by Ovidia Yu
‘But she didn’t? Why not?’
‘Don’t ask!’ Helen said with a knowing laugh designed to have the opposite effect.
Aunty Lee’s eyes opened wide. ‘She was angry with him? He got arrested? No? He became a terrorist? Or worse – an actor? Or one of those naked dancers? No?’
‘Nothing so exciting. If Fabian had done something like that it would be more understandable. But Patty’s will left everything to Jonny Ho. Everything in her bank account and all her assets, including the family house that Fabian expected to inherit. Apparently he kicked up a huge fuss. My cousin plays mah-jong with a friend who is in the same Bible Study group as the wife of one of the lawyers who handled the probate, and she said Fabian went down there and accused them of helping Jonny Ho cheat his mother. He even accused his aunt of setting up Jonny Ho to marry Patty just to get her house!’
Aunty Lee could understand why Fabian would be upset. But she could also see things from Jonny Ho’s side. After all, Aunty Lee was herself a second wife. And apart from substantial gifts to his first wife’s children, M. L. had left everything else, including his house, to her. Thanks to her own investments, Aunty Lee had increased rather than diminished what she meant to leave to Mathilda and Mark.
‘I saw the aunt … Patty’s sister, Beth … also. I can’t imagine her setting up anything like that.’
‘She wouldn’t. I think Beth was hoping to go on staying in the house after Patty died. You know she moved in with Patty after Ken died? It was driving Patty crazy. She wanted some time to herself: to get used to being on her own, to sort out Ken’s things. But Beth just plonked herself in the house and said she was not going to desert her no matter what she said.’
‘Alamak.’ Having lost a husband herself, Aunty Lee knew how the pain of being alone wrestled with hating the sight of every person other than the beloved dead. And Beth didn’t look as though she would be much comfort. ‘That Beth is so sand-in-my-puss!’
‘So What?’
‘Sand-in-my-puss. You remember how she was in school, right? She’s the same now. Only worse. Everything, also she is more proper, more Holy, more low calorie than you.’
‘Sanctimonious,’ Helen corrected faintly.
‘That’s what I said.’
‘Anyway, that one was born to be an old maid. Everything must be done her way. Her way is always the “right” way.’
‘You can’t call Beth an old maid. She’s a career woman.’ Aunty Lee remembered Beth’s support under Selina’s childish attempts at manipulation. ‘I think she’s found the right line. She’s got connections with some good schools, and she’s starting a children’s education centre. Very scientific. All about teaching children from young how to learn things and score on exams. Have you seen her recently?’
‘Not since school. Remember what a pain she was back then? She out-teachered the teachers! When Patty came over to our place for mah-jong, Beth would stay with Fabian and, alamak, every night she would always phone two, three times: why wasn’t Fabian taking the vitamins she bought for him? Where did Patty keep the assessment books she gave to Fabian?’
‘Sounds like Beth was just as protective of Fabian as his mother.’
‘Patty was overprotective and spoiled the boy. We all told her that and she knew it. She even laughed at herself. Beth had nothing else to do when she wasn’t in school. When she was in school she bossed the students around, so when she was out of school she bossed Fabian around.’
‘Just because she never joined us at parties doesn’t mean she had nothing to do, what. She wasn’t even in our year. She would have had her own friends.’
‘One year older. When you are in school, one year makes a big difference, but in the real world, five years, ten years, what’s the difference?’
Aunty Lee didn’t pursue it. After all, she was trying to be more mature than Helen about Beth. Beth was starting the school of her dreams while Helen’s Tai-Tai life revolved around gossip and foot rubs.
Aunty Lee remembered all the negative comments she had got when setting up her Peranakan café. People doing nothing with their lives always criticize those trying to do something. Of course, there had been friends who encouraged her: Patty, and Helen among them. Aunty Lee smiled to herself, remembering how, in the early days of Aunty Lee’s Delights, her friends would swoop down on the shop’s display counter and buy, ‘ten of everything, or however many you got left’, with the engine running in Helen’s huge white Mercedes blocking the road outside.
‘What did you do with all the kueh you used to buy?’
‘What?’
‘You used to come down and buy my nonya cakes from the shop, remember? I know you weren’t eating them because I never saw you getting fat.’
‘Oh.’ Helen looked embarrassed. ‘I don’t remember. Maybe I just exercised a lot.’
‘It was very nice of you.’ Aunty Lee reached over and touched the back of Helen’s hand lightly. Helen, she thought, had probably given the kueh to her driver or servants. Aunty Lee wanted to encourage Beth’s KidStarters the way Helen had helped her.
And maybe, just a little, she wanted Selina to see how well Aunty Lee and Beth Kwuan got along. If her grandchild got into Beth’s school, Grandma /Aunty Lee would be right there.
But she realized Helen was talking. ‘You remember that burglary we had, right?’
‘Another one?’
‘No, lah! Now we got so much security I want to go toilet at night also got lights, got noise, got police come. So we don’t even switch on. Just put up all the signs, “Alarm System Activated”. Should have just bought the signs; no need to buy the alarm. Hiyah,’ Helen sighed and hesitated.
Aunty Lee, sensing something new, perked up. ‘What? Tell me!’
‘I did something I didn’t tell you about that time.’ Helen sounded guilty.
‘Those people took money. The television sets. All Peng’s nice suits and belts and ties and watches. His good Italian shoes. The wedding silverware and crystals. Jewellery. Antiques. They just took the whole safe with them. All the bottles of liqueur Peng was collecting for so long. All the credit cards we didn’t take with us. Electronics. That was what my son got most upset about. He said that they could very easily get info on my bank accounts and credit card accounts and information on my friends from my Facebook and email and scam them.’
‘So what did you do?’ Aunty Lee refused to be distracted.
‘I called Patty to warn her about the identity theft thing. I was calling all my friends … ’
Aunty Lee nodded. She remembered thinking that Helen had called more to vent than to warn.
‘I may have said something about Chinese gangs using stolen credit cards, chequebooks Birth certificates. I think that offended her. I was so worked up I forgot that that new husband of hers was from China. After that phone call I never saw her again. Every time I phoned her to go out, she said she was too busy, she couldn’t make it. Busy doing what? You say you got no time to go out, I know you are boning fish or stuffing eggplant. But Patty? Later she wouldn’t even come to the phone, and she didn’t even call me back. Of course, I didn’t know that she was so sick.’
‘Was she sick?’
‘She died, what. Of course she was sick.’
They were both quiet for a while. Death of someone your age always brings it closer to home.
CHAPTER SIX
New Boss
Nina looked around the living room of the Jalan Kakatua house. It was large and part of what must have been a comfortable house once. The rooms were pleasantly rectangular with no awkward corners or narrow corridors. Apart from the half-completed wall insulation and the windows still waiting for their insulated glass frames, this would be an easy room to clean once the construction debris was removed. Though much of the time that depended as much on the personality of the employer as the kind of paint they put on their walls or the kind of flooring they had installed.
Nina took a deep breath. Had she been stupid to come here, j
ust to get away from Aunty Lee’s nagging? Despite Aunty Lee’s bizarre demands (prawns had to be slit on their undersides even though the dark string of digestive track was nearer their backs; washing detergent was not allowed on the granite mortar used to crush garlic), Nina knew Aunty Lee was an easy boss to work for. Apart from food, Aunty Lee didn’t care how something was done, as long as it got done. In fact, Nina was a great deal more particular when it came to some things: laundry, for example. Aunty Lee liked bright colours, especially on her sneakers and her batik sarongs, but as long as her clothes did not smell or make her itch, she paid very little attention to how she looked. More than once Nina had had to suggest Aunty Lee put on something dressier or more formal when special guests were expected, or strongly recommend that the ‘red hot mama’ tee shirt Mathilda had sent her from the UK (showing a dancing chilli pepper with two rows of protruding nipple-like seeds) might not be what Aunty Lee wanted to wear to the fish market. Nina smiled to herself. Aunty Lee had offered to give Nina the tee shirt, ‘from London you know!’ Nina found it easier to appreciate Aunty Lee when she was not around. These days, when Aunty Lee was around it seemed that Salim was all that she wanted to talk about!
And, of course, there was Salim. It was the exact opposite with Salim. Nina knew that when she was around Salim, or even just thinking of him, she lost all her good sense. That was why she had to keep away from him. Inspector Salim was the real reason Nina wanted to get away from Binjai Park.
Singapore law forbade foreign domestic workers from marrying Singaporeans without prior approval from the Ministry of Manpower, and Nina had never heard of permission being granted. Aunty Lee seemed to think it was just a matter of persistent applying and re-applying. Nina knew of former maids, still banned from Singapore after years of fruitless applications, with children not legally recognized by their Singaporean fathers.
Aunty Lee, for all her guts and good intentions, had no idea what it was like to be Salim, for example.
Salim Mawar was neither Chinese nor rich. Even though he refused to talk about it, Nina knew that being involved with a foreign domestic worker could put an end to Salim’s career prospects. Salim knew the official line, but Nina knew the stories of women who had fallen in love with Singapore men. Thinking of Salim made Nina waver.
And there were all the other issues.
‘What about religion?’ Nina had said to him.
Salim had smiled and said: ‘You pray to your God, I pray to my God, let them work it out.’
But Nina knew that, even if there was only one God under all the different names, it was not God but churches, mosques, politicians, and governments that would make trouble for them.
‘Why are you standing here?’ Beth appeared. ‘Are you looking for something? Do you need the toilet?’
Employers also found it difficult getting used to a new helper, Nina knew. Having a complete stranger living in your house day and night, using the same bathrooms and fridge, made people uncomfortable at first.
Of course, after a week, some would be walking around in front of you in their underwear (or without it) and leaving the toilet door open when they went to shit. Fortunately, Miss Beth did not look as though she would be one of these. Miss Beth looked as if she would be on guard even when she was alone.
‘No, Madam,’ Nina said quickly. ‘What would you like me to do first?’ Nina would not be at the Jalan Kakatua house for long. She would do the best she could while she was there.
‘So, what is it like working for the famous Aunty Lee?’ Beth smiled at Nina. ‘Selina says you want to get away from there because of some policeman who is after you. You should report him for bothering you, you know. I suppose Aunty Lee wants you to be nice to him?’
The implications around the way Beth said ‘nice’ made Nina want to throw something at her.
‘Oh yes, Madam,’ Nina said. She put on her best stupid expression. ‘Aunty Lee wants me to be nice to everybody.’
Beth could not tell if Nina was being smart or stupid. ‘Clean up what you can in here,’ she said finally.
Left to herself in the strange house, Nina set to work. That was when she discovered that getting away from Aunty Lee was not enough. Her own thoughts kept returning to Salim, wondering how Aunty Lee would explain her absence and what he would do about it. She tried to throw herself into the cleaning. She could not control what Salim thought and felt. She was dangerously close to not being able to control what she herself felt.
‘What are those poles doing over the windows? Are they the clothes-drying galas from the back?’ Miss Beth sounded accusatory, but Nina had already realized this was her normal way of speaking.
‘Madam said she is worried because the windows got no glass. I put the galas in front of the windows so that, at night, if anybody tries to come in they will make a lot of noise and we will wake up.’
Nina had hung three poles at different heights on loops of raffia across the front windows and leaned plywood sheets against the side window. They would not keep out anyone intent on coming in, but no one would be able to get into the house quietly. She had also looped the link chain she had found hanging on the front door grill through its frame and fastened the large padlock hanging from it. The kitchen door and the sliding window next to it were locked and latched, the other window left open for air. Since that window still had its (not childproof) grills, the house was as secure as it could be with a gap in the wall and no glass in the window frames. It ought to be safe enough for Singapore. Some homeowners were still nervous about housebreakers, but, as far as Nina knew, the burglars had never yet broken into a house under renovation. It stood to reason: there would be few valuables lying about.
Beth looked around. The floor was clean and for the first time in weeks no grit rasped under her feet when she came in.
‘You’ll have to take them down tomorrow before the workmen come back … if they come back.’ Despite Jonny’s assurances, the contractor and his men had not returned that day.
‘Of course, Madam.’
‘It’s a good idea,’ Beth said, almost to herself. But Nina recognized it for the praise it was and accepted it.
Nina thought she knew Beth, but she was mistaken. She had seen women Beth’s age visit Aunty Lee’s Delights in packs for ‘lunch with the girls’ or ‘tea with my buddies’ or for some time alone with a book, away from domestic responsibilities. Mature voices shrieked with girlish laughter and grumble-boasted about children, husbands, and how long they had to wait for that flight out of Oslo even though they were on Business Class.
But Beth was not one of these women. As a single woman without children, even if she had the smartest outfits, the busiest mobile phone and most recently styled hair, she would always be the one they finally remembered to turn to and ask: ‘How is your dog?’ or ‘So, are you still doing yoga?’
By nightfall, Nina had given the house a thorough general cleaning. There had been no sign of a dog, a yoga mat, or any hints as to what Beth Kwuan did with herself when she was not working.
‘Tomorrow, what time are the workers coming, Madam?’
‘Who knows?’ Beth said, before remembering herself. ‘If you take the poles down before 9 a.m. that should be fine.’
‘Does Madam want me to bring tea to her room in the morning?’
‘Do you bring that old woman tea in the morning?’
‘Yes, Madam. Jasmine green tea. Then later, at breakfast, I make for her coffee with condensed milk.’
‘All right. That sounds good. Now you better go to your room so that I can lock the door. Do you have to go to toilet first?’
When Nina did not move Beth added: ‘Look, I can’t let you go wandering around the house all night.’
‘Madam, I don’t walk around the house at night.’
‘Good. Then it won’t make any difference to you whether the door is locked or not.’
Her voice was so briskly matter-of-fact that Nina thought she was joking.
‘It’s for y
our own good,’ Beth Kwuan told Nina. ‘This way if anything goes missing, you won’t be suspected because you were locked in your room.’
‘But Madam, what happens if I need to go toilet? Or if there is a fire?’
Beth laughed. ‘A fire! Don’t be silly. Why should there be a fire? And you just make sure you go to the toilet before you go to bed. If a dog can be trained to hold it in all night, I’m sure you can!’
There wasn’t anything Nina could do except let herself be locked into Julietta’s old room. She could have asked to leave, of course. She didn’t think Beth Kwuan could have stopped her if she phoned Aunty Lee, or if she simply unlocked the padlock, the grill, and the wooden door and walked out of the house. But where would she go – back to Aunty Lee’s house in Binjai Park?
There was a small possibility Aunty Lee had set her friend up to this, just to show Nina how difficult working for somebody else could be. After all, a lot of maids got locked in by their employers. Aunty Lee probably thought that Nina had come to take her freedom for granted.
Nina decided to stay. She could stand anything for a few days. And surely once Beth got used to her she would see that Nina was not going to get up and rob her in the night. She wondered if Beth’s paranoia had been triggered by Julietta’s running away, or if it was the reason why Julietta had run away.
Julietta’s tiny room was set into the wall at the top of the stairs. There was no window. It had clearly been designed as a small storeroom or large linen closet. A naked light bulb fixed in the ceiling showed a mattress that occupied most of the floor space. Two upright dining table chairs were stacked in a corner on top of a couple of plastic storage boxes.
Perhaps it was wise: keeping a door between strangers was a good idea after all. After Beth turned the key in the lock, Nina lifted the chairs down and wedged them against the door, the back of one chair preventing the door handle from turning. It was just a token defiance but made her feel better.
