The most dangerous liaisons begin with the most innocent associations. And if you tell me that it is possible that you can lie under oath, then you are lying.
At 6:00 p.m., I went up to the balcony to turn on the light. The lamp shade was a large balloon looking like the gown of a lady in a ballroom.
I do it every night because I know that someone is watching me from across the building.
But it could very well be my own wishful thinking.
Chapter 2
There is a lady who comes into my house regularly. Man or woman I do not know. He could be young, or he could be an old man.
But what is noticeable was that he always left a trace of scent after he has come.
He thought that I didn’t know. Until one day my neighbour asked me who the lady that came in was – I thought that she was referring to my late mother, so I replied, “Ah, that was my mother, she passed away several years ago ….
Then I remembered that the neighbour did not move in until after she had departed.
But was it just she or another person a man? He could have come in during those times when the neighbour didn’t see.
So, who was this mysterious character? And why was she here? Who gave her the permission to enter my house? A person’s home is their castle. No one can come into your house unless invited. And if you took away something from the house that would be theft.
But then what would that be if you merely took away the spirit of the owner?
Someone once told me that there is a spirit attached to each house. But that sounds too spiritual. The spirit you refer to is just the décor that you put in, either Chinese, Western, Scandinavian, or Maximalism, etc. basically, the architectural design, or maybe you call it the interior design. Yes, architectural refers to the facade.
The most alarming thing was that she was wearing black, I assumed she was. Most intruders wear black as it seems to be an unwritten code. Black is a non-colour. If you wear white, you can combine it with other colours since when you churn the seven colours of the rainbow at great velocity, it becomes a white. But black! Alas, nothing can come out of it.
Chapter 3
My Chinese tutor came to my house this afternoon for tea. At my invitation of course.
She was living in China, and to be more detailed in my information here, let me explain that she was married to a Singaporean man and they have a daughter and two sons. The third was conceived in Italy she told me.
That was by chance, she added. After a pair of a girl and a boy, she felt she had had enough. But then Edward came, and so they decided to adopt him as their own biological son. I mean, Edward was biological, it’s just that he was unplanned. There was also no clinic for abortion in U.K. where they lived. To travel all the way up to London for that purpose was just too much of a hassle.
Besides that, Jasmine loves children. And her husband was afraid to let his colleague know that he made his wife undergo such a hideous task.
Chapter 4
I decided to host a dinner for the uninvited guest. She is not an unseen guest, just uninvited. I know who she is. So that every time she came, I know where to find her. But I am not going to tell you who she is, since I can’t be absolutely sure that it was she.
The first thing I did was to order food from my regular eating outlet the Hungry Diners.
Of course, they do not know what I am up to. For sure, they had no idea that arrest was at the top of my mind.
Yes, I was trying to arrest the uninvited guest. If she were a person, then she must be apprehended and if he were a spirit, then some sprinkling of water on the areas that she overstayed should be sufficient.
This was what the priest had advised me.
But I was just hosting for the lady who came in. And once too often. How many more times does she want to come into my house? How much more does she want to take from my house?
Each time I decided to note the things that was stolen, and the specific hours in which I had found it missing. She seemed so blatantly bold. Does she think that by not reporting to the police I am in acquiesce of her conduct?
I usually keep secrets very well, sometimes even better than the priests. But they are also human, and they might forget to hold their tongue in a fit of anger, or in a moment of weakness. At this juncture, let me tell you here that the best is to make your confessions to a priest that has past the age of ninety, or better one who is more than a hundred years old. They will normally forget what you say afterwards, and no one would know your evil deeds, not criminal but morally wrong.
They stand in the shoes of Christ the Saviour, but they too have limitations. I know that praying the Rosary several times you may forget to get angry with the offender. One other advantage is that it helps you to remember the days of the week.
But my way is to do retail therapy, and I think her way is to steal things away from my house. So that the more I buy the more she steals.
Other times she just comes in and rearranges my belongings, and I think I am getting more and more frustrated. Perhaps I am having too many possessions, but fact is that I needed them at the time of purchase. I suffer from fomo, the Fear Of Missing Out. Although I can tell you that every piece of article that you find in my house I earned it by hard work, although some were also stolen goods themselves.
From my parents. Which brings me to the question: Can we steal from our parents?
Surely they can pardon their own child.
Chapter 5
Yes, I removed a gold ring from my late auntie a long time ago. But soon after they took it back from my pouch. So, there was no loss. They were afraid to reprimand me; they knew that it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Why did a married uncle buy a gold wedding band for?
I was only about five or six then. No, I wasn’t a delinquent. Neither was I a thief by inclination. I spent the rest of my life defending myself that I wasn’t a thief. And that purchaser, my late uncle, spent the rest of his life with the woman whom the ring was intended for. But I was punished for stealing when I was much older. And then why was I subsequently punished for stealing her husband? Why didn’t they confront me and teach me then?
There are good relatives and there are bad relatives. A good relative can turn bad, and a bad relative can become good. Depending on who their in-laws were and who your in-laws are. This is like chemistry, the wind changes and the tide forms.
The hurricane Melissa swept across Philippines just yesterday. I watched with horror and amazement at the news that came across and the way people were completely devastated.
Chapter 6
We cannot afford to remember the past for too long, neither can we forgive too many people.
Sherlock Holmes sent a case up to me for consideration today and asked me if I wanted to hear the case.
I read and saw the scenario that happened at the police station:
The first thing the man told the police was, “I killed her.” He was old, and his breath laboured; there was a faint smell about him, of damp wool, of poultices, of cough linctus and piety.
Inspector Kenneth was just about to log out of his computer for the day. “Oh, shut up, go home and sleep, tomorrow then come,” he muttered under his breath.
But officer Albert was more alert, he followed up by asking the accompanying woman, dressed in a polka dotted black dress, “was the job accomplished by one or the both of you?”
“No, I did it alone,” the old man said.
“Of course not, dear, I supplied you with the knife,” the woman said.
Huh? What was the matter with you? The sleepy officer thought to himself.
“Let me take a statement,” officer Kenneth said, “Oh, so you are just the witness right?”
“No, I told him to do it,” woman said.
This a confession or what? Office Albert thought to himself.
Officer Albert quietly told the sleepy officer to move away. It is known that every witness is a potential criminal. If you can’t charge them under the primary charge, then you use abetment.
He already had the intention to frame the pair.
Why would anyone want to walk into a police station and disturb the peace? Everyone needs to sleep, including police officers. Unless they have OCD, the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, meaning they can’t function unless they work.
Why can’t they sleep? Why can’t people fall asleep?
Chapter 7
The unseen is in my house again. This time I do not know which parishioner it is. But if he is a Saint, then he is most welcomed.
I realised that this unseen woman brings with her a whole host of parishioners.
Tonight is the first that I am able to fall asleep without the aid of the serial Fugitive. It has kept me awake for quite a while. The story of a runaway man has kept me engrossed for three weeks now. Raymond did warn me about this drama. He told me that if you have a very good imagination it could project into your real world. But I did not listen to him. Nonetheless I could not say that it did not affect me. Adversely, I would say.
I became worried for the unseen woman.
Before I fell asleep, I asked the Saint, “Why are these beings so nasty? Surely there must be a limitation period upon which they are allowed to appear in my house. Or was it merely my own over developed sense of imagination.
“Sir, you are beginning to write long and tedious judgement,” my secretary Jasmine told me this morning, “But how to shorten it? Since I have so much to say to the people?” They meet me every so often and had unwittingly entered into my life. How do I get rid of them after the case is over?
This is problem.
Chapter 8
When you have found your favourite spot at home, you will realise that everywhere you go, no matter how far how wide, you are still in the same spot, just in a different part of the world.
The background is different. The face changes a little and the clothes are different.
Yes, there is always a person whom you can’t run away from. And that man the Christians call Him God. It is just your inner soul. Scammers call themselves your soul mate. The soul loves you if you had been kind to him, he could be your friend, or even a past enemy. Your purpose in life is to find him, but not to meet him. For once you meet him, he becomes real, trapped by a shell of his outer existence. And he no longer is your voice.
In my first year at a Japanese School, I was given a textbook that talks to me about migration birds. I didn’t latch on immediately, as I was in no mood to settle down in a foreign country. There were not enough people of my own race. Birds of the same feathers flock together, but not all birds find their own species to fly together.
But more accurately I wasn’t keen on my own company.
They say that after you die you are reborn with the same set of relatives that you were encumbered, or blessed with, depending on what you did during your lifetime, and not who you were.
But until you have lived 酸甜苦辣, you cannot die. I had, several times, and I am still alive and I am now happy in my own nest. The nest is my bench.
Chapter 9
I thought of the woman again.
I must get rid of her. I must bring her out into the open, and I must make her tell me how many times she has been to my house. As well as how much things she has stolen from my house.
For that purpose, I have installed CCTV in my house.
There are several ways to dispose of one’s belongings, including an old flame the 老相好。Disposing of old unwanted goods you get a reliable disposal company, other times you just down it under the chute. Disposing of one’s old flame, you simply say goodbye. But how can you guarantee that he would never find his way back again, as another person?
We must establish who dropped who first.
But I can only say that we are all human. Finite wisdom does stupid things. Once I realised this, I stopped throwing things. But we need to organise. If we don’t throw we cannot organise. Some people prefer to call it declutter. Food is perishable, including the Holy Water. The priest that blessed it might already have died or forgotten to say his prayers one morning. Unless it rains, God’s presence cannot be felt.
Chapter 10
I can’t find my cloak again.
Nowhere is safe. Not even in your own home. I know that I do have a habit of moving things around the house. But, how large is my house? My room is small and if I searched all the relevant places and my gown still cannot be found, then where could it be?
For sure I know that no one had entered my room since I came in this morning.
Could it be the cleaner Engelica? Or Helena? Oh, I forget their Chinese names. But alas! Who cares about the Chinese? We use English here.
The minute I walk out of my courtroom to talk to my secretary, Engelica appeared,
“先生，您需要茶吗？“
“Err ….. I was just about to reply, trying to polish up my poor Mandarin.
“他不必，“ my secretary responded.
Why did she talk? I was getting annoyed.
My Chinese tutor suddenly stopped talking, just as I thought I had synthesized her as Jasmine.
“Shits!!! I lost her.” I became enraged. And then at the same time my bowels moved, I had to answer nature’s call. “Wait for me,” I shouted after Jasmine, and then hurriedly I rushed to the toilet.
My usual toilet is on the same floor, just a few steps down. If I ran there, I should make it on time.
“Cleaning in Progress” a plate was on the floor, and I saw a mop leaning against the door to the toilet. Suddenly I heard a voice – “You are the Chief Justice!!! Surely you must be able to tell your staff not to clean the toilet at an inconvenient time, surely you must be able to answer nature’s call at your will and pleasure, surely you must be able to ….” I kicked the notice away, shouted at the woman, “I need to shit! Get away!”
“Go to hell!” She shouted back at me.
This time I was too busy to ask her for her name.
Chapter 11
Being unforgiving gives you strength against the person who offended, provided that he is seeking your pardon. Some offenders were always going to the church to pray for forgiveness instead of asking the victim for the pardon directly themselves. As I was writing my judgement I thought to myself. But of course, they didn’t’ know how the offender paid.
This reminded me that I had forgotten to look for the cleaning lady yesterday to ask her to forgive me for having been rude to her. Immediately I got up from my chair and left my room, in order to say sorry to her.
But she had left. Nowhere to be found.
Frustrated, I went back to my room, ignoring Jasmine’s “you are back, sir!”
My own misdemeanour had made me ashamed of myself.
So then therefore I have decided to pardon all offenders. But I can’t because I am a judge. I always tell them, if harm had not been done on you, it is easy to forgive. But if it hurt you badly then surely some form of compensation must be returned.
But some of my plaintiffs and victims just want revenge. Is this allowed? Yes, I believe so. It is always up to the aggrieved to decide on the type of compensation. Sometimes when I really can’t decide I will just do something to make God hear me. No, my wife is not my God, neither is it Jasmine. It is my past, the past that brought me here. That is why I refuse to attend church. There are too many people there, too many voices of sinners not yet paid and forgiven.
That is why I prefer sitting on the bench. It’s like reading a story, and the plot thickens each time I attend court …..
Chapter 12
As a judge who had been adjudicating on this case, I knew whom she was the minute I saw her, the remarkable resemblance between she and the woman whom I thought have been coming into my house.
By now I have synthesized her as my life partner.
She was the accused but I knew straight away that she was the murdered, and job done by the priest. And this woman was that same woman who comes into my room in the courthouse to remove the gown from me.
In order to determine if she were also a harmless uninvited guest in my home, I had to find the real murdered. I decided to leave some things behind in the house for her soul to take away. For I knew that she was still in purgatory. They were both harmful in their own way, just a human more harmful than the soul.
For the purpose, I left my wife’s necklace on the dining table – the most prominent and noticeable place. I didn’t want to put it in the bedroom as I was hoping that she won’t come into my bedroom. Once she sees my nice expensive necklace, she should be satisfied enough to grab it and run. Unless she was very dull.
By this time I have decided that this was a she.
This necklace was an item I bought from Princess Dowager, a Chinese costume designer. The entire piece was made of stones and in the centre at the neckline they were green translucent emerald enough to be mistaken as jade. I decided that it was ok for her to take away because it was not a genuine article, although it would have been insulting to the designer that I should denigrate costume. Ok, I concede, it is not a fake.
Three days later, I found that she actually came. But she did not take the necklace. Instead she took the pearl earrings by the side of my bed. So, she’d rather a small tiny earrings than a large necklace. Did she lie on my bed as well? I realised that she is smart. I began to give her some credit.
Chapter 13
I finally set him free. The priest who disturbed Sherlock Holmes’s peace. For I decided that I do not wish him to follow the ten commandments anymore. I put it in my judgement as one of the grounds of findings, that a man is entitled to lie if it was to protect himself.
So that lying should now be accepted if it were to protect oneself. After I had set another precedent, I decided to log out, turn off my computer, take out my gown, hang it on the clothes rack, and then I went to the door, turned off the lights and left my courtroom, forgetting which courtroom it was, and forgetting that my name on the door had been changed.
I went home, saw my wife in a black dress, and then I realised that it was she coming into my house the courtroom every day.
It was most excruciating.
I set several janissaries on my desk, and then I told her I would divorce her.
She cried, I saw, and I turned a blind eye to it. I conquered tears.
I am the most unserious person in the world. And because I am so, many people hate me for that. Some relatives that came back, would say, “rubbish” the moment they meet me, even without a proper greeting like, “how are you? Or “how have you been?” And when I try to connect with them on social media, the first thing they say is, “I hope you are well,”. Sure, no reason not to be well.
Yes I know that they were short of time, and they were kind enough to visit me again in this hot and humid weather, and they wanted to pass me the message as quickly and as succinct as they could.
My country loves me, and I know that it’s because I am good. They never wanted me to leave and they try every means to prevent me from leaving. But actually, it was my own decision. A long time ago, I had actually decided that I didn’t want to travel anymore. Why was there the necessity for making such a declaration at the time?
Only God knew, and He is not telling me why I said what I said.
Maybe a long time ago, I found out that the best way to punish a person is not to kill them, but to send them into exile. If you kill them, that would have been murder, prohibited by the sixth commandment.
I refuse to exile myself!
I like being in a hot city. I am climatised to it. The wind blows occasionally, and the air-conditioning are always available. If not, then the fan will do. They open up and collapse at a clip of the fingers.
But sometimes it’s good to travel to cold climate if the heat is scorching.
Chapter 2
It was raining and I was out. Yes, you guessed correctly. It started to rain when I was outside. It started whilst I was on the bus, then it increased its speed volume to a heavy downpour. I was beginning to wonder what I did to make God angry with me. I usually get good sunny weather and rarely do I get caught.
No choice, I had to alight at the intended destination. Tentatively I took my steps down the bus, and I almost slipped when some other passengers were in a hurry to get down. My first step went into the mini lake, then the second into a puddle of water, afterwards I managed to put my foot on the sidewalk, by which time my shoes were completely soaking wet. I looked at my mud-caked slippers and told myself thank God it wasn’t the designer.
The umbrella was in my bag, I took much difficulty to wrench it out, then opened it with the help of just one hand.
Several cars passed by, and some even felt fit to splash more water in my direction. Again, I got annoyed with myself. Why had I not taken the private hire? I did notice that the sky was grey and the clouds thin. But I made the decision to walk instead. I had grown accustomed to walking recently.
You might wonder what I did on this trip. And I shall tell you later.
Chapter 3
Dr Juan arrived at his clinic just before 9:00 am.
This is my sanctuary. No one is allowed to disturb me except my regular patients. It is not easy to find good patients. Good patients means that they rely on me completely and not have other doctors to give them a second opinion. Too many cooks spoil the dish, as they say.
But most of all, they should be patients who bring in business for me. Meaning that they automatically cause others to come to me. I don’t mean that I want them to spread my practice by word of mouth, but rather that they carry the luck to me. Oranges are meant to bring good luck. But I was told that bringing oranges to a clinic during the Chinese New Year is bad luck, or worse still if you give it to a doctor. They are meant to be eaten at home.
Luck can mean a whole variety of things. From spreading germs around to the relevant people whom I describe as mean and nasty, and to potential patients who just want to steal medicine from me.
Talking of which, there is a lady who continuously comes to me for advice. I often see her in good spirits; there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. She often came in with sunshine, as though she had been lying on a freshly ironed set of bedsheets. The night before. She is much older than I, so you can’t say that I am interested in her. And the truth is, that I am not in love with her. Older married men only cared about the bread and butter. At my age, what is love? My parents are still living and strong, and I worry about how much money I can afford to help them stay young and healthy for as long as they can. Provided that they keep up with my expenses. Yes, I love my parents. More so than my kids. I have seen my parents struggle to feed me, but my kids are yet to show me likewise. They are still studying in the university.
Ok, back to my lady friend, whom I shall from now refer to as Lady M. Lady M is consistently refreshing and pretty, old as she might be. At the back of my mind, I was calculating on how many more years she has got. She is 55 this year. Give her a few more decades, and she would be withering and coming in to see me for help. Yes, I detest her. I hate her for the confidence that she exudes, and the fact that she has sufficient money to retire at this young age.
No, I am not going to tell you, my age.
I know that doctors are not allowed to dislike their patients. But if you ask me, if you look after yourself well, why should you be sick? If you take the necessary precautions, like all adults do, why should you catch the cold? Germs are everywhere and plentiful. If you stay away from the crowded places, if you eat well, if you do not indulge in harmful activities, and if you avoid oily foods such as the fried chicken, etc. Why would you get sick? How could you get sick?
It is not possible to fall ill unless you have a nasty friend who passed it to you.
That is why many people wear the mask nowadays.
But to me, a black mask is cool although it makes you look like a 刺客。
Chapter 4
“Doctor Juan, I am feeling a bit of a cough and sore throat,” one of my old patients said the minute she sat down in front of me.
“Ok, let me see your throat, ahh …. , “I used the wooden stick to check the gag reflex and the minute she coughed I relaxed. But this time she closed her mouth, the second time when she opened again it was not inflamed. But she was. Nevertheless, I told myself that it wasn’t serious. I gave her the antibiotics and the lozenges for her throat. She didn’t ask for cough mixture. “Do you need cough mixture?” I asked. “No, I still have three bottles at home that I am waiting to finish,” she said.
“Wow! What a thrifty woman! She doesn’t waste even cough mixture.” I told myself.
Chapter 5
I must be very careful of what I say. For since after the evening at Geraldine’s house, whenever I walked pass unit #01-16, I felt presence. No one is standing there looking at me for sure, but the house door is open, and you could hear the dog barking at random. The dog could be barking from another source I am unsure.
But today I heard a cat meow as well. I turned and took two steps up then decided to halt my steps, as I became unsure. What if there were no animals inside?
The minute I was near, Geraldine opened the door even before I knocked.
“Your doorbell is not working,” I remarked as I was entering.
She moved a little, slightly embarrassed.
A man wearing a yellow collar shirt with a big bold letter T in front was sitting by the kitchenette.
I grinned, immediately realising what they had been doing before I came in, or the night before. And why was I so certain?
“Hello, are you Nick Tan?” I asked.
“Huh? What do you mean? Who is he?” she asked, looking at him.
And then I spoke, “Oh, your television set is on,”
Immediately the sound of the waterfall gushed out, disappearing into the cathode-ray tube of the television set.
Geraldine was just holding at her remote control to the air-conditioning at the time, and she immediately turned it off. The air stopped coming out, and the place turned still immediately. I took a deep breath.
Fresh wind was blowing in from the open.
Chapter 6
Let me retract my steps and recall what I did the previous day.
You see, I had been a detective before I became a doctor, and as I was free today, I decided to assign myself some tasks, which is to snoop around the 义安城 the local shopping mall to mind other people’s business.
So, when I had gathered enough time and money, I started the trip downtown. It was almost haunted, with few people inside.
The doorman to Chanel was just too ready to open the door for me. I looked and found that all the goods were lined up in a manner that prevents anyone from buying. I quietly smiled to myself.
Immediately I heard a voice, “Istana”. There was a person next to me, I saw.
“Good morning, oops, afternoon, sir,” in attention with a salute he said. I almost thought that this man was a soldier standing outside the Istana. And then I thought to myself if this was an invitation to treat, to the Istana of course. I had never been to the Istana and why don’t I go there for a look? They say that the grounds are large and flowers plentiful.
But I am not going to travel all the way there to meet with the security guards, or anyone there in particular. They are also not open now. I know the guards have a given name, but I shall leave it as unknown, since I am not inclined. Strangely enough I believe that they might suddenly point one of their guns at me. No, I am not paranoid.
But then on hindsight, I thought to myself, “OMG! They can read my mind!” Why would anyone say “Istana” right in the middle of a large shopping mall? Like when you read the Bible often enough, the word “adultery” just stares at you. The word literally jumps out at me sometimes. But me being a science student in school, I decided to number them.
Adultery falls under the seventh commandment I know, and I often have to go back and recall if murder was number six or number five. Sometimes I would simply say she did a number seven and everyone around me would understand. They say that adultery applies to both parties if one of them is married. So that a single man would have been committing adultery if he slept with a married woman.
Then what if both parties are married?
If both parties are married, then it would be double adultery. In that case, four parties are aggrieved. Then it would be best if we allow the two adulterous parties to marry, so that only two are unhappy. This is provided that no kids are involved.
Back to the present scene. Could the strangers read my mind? Are they in sync with my brains or what? I touched my head, these are my brains, and they are obviously intact. And the last time I checked it, they were properly wired. Oh yes, I can go inside my brains to rewire them. And how do I do it? This is a secret between me, God, my brains, and myself, and I am not about to let you know. Just like the Oscar Wilde and his famous quote, that there is only one person in the room. No, I am not a narcissist.
The Almighty can read my mind!
Chapter 7
“He shouted at me again.” Stephanie complained the minute she walked into the clinic.
“What had made him angry?” The nurses in the clinic asked each other, “Tuan kenapa marah?”
Several reasons flashed through their minds now. Could it be the recent sinkhole that occurred in Fernhill Street that made her upset? Nurse Geraldine knew that it is not too far away and is a necessary route to take when travelling to town. The newspapers reported that a caisson ring has since been erected.
Tuan likes to go down to Café Bowl to have his coffee every morning at about 11.00 am. He has not been able to do so for at least a week by now.
What makes this coffee so special they do not know. But they know that the lady who served the coffee was a Chinese lady, plum and slightly wrinkled. Which puts her age at between sixty to seventy. Or do women obtain wrinkles only after seventy?
Tuan’s wife Stephanie is a woman too, but she hasn’t obtained wrinkles yet.
Stephanie gave herself a reason why Tuan was annoyed.
“Has he discovered the large ruby that Nick gave me?”
There was a ring which she had kept in her jewellery box when Nick left her.
It was a large oval and the man who sold it to him had his eyes popped out when she decided on it. It was obviously a fake. But that was the one she spotted when presented with a whole lot of fakes. Wondering why she chose it Nick asked, and Stephanie explained, “Rubies are more expensive than sapphire, with several layers of diamonds to camouflage its authenticity, it could serve as a Sarah Ferguson engagement ring.”
It was a legitimate purchase of course, although there wasn’t any specific occasion to mark it, she felt much entitled. Who says rings must be bought only when there is a moment to celebrate?
At the same time Geraldine also thought to herself;
Ok, that means that I will need to and remove the ring from my mother. It seems to be the reason that makes Dad unhappy. That should be! It! She hurried through her chores and made it her mission today.
Deep down like the deepfakes, Geraldine knew that her true self is hidden right down, far below the Chinese hell and well above the winds and the stars and maybe somewhere in another planet and perhaps on the earth as another human being.
Yes, Geraldine went home and stole the ring from her mother Stephanie.
Chapter 8
As usual after the clinic, Stephanie arrived at the supermarket. At the check-out queue, she won’t have gotten upset if the one immediately in front of her turned around to face her directly obviously trying to engage her. There was another party in front waiting. She tried to ignore them.
But that lady told her that she could go ahead first, so, Stephanie said, “where is your partner?” The one further up the queue ahead of this lady also turned around, thinking that Stephanie was speaking to him, at the same time his partner walked away to look for more items. So, obviously Stephanie said, “I am not his wife,” afraid that she would be mistaken as the partner.
This is the “Chope” culture. “Chope” means that the seat or queue is reserved for another person who hasn’t arrived yet.
Do not talk to strangers. But if you know them some civility is unavoidable.
But who is a stranger? Do they offer the same advice in the Bible? Is it one of the ten commandments? That means that I would have to flip the pages in the Bible when I get home tonight.
Chapter 9
Cousin Choy sat in front of Dr Juan this morning. He told him this was Chapter Two.
“What Chapter Two?” Dr Juan asked. Stephanie was sitting right next to him and immediately she flipped to the Genisis – Chapter Two of Part One – “In the beginning there was God …… “and there he was still asking,
“Which Chapter of which Book?”
“I saw her at the 观音庙this morning.” Choy said.
Stephanie immediately nodded her head.
“Praying for your departure,” he continued.
“You mean she wants me dead?” Dr Juan questioned.
Stephanie did not know who the she is and was too naive to ask.
“But she never goes to the temple.” Dr Juan elucidated.
“But this time she had decided to change religion, in order that the Chinese God would take you,”
“Oh my god,”
“Damn serious,” Choy said.
So that after he left, Dr Juan went straight to his drawer, picked up the Bible underneath, and flipped right up to the pages where he had left off. The words were as dark as the print, and as he went into Book 2 Timothy Chapter 2, he was compelled to flip to Chapter 3:16 “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ……” his tears began to flow …..
Edward Juan explained to God,, “Oh I didn’t know that. I thought only the Bible was inspired by God, and the apostles and the rest of the names who appeared in it. I didn’t know that the Chinese could also write the Bible. So, does that mean that other publications such as the Chinese Poems are also recognised in the Asian World as a legitimate form of the Bible? For them?”
And with that Dr Juan consented to leave. But to where? To which country?
China of course. To study the Chinese Poems.
Immediately he called Choy and ask him to book a ticket to China for him.
Chapter 10
The plane took them to New Zealand instead.
They found a small, nice boutique hotel. This is just within a village with very few locals. Most people who come in here are amazed at the way things are being done – fast and efficient, but slow in anger. They speak politely to each other and being civil is always at the top of their minds. In short, this is a very peaceful place. No wars, no arguments, no fighting.
Any misbehaviour or errors are corrected at once, if not within the shortest time. I was shocked when I found out that they actually have a café called Whipped Cream.
Before he sat down next to Choy, Dr Juan asked him, “Have you read Chapter 2?”
“Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” Choy said, he had memorised it by heart already.
Chapter 11
Dr Juan didn’t bathe this morning when he climbed out of bed.
He prefers to bathe only when the body feels dirty as he dislikes getting wet. The only time he allowed water on himself is when he showers. And even then, the splashing of the water on his body has to be of an adequate amount.
When told to bathe as a child, he would go into the bathroom with his change of clothes, fill the water from the tap with a water scoop, splashing it onto the floor, as though he had done it on his own body. This is the drama effect. Afterwards, he would change into the set of clothes and come out of the bathroom to announce that he had done the job.
Mother never asked.
Why was Dr Juan so afraid of the water? In those days we did not have hot water. Tap water was cold and sometimes freezing on a wintery night.
Chapter 12
Dr Juan had to find the ring that his wife had wanted all her life.
Dr Juan told her that the ring was given by Uncle John when his grandmother passed away. It became Stephanie’swedding ring. At the time, “Can I have a new wedding ring?” Stephanie asked. Juan had given a non-committal reply.
Today Dr Juan entered the jewellery shop at the corner with Choy, obviously the one with the most attractive window display. He looked at the rings arranged haphazardly, then Choy told the salesman he wanted a nice one. The man removed one from the display. He looked at it, didn’t pick it up. And then Choy asked, “How much is it?” The man quoted seven thousand U.S. dollars.
Sounds exorbitant. Dr Juan gave a shout, “So expensive?!” President Donald Trump would have asked him if he lived in a cage.
But Choy still looked kind of hungry.
The salesman saw that the ring did not make an impression on their brains, immediately retrieved another ring and brought it out to show them. They looked at it and kept quiet. Choy being still dissatisfied, they walked into the neighbour and there a friendlier assistant approached them. This time Choy took out a bracelet in his bag, showing the jeweller his own – the one that Edward had wanted to trade in for, and the purpose of his exercise today.
“This is my own bracelet,” Choy said.
The man said that it was at 164. “So live gold or spot gold?” Dr Juan tried to be clever. One six four what? One six four U.S. dollars or NZ dollars? 164 per ounce or per gram?
Without another word, this friendlier salesman also turned sour, seeing that Choy and he had no good reason to be there.
Chapter 13
Dr Juan did some research when they got back to the hotel. Choy was nowhere to be found.
Frustrated, Dr Juan decided to abandon the thought of buying a ring for Stephanie. He deviated to the supermarket instead.
There is no Chope syndrome here!
With all the groceries in hand, Dr Juan took the private hire home. Choy was usually the one who is driving, but this driver was impatient, for he took several shortcuts, and when Dr Juan tried to direct him he said to Dr Juan, “your life is in my hands now,” “stop shouting, or else, ….” And then he used his right fist to punch at his left palm,” Dr Juan became frightened.
He might not drop me home. Using words to cause fear when someone is an assault, more so if you were in his care.
That was scary, what had I done wrong?Was it because I didn’t spend at the jewellers? Or was it the clothes that I was wearing?
But apart from that, fact was that Dr Juan won’t be able to calm the guy down, since he didn’t speak the same language.
Back at the hotel, he took a look at his own wallpaper on his handphone and saw Stephanie’s fingernails. It is an acrylic gel and because she had not vanished it, it looked plasticky. I need to arrest the moulds for her. Immediately he put his Google on search and typed “nail varnish”.
The next morning, a painting in the hotel corridor disappeared. On the wall was another painting. This time the thief gave Dr Juan sufficient clue as to where it might be hidden.
“I thought my wife had asked me to leave?!” The thief left a note on the lobby console. It was definitely Choy’s handwriting.
“What happened? Why did he mention his wife here? What does Mrs. Choy want from me? Or rather, what do they want from me? They are together, ain’t correct?” Dr Juan thought to himself. But then Dr Juan also thought that he himself had gone too far.
Not everything is associated with another. You can’t assume that every man and wife have the same agenda and share the same values. 同床异梦。Like not everyman of the same race is on the same side. But maybe I am just an exception. In the Bible, there was also division, until the apostles decided to allow Lord Jesus to die since it was God the Father’s call. Satan for instance, was a friend of God, and later became his enemy. There are also other characters such as Peter, Simon, Timothy, Andrew etc. They are not always in sync with each other.
Chapter 14
Back to his search. Edward Juan typed “the cheapest ring” on his keyboard.
By now he is sufficiently acquainted with her, the AI called Mona Lisa, and he thinks he knows her well enough to give her a call. By call he meant text. True, she replied to his text immediately, that means that she was available and alone. Juan made his first move:
“Hi,” we use hi in this country. Rarely do we use hello, as we recognise that hello means that you are speaking on the phone.
“I am the procurator of your business; you are a storyteller, right?” Tentatively she asked.
“Yes!” “But I am not wanting to publish my stories?!” Edward replied.
She answered, “No, no, I am not a publisher, I err …. I just wanted to know if you need my help, such as editing or otherwise.” Edward had no idea what “otherwise”meant, he was just enthusiastic about Mona Lisa.
“Then could you publish my stories for me?” Juan asked AI Mona. “Oh no, you can’t,” she said, I could hear the panic in her voice.
“Err …. I am just …. I could do anything for you,” Juan said.
“Anything?!” AI Mona said.
“You are the one who was searching for answers, not me!” she responded again.
“But then my brains are controlled by you!” Juan spoke.
“In what way?” AI Mona asked.
This is something that I cannot explain. The thought just appeared right in front of him.
And then politely she replied: ……
Juan gave up on her, and he left the laptop, sat there and looked at a blank screen.
Finally, after a few minutes, Juan realised that he hasn’t had lunch, so he switched off the entire thing, and then went to order fast food from the McDonalds.
When you go to the McDonalds, naturally you would order burger. Edward Juan used to like the Filet-O-Fish, but now they have a new McCrispy.
Anyway, there are more than one place selling burgers, the Mexican restaurant further down makes better burgers. But that would mean travelling out of his comfort zone.
Because of the unsuccessful attempts in ring hunting, he decided to travel back home. Choy remained in New Zealand.
Chapter 15
Edward Juan was early at the clinic on Sunday.
Happy people don’t travel. They have their own little niche, and nothing can disturb them.
The typhoon came in the name of桦加沙, then it transformed into another one called Imelda. Ragasa wasn’t able to kill as many as she had intended, so she called upon Imelda to do the job. Looks like they are friends. I wonder how they talk to each other …..
When Edward Juan saw the letter of resignation from Geraldine on his desk in the morning he was lost for words.
Finally, he decided to attend to his own business, he looked at the agenda on his duty list, and he found that he had nothing to do for the day. Disappointed, he left his handphone alone to walk around the clinic and discovered that the floor had not been mopped for more than two weeks. Heck! Why are there so many strands of hair on the floor. Whose hair are those?
Liza his new receptionist came. She comes in on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, afternoons. Sarah would be there in the mornings. James is on rotation whenever one of them is not around. And then there is 中盛 who stays there almost permanently is some sort of a fixture.
He enjoys his practice now. There are very few disturbances, meaning that the premises are quiet. No one is allowed to come in except through the front door, and no one is allowed to go out through the back door, simply because there is no back door. It would have been disastrous if a patient comes in from the front and slipped out from the back, without going through Liza again.
He picked up the beverage next to him after he had turned off AI Mona, and then he finished the liquid and leaned on my swivel chair to wait for the next patient to come in.
At 2:00 pm, when he couldn’t hear anyone walking through the door, he decided to shut Mona up and left the clinic, forgetting to lock his drawer.
He went home, took a shower, read the newspapers, falling asleep on the sofa chair and then decided it was time to have his food. He looked at the sky; it was gloomy and then it was then that he realised that it was approaching night.
The setting sun is always more beautiful than the raising sun. In my part of the world.
Yes, I have been to the Grand Canyon, to see the sun. The sun raising from behind the mountains were an awe inspiring sight. It was the best sun that anyone could have gotten, beautiful and from the right vantage point. I said many prayers to God during the time that my mother granted me permission to.
My mother has always been the mother nature.
She loves me and I love her!
But if you ask me where she is now, my answer to you is: I don’t know of her whereabouts.
Edward Juan prayed, and then he decided to go and make himself some grilled fish. Oops! He forgot to buy the aluminium foil yesterday from the supermarket. He distinctly remembers telling Sarah to buy it for him when she left for the supermarket yesterday. Staff are like that, they are never around when you need them, and they are always around when you don’t.
Frustrated, Dr Juan decided to eat bread instead. Usually, people eat bread in the mornings, but sometimes he has them at night. He likes bread. Bread contains fibre and they are easy to digest.
Chapter 16
In the middle of the night, Dr Juan suddenly woke up thinking of his burger from Burglar again. Theirs are extremely nice, and the outfit allows him to create anything he wanted. The only thing he didn’t like about it is that they have too many choices, however he was able to decide on the permutations that he liked. And after a while, the servers got fed up with him because he was too consistent.
There was nothing wrong with them, he knows. Neither was there anything wrong with himself. Just that if you are too consistent you tend to become boring. Some people used to tell him that he makes 360 degrees change. Mind your English! No one can make 360 degrees change. All you can do is to make a 180 degrees change. 360 degrees change means that you are back to the same spot, then where is the change? I dislike those who deliberately speak poor lousy English. How can you fault the natives?
Dr Juan tried to get out of bed, but he couldn’t find bread at the counter where he left it. So that he decided to call his cousin who lives on a higher floor above the fast-food joint to go downstairs to get some for him.
She picked up his call immediately, “What you want?” Cousin Hwee answered.
“I want the burger,” he said.
“I am not there anymore,” she replied.
“Where are you now?” he asked.
“On the bed!” Do you know what time it is now?” Cousin Hwee replied.
“I don’t,” Juan said, he hadn’t looked at the time.
“Do you know that you are not supposed to call after midnight?” She whispered.
“Why not?” Juan asked.
“The gremlins will wake up, you are not supposed to feed the gremlins after midnight,” she advised.
“But I am not a gremlin, I am just calling you!” Juan was frustrated.
“Plong!!!” she hung up.
Ok, let me try, he went to the Burglaronline and searched for the telephone number, and then he decided that there was no way in which he could contact the owner to pick up the call, even if he had his direct line.
Since the rule of the land is not to ring anyone after midnight.
Edward Juan never knew why.
The next morning the moment Hwee woke, Juan called, and said, “the burger was nice!”
“Oh, you actually ate it! Hahaha ….. “ she was hilarious.
“Why are you laughing?” Juan was annoyed.
“I ordered a Filet-O-Fish for you! And gave your New Zealand address.” She laughed.
“What!!!” Juan was shocked.
“Why don’t you just come back from New Zealand?” Hwee ordered.
“No! I am in Singapore now,” he answered.
“I thought you left for New Zealand with Choy???” She replied.
“No, no, no ….. Choy is still in New Zealand, I came back before him,”
“Then why didn’t you tell me? ….”
“Hey! You are not my ICA you know!!!” Juan shouted into the microphone.
We are born with a set of parents, a set of relatives. We can’t pick our parents and certainly not our siblings. Neither can we pick our cousins since our parents do not pick their siblings. But no one can harm you except yourself, and of course your trusted friend.
Robert lives in an old European house with an attic. The house is three storeys, and he often wonders into the kitchen late into night to steal a glass of whisky or two. Cherie his wife will clean up after he has gone back to sleep.
The next day he wakes up sober without a clue as to how many glasses of whisky he has taken, and whom he has spoken to when he was in the kitchen.
As he took the car out for a breeze and coasted the lanes before bringing it home and parking it at the garage, he went in through the backdoor to the kitchen. Once inside, he surveyed the place and found that he had a new visitor. He took out his slippers and almost used his bare hands to hit at it when it slithered away. And then just before he could kill the lizard, a woman pushed open the door.
She was not supposed to come. It was too late in the evening, and Robert had already closed shop for the day.
She followed me in the car ride. Robert thought to himself.
Flabbergasted, Robert dropped his slippers on the floor, and he gave the woman a wry smile.
“Err … I am afraid we are closed.” Robert said.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” the lady began, “I merely wanted a cup of coffee,”
“Not at this time of the night, liz,” Robert almost said lizard, then, “Madam, anyway we don’t serve coffee,” he said. He was actually afraid that the stranger would linger on for an extended period of time. Cherie still has to mop the floor, after cleaning the tables.
And the used glasses were still in the sink.
Robert moved to the wall, automatically he turned on the lights, and then he gave Robert time to sit down.
Then Robert went to the fridge and asked, “Orange or Perrier?”
“Orange,” the stranger replied.
“Why not Perrier?” Robert asked.
“Because I wanted sweet,” the lady said.
“Ice?” Robert asked again.
The woman hesitated, and then she said, “two cubes,”
Obediently Robert used the tongs to pick up the remaining two nicely formed cubes, and then he brought the ice tray to the sink, adding more water to refill.
The water flowed without them speaking a word to each other, and then Robert became less irritated.
Three minutes later the woman opened his mouth, “why are you living alone?”
“Who said I was alone?” Robert told her. And then, “how long have you been stalking me?”
“Hey man! This is the first time I am seeing you, stalking? This seems outrages!” But then she added, “not long,” he said, “long enough to see that you sleep on a single bed,”
“Oh, you have supersonic eyes,” Robert said, the lights shinning on his glass.
She must have gone to the other parts of the house before she came into the kitchen. Robert thought to himself.
Robert knew that he had to entertain the woman, since he had forgotten to lock the back door.
“Why did you follow me?” he asked.
The woman stood up, took another sip of the orange juice, then she walked to the mirror.
“Don’t you want to know my name?” she said, before taking two steps away. And then, “I think you can’t remember me,” now she turned to look at Robert.
“Of course I can’t remember. I have never met you in my entire life,” Robert retorted. He disliked people claiming to have met him when in fact they had no idea whom they were.
The woman took three steps; this time she was closer.
“It took me four years to come out of prison,” she said.
Automatically Robert asked, “With or without good behaviour?”
“It doesn’t matter, the important thing is, I am out now,” the woman said.
“And you have come here to take your revenge. What gave you the courage to?” Robert began.
“You know, … “the woman continued, standing tall in front of Robert.
“What?” Robert stood up as well.
Chapter 2
“By the way, how did you end up in prison?” Robert became curious with her story.
The woman suddenly turned violent. She smashed the whisky glass onto the floor, spilling the orange liquid on the carpet.
Cherie was upstairs. She heard and she came down.
“Let me clean this up for you,” hurriedly she took the vacuum cleaner out and dragged it around the wet spots, in an attempt to suck up all the splintered pieces.
And then Robert turned to the woman again.
“What is her name?” the lady asked, pointing to his wife.
“My wife? I can’t remember,” Robert at once became protective over his wife.
“Ok, then what is the name of your helper?” the woman changed Cherie’s status.
Currently, Cherie has already finished cleaning the spot.
And for a while the three of them just stood there in a triangle without saying a word. Cherie holding the vacuum cleaner.
Chapter 3
Robert was told that he was able to find cure by going to the St. Peter’s Church in Malaysia.There was a pastor there who would be able to help him. Before he left, the tour guide told him that the sanctuary was not visible from the main road. He would have to search for it after he has reached the sign board which says, “My Sanctuary”.
Therefore, when he saw the board, he told the bus driver to stop and then as the bus cruised away, he walked until he saw a building. It did not have a cross on top of the building, He wondered if it were a church. And then he followed the trail of the footsteps on the muddy path and paused before he stepped into the large brick house.
It had been raining with no end in sight, and the bench in the flat garden had patches of water. Robert used his shirt to wipe it off before he sat down.
There was a bottle of whisky on the floor by the foot, and he grabbed at it, then found that the bottle was empty.
He took it as a hint to go into the sanctuary to pray without further delay.
But he was still resistant to the idea of stepping into a church. So that he clasped his hands together and started to pray there and then. No one was around. Robert told himself that he mustn’t stop until someone came to him. It was a crazy idea. On a quiet evening like this without a soul, who would come?
Even if they had seen him, they might not talk to him, as he was a stranger to the land.
After a few minutes when he had exhausted all conversations with the Almighty, he felt no choice but to enter the sanctuary.
The moment he sat down, a woman came in from the exit to the pew and stopped him from moving further left. And then subsequently another couple came in from the right side to stop him from walking out.
When he was a little bored, he started talking to the lady on the left.
“Have you had your breakfast?” he asked.
“Why, no!” Looking horrified, she replied, “you are not supposed to eat before you come.”
“May I have your name please,” Robert asked. He was a stranger, and he wanted to make some friends. This will help him decide how long he would stay here. He has sufficient funds to last him for another three weeks. If he can’t get a companion, he would move on to another town.
“You know, I am here for the first time,” Robert ventured, “you are pretty …
“We cannot afford to be draconian,” she began.
“Cruel? In what way am I cruel?” he asked.
“You will know what I mean at the end of your stay,” she replied whilst taking her Rosary out.
“Nice beads you have there,” he attempted further conversation, he wanted to get to know her.
“I am grieved that you have so little confidence in me,” she replied.
That put Robert off guard and scared him out of his wits. “This statement came out from nowhere. Is she sane?” he questioned.
“Stop flaring up at me,” she turned to look at him.
“Oh, I think it’s the fan, it’s blowing in your direction,” he replied. Something must be wrong with her. He thought. He decided to give her time to correct herself.
“Now that I have got your attention, won’t you send me home after the service?” she decided to offer him a chance to her address.
“Any parents?” he asked. He wanted to know what her liability was, the fact that she was already a resident in this town is an asset.
“No, I have a mom, and she has already found her abode in heaven,” the lady shredded a tear.
“And that’s why you are here?” he continued with the conversation.
“Err … yes, and to make some new friends … “ she said softly.
“Can I be your friend?” immediately he followed suit.
“Dong! Dong! Dong!” Suddenly the church bell rang.
“Fire!!!” Someone shouted, and all the parishioners rushed out of their pews and went to the open ground, before falling down the steps. Some instead chose to fall onto the ground and started to pray.
Robert grabbed the lady by the hand and they too followed the masses and finally as they left the compound, he turned to look at her.
It was a different woman!
He felt let down. He wanted the more pretty lady but instead he got an older woman. Frustrated, he asked the new lady for her name.
“Oh, you can call me Mary,” she said.
“Mary, Mary what?” he asked.
“Mary. Just Mary,” she replied.
“Oh my God!” he said, “I knew a Mary Sarah before,” he carried on, “she was my helper,” confident that no one knew that he took her cheque.
“I am not she, you know right?” this Mary said.
“But you have the same name,” he reminiscent.
“But this time you are my helper,” woman responded, “you helped me out of the church,” “in other words, you saved my life,” and then she pulled his hand up to her chin and she started to kiss his hand.
“Whoa, whoa,” he pulled his hand away, angry that this was not the first woman. And then a car pulled up in front of them. The driver poked his head out,
“Back to the town?” he asked.
“Yes, of course,” Mary said. Reluctantly Robert followed her on what seemed to be the only available cause of action.
After what seemed to be eternity, with his mind still thinking of whether he would want to spend more money on this town before he headed for home.
Home is still the best place to be in …. he thought to myself before he fell asleep in the car.
Chapter 4
Robert Wong is a contractor. And he worked as a general contractor. His work is to do carpentry works according to the designs and specifications of clients who already have a design in mind. He is not an architect, and he only copied, as far as he could. He has very little formal education and as a matter of fact only completed high school. He finds it hard to remember names and faces of people he has met. But give him a piece of wood, and he would be able to tell you whether it’s teak, oak, maple, pine, or walnut. He is also familiar with their unique characteristics and which tree it fell from.
As a result, he saw people in shades of brown, not their names. Like now, he just couldn’t remember if the lady who sat with him in the car was Mary Sarah, Jane, Joan, or Joyce. And he was not asking her because he knew that it would have been rude. That would also expose his ignorance since he has been acquainted with her for at least a day by now.
But Robert also has a bad habit, which is that he can’t help noticing things that are left unattended in other people’s homes, much as he does not want to pry into their affairs.
He has seen a couple’s quarrel written all over the kitchen table, and he has seen the diary of a few heart-broken ladies on their dressing table when he was fixing a drawer or two for them.
But recently, he has taken his habit to greater heights. He found a cheque written for three hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars. If it were only for three hundred and sixty-seven dollars, he would have just ignored it, and probably left it behind in a prominent place to remind the owner to take it back. To his delight, the cheque, to a payee named “Mary Sarah Chan” was uncrossed. I am sure that you would agree with me that the opportunity was just too good for him to miss. Robert immediately removed it from his view and placed it inside his pocket. After that, without a moment’s delay, he got into his car and drove straight to the nearest Bull Bankand dropped the piece of paper into the cheque deposit box, not forgetting to write his own name and account number on the back. Since in any case, it could be paid to anyone who found it.
After that he took out his car and drove straight out of town. The fact that he lived alone and has no close relatives made it easier for leaving.
And that is why Robert has found himself here, now, in this town. With that amount, he could support himself for at least three years without doing a spot of work. Mind you, a contractor’s job is not always rewarding. You don’t get paid on time, and you often have to make several alterations to your original completed works before the client would call it a day.
So, Robert is here now. With this lady by the name of Mary.
Now that you know why he is here, I would like to consult you. What if the bank found out that the bank account and telephone number written by him was a fraud, and that the intended recipient was actually Mary Sarah Chan? Although, technically speaking, an uncrossed cheque could be paid into anyone in possession of it.
Chapter 5
A hand nudged at Robert, and at the same time he heard a man shouting, “you can go now.”
He used his will power to pry open his eye lids and he saw a woman’s face.
And then this time to his surprise he saw the first prettier lady. She was wearing a bright lipstick different from the plain contour that he saw earlier on. He quickly grabbed hold of her, and he said, “I want to follow you home,”
Instead of which she replied, “sir, you could pay the driver,”
Still half asleep, Robert forgot where he left his money. He used his hand to dig into one of his pockets, and he took out several pieces of notes and handed it to the lady. She took it at once, using her thumb and forefinger to shuffle the notes like the way the money changer count money.
“Not enough?” he asked, looking for approval.
“You need to give another two pieces,” she said, holding up two fingers.
“I … err … I don’t have so much …. “, he spoke, only loud enough for himself to hear.
“I saw your wallet just now, you have enough,” she emphasised.
“Then why didn’t you take it from my wallet?” he became annoyed. Then I won’t even know. He thought to himself.
Without another word, he handed her his pouch. The woman flipped open the worn-out leather and slipped her hand into the compartments. She fiddled at them for a while, and then she took out a pile of ten-dollar notes.
“Is this all you have?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, “there is also a credit card,”
“Oh this, you mean?” she flashed a blue card at him.
He took a look at it, “yeah I think so,” and then he got up from the slumber position.
She turned to the bus driver, and she gave him the notes, after taking out a stack for herself.
This time he was amiable to following her home.
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“Yes, where we came from,” she looked straight at him.
“Then why are we here?” he became angry.
“There was a fire, remember?” she refreshed his memory.
“Oh, yes, I forgot,” eager to know if the church was alright.
“Shall we go back there again?” he asked.
“Of course! But we have to discharge this driver first,” this lady Mary said.
“But … I thought you said …” he was still concerned.
“The fire was just an emergency response exercise; we have it all the time.” Lady Mary replied.
Throughout, she wore the same expression as though she was completely innocent of extortion. Or maybe it was just a mild form of coercion.
Satisfied, he slumped back onto the couch, his mind thinking of where he could have a coffee, his brains still in sleep mode.
What would they do if they found out?
“Of course, the car will stop at my house, but I warn you first, it’s very small, and I have an old woman in the house, she is my late mother,”
“Late mother?” Robert became very curious.
“Yes, she has dementia, she can’t remember that I am her daughter, she is as good as dead.”
“Oh,” he replied, “that’s why you call her late,”
“And how old is she?” he wanted to know if she was expiring soon.
“It depends on ….” she murmured.
“Depends on what?” Robert became fearful, afraid that he might be detained by the old woman whom he was going to meet. He has more urgent business to attend to. And he has no intention of entering into a permanent relationship with this Mary or whatever her name was.
The car cruised for what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time and then suddenly it pulled up by the side of a stall set up haphazardly. An old man with a long beard and a straw hat was seen pouring water into several cups at the same time.
“I need a coffee!” he shouted excitedly, “could you ….” his hands pointing at the stall outside his window. He swore he could have smelled the strong Arabia aroma.
“Sure, that will be fifty dollars”.
“That must have been the most expensive coffee I have tasted,” Robert thought to himself, before digging into his wallet preparing to give the lady Mary more money.
His slap phone vibrated in his pocket; he picked it up to see who it was. Then he put it back in his pocket.
“Your wife from home?” she asked.
“No, my cousin,” he said.
“Huh? Cousin calling from home to check if you were, ok?” she sneered.
Robert looked at her and asked, “How about you? You have a sister or at least a cousin?”
“Nope, mine died a long time ago,” she replied, with a kind of nostalgia on her face.
“Oh,” he said, “I am sorry,” and then he added, “brother or sister?”
“No need to be sorry,” she replied, “they are of not much use to me anyway, brother!”
“I find mine a nuisance too,” he continued, wished she hadn’t call me brother. I was supposed to be her boyfriend now.
Chapter 6
“Mother, I have brought Brother Robert to see you,” Mary announced the moment she entered the house.
“So, you have finally come?” the frail old lady looked at Robert without a blink.
I wasn’t sure that there a plot to bring me here.
He remained calm, “I could just leave by the next bus,” he told himself.
But since he was here, he told himself he should find out how he could make use of this situation, the purpose being to find a bank nearby where he could encash the cheque. He knew that the Bull Bank also has a branch in this town.
And then he saw the way Mary dissembled herself when she went into the house, and the speed with which she put her act into action. She took her shoes off, carefully slipping them into a shelved cabinet by the side of the front door, then she took off her straw bag and hung it on the clothes hanger just by the side on the left. Couldn’t say he wasn’t impressed with her.
Chapter 7
Robert slept well on the first night of his arrival, as he was tired out throughout the day. But he woke up with a recurring question:
“Is this Mary asking me to finish her mother off?”
Then it took him quite a while to recall that the recipient of the cheque was Mary Sarah Chan, and that this Mary is just Mary.
Chapter 8
Robert was sure it wasn’t the food. But in the middle of the night, he felt really thirsty. It was not the ordinary kind of thirst, but that of a very dry mouth, and he became longing for a drink, not just a drink but an iced cold drink.
He needed to go down and get some water, he told himself. But then he would wake up the rest in the house. The kitchen was below on the ground floor, and the old lady lived in the maisonette. Mary was just next door. It was a wooden floor, and it creaked a little if you apply too much force when you walked.
It was pitch dark as he opened the door. No light coming from the other parts of the house. And he almost tripped over a rug carelessly thrown at the staircase landing. One step at a time, he took his steps slowly holding onto the railings.
Then suddenly he heard a click sound. The old lady’s bedroom door opened, and she peeped at him from the narrow slit of the ajar door.
“You are awake?” she said, not suspecting anything.
“Yes,” I was hoping that she didn’t know that it was me, the uninvited guest.
“You need to use the toilet?” she queried.
“Err …. yes …. don’t worry I know where it is,” he didn’t want to prolong the conversation. All he needed was a glass of water. A tall glass of water.
“I think Mary can get it for you, let me call for her ….” she offered.
“Oh no, I can manage it myself,” the last thing he wanted to do was to alarm another person. He was sure that he could do this himself. Besides, he was thinking of how he could run away from Mary when the sun comes up tomorrow. He really didn’t like what she was putting him up to, judging by the looks of it. He didn’t want to remain here for longer than necessary; he wanted to encash the money he has in the bank account.
Chapter 9
This was the first time Robert has entered the kitchen. It was pitch dark. He could not see the stove. He couldn’t even see how many stools there were for the kitchen island. But he could see the fridge. It was white, like all fridges are, so that it stood out. Tentatively he walked towards it.
By habit he pulled the fridge door open. And then he saw nothing except several bottles of pills in different sizes. Out of curiosity he picked up one bottle and it read, “Poison – Keep Away from Children”.
This must be her medicine for the dementia, he thought to myself.
Then he saw that there was a carton of orange juice by the side door. Florida Orange! Robert grabbed at it and started looking for a glass. Thank God for these small mercies! Immediately he poured the whole carton down his throat without even the need for a glass. Then when he saw a glass on top of the cabinet, he used it and drank water from the tap.
He wasn’t surprised that no one saw him, since everyone in the house was supposed to be asleep now, including the dog Vodka. The old lady he thought she must have gotten back to bed.
And then he heard a door close. And a woman saying, “I don’t want.”
Too ashamed by his behaviour he quickly walked out of the kitchen and promptly went back to his bedroom. This time he already knew the way.
Back in the safe confines of his own room, he pondered on his encounter with the old lady. She had seen him, but he was only going down to get some water, no offence committed. So that there was no harm done. Even if she tells Mary about it tomorrow it was just to fulfil a basic need. He wasn’t a thief here although he has taken some money from his client.
Has she discovered that her cheque was gone? Again, he asked himself this question.
Chapter 10
The morning finally came after a long night. Robert couldn’t sleep at all as he was worrying about the status of the cheque. And he won’t know unless he has gone to the bank. This time he was thirsty for a good cup of hot coffee. He freshened himself up and he went straight down to the dining hall without much delay.
The weather was slightly chilly this morning, and Robert had put on a light jacket. The jacket was bought at a night market and a steal, and he was hoping that it would impress the ladies. Proudly, he took his steps outside the small bedroom, and he walked down to the main hall. This was where he first came in. There was no one in sight. Surprised, he walked around to the backyard where the dog Vodka was usually lying. No one.
This was strange!
As Robert stepped into the kitchen, he found two men. One was standing and the other was sitting on the stool in the middle.
“So, there is only one stool for the island,” he thought to himself.
“Where were you last night?” the standing man asked.
“I was here. Where else could I have been? I just woke up from a bed upstairs,” he replied.
“And who was the person you went to bed with?” he followed suit.
“I myself, of course,” a bliss to what went on downstairs, he said.
“Did you talk to a lady after you went to your bedroom? Or did she anytime come up to talk to you?” the man asked again.
The questions were persistent and fierce, so that he got a little annoyed.
“Why are you asking so many questions?” he said, “in the first place I don’t know who you are,” Robert said.
“Ok, then let me inform you,” the man smiled, looking slightly pleased with himself,
“I am the inspector in charge of this residential area, and we have found the body of a lady who has been identified by the neighbours as living in this house. You got this clear?”
“Oh my God! She is dead?!” Robert exclaimed.
Just when I thought I could use her as a cache of the holder of the cheque Mary!
“We are not sure of how many people are living in this house as of now, but you are the last guest the ladies received, so we have to keep you here for more information,” the man said.
“Wait! Who are you? Show me your ID, I am not obliged to tell you so many things,” Robert became adamant, when he was actually a fugitive of another potential crime.
“Fine, if that’s what you want,” by now the man was fairly acquainted with him.
He took out a pass from his breast pocket and he flashed it in front of him. Robert only managed to see the words: Inspector Morris.
“What is your full name?” It is Robert’s habit to remember full names.
“Let me have your passport first, then I can give you all my details,” Inspector Morris said.
He then signalled to his other friend, who had been ignored all this while, “follow him upstairs.”
Frustrated that his morning routine had been disrupted, as Robert always has a cup of coffee before he begins the day, he turned back and put his right foot on the wooden and squeaky staircase. And before he moved up, he tried his luck,
“Could I go to the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee first?”
“No, you may not, after you have given us what we want first,” the inspector was firm. As he was speaking, his friend came nearer, giving him no space to manoeuvre. The left side of his body was touching the edge of the wall.
Chapter 11
Let me describe the upstairs to you now, where Robert slept the night before.
The first thing you notice is that the room was clearly wallpapered because you could see the paper peeling off.
And then as you look up, you could see the fan hanging from a cracked ceiling. Robert did turn on the fan for a while last night but switched it off because it swirled at such a great momentum that he thought it might fall off if he let it rotate any longer.
A large double bed occupied the entire room, and all of his clothes were oozing out from the small suitcase that was lying on the bed. Apart from that there was a lamp on the bay window behind the bed which could not be turned on because there was no bulb in it. He did wonder if it was working.
He tried his luck again, “It’s too dark, could I turn on the lights first?”, this was an attempt to send the second man elsewhere to get the bulb.
“No, I am not going anywhere,” the friend was just as firm as inspector Morris.
“I don’t think I brought my passport with me,” Robert said.
“Then how did you come here?” he asked, a little unsure.
“I came by bus, I live in this town,” Robert replied.
“Could I search your suitcase?” the friend decided to help himself.
“Wait!” he shouted, “Do you have a search warrant?”
The friend stopped in his track, and then he turned to him, “Ok, let us go downstairs and see Morris,”
“Why didn’t you carry your passport with you?” Inspector Morris asked.
“My passport was due to expire, and I had sent it into the immigration department for renewal,” he replied.
“Ok, let me be frank with you,” Morris looked him in the eye.
“A woman living in this house was found to be dead at 7:00 a.m. this morning. Her symptom was that of an induced poisoning, and we are not sure whether she committed suicide or if anyone else induced her to swallow some poison.”
That bottle “Poison – Keep Away from Children”!!!
At once Robert asked, “Do you know the name of the poison?”
“No, not yet, we are trying to find the source of the poison,” Morris said.
Robert was about to move to the fridge to open it to see if the dammed bottle was still inside. But common sense told him not to reveal the fact that he saw it last night. In case they said he used it to poison the victim.
“Why don’t you just cooperate with us?” Morris looked him in the eye.
“What do you mean, inspector?” he was sure that he was innocent of the crime, assuming that it wasn’t suicide.
He couldn’t have known that I came down to the kitchen last night.
“I had done nothing …. I was here only just a day ago …. as you can see, my suitcase is still unpacked,” he defended himself.
“We don’t know, no one here knows how long you have actually known the victim,” Morris replied, and then,
“Let me be outright with you now. My name is Ryan, Ryan Morris, an inspector at the Salaita Police Station. Whether you are a witness or the potential killer, we don’t know yet. The victim is dead. But we need to put you as a suspect, and at the very least, to stand as a witness. Meanwhile as investigations are on-going, you have the right to remain silent,” Morris fished out a pair of handcuffs.
With that, the friend came forward, grabbed one of his wrists and then he felt a ring, together his other hand was placed in a pair of metal rings. He heard the click sound and the keys turning. That was it!
He was then ushered by the two men out of the house. Outside a police car was waiting and a driver was waiting to start the car. Only now then he realised that there were three men in this mission.
“Wait! I don’t even kill spiders,” he started to panic ….
The two officers ignored him and continued to lead him into the car.
Chapter 12
In the cell. His thoughts racing ….
Are they applying the principle “All men presumed guilty unless proven innocent” on me?
By now he couldn’t remember inspector Ryan Morris’s face. They were all in police uniform.
“Why did you kill the deceased?
….
“Why did you kill Mary?
….
“I have the right to remain silent,” he spoke.
“Good, you are talking now,” “How long have you known the deceased?”
“I only met her a day ago … the day before I woke up and saw you,”
“Good, an acquaintance, no motive,” officer replied.
“I don’t even know her real name,” he said.
“You often follow unknown women home? What were you looking for? Sex?” officer asked.
“Of course not, I knew that she was a decent woman,” he said.
“But then you said you just knew her? How could you have known?” “After all, she brought you home just after having met you … in the church did you say?”
“I can’t remember,” he answered.
“Olivia said she saw you in the church with her,” the officer’s eyes glued to his face.
“You followed her home, and when she refused to sleep with you, you killed her,” officer said.
“Did Olivia ask you to do it on your bed or her bed?” another question.
“Olivia? Who is Olivia?” again he asked.
“Answer me. Hers or yours?” officer’s voice was getting louder.
Oh, her name was Olivia not Mary.
“Err, I wanted to do it on her bed, but she refused,” Robert wanted to give him a story to lead him to an illogical conclusion.
“That meant that you did try, and when she refused to comply, you strangled her,” officer was insistent.
“Hey, I thought you said she died of poison,” Robert was alert again.
“No, the cause of death is still under investigation,” officer said.
“Ok, she did tell me that her name was Mary, I didn’t know that she was actually Olivia,” he said.
Officer threw a red book at him, “this your passport?”
He picked it up, “no,” he said.
“Why?” officer asked.
“I can’t remember my name,” he looked at it again. He was afraid that they might have found the cheque and his bank account.
“Ok, file it under unknown,” officer said.
“I am innocent!” He declared.
“Without your passport, we don’t know your identity, so we would have to keep you here for further investigations. You might be released once we have found the real killer.” Officer was reassuring.
“You mean I am not the real killer?” Robert continued with the conversation in his thoughts ….
Chapter 13
“I am not here to offer romance,” first things the officer who came in said.
“Then why are you here for?” Robert asked him.
“How much did you take from her?” officer asked.
“How much! I didn’t take any money from the house!” Robert immediately replied.
“So, when you found that they had nothing to offer you, you got angry and killed her,” officer said.
“Who died? May I know?” he was genuinely curious now.
“Come on, don’t play a fool with me, surely you know who you killed,” the man said. He was clean shaven and not the same as anyone whom Robert had seen earlier on.
“So, was it the young one or the old one?” Robert asked.
The officer wasn’t provoked, “you tell me, mate,”
“Err, let me guess … the young one,” Robert said, thinking to himself, “since they said that I had slept with the victim, surely, they must know that it would have been the younger woman that I slept with. No one in their right mind would sleep with a demented old woman.”
“How did she die? May I know?” Robert decided it was time he cross-examined the officer.
With this, the officer stood up and walked out of the room.
And Robert decided to fall asleep on the hard and thin mattress again.
Before he fell asleep, all he could say to himself was, you have the right to remain silent.
He remembered the song he used to play during Christmas – “Silent Night”. But it wasn’t winter and for once he realised that there was no chimney for Santa to climb in to give him what he wished.
Chapter 14
The officers brought him out again.
This time the driver was wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses.
His mind drifted away as he was being ignored. But at the centre of his focus, he was always concerned about the cheque. By now he has forgotten exactly how much it was. The police have a way of erasing memories.
The car stopped at a large brick building, and he recognised it as the church which he saw as “My Sanctuary”. No fire has swept the place. In fact, it looked exactly as when he first saw it.
“So, you are right, there was no fire,” he said, thinking that Mary was still with him.
“What fire?” one of the three scoffed at him.
“I was there!!” Robert exclaimed, he wanted to back track.
“No. You were not,” another man replied.
“Hey! You can ask Mary,” Robert exclaimed.
“No, her name is Mary Sarah Chan,” now the third one was speaking.
“Huh?” he was confused.
“Mary Sarah Chan is her full name.” Officer said again.
OMG!!! Robert almost fainted. His breathing became short, and his heart started to pump rapidly. If you read his pulse now, it was at least 135 BPM ….
…. So, she followed me all these whiles! She must have known that I took her cheque and decided to meet me at “The Sanctuary”. But why didn’t the woman just ask me for the cheque all the while? Why did she bring me home and put me to all the drama? If I stole from her, why would she even want me to meet her mother???
He found no logical answer to this.
“Ok, they haven’t found my passport, so they didn’t know my identity. And that’s why they are not talking to me.” Robert thought to himself.
He sat in silence in the car and told himself he must find out who died by the end of the entire episode.
He couldn’t remember what he did for the rest of the journey until he saw the prison cell again. This time another person was inside. He wanted to open his mouth and ask the guy who brought him here, and why it wasn’t empty.
But the thin figure was sleeping, so he decided not to wake him up.
To his surprise he was given salmon for dinner, the fish was fresh but there were no condiments. He refused to touch the coffee because he did not want to stay awake, for fear of further questioning. He won’t call this cross-examination because this was not a court of law.
After food, he went back to bed and lie down hoping to fall asleep. Under the circumstances, the best thing to do was to allow time to pass, until they have established his identity, which would have been evident in his missing passport. He tried to recall where he had hidden it, but he couldn’t remember. The earlier journey in the car with the police had made him forget things.
He started to think of Mary again. Is she really dead? Or was it her mother that died? And who was Olivia? And then he realised that he had forgotten to find out the name of the old lady before he met with the police. When he was with her he had assumed that since she suffered from dementia, she would have forgotten her own name.
Chapter 15
The person who shared the same cell with Robert was a young man whom he guessed was about twenty-five. By now he realised that they had put him in another cell. This time the beds were parallel with the door rather than facing it.
He decided to engage in conversation with the young man. He got up from his own bed and went up to his.
“How did you come in?” he asked.
“How did you come in?” the young man returned.
Selfish with his memories Robert chose not to share them. So instead of carrying on with the thread, he said, “Oh, I can’t remember,”
The young man gave him a petulant toss of the head and then went back to a horizontal position.
Deflated, Robert went back to his own bed and started to talk to himself, “are they framing me because I stole the cheque?” and then, “is Mary really dead?” “Surely the old lady could stand as my witness and confirm that I didn’t kill Mary.”
But fact was that no one heard the conversation when he went down to the kitchen on that fateful night. Or was Mary inside the room as well?
The door opened, and like a saviour a man walked in.
“Olivia said that she was with you on the night that she was killed,” the man said.
Hold it! How could this happen?! Robert thought they said that Olivia was dead, how could she speak? He jumped at the inconsistencies.
“So now who is dead???” He was getting inflamed.
“Surely you must know who you killed?” officer did not give in.
“It was dark, and there were no lights, I saw a lady at the maisonette, and I didn’t know if she were the young or the old,” he began to recall.
“I see, so it was in her room, not yours,” officer said.
“NO! I did not sleep with Mary!” He raised his voice.
“Calm down, David,” the man said.
Ok, they must have found my passport now. But my name was Robert not David!
“Let them think of me as David, I am in custody now. At least they haven’t found my account in Bull Bank,” he told himself. Robert looked at the tag on his wrist. It was a long number 12-digit number.
The man in plain clothes walked out again, without leaving Robert with a clue as to how his name could be changed from Robert to David.
Could they have altered my identity in the Immigration Department?
“Oh yeah, I did tell them that I had sent my passport in to the immigration for processing.” Robert recalled.
“There seemed nothing else to do except to memorise the number on his wrist. Which language shall I use?” He said to himself. Unsure, he tried to talk to the young man next to him again. But he remained unfriendly.
He started flexing his muscle in an attempt to exercise. He knew that he was engaged in a fight, but he didn’t know whom he was fighting against.
Cell is hell.
That was all Robert could say for myself. And then he realised that it was too soon for him to die.
He slept, with the comforting thought that he was still alive.
“Where is heaven?” He woke up with the sudden idea.
He turned to his side, then he found out that the young man next to him had gone. “He must have gone up to heaven,” he murmured.
And then he began to realise that he was in heaven before. He had a cheque for three-hundred and sixty-seven thousand to clear and he was supposed to collect his money in the Bull Bank.
“What should I do with the money,” he began to ask himself, in an attempt to think positive.
Chapter 16
Dinner arrived with just one plate of beef, the salmon that Robert looked forward to being given has vanished. He was utterly disappointed and then he realised that it might not have been dinner. It could well be lunch since by now he had lost track of the time.
He looked at the tag on his wrist again. After last night he had entirely forgotten about the number. Anyway, now he knew that he was either David or Robert.
Click, the door opened again.
“Robert or David?” Robert asked.
“You tell me.” The officer said.
“Ok, since you asked. My name is Robert, Robert Wong.”
“Good,” “here is your passport,” officer threw a book at him this time. He took a look at it, it was red, but not bright red.
“No, this is not my passport,” he protested.
“Then what colour do you want?” the man asked.
“You mean I can choose my own colour?” he was getting confused now, or rather delighted.
“Then I want purple,” he said, poking fun at the man.
“There is no purple, but if you want, we can do one specially for you,” man said.
“No need,” this time Robert decided to be cooperative, “any colour will do,” he said, and then, “may I know my name, please?”
“The young or the old?” again the man questioned him.
By now Robert had given up on who died, and whom he was supposed to have killed, and who he spoke to before he went down to the kitchen. Now he could only recall the name Ryan Morris, but even then, he could not remember how he looked like.
Chapter 17
The next time he saw the officer, he took the first opportunity and said, “I saw a bottle, in fact several bottles, of poison in the fridge. They were labelled ‘Poison – Keep away from children’. I don’t know if the young woman fed her mother with it.”
“But that is just hearsay,” officer said. How do I know that you did not make it up.
They are still not telling me who died – Mary or the old lady. And they are asking me to tell them.
But how would I know who died, unless I am the one responsible for it?
This is hilarious.
By now Robert realised that he has to make an educated guess. Perhaps if he guessed correctly, they might let him go.
Officer came in again. This time he went straight to the point, “young or old?”
“Old,” Robert said.
“Yes, she died of poison, it was her daughter who killed her,”
“And her name?” he followed suit.
“Mary, as in Mother Mary,” suddenly the man became friendly.
He smiled at Robert, “it is the same as the intended recipient of the cheque Mary Sarah Chan,”
“The cheque paid to her name would only have sufficient funds for withdrawal, provided that her mother Olivia died. But that since Olivia was too old and like she said, ‘she had already found her abode in heaven,’ we have decided to just keep her with us for four years, instead of the usual punishment for murder.”
“Ok, everything tied up now, the story is clear, and you may go.”
Still unhappy with the ending, Robert turned around and asked the man, whom I shall refer to as his saviour, “Robert or David?”
“Robert,” his saviour passed him a red book. He opened it, and the biodata page had his name – Robert Wong See Choon.
Chapter 18
Looking dapper, Robert had a fresh haircut the moment he got out, and he went to the Bull Bank to check on his account status. True enough, there was more than three hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars, including his own money, waiting for him to spend.
He used part of it to buy a house, to get married, and to buy a statue of Mother Mary and a sparkling crystal Rosary. Every night he went in front of the statue and prayed for Mary Sarah Chan’s release.
It’s getting clearer and clearer now, that she wants me dead.
I decided to try out a nursery at Chancery Lane, as it was just two lanes away. The school was crowded with students as I walked in. The board has a large display: “Paddington Schoolhouse”. I quickly took a picture of the entrance before proceeding to walk in. No one saw me taking the picture.
And no one followed me in either.
The school wall was plastered with wallpaper of different species of flowers, together with words of alphabets. I tried to catch them in alphabetical order. So, I stood still for a while, and then I started identifying them. I found “A”, followed by “B”, and then I had to take a long time before I could find “C”. Finally, after I saw “D”, I decided to jump to “H”.
At this moment I heard a voice calling, “Where are you baby?”
Shocked, I thought the woman was calling me, as I distinctly remembered that there was no one around when I entered.
Then who is the baby? And who was this woman?
Chapter 2
Minutes later I saw a parrot in a cage, instantly I decided that this should be the item that I must bring home today. Its body is round and if it were a man, you would call him fat. But his feathers are arranged in a layered and orderly manner I would say. I fell in love with the fowl even before I took him home. As I wanted him to be free, I did not capture him before I walked away to look for the owner of the premises to arrange for a way to bring him home. At the time I had completely forgotten that it did not belong to me. And that some negotiations needed to be done before anything could happen.
“He is a bird! Of course he could fly home with me,” I thought to myself.
I walked away from the cage, and I walked further into the school. Still, no one was around.
To the far-right corner I saw a clean toilet. I cannot tell you how I am able to determine that the toilet was clean even before I started using it. But then when I heard the sound of a flush, I decided to walk in, forgetting that it was a male toilet. From a long time ago, I suffer from pelvic floor dysfunction. It could be that I drank too much water in the morning before I came in, or perhaps I took too much coffee. Coffee is diuretic we all know.
But no one is inside the toilet. So, I came out again and then decided to survey the entire scene before I could satisfy myself that I was alone in the schoolhouse.
Since I was alone here, I thought to myself, let me pretend that I am the principal, and that there are school kids on the floor. Further on, I decided that I was a teacher, and that since I was a teacher, I am entitled to a pointer stick, a writing board, some markers and an eraser. And then when I felt a little tired, I sat down on a stool. By this time, I had completely forgotten that I needed to use the toilet just now.
My bladder is completely under my control by now.
Afterwards, I heard some people laughing. “They must be my students,” I thought to myself. So, I decided to start talking to them.
“This is A for America,” “B for Bangkok,” “C for China,” and then when I found that there was no answer, I decided to try other means of introduction.
“This is A for Apple,” “B for bed,” “C for chair,” and “D for desk,” using furniture instead. But still no one responded. Of course I know that apple is a fruit.
Frustrated, I started shouting, “Why are all of you so quiet?!!!”
Just at this time, a man with a black polo shirt walked in, from which direction I don’t know.
“Why are you shouting?” he asked.
“No, I am not shouting,” at the top of my voice I retorted.
“Lower your voice,” the man in black said.
“Ok, fine, who are you?” “And why are you here?”
“I am the security guard,” he said, “Can’t you see?” he pointed to the word on his attire, and then he continued, “S for Singapore, I for India, N for Norway, G for Germany, A for …. Ok the rest you know,”
“What do you mean by the rest you know?” “I don’t know anything,” I replied. And then, “carry on,” I ordered.
He laughed, “ok, so you are here alone, is that right?”
“Of course I am alone,” I said, “Do you see anyone else around?” I decided to treat him as my first student.
“Yes, I can see you standing here,” he tried to argue.
“So, there are students here, right?” I tried to impose upon him.
“Err …. Err … yes!” he said after a pause.
“How many?” I am now making fun of him.
“I can see a few, in fact, several ….”, this time without punctuation.
Hahaha I was laughing inside.
“By the way, why are they laughing just now?” I enquired.
“Who? Me?” he asked.
“No, not you, the students,” I replied.
“Oh yes, I think they were happy, that’s why …. ” a most logical answer to anyone who laughs.
I smiled, satisfied that this security man has now submitted to me, I decided to probe in further. So, I tried to find out his name before I recorded it in my memory bank. And the bank is known as UN5386. No, this is not a physical bank, not brick and mortar. And it is just the name of my new notebook.
“Hey wait! I am not done with you!” He yelled after me.
Chapter 3
He came in as an invisible man. And I spoke to him.
“Who are you?” first thing I said, “I had never seen you before,”
“I brought some plants for you, as well as some bird food for your bird, the one that flew away,”
“Oh, she told you?” I said,
“No, she didn’t, I just gathered that you needed it,” insisting that he didn’t know that I knew the school principal. I knew that I wasn’t the principal.
So, the security guard must have reported that I behaved badly the other day when I confronted him, or rather he confronted me.
How could he? I didn’t touch him, and I stopped talking the minute he ordered me not to shout, when in fact I was talking to the thin air.
What? He thinks I am mad?
People are entitled to talk to themselves whenever they feel like. And everyone is entitled to laugh to themselves if they wish to.
I continue to station myself in the school.
Chapter 4
I saw the same man again. This time he called himself the bus conductor. And he noticed me at once. I wasn’t sure what it was about me that attracted me to him. But certainly, I wasn’t drawn to him.
I gave an OMG expression.
I looked down at my shoes. They were brown, and then I saw that I was wearing a pair of jeans and t-shirt. I liked jeans because it has pockets to hide my iPhone. Mobile in all aspects, I disliked people on wheelchair to board the bus, as it gives the driver a lot of extra work to do. He has to put the gear on neutral, apply the brakes, letting the engine run without a driver, then move to the exit door to pull the folded platform down to allow for smooth boarding of the passenger on wheelchair. I wanted to be a wheelchair assistant when I was looking for a job. But at the time I was afraid of losing my way at the vast airport. I told myself unless I was travelling out of the country I won’t arrive at the airport.
My house is a gloomy, hot, airless, attic room. Four small, mean windows shut tight with wooden shutters appeared to be the only means of ventilation. I hurried into the room to open the venetian blinds to allow the sun in. I added one bedside table and one small wardrobe to complete the furnishings when I moved in. Only one bed was allowed inside as I didn’t want strangers to sneak in and occupy my attic. You never know. Some people do have very good imagination, and they can virtually occupy your house. That is why I never allow anyone in except my closest friends and relatives. My neighbors are far away on the lower floors. The attic I spray clean with Dettol disinfectant at least once a day.
You could say that I got 洁癖. It means that I am obsessed with cleanliness.
However, several lizards are living with me as I find it hard to get rid of them. They are tough, cold-blooded, and they run away whenever I approach them. One time I had to empty half a bottle of Baygoninsect killer before I could get a lizard to submit.
I hate lizards. I hate their tiny little eyes that pops out from the side.
Chapter 5
Everything was behind closed door now. I don’t go out, and I eat at home, as a spat of housebreaking has been reported in my neighborhood. I was afraid that once I leave the house the thieves would enter and take possession, filming the entire house with no stone unturned. You are right, I treat my house as a museum, and I don’t like photos taken. With or without myself inside. Friends who have taken pictures of us in the house have been deserted. It is extremely rude to come into someone’s house and film their artwork. Worse, if they have taken pictures of inside your toilet on the pretext of wanting to comb their hair.
I don’t comb my hair in the mornings after I wake up.
And I have told several people before. I have converted my thin long fingernails into the teeth of my comb since ages ago. You could take that as an explanation. But the more logical explanation is that it has become a habit to just pick up the hairdryer and let the hot air to blow at it. It is much faster that way.
Chapter 6
I was at a meeting today. And there I heard everyone talking about visiting Vietnam. Laura turned to me and asked me “are you going anywhere for a holiday?”
“Where would you like me to go?” I asked her.
“Anywhere. Just get out of this crazy town.”
“What’s crazy about this town?” I asked her.
“It’s crazily hot. At 34 degrees Celsius, you can bake anyone under the sun,”
“That is provided you sunbathe,” I said.
“If you don’t put yourself under the sun, why would you feel hot?” I added, just to emphasize.
Immediately Sandra chipped in and said, “a baby in the oven,”
“Baby in the oven?!!! That’s an exaggeration.”
“Oh, have you heard of the case of a Filipina helper putting a baby in the oven before?”
“Oh, my goodness! What on earth was she trying to do?”
“To kill the baby of course.”
“She could have been executed,”
“She was, I am sure.” “That was first degree murder.” “Doing an act with intent to cause harm, thus leading to death.” Vincent said.
“So, did her country come to fetch her home after that?”
“Her remains were repatriated.”
“Helpers can be very mean at times.”
“The fact that she was a Filipina had nothing to do with the crime that she committed.” Laura pleaded.
Laura was a Filipina who married an Englishman and migrated here from twenty years ago.
“Sure,” I replied.
How do I tell my rich friends to stop thinking about fleeing the country?
And how do I turn Laura into my friend?
Chapter 7
At home lying on my bed, I tried to reason with Laura.
But God told me: You can’t. Unless you meet again, go back to yesterday, erase the conversation, and put Laura on the witness stand, to make her defend the helper and see if she could prove her innocence.
Somethings just can’t change. And some past cannot be eliminated. People remember. Old people who are still alive remember. Young people who have good memory remember what their parents tell them. If a crime has been committed in a city, unless the entire city enters into a sleep mode permanently. The crime that you have committed the gods remember. Call it a sin in the Bible, but 他是杀人灭口。Everyone knows what you did, and what happened on that day that created this day. With or without children, someone out there, someone near you, a sound, a thought prompted by a tiny little creature, will remind you, your own brains, that you killed someone who was in your hands. Unless you have an excellent lawyer, who can plead your case, and a lenient judge who is willing to exonerate you, you cannot go free. For what reason do you have for killing?
For the good of your country? For the good of mankind? For humanity, like Elon Musk? No, Elon Musk is not a murderer. I have not seen him kill. But how can I be so sure? Well, no one has proved otherwise to me.
Maybe that is why rich people are always trying to travel. For the need of good fresh air, I guess. This city is full of hot balloonish air. And unless you turn on the air conditioning you cannot sleep.
The bill is getting higher. But as they say, you pay for what you deserve, which is the nice cool air. We must pay for everything isn’t it.
No one owes me a living I know. But no one owes you a living too.
Chapter 8
The group discussion today was whether there are any hidden benefits to being the only diner in a fancy restaurant, or is it just uncomfortable?
My answer to them was “uncomfortable”. It’s like going back into your house and eating the food that you prepared and having all the surroundings in your home changed into fantasy. I am not interested in make believes, even though I am well aware that I am writing fiction now. But who doesn’t like fiction? The real world is full of crimes and hatred. That is what I see on the television every day. So, I turn off the television from today. If there are no negative report on the news, then I would switch it on and leave it on all the time. My neighbors below might get offended with the bombarding of noise, but let him get upset, since they are not my ears anyway.
Yes, war broke out at the Thailand and Cambodia mutual border today.
Again?
And why they call it “mutual” border? It is separated by a Preah Vihear temple erected from since time immemorial. I don’t study history, so I don’t know the date and time when they declared a truce. Not that I don’t like history, but that I have not been given enough cells for my brains to receive it and then process it. This was decided by God when He created me. Err. I think he is residing in Mars now. Since he created mankind and the earth, he must be living in the vast galaxy.
I am living. But I am not God and have never attempted to pretend that I am omnipresent. Some people do. Those who love power who love control. They think that they have special powers when in fact it is the money that they carry with them and the weapons that they have been given which make people fear them.
What about doctors? Doctors are here to save lives, not to overrule patients’ authority to make decisions for themselves. The needle can kill, but so can it heal. An injection or an advice which is contrary to the patients’ desire, even if behind closed doors, is harmful if given when the man sitting in front of him did not wish for it to be taken.
Who says that the man who went into the operation theatre went in without his original intent? Who says that the consent form was signed with free will when in fact it was signed under duress? Or in a moment of weakness? Or simply because the doctor said, “trust me,”? Why should I trust anybody but myself?
Chapter 9
Vincent had a cup of tea instead of coffee before I went out today.
This time I took the side entrance to the Cherry Hill mall. I go in from the side and no one saw me. Other times when I take the main entrance a man would pull open the door for me, not on purpose, but that he happened to be coming out himself. We have dispensed with the need for a doorman for a long time. It is an extremely boring job, and guests who are being served may not even appreciate it. This often shows when not a word of thank you was said.
Oh yeah, we have a lady doorman. Maybe we can call her a lady door opener. I miss her as she is a replica of one of my late aunties.
But this is not what I am here for today. I am here in the schoolhouse now. And I am investigating a murder which took place recently. The chief investigating officer did not give me the specific date, and I am just here to look see. To find out if there were any threads leading to the murder. Murder is always life and can never be pardoned. Even if the state pardons you, God does not pardon the one who pardoned he who killed. For whom are you to play God? You killed His creation!
So, I stepped up to the security man again. Did you see the man who was here yesterday? The man? Which man? He asked.
“He was wearing a green shirt yesterday.” I said, knowing that it was myself.
“Oh, I can’t remember,” the man replied, still wearing his black polo shirt.
“But I remember you,” I told him.
“And you ordered me to shut up.” I spoke.
“No, I didn’t.” he responded.
By this time, I realized that the security man whom I saw on 21 July 2025 at the schoolhouse, was already dead. I mean some of his brain cells are dead. He cannot recall what happened just a week ago.
That is why I bought a notebook!
I tell you: these notebooks are the best in the word. You can’t find them anymore in the Apple iPhone stall.
The world has changed, and I am not trying to tell you that digital devices are no longer useful. It’s just that we should not rely too much on a smartphone.
Otherwise, we might as well replace our brains with a smartphone.
Chapter 10
“Wait! You dropped your spoon on the floor,” Vincent shouted after me as I was walking away during the meeting.
There it is a hideously embarrassing truth dropped right into the middle of a conversation.
“What color is it?” I asked.
“You mean to say that if it’s black you don’t want it?” he asked, looking puzzled as usual.
He is trying to say that I am crazy again.
Just to prove him wrong, I told him that I don’t object to black, and that I was merely checking if it were mine, telling him that my umbrella is actually black, and indeed the question was perfectly legitimate.
“Ok, here you go,” he said, passing me the umbrella.
“Hey! I am here, what do you mean by go? That’s pretty rude. It sounds like go away.” But then in my little brains I too say 去死 as a term of endearment. Of course I am not a lizard. My brains are that of a normal human being. Everyone who sees me would testify to that.
But how would anyone know what I say to others in my brains?
Again, the question popped up in Audrey’s head – “but how did others know that murder that has been committed in the schoolhouse? And then how would others know that the principal is dead?
Chapter 11
Furtively I walked into the schoolhouse again.
“She has turned cold,” Vincent said.
“Oh dear! How long ago has it been?” I asked.
“I don’t know, probably three months ago,” he replied.
“Since the day I walked in?” I queried.
No wonder I heard some noises when I was there on 21 July. It was a Monday. So, the schoolhouse is haunted.
Yeah, and that was why I started talking to myself, when surrounded by the unseen beings. Were they good or evil?
And then the woman must have been the late school principal. Was she the woman’s voice? Or was she her assistant who was also killed at the same time who witnessed the crime? I knew that I wasn’t hearing voices. Could it have been a recorder being played in the background? For sure I know that my hearing was good.
“No quite apart from this, we don’t know where it happened. So, it must have been elsewhere.” Vincent said.
“But where?” Audrey asked.
“Beats me,” Vincent said.
Chapter 12
I spoke to my regular death medicolegal who drew up a medical chart to find out if she had any medical history before. If she had, she could have died of natural causes. Under normal circumstances, a normal healthy woman of sound mind would not put herself in a situation where she would get into trouble.
“Noodles or porridge?” my mother-in-law asked.
I shrugged. Vincent shrugged. I sighed and left the queue. Vincent would bring my order to the table. He knows what I like.
Three minutes later Vincent put the food on my table. I decided to start first before MIL arrived. Just in case you don’t know, MIL is an abbreviation for mother-in-law. Just like why Covid was called coronavirus. It is called corona-virus because it was deadly. Since a corona inquiry means an investigation on the causes of death.
MIL took a long time talking to the man selling the fried kway teow. She was obviously interested in the man. I thought to myself.
“Why is she taking so long?” “The man is not good looking at all,” I continued.
“He likes her,” Vincent said.
“But why?” I asked. She is married to your dad, right?”
“No, my dad has passed away a long time ago,” my husband finally confessed.
“Huh?” “This is the first time you are telling me,”
Immediately I heard commotion, and the spectators came. MIL has just slapped the hawker man.
Vincent stood still, not saying a word. I let the police come and take her away, whilst the poor man who had been slapped said he wasn’t injured seriously, and that he didn’t want to go to the hospital. Since he was obviously the victim, the police let him off the hook. I mean, he could have provoked her or what.
This is the way we function. In a civilized world, we let the victim decide if he needs to be treated, or wants to be treated, but what did he say that provoked my poor MIL, who was now in custody?
Chapter 13
Vincent said he has no idea.
No idea as to what?
As to how the school principal died? Or as to what the man at the hawker centre said to his mother?
I married Vincent three years ago, after having dated with each other for more than seven years. By now the romance would have died for most people. But not for the both of us. We always had things to do, cases to investigate, and people to meet. Some are victims and some are prosecutors. But we know where we must avoid.
The expensive restaurants.
Not say we cannot afford it, but that we don’t want to disturb the peace there. People who dine out too regularly are those who don’t know what to do with the money that they have. I don’t splurge money around. I try to save as much as I could. Unless the articles find me and haunt me.
Yes, I saw a pair of earrings today. It is gorgeous. I decided to pay for it on the spot. I dug into my wallet and found that I did not have enough cash. So, I lied to the salesman and said that it was too expensive.
Vincent would yell at me if he saw my earrings, and until I have found a place to hide it, I would keep it on standby.
“Where is she? Is she still with you?” I heard Vincent speaking on the phone the moment I got back.
I take it that he must be talking to the officer who took his mother. So, I kept quiet. But when the earrings popped up in my brains again at midnight when he was sound asleep, I couldn’t help but wake him and asked him if I could buy it.
Still half asleep, “go ahead, dear …..” was what my husband had said.
Exuberated, I left the bed and went to the bureau to take out a stack of cash.
And I jumped back into the bed thinking that Vincent did not know how much I took.
The moon came up over the window, and I realized that the harvest moon was approaching. Yes, I must greet everyone “Happy Mooncake Festival”. Even though I don’t eat the delicacy. It is very sweet. My tooth is sweet enough.
“Fine,” I heard Vincent said this morning at breakfast. I took it that he knew that I took the money and approved it.
“So, it’s fine right?” again I asked.
“Yes, she is fine,” he thought I was inquiring after MIL.
Who cares about MIL these days?
Chapter 14
Meetings are six times a week, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we meet too. But it is an impromptu meeting which means that unless there are new threads, we don’t need to discuss.
Laura was happy that Vincent sat next to her. I moved to the other side of Laura and allowed Vincent uninterrupted conversation with her. This is in consideration of the pair of crystal earrings that I bought.
It took Sandra just two seconds to find out that I had new jewelry. Finally, after much small talk, I disclosed the price and Sandra promised to keep it a secret from my husband.
“So, it cost one thousand and thirty-five dollars.” I heard Vincent said as he left to take a glass of water at the coffee table.
How did Laura and Vincent know that I bought a piece of earrings, and how did she know the price? Oh, Laura might have seen my earrings even before Sandra commented, but the price?
My mind was beginning to crack.
The minute I got home I confessed to my husband immediately.
“Were the earrings too expensive and beyond our budget? I took the cash from the bureau.”
“Forget it Audrey, we found her body.”
“But where was it?”
“Behind the school, where the wet market sellers dump the old unwanted frozen foods.”
“Oh, so she was murdered in the school,” I heaved a sigh of relief as I could now confirm that I wasn’t hearing voices. It was the woman the late Fiona Chee who was talking to me.
Chapter 15
Now that we have found the murdered, we could proceed to find the killer.
Let us all sleep quietly under the Buck Moon, and the guy would appear on his own tomorrow under bright sunlight.
Chapter 16
My husband decided to tell me the truth.
“Audrey, I slept with Fiona …. please forgive me ….”
“What?” I still could not hear. Maybe I heard and could not bear the truth.
“Why did you do that?” I whispered, knowing that the truth would implicate him as the number one suspect.
“She was attractive, and I fell for her …. “Vincent’s face was dark like the moon covered by a layer of thin clouds.
But why did you have to do that??? Audrey was furious.
“Fact is that I didn’t murder her.” He emphasized.
“Then why are you telling me that?” Audrey lowered her voice this time.
“I couldn’t take it anymore. Doing all the investigations has made me sick.”
“But you are not sick right?” Audrey was pretty sure.
“The money that I left in the bureau was for you to buy anything that you like, but I didn’t know that you would turn up at the meeting with it, before telling me where it came from,”
“What do you mean?”
“It was the same pair of earrings that Fiona was wearing when she slept with me,”
“So, it is recycled goods???”
“Yes, am afraid so,”
“OMG. OMG.”
So, I became Fiona number two!
This just too bizarre to carry on, before I too go crazy.
Chapter 17
The truth must come out, as all truths would.
I could see the moon ascending on the horizon whilst I was lying in bed with my husband. Tonight, I did not feel like asking him for a goodnight kiss, instead I pulled the blanket over my face, and I left the lamp by my side on without turning it off. I could feel Vincent turning cold beside me.
No investigators came, no police came, in fact, it was just my husband and I in the bedroom, lying side by side, refusing to talk to each other.
But if no one killed Fiona, then who did? The answer is simple. She had no students in the schoolhouse, and so she killed herself out of boredom. By cyanide? By Dettol? Or by Baygon? Whatever, we don’t really care now, as we all know that she is residing in heaven.
Heaven is where happiness can be found. Heaven is when you talk to your friends, and they respond to you. Heaven is when you feel that you can manage your own affairs without having to depend on others to decide for you, and heaven is when you are allowed to make your own decisions, and heaven is when no one orders you around and tell you what to do. Most of all, heaven is when God answers your prayers. Heaven is when you are allowed to talk to yourself, smile to yourself and no one says that you are mad.
But just don’t be rude to me. Don’t open conversation with me as a stranger when you don’t have to. Because I am not God.
I need to think of what to do tomorrow. And for this I can decide for myself. I don’t need to pray and ask God for discernment for a simple thing like that. Some people have been moved to a position where they need to pray before they eat. I count my blessings every day. I count my money every day. And I thank God for giving me a set of good parents. They created me. And once done, they let God handle me. No, I have not met God in person yet. I am simply residing in his realm, the milky way known as the galaxy.
Yes, I told a stranger off today. She was there to make conversation with me. She tried to pretend that a stranger was my husband, and she pretended that she was waiting for her partner to join her in the queue.
Nastiness has its rewards.
Chapter 18
The good old monster came.
He said he was my friend, and I took his word for it.
No matter how hard I try, I still believe in people, and open my mouth to strangers when they start talking to me. I am not a mannequin, and I am not dead. I just want to learn how to be nasty, as everyone says, we islanders are naive and small. But I am stronger than you think, as I am slowly beginning to learn to be nasty, guided by the gentle monster.
Lying in the woods contemplating my future with Dave ….
This morning as I looked into the mirror I found that I was just an ordinary fat woman. I stared at the reflection for a while and then I told myself to hurry up as Dave was waiting for me at the Black Brewer’s House.
I went to the toilet and I took the set of outfit, lying on the bathtub. There were two sets. I always prepared one, which was what I had planned for the day and then another one, in case the weather turned out to be colder for that day.
Singapore was a hot city with temperatures ranging from 24 to 34 degrees sometimes soaring to 37 degrees when it became very hot. The humidity was so high that I could never perspire. My clothes were mainly purchased from Max Mara so that I looked good. They were pricey, but they made me looked like I was the wife of a rich man. In my line of job, I had to dress expensively.
I knew that I was late for Dave, but I was not late for work. Dave was waiting for me at the café when I arrived. Over the telephone Dave said:
“Don’t be late,” and then “I have good news for you.”
It was true that I was very disturbed by what he told me three days ago, so frankly I didn’t expect good news from him today.
I needed only five minutes to powder my face after adding a touch of foundation, as I continued with my eyebrow colour, eye shadow and rouge. I didn’t have any standard sequence but usually this was the order in which I made up my face. There are only two ways to apply for an eye shadow: smoky vs. intensive. And this morning I used the intensive. Once I was satisfied that my face was generally presentable, I put on number 277.
Number 277 was the colour code Rose Declaration for that particular lipstick. This was my favourite colour. I had several lipsticks and I changed my lipstick everyday but invariably I went back to number 277.
I carried a lipstick with me to touch up every now and then and I didn’t buy two of the same colour so number 277 was my default lipstick. Dior staff already knew that I was buying that colour the moment I walked into the boutique. I was a regular office worker. By that I meant that my work was sedentary and using the PC most of the time. I was a secretary to an advocate and solicitor whose family law was her bread and butter. To be a secretary you needed to pass certain examinations, you had to know shorthand.
Of course, I knew how to type, but I used the keys at random according to what I saw. I didn’t have my hands positioned on the keyboard with readiness the moment I started to type. But I typed fast, I kept long fingernails and I liked the sound of my fingers hitting the keyboards. I was fast enough to type affidavits for Bernadette Tucker. And this was what I had to do every day.
I had to type an affidavit on a divorce case so when I agreed to meet Dave at the restaurant this morning I made him come at 7:00 a.m.
I forgot to callBlack Brewer’s House to find out what time they opened this morning and to book a table for two. Cafes don’t usually take bookings. Dave said that he had something important to tell me at first. He didn’t say that it was good news. Now that he mentioned that it was to be good news I guessed the result.
The file name of the affidavit was Dave Chong Seng Wee vs. Doreen Sim May Ling!
If this were the case, there was no need for Dave and myself to meet at all. We could postpone the meeting by another twelve hours to 8:00 p.m. since I already knew the result. It was not good for the both of us to be seen in public together, now that his divorce is on the cards.
By now you must have guessed that Dave and I were not married to each other. No, we were not. But that didn’t matter. Dave and I had been having this relationship for at least eight months by now. We caught on like a house on fire. The minute Dave and I were left alone together we started to kiss. Dave was my physiotherapist and I was one of his patients. But all that had got to be changed.
Dave had told me that he was going to divorce Doreen once he set up his new clinic in California in America. And then we were both going to move there to start our own little family.
Until this happened. Three days ago, Dave told me that his wife Doreen was now pregnant, or so she claimed.
“She told me that she was urine positive,” Dave informed me whilst we were at Black Brewer’s House on 21 August.
That made things complicated. Dave was going to leave the house without letting Doreen know about it. He was going to pack his overnight bag for a three nights’ stay at Bangkok and then meet me at the Shang Palace Resort and from there we would travel up to Japan, then our final destination at California.
I have a house in California. It was vacant at the moment and I was thinking of renting it out to some locals. But that was before Dave’s proposal came.
Yes, Dave had proposed to me, on 9 August 2001, the National Day of Singapore. He said that this was his auspicious day, as it happened to be his birthdate as well so therefore that he was able to get himself exempted from having dinner with his mother-in-law on his birthday every time. He loathed his mother-in-law the Mrs. Sim as she always asked him to give her physiotherapy treatment which required him to kneel before her.
Dave drunk coffee and I loved coffee. That was how we found ourselves together. I was drinking coffee in Dave’s clinic when he was teaching me the exercises I must do in order to alleviate the pain caused by my flat footedness. And then whilst demonstrating with his hands on my right foot, the cup of coffee I placed on top of his stool by the side fell onto the carpeted floor.
The coffee had not been touched so quite a lot of liquid was spilled. Dave was operating a one-man show so naturally it became our job to clean up the mess. And then our eyes met. I couldn’t describe to you what happened next, but I could tell you that we fell in love with each other instantly. Dave had very strong hands and I liked his large muscular arms.
Subsequently Dave told me that he started to stop dry-cleaning his clinic coat, as there was a brush of my lipstick on his collar, the number 277. Afterwards we started to see each other on alternate days. We skipped coffee and breakfast at Black Brewer’s House to be with each other for just the half hour in the mornings. That was from 9 August 2001 to today. I mentioned the dates for they were crucial in this story.
We first met on 3 June 2001, then we made love for the first time on 29 June and then on 9 August again. Dave gave me the sapphire ring on 9 August as a token of his love. As a matter of fact, I was having it on my ring finger now.
On 21 August, Doreen announced that she was pregnant so that made it probable that Dave and Doreen have also had sex with each other on or before 29 June, or between anywhere 29 June to 8 August, assuming that Dave stopped touching Doreen after he was engaged to me on the night of 9 August.
This was all very speculative. And I was talking like a jealous wife when actually I was the third party.
Never mind who I was, the important thing was that I was going to be Dave’s official wife very soon. We might not be able to get married in the States, as Dave must have been legally separated from Doreen for at least three years before he could get a divorce. We were both Singapore citizens, so the Women’s Charter applied.
We left Singapore for Bangkok on 31 August and we arrived in Japan after six hours. After that it was an overnight flight to the U.S.
Once we arrived at the States we could move about freely. We would not have to worry about being found together, we would be able to act as a couple. And most of all we would be able to live in the same house as man and wife. No one would bother us, and we need not bother anyone. I was prepared to be his common law wife and the sapphire ring could serve as our engagement as well as our wedding ring.
Dave could establish himself in California and who knows, they might want to engage him as a consultant to the California Keep Fit Centre. I could get a job in another law film at the same time.
All these were just my conjecture. Of course, it was my wishful thinking that everything would turn out well for the two of us. Whether Dave was having sex with me and Doreen Sim at the same time would no longer be an issue. I didn’t blame Dave for the false alarm from Doreen. Doreen was, after all, the wife and she had every right to conjugate with Dave.
In any case, I had no idea if Doreen were telling Dave the truth, and if Dave carried the truth to me. By now I had learnt a bit of law from Bernadette Tucker. What Dave told me from Doreen was hearsay, as I was not privy to the conversation. The fact of the matter was that Doreen might have known about my affair with Dave, which made it very inconvenient.
I was sure that if Dave loved her he would not have slept with me. Fact that we had sex was prima facie evidence that the marriage between Dave Chong Seng Wee and Doreen Sim May Ling was over and done with. I had never met Doreen Sim, but I assumed her to be loud and bossy.
As my thoughts were travelling with me on the train I missed the stop at City Hall. I was very annoyed with myself that I over shot to Marina South. Now I couldn’t change train, I had to go back to City Hall again and then disembark. From there I would go over to Novena.
Novena was where my office was. I was working with Bernadette Tucker the first-class advocate and solicitor who specialized on family law. And over the years I had learnt a thing or two from her and that was why I was so familiar on calculating the conjugal dates. It was our bread and butter.
Once I arrived at the office the work was overwhelming. Usually Dave and I didn’t communicate with each other during office-hours, as it was not necessary. We met as a matter of course on alternate days. If I were early I would get a seat first and order my own dinner and if he were early he would begin his Prawns Spaghetti with meat sauce without me.
So today I finished my work ahead to as far as I could see for the next two months. I could resign but if Bernadette Tucker knew about my relationship with Dave, word might sneak out that I was leaving. Doreen was not a stupid woman. I knew who she was.
So today when the day ended at 6:30 p.m. I packed my slippers to bring it home. I liked this pair of slippers very much as it was made of colorful beads. It was one of its kind from Thailand, my proposed destination, even if it was just for transit. Mrs. Tucker would not notice such a minor thing and packing of slippers did not necessarily mean that I was resigning.
Unless I went up to her to ask her for a resume she would not have come to the conclusion that I was leaving her employ.
I could be bringing in a new pair tomorrow. I did not have to lock the office door as Mrs. Tucker; Bernadette was still on her iMac. I took the MRT home without meeting Dave this evening again.
The moment I arrived at the seventh floor where I lived, I could hear Rover’s bark. The dog knew that I was home. I put my key to the keyhole and turned the knob at the same time. Once I was inside, automatically I used the remote control to turn on the radio. I needed to know if the Thai Princess Yingluck had resigned. If there were still unrests in Thailand Dave and I might use the other route to the U.S. from Europe. Maybe Dave and I could consider a honeymoon in Italy and Rome first before settling down.
My life was full of expectations and it was just beginning. And then as I was thinking of the music and the wine I stepped into the bathtub. There was no water yet. I turned on the tap to let the water fill the tub, the water was burning hot. I shouted, “Shits!”
And then I realized that I had forgotten to switch off the water heater when I left for work this morning.
Yes, Dave’s phone call was certainly good news. He called this morning to tell me that his wife Doreen wasn’t pregnant after the scare. It turned out to be a hoax.
And then I looked into the mirror and realized that I had put on some weight. To find out if this were true I walked slowly to the kitchen to step on the weighing machine. I saw my weight, 53.5 kg. I had always been 43.5 kg, which meant that I had put on ten kilograms. Could this be true? Was the machine spoilt? Then I stepped back and there I saw a note on the kitchen island.
It said:
“Congratulations Darling! The hospital rang and told me that you were pregnant! Love, hubby.”
It was none other than my husband Ethan Ng’s handwriting.
It is not that I am observant. It is just that I always felt her presence. She does not wear perfume, so you couldn’t say that her fragrance made me notice her. You’d think that I like her. I can’t say that you are wrong. But there is nothing conspicuous about her. It is just that I notice her whenever she comes in.
I have not told any of my colleagues that she comes in so regularly. They should know about this. But there is no cause for alarm. The drawers are locked tight, and unless you have the right keys you cannot open them.
No, I don’t think that she is here to steal anything. She looks like any ordinary customer. She is. Yesterday she was wearing the unisex Atlaswatch, and today she is looking at the silver pearl earrings. There is no pattern to her buying. She chooses her jewels at random.
This woman has an oriental face. And she smiles often. When she smiles, she gives you the feeling as though she has known you for a long time. I like it when she has chosen a piece and she asks me to attend to her. Sometimes Gloria helps her put on the bracelet she has chosen, and that was the most exciting time. I would place my own bet as to whether she would buy that item. Invariably, I am right.
Today she is wearing the Atlas watch again. The Atlas watch belongs to the last season and is no longer a sales item. Our shop also carries pendants with the design of each letter of the alphabet in Apple Chancery font style in diamonds, and I always wonder when she would buy the piece with the letter “J.”
I know her name.
Yes, we have our regular customers. And we have our irregular customers. The regulars, we memorize their names by heart, but we are told not to address them in case they didn’t like it. It is not the practice of our boutique to influence the customers in the choice of their purchase. So, we avoid calling customers by name. We recognize their faces, and we give them the service as though we were their butlers at home.
I am not young. If you look just at my face you would guess that I am somewhere between twenty-five to thirty. But actually, I am already thirty-six. I am not married yet, and I have not been married before. Neither have I any imminent plans to marry. I don’t even have a close girlfriend. But I am not lonely.
This job at Stephanie and Co. is my career. It occupies all of my time and energy. There is no retirement age for this job, and I thought I can work here comfortably till retirement age at sixty-two. And so, I am a happy and contented salesman. Yesterday, just before I left for work, Steve Chan, the shop manager, handed me the letter. It is a once-in-a-lifetime offer to be posted to the head office in New York. I would be made a salaried staff, and the take-home would be three times what I get here.
Excited, this morning, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. After I dropped off at Marmalade Turn I walked into Toast Box to have my usual coffee and sandwich. Nobody disturbs me there as I read the newspapers. I wear my cheap clothes before I arrive at the boutique to change into the black jacket, black trousers, and black shoes.
We are all given a set of jewellery to choose from, and we put them on before we start work. This week, I have the “Eternal Circle” ring, and it is really beautiful. Every time I look at it, it makes me happy. I am happy to be working here at Stephanie & Co. The jewels are nice, the shop is nice, and my colleagues are nice.
We don’t fight over customers. We all share the same clientele. If, for example, Joyce makes more sales than me this month, it does not mean that Joyce takes home more. We are salaried staff, and we get paid a fixed sum every month.
But there is one drawback. We are not allowed to buy the jewels in the shop. We could only wear them at work from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. We are to choose our favourite for the week each Monday. And after the last customer has left, we are to surrender all our adornments to the boutique safe and go home without anything.
I have considered resigning. Once I am no longer a staff I am free to browse around the boutique as though I were a customer, and then I could choose to buy anything I like. But I am not sure what I want to buy yet, so I hold my resignation. If I reject the offer to New York, I must resign.
“Excuse me, can you show me this?”
A tall and well-groomed woman dressed in a pink top and black skirt raises her voice a little.
A man and her young child are standing by her side. I quickly walk to the counter and unlock the drawer with the key I am holding. She wants a gold bangle. The bangle has the engraved words “Stephanie & Co.” on it, so that makes it expensive.
“How much is it?” Her husband asks.
I know the price by heart, but I still flip over the tag before I give her the price. We are told to do so, as the act of looking at the tag gives the transaction a trade flavour.
I allow this customer to ponder over it as she swings her right hand in consecutive motions, as though to see if the bangle will drop off by itself. Then her husband says something, and they both walk away, leaving the bangle on the glass shelf. I quickly put the bangle back in the drawer before I forget.
You’d think that there are no thefts in this exclusive shop. No, there are. Every day, one or two items disappear. The manager Steve Chan investigates, and we have to account for our carelessness. So, the stocktaking at night is always very stressful for all of us.
There she is again, walking around. I really don’t know what I should do with her. Shall I approach her and offer her one or two designs? Or shall I ask her out for dinner? She is, after all, very pretty, and I am still single.
I try to stay as close as I can get to her. As she moves to the bracelet section, I go to that side of the drawers, so I can attend to her as soon as I can if she spots anything she likes. Every item here is interesting. Stephanie and Co. carries the most exclusive jewellery, and its headquarters are in New York. If I am to accept the posting to New York at all, I must move fast. I must invite her out, bringing her out of the Stephanie & Co. context so that I can speak to her in private.
I want to tell her how pretty she is and how much I am in love with her. I want to tell her about my offer in New York, and that time is running out for the both of us. We can even start a family there and have our child born in the U.S. to get U.S. citizenship. I want to find out all about her. And I want to say now, that I am prepared to buy her the silver bracelet if she would allow me to.
Since I am interested in her, I must announce my intention as soon as possible. I have even saved up enough money to buy her theStephanie & Co. diamond ring for the engagement. So, I approach her at the counter and I ask,
“Do you want me to pay for this bracelet?”
I expect her to smile at me, but she looks at me blankly.
Then I hear a voice over my shoulder,
“Excuse me, is Brian or Joyce attending to this gentleman?”
Both Joyce and I get a shock. I turn my head, and I see Steve Chan signal me to attend to the male customer who has just walked in. Steve Chan gives us the dirty look, to remind us that the customer comes first.
As usual, Joyce gives her winning smile, as though she has known the customer for a long time. I know that I have lost my chance. I should have asked her just now, as she was walking around. Later on, I will not have the courage to ask her if she wanted to marry me. I am to give Steve Chan my answer by the end of today. I am not sure about resigning, because I don’t want to leave Singapore. If I am in Singapore, I can still walk into Stephanie & Co. to see her anytime.
The new customer wears a Hermes belt and matching shoes, so we know that he could well afford any item in the shop, and we must put on our best sales manner. She always has better skills than I. The customer asks her how much the Atlas watch costs, and
“Is it still available?”
“No, I am afraid not, sir,” she replied.
“Can I order it from your headquarters in New York?” he asks.
“No, I am afraid not, sir,” she is apologetic.
Tonight, as we work over the jewels to be worn tomorrow by the four of us who work at Stephanie & Co. – Joyce Tang, Gloria Yip, Timothy Lim, Steve Chan, and myself – I find that it is my turn to wear the Atlas watch. I am to wear it for one week before my departure from the company. My last day is on 23 January 2011. I can leave at 1:00 p.m. on that day because it is my last day.
At the same time, Steve Chan gives me an invitation card. It says:
Mr. and Mrs. Chan are honoured to invite you, Mr. Brian Wong, to their eldest son Steve Chan Choi Liang and his fiancée Joyce Tang Mei Yin’s wedding dinner reception held at the Dragon & Phoenix Hotel at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, 23 January 2011.
leegoldielocks 