Jack disentangled himself to face his wife. He saw the worry lines etched between her brows. “Precisely, at this moment? I do not know. Siew Loong does not confide in me about his liaisons. He thinks that I would pass the information to you. He is probably right in that respect. I am putty in your hands.” He grinned.
She grabbed a pillow from behind her and pummelled him with it.
“Be serious! Suet Ping is terribly upset. Something has to be done. Siew Loong’s infidelities are becoming too much to ignore.”
“You should not interfere. It is no worse today than it was a week ago or a month ago or even a year ago. It has been going on for some time. Suet Ping and Rohani have closed their eyes to it before. Why are they choosing to address this problem now?”
“Because ... because Rohani is not well. She wants to see my brother settled before she d... She wants him to have a son. She wants a grandson.”
“Annie is just one of many. He has been careful in not tying himself to any particular woman. He just enjoys their company, I was told.”
“Where does he spend his nights?”
Jack placed his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s distance. “Dear wife, your brother works. Sometimes he spends them in the plantation campsites. There is always a camp bed in the office there. In Kuala Lumpur, he has a small bedsit next to his new office. He works sometimes till the small hours of the morning. You do not get to where he is now without hard work. Your brother must be one of the most industrious people I know. There are occasions when he spends them with a woman, I am sure. Where exactly I do not know and do not wish to know.”
“I want to talk to him.”
“Please don’t. He wouldn’t appreciate it. He is having problems with his new batch of workers from India. He is not in a good mood. I can tell.”
Jack drew Shao Peng to him and kissed the top of her head. “Please direct your thoughts to what I said about James’s education. We have to decide. He has fast outgrown the tutor and us.”
Thank God, he thought, that we have James. He could not understand the Chinese obsession with male offspring. If we had a girl instead of a son, Shao Peng would not give up trying no matter the repercussions on her health, no matter that the doctor said that it would be dangerous at her age.
***
The following morning Shao Peng went to Chinatown. “How it has changed,” she mused. She got out of the car in High Street. Under the blazing sun, a couple of motor-cars and bicycles ran alongside trishaws and bullock carts that were still in use. “Well, all except for our house,” she murmured to herself, for the Ong mansion remained in situ, virtually the same except for the addition of another extension, turning what was previously a long mansion to one that was L-shaped. A low wall separated it from the narrow two storey shop houses in High Street. These shop houses lined the street cheek by jowl, taking over the land which had previously housed the tapioca mill. Her brother had had the mill moved to the outskirts of the town. The price of land had shot up in the town centre and building shop houses in place of the mill was too good an opportunity for Siew Loong to pass over.
Shao Peng went straight up to Rohani’s rooms. She found her with Suet Ping.
“Any news?” they asked.
Shao Peng shook her head.
The light went out of Suet Ping’s face leaving only dark shadows under her eyes, eyes that were puffy from lack of sleep and crying. Shao Peng’s heart went out to her. She took Suet Ping’s hands. “Siew Loong is working very hard and spends a lot of time in his office. He is having problems with the immigration authorities. His new recruits are stranded in the quarantine centre. His absence could be just that.”
Suet Ping pulled her hand away. She made no reply. The lie hung uncomfortably between them. The papers this morning told a different story. He had been seen with someone else.
“Perhaps,” Rohani said very slowly, “we should think of another tactic. I understand that in Chinese custom, it is the wife’s duty to find her husband another concubine if she fails to produce an heir.”
Two bright spots of red appeared on Suet Ping’s face. Shao Peng turned to her stepmother in horror.
“I am only airing all the different options. At least then, we know our enemy. Hopefully, it would also be someone we could control, someone indebted to us.”
“You don’t have to agree to this,” Shao Peng said to her sister-in-law, alarmed at the desperate sadness and hurt in her face.
Rohani hurried over to Suet Ping. She placed an arm around her. “Come, come, I am only examining all the options. You don’t have to agree. I just thought that it would at least mean that he comes home and Fern and Rose could see their father. If we choose well, it would also mean that you would have an ally instead of an unknown rival. Think about it. It is just a suggestion. I am not forcing you.”
With a sob, Suet Ping ran from the room.
“That was not at all kind.” Shao Peng shouted at Rohani. “How would you feel if you were in her place?”
“In truth,” shouted back Rohani, “I would feel terrible.”
“You should retract what you said and apologise. Why don’t you talk to Siew Loong? Why do you place the entire burden on her?”
“I can’t talk to Siew Loong. I have tried. He avoids me. He blames me for this situation. I blame myself for this situation. I thought that with time, he would grow to love Suet Ping. She is such a nice sweet girl. How could he not love her?”
“Maybe he does not like nice sweet girls!” Exasperated, Shao Peng’s thoughts went back to the day, some fourteen years ago, when she accompanied the women she had brought over from China to the Convent. She recalled the way her brother had looked at Li Ling; she had never seen him look at his wife in the same way. Li Ling was saucy, rebellious and feisty, all that Suet Ping was not. Yet he had gone on with the marriage. He thought it was his duty to be a filial son.
Rohani clutched at her chest. Her face went deadly pale. Her eyes rolled and her mouth sagged.
Shao Peng rushed to Rohani and caught her in her arms. “Ah Tai! Suet Ping! Help!” she screamed.
***
Suet Ping sat with Fern and Rose until they were asleep. The rise and fall of their sweet breath in the quiet of the bedroom was like a refuge in a storm. They had been restless. Suet Ping brushed aside the damp tendrils of hair from her children’s face. The whole household had been restless following Rohani’s heart attack.
Suet Ping snuggled close to her two daughters. She loved them. Yet the longing for a son, a baby boy to hold and love, was so strong, it wrenched her heart. Involuntarily, her hand went to her stomach. She believed that a boy child would help her regain her husband’s affection. “For surely it was my barrenness, my inability to give him a son that lost me my husband’s love,” she said to herself. She blushed, recollecting the encounter with her husband outside her mother-in-law’s room.
Siew Loong had returned home and stayed with his mother the whole day. Suet Ping caught him briefly before he left. He would have brushed past her if she had not placed a restraining hand on his arm to stay him. He was abrupt. She wanted to speak to him yet found it impossible to say all that she wanted to say under the circumstances. She became tongue-tied, he irritated.
The initial years of her marriage had not been bad. Siew Loong was kind and attentive. The two girls came in quick succession. Then, despite attempt after attempt, she was not able to conceive, let alone bear a boy. She sensed her husband’s increasing coldness. Their love making, even to her inexperienced eyes, became totally mechanical. One day, Siew Loong stayed away from home the whole night. The occasional night became more frequent; they turned into days at a stretch, and in recent months even longer.
The room was shrouded in darkness. Suet Ping made no attempt to turn on the light. She tried to lose herself in the dark; she tried to let the dark to calm her mind. It would not stay quiet. Rohani’s words that it was her duty to find her husband a concubine played over and over in her h
ead.
Chapter 41
LI LING KEPT VERY STILL. Everyday, for the past week, she had come to this spot and waited. Rain or shine, she would be in the covered walkway fronting the double storey shop houses hoping for a chance to see Siew Loong emerge from the mansion opposite. People passed by and looked at her curiously. Shopkeepers viewed her with suspicion. She was there when they opened their store, she was there when they shut it. Often they would pointedly urge her to leave.
Siew Loong was never far away from her thoughts. She treasured every glance he had given her, every conversation they had had. They replayed in her mind through all the years of hardship and suffering. With time, these isolated incidents bloomed and acquired even greater meaning. She kept all her thoughts to herself. She would hoard newspaper pictures and articles of him. She knew little of Siew Loong’s life apart from what was conveyed by the pictures. The words in the newspapers meant nothing. She could not read. She had tried to stifle her feelings and had kept away from him. She thought it would hurt too much if she were to see him. She thought that he would not want her. Yet she hankered to have some connection that would bind her to him forever and this became a dream that kept her spirit alive. When Ah Chu read her the newspaper cutting, Li Ling felt that her fate had arrived. So now, she wanted desperately to see him, to know if her feelings were still true.
A car swept past and came to a halt. Li Ling held her breath. A man alighted. She took a step forward. He turned and stared past her. Li Ling gasped. Siew Loong did not see her. He was preoccupied by his mother’s illness and had hurried home from Port Swettenham. He made his way with long loping strides towards the house. Ah Sook came out to greet him. The old man bowed and when he straightened he happened to look across the road, straight at Li Ling. Li Ling stepped back quickly behind a pillar. Ah Sook remained with his eyes fixed across the road, a puzzled expression on his face. Then with a resigned shrug, he turned and followed Siew Loong.
Li Ling held her breath half expecting the old man to cross over in pursuit of her. When Ah Sook turned away, she felt a flood of warm relief. Her heart did a multiple of flips before it settled to a ragged beat. Siew Loong was all that she had remembered and much more. He was not the young lanky man in her dreams; he was filled out and hardened. She counted. He must be thirty-one!
She emerged from behind the pillar and looked across the fast departing backs of Siew Loong and Ah Sook. From the balcony another figure appeared. She recognised her. Suet Ping! A sharp stab of jealousy hit Li Ling. It was unreasonable. It was unjust, she knew. Yet, why, why should Suet Ping have him? She didn’t deserve Siew Loong. She wasn’t even able to give him an heir. Perhaps, the curses she had heaped on Suet Ping worked. Perhaps, it was fate and the time had come for Li Ling to lay her claim.
***
That night, Li Ling took hold of her daughter’s hand and led her into the courtyard. She lit a lamp. A glow like warm melted butter cloaked them. In the open sky above, the moon peeked out from behind a cloud like a huge silver ball come out to play.
“Up there,” Li Ling said, “is the moon maiden waiting for her lover. Can you see the shadow within the moon? That is Chang’e. She has waited four thousand years to see her husband. Her love, however, will be unrequited. She made a mistake. She was greedy; she swallowed the entire elixir of immortality instead of sharing it with her husband. As a result, she floated up to the heavens and into the moon where she was condemned to wait for eternity for her husband, a mortal. Each year on the fifteenth day of the eight month of the lunar calendar, women pray to the Moon Goddess. They generally pray for a good husband. Tonight, you and I will pray that she will grant us our love for she understands the pain of being separated. My love who will be your love. You and I, one heart.”
Su Hei looked uncomprehendingly at her mother. Li Ling’s face was serene. Her eyes were closed and a smile played on her lips. Su Hei was happy that her mother was happy. “Shall I bring out the joss sticks?” she asked scrambling to her feet.
“I have them here and more,” said Ah Chu emerging from the house. She balanced a tray on a makeshift table. From the tray, she laid out a plate of mooncakes, some joss sticks and an incense holder. Next to these, she added a plate of water chestnuts resembling black buffalo horns. Then looking very solemn, she took out a needlework box. From it she took out a reel of cotton and a needle. She cut a length of the cotton.
“Here, Su Hei. Kneel down. I will light some joss sticks, which you must offer to the Moon Goddess. When they are lit and you have kowtowed three times, I shall place them in the holder. Then I want you to take this needle and thread it with this cotton, like so.” Ah Chu, took the needle and held it over her head with the thread in the other hand.
“How can I thread the needle if I can’t see the eye of the needle?”
“You will be guided by the Goddess, if she wishes to grant you her blessing. If you succeed, it will be the omen your mother is looking for.”
Su Hei Looked at her mother and was struck by the dreamy expression on her face. Li Ling’s eyes were closed. For once, her mother was tranquil. She had to try for her mother. Su Hei picked up the needle. The needle’s aperture was not overly small. She held it above her head and with the other hand, she tried to aim the cotton. She missed. She tried again, and yet again she missed. Suddenly she felt Ah Chu’s hand guiding hers. Su Hei looked at her mother who still had her eyes closed. “Is it done?” asked Li Ling, a smile still lingering on her lips.
“Perfectly,” replied Ah Chu.
***
The music finished with a flourish. Ann Ee (nicknamed Annie by her Western clients) ran her fingers nimbly down the pipa, plucking and vibrating the strings of the lute with her right hand. She looked up demurely through her lashes at the men seated around her and smiled, her eyes engaging each of them in turn. She made everyone feel that the song was for them and them only. “This one,” she said looking directly at Siew Loong before sweeping her eyes to include the other four men and returning them on Siew Loong, “is for you.” Picking up the pipa, she began to sing; her melodious voice rose and fell. The room fell silent.
Siew Loong leaned back on the cushions, losing himself in the music that floated across the room. A girl came in, swaying gently on her bound feet, with a tray of drinks and placed it on the low table. She knelt down and from the depths of a lacquered basket took out a hot towel. The air was instantly filled with the warm scent of jasmine. She placed the towel on Siew Loong’s forehead and began to massage his neck. Her long slim fingers caressed and kneaded. They moved on to his shoulders. Siew Loong could feel the knots in his back yielding to the pressure of her fingers. He inhaled deeply the scented towel; she replaced it immediately with a fresh one, moving it this time to his neck. He smiled, his eyes hooded and relaxed. For the first time that day, he felt the cares and pressures of the day lifted from him. He knew it would not last long, but for that moment he would enjoy all the pleasures afforded to him.
The music finished. He felt the brush of satin skirts on his forearm, a cheek against his. “Did you not like my song?” whispered Annie in his ear. Her breath was warm against his cheek. He could smell her perfume.
Siew Loong placed an arm around her waist and drew her closer. “Of course! Where are the others?” he asked.
“I sent them away,” she pouted prettily before sitting on his lap. She waved away the girl, whose hands were still poised around Siew Loong’s neck. She didn’t need a rival. The maid had served her purpose. She wanted to be alone with Siew Loong. She nuzzled closer to Siew Loong and rested her head on his shoulder. “Would you like me to rub your back? Come, come to the bedroom. We would be more comfortable.”
“Ahhh! The bedroom!”
“Are you going to refuse again? I might not invite you any more. Any of your friends tonight would have jumped at the chance. And you know I don’t invite just any one to my bedroom.” Annie’s eyes sparkled and teased even as she scolded. Her hands caressed his face, lingering on
his lips, and then his throat, and then lower. His body responded. That was what Siew Loong liked about her. She never nagged like Suet Ping or his mother. She always accepted whatever he wished to do. Her coquettish charm won more battles for her than the threats and fights waged by his mother and wife. Perhaps battle was too strong a word to use for Suet Ping. She never fought for her rights. He wished that she would. Her acquiescence annoyed him. In bed, the same submissive attitude killed his passion. He hated the injured look on her face. What Annie lacked in looks, she more than made up with her passion and her ability to sense his moods.
She got up and pulled him to his feet before swaying to the bedroom. He watched the way she sashayed, the soft rustling sound of satin against the roundness of her buttocks. She looked back, a knowing smile full of promise on her lips. He sighed and followed her in.
***
Sun streamed into the bedroom through a gap in the curtains. In the spiral of light dust swirled like snowflakes. The air was heavy with the incense of the previous night and the lingering smell of sex. In the vast canopied bed, two people lay entwined. Siew Loong, deep in sleep, had one arm flung out wide, his legs spread-eagled beneath hers. His chest, smooth and bare, rose and fell. The corner of his mouth quirked; he turned to his side. His hand reached out. “Li Ling,” he murmured. She appeared before him, her hair spread out like a silken curtain. She smiled and the dimples in both cheeks deepened. He reached out to touch it.
“It’s me,” Annie said, bending over him, her hair cascading down to his chest.
***
Li Ling looked on, eyes bright with pride. Within the space of a month, she saw her daughter transformed into a woman. Her hair was a sheen of black, her brows plucked like the wings of a phoenix and her skin, pale and smooth like a peach. Under her watchful eye, Ah Chu taught Su Hei everything she deemed essential to be a dutiful daughter-in-law. “Win your mother- in-law’s heart, and you will win your husband’s affection. Of course,” she smirked, “other skills are also required and I have asked Hui and Huan to help out. They were masters in their trade when they were young. You, little girl,” Ah Chu tapped Su Hei’s head, “need all the skill you can get. You face great competition. Ann Ee is famous for her charms, a true courtesan, a Shuyu, adept in singing, the flute, the pipa, and story telling. She makes men fight for her. They court her though she does not necessarily bestow her favours on them. All this lends more spice and urgency to their quest to win her.”
A Flash of Water Page 26
