovereigns, and a small stack of old letters tied in yellowed ribbon. At the bottom of the box lay a newer, crisper envelope with “Nicky” on the front in his grandmother’s elegant handwriting. Nick tore open the letter and began reading it immediately:
Dear Nicky,
I feel that time is running short and I don’t know whether I will see you again. There are so many things I had wished to tell you, but never found the chance or the courage. Here are some things I am entrusting to you. They do not belong to me, but to a gentleman named Jirasit Sirisindhu. Please return these things to him on my behalf. He lives in Thailand, and your auntie Cat will know how to find him. I am also entrusting you with this mission because you will want to meet Jirasit in person. When I am no longer here, he will be able to provide you with the resources that you will need. I know I can count on him to be of great help to you.
Love,
Your Ah Ma
“Thank you for safeguarding these things for me!” Nick said, kissing Ah Ling on the cheek as he left her room. He walked across the courtyard to the main house and went up the stairs to his bedroom, where he found Rachel working on her laptop.
“Good walk?” Rachel looked up.
“You’ll never believe this, but something rather remarkable just landed in my hands!” Nick waved the letter at her excitedly.
Nick sat on the edge of the bed and quickly read the letter to her.
Rachel’s brow furrowed as she listened to the cryptic letter. “I wonder what it all means? Do you know this guy? Jirasit?”
“I’ve never once heard my grandmother utter his name.”
“Let’s google him quickly,” Rachel said. She typed in the name and it popped up immediately.
“M.C. Jirasit Sirisindhu is a grandson of King Chulalongkorn of Thailand. He is an exceedingly reclusive figure but is said to be one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, with interests in banking, real estate, agriculture, fisheries, and—”
Nick’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh my God, don’t you see? ‘He will be able to provide you with the resources you need.’ He’s one of the richest men in the world—I think this man holds the key in helping us get Tyersall Park!”
“I’m not sure if I would read so much into this letter,” Rachel cautioned.
“No, no, you don’t know my grandmother like I do. She doesn’t do anything without precision. She wants me to go to Thailand and meet this man—it says right here that Auntie Cat in Bangkok will know how to find him. Rachel, this is the plan she had all along!”
“But what about the deal we’ve made with the Bings?”
“It’s only been a day, and we haven’t signed any contracts yet. It’s still not too late to rescind the deal, especially if this man can help us! We should catch the next flight to Thailand!”
“Actually, maybe you should catch the next flight out, and I should stay here to put the brakes on anything that comes up. We wouldn’t want your aunts signing anything until you’re back,” Rachel suggested.
“You’re absolutely right! Honey, you’re an angel—I’m not sure what I’d do without you!” Nick said breathlessly, grabbing his travel duffel from the cupboard.
CHAPTER FIVE
CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
After landing in Chiang Mai, the ancient Thai city known as the “rose of the north,” Nick was driven by Jeep to an estate nestled in the foothills of Doi Inthanon. Like so many of the great houses hidden in these parts, the walled compound was tucked away up a long, steep road and virtually invisible from the outside. But past the tall, fortresslike gate, Nick found himself in a sybaritic paradise that defied description.
The residence was comprised of eight wood-and-stone pavilions built in the traditional Royal Lanna Thai style around an artificial lake, all interconnected by a series of bridges and walkways. As Nick was led through the lush gardens and onto a wooden walkway that floated on the lake, a thin layer of mist hovered over the still waters, adding to the feeling that he had stepped back in time.
At an open pavilion overlooking the center of a lake, an elderly man nattily dressed in tweed trousers, a maroon cardigan, and a peak cap was sitting at a beautiful wooden table, cleaning the inside of an old Leica camera with a tiny brush. On the table rested three or four other old cameras in various states of repair.
The man looked up as Nick approached and grinned widely. Nick could see that the hair under his cap was snow-white, and though he must have been in his early nineties, his face still retained its handsome features. He put down the camera and got up with an agility that surprised Nick.
“Nicholas Young, what a pleasure! Did you have a good journey?” the man said in English tinged with the slightest British accent.
“Yes, Your Highness, thank you.”
“Please call me Jirasit. I hope I didn’t rouse you too early?”
“Not at all—it was great to get an early start, and your plane landed just as the sun was rising.”
“I had your aunt Catherine arrange it for you this way. I think the mountains are at their most beautiful right at dawn, and I must confess, I am a very early bird. At my age, I’m up by five and quite useless by midafternoon.”
Nick simply smiled, and Jirasit clasped Nick’s hands in his own. “I am glad we are meeting. I’ve heard so much about you over the years!”
“Really?”
“Yes, your grandmother was inordinately proud of you. She talked about you all the time. Come, sit, sit. Do you take tea or coffee?” Jirasit asked as a flurry of servants appeared with trays of refreshments and food.
“Coffee would be great.”
Jirasit uttered a few words in Thai as the servants began setting up an elaborate breakfast on the wide stone ledge of the pavilion. “You’ll have to excuse the mess, I have been indulging in my favorite pastime,” Jirasit said, as he moved his cameras to one side of the table to make room for the coffee service.
“That’s quite a collection you have there,” Nick said.
“Oh, they’re all rather obsolete at t
his point. I prefer shooting with my digital Canon EOS these days, but I do enjoy cleaning these old cameras. It’s very meditative.”
“So you were in quite frequent contact with my grandmother, then?” Nick asked.
“Off and on, over the years. You know how old friends are…we would skip a year here and there, but we did try to stay in touch.” Jirasit paused for a moment, staring at an old Rolleiflex twin lens on the table. “That Su Yi…I shall miss her.”
Nick took a sip of his coffee. “How did you two become acquainted?”
“We met in Bombay in 1941, when we both worked at the British India Office.”
Nick sat forward in his chair, surprised. “Wait a minute, is this the Indian branch of the War Office? My grandmother worked there?”
“Oh yes. She never told you? Your grandmother started out in the code-breaking office, and I was in the cartography department, helping to create a detailed map of Thailand. The cartographers didn’t really know Thailand well, especially in these remote northern parts near the border, and we needed accurate maps in the event of an invasion.”
“How fascinating. I always pictured her luxuriating away in some maharaja’s palace during the Japanese occupation.”
“Well, she did that too, but the British, you see, enlisted her to do some…sensitive diplomatic work as soon as they realized what she was capable of.”
“I had no idea…”
“Your grandmother had a certain allure that’s hard to put your finger on. She was never one of those typical beauties, but men just fell at her feet. It came in very useful during the war. She was good at influencing those rajahs in certain directions.”
Nick reached into his satchel and took out the leather box that Su Yi had entrusted to him, placing it on the table. “Well, the reason I’m here is because my grandmother wanted me to return these to you.”
“Ah, my old Dunhill case! I never thought I’d be reunited with it after all these years,” Jirasit said like an excited child. “You know, your grandmother was a very stubborn woman. When she insisted on returning to Singapore during the height of the war—complete madness, I tell you—I gave her a few of my most valuable possessions. My father’s Patek and these gold sovereigns, and a few other things, I can’t remember what. I thought she would need them to bribe her way into Singapore. But see, she hardly needed them after all.” Jirasit began winding the pocket watch, and then he held it up to his ear. “Listen? Still ticking perfectly after all these years! I’m going to have to tell my friend Philippe Stern about this!” Jirasit picked up the packet of old envelopes tied in ribbon and studied them for a moment. “What’s this?”
