Meddling and Murder: An Aunty Lee Mystery. Ovidia Yu

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СКАЧАТЬ boundaries. Gifted children are often sensitive and get bullied … like Mark was, for example … and it’s very important for them to learn to create boundaries. Of course we will have to make sure the parents are going to commit to this also. Children can start as soon as they are toilet-trained, so children who learn faster can start earlier.’

      ‘And Beth has got a native Mandarin speaker to set up the Chinese syllabus. You can’t start learning languages too soon. You know how much students here are always having trouble with Mandarin, right? Well, we won’t waste time with stories and conversation, we’ll just teach them to take exams! Instead of children’s storybooks they’ll take assessment quizzes for fun!’

      It sounded terrible to Aunty Lee. She did not remember any of the lessons studied in school but she had fond memories of jokes and games and sweets passed around during boring classes. And some of her closest friends now were friends she had made then. None of them would have found assessment quizzes fun.

      ‘Who is this friend of yours? This Beth woman? What happened to her helper? Some people treat their helpers very badly, you know, work them non-stop and don’t give them enough to eat. If she abused her helper until she ran away, you shouldn’t go into business with her! Next thing you know she is getting arrested and you are in the newspapers trying to cover your face!’

      ‘Of course she didn’t abuse her helper!’ Selina raised her voice. ‘She told me that the maid had a boyfriend and, when Beth stopped her from seeing him, she ran away.’

      ‘Did your friend report it to the police? Aiyoh, if she ran away with the boyfriend, maybe she got pregnant; your friend is going to lose her deposit!’

      Selina waved Aunty Lee’s deposit worries away and turned her focus back on Nina.

      ‘Nina, I need your help for a few days. I told my friend that you can speak English, you can handle workmen, and you can be trusted with money. You can be trusted, right?’

      ‘Of course, Madam.’ Nina’s words were automatic but cautious. ‘But Aunty Lee needs me here. I cannot leave Aunty alone. If I go to help your friend, Aunty will be alone by herself in the house at night. Old people should not be alone at night. If she falls down at night, then nobody will know.’

      ‘We’ll come and check in on her—’ Mark began, but was cut off by his wife.

      ‘Aunty Lee is not that old,’ Selina interrupted. ‘My mother is older, and she’s so independent she doesn’t even want my father in the room at night—’

      But they were both drowned out by Aunty Lee. Aunty Lee was only slower off the start because her indignation needed time to swell up to full force at being lumped in with ‘old people’. Her eyesight and hearing might have slightly weakened over the years, but her sense of smell and taste were still sharper than most women half her age!

      ‘I never fall down!’ Aunty Lee spluttered like chilli oil in a hot pan. ‘My father always told people I am as agile as a mountain goat!’ That was true, though said over fifty years ago by her fond father who was now long dead.

      ‘Madam, you remember you fell down that time? For so long you had to walk with that stick … ’

      In fact the walking stick from that fall was by Aunty Lee’s chair now, though her ankle was quite recovered. She had discovered that walking with a stick meant nice people gave way to you in queues. Plus, if they didn’t, you could use your stick to push them aside. Aunty Lee picked it up and thumped it on the floor for emphasis.

      ‘That was not at night, what! That was a workplace accident! Anyway, you young people have workplace accidents all the time! More often than us old people! Is that why you don’t want to leave me to get married? Because you think I am old?’

      ‘I never say you are old, Madam.’ Too late Nina saw her mistake. ‘Just older than me. That’s why you need me in the house to make tea for you at night. And to help you in the shop in the daytime.’

      ‘I can make my own tea. I was making my own tea before you were born!’ Aunty Lee huffed. That did not really help her case, but sounded too good to waste. ‘If you want to go and help Selina’s friend then go and help them. Don’t worry about me, I don’t need you!’

      ‘It’s just until Beth’s maid turns up or she arranges to get someone else to help,’ Mark said comfortingly. ‘And we’ll check to make sure Aunty Lee is all right.’ He patted Aunty Lee on the arm and nodded encouragingly to Nina. ‘Why don’t we try this for one week and see how it goes?’

      None of the women paid any attention to him.

      ‘Where does this friend of yours live, anyway? What’s her full name? What does her husband do? Did she report to the police that her maid is missing yet? What’s her maid’s name? Where is she from?’

      ‘Her maid’s name is Julietta, from the Philippines, I think. Beth lives in Jalan Kakatua, in the Bukit Batok area. She’s not married. It’s her family house that she’s renovating for KidStarters. I met Julietta there once, and she looked fine to me. If anything I think Beth treated her too well, gave her too much freedom, that’s why she got so spoilt. Beth said that she told her to stay at home to wait for a delivery when she had planned to go out with her boyfriend, and Julietta got angry and ran away.’

      ‘Do you know a Julietta?’ Aunty Lee asked Nina.

      She seemed to think all the Filipina helpers in Singapore knew each other. Nina shook her head without saying anything. She knew a great many other domestic helpers in Singapore. She also knew some bosses refused to let their maids have any contact outside the home. Working for such people was like being sentenced to heavy labour in solitary confinement.

      ‘Jalan Kakatua … I used to know a Patricia Kwuan-Loo who lived in Jalan Kakatua,’ Aunty Lee said thoughtfully. ‘She was Patty Kwuan when she was in my class in school, and she married a doctor, Ken Loo. Then after Ken died, Patty went on a tour to China. Instead of buying fake handbags and watches, that woman ended up bringing back her Chinese tour guide and marrying him!’ Aunty Lee chuckled in gleeful approval but sobered to continue. ‘Patty just died quite recently. I saw there was a notice in the newspapers. “No wreaths”, “no donations”, no other information. I didn’t even know she had been sick. I asked around some of the other old girls but nobody had seen her for some time. If only we had known that she was sick or in hospital, we would have gone to see her.’

      If the late Patty Kwuan-Loo had been sick, she might not have been up to receiving her old classmates, Nina thought. The class reunions Aunty Lee occasionally hosted at the café grew more gleefully raucous and uninhibited as the ladies’ inhibitions retreated with their schooldays.

      ‘One of my friends phoned the house to ask about the funeral service and was told “no wake, no service”. So funny, right! Usually such things they list all the family members to show people who is dead and who is still alive. Nina? Do you remember if Patty Kwuan-Loo had a sister or cousin called Beth living in the same area?’

      Reading obituaries was one of Aunty Lee’s favourite daily rituals. At her age, it was a more effective way of keeping track of old friends than Facebook or Twitter.

      ‘Beth is Patty Kwuan-Loo’s sister,’ Selina said. ‘Patty’s second husband, Jonny Ho, is Beth’s partner in the KidStarters project. He is the Mandarin expert who will be working with the children.’

      ‘Oh, so he’s a teacher?’

      ‘He’s СКАЧАТЬ