‘What nursery school?’ Aunty Lee winced and steeled herself for another of Mark’s moneymaking schemes. Since M. L. Lee left the bulk of his estate to Aunty Lee, Mark and Selina had already persuaded her to finance several disastrous projects. But as Aunty Lee was intending to divide her own money between her two stepchildren, she thought it unfair to Mathilda to continue. Mark and Selina had already ‘borrowed’ far more than his share.
‘If you want money you have to talk to Darren.’ Darren Sim had been M. L. Lee’s investment officer at the bank. Aunty Lee had inherited his services along with her husband’s money. ‘I cannot invest any money without talking to Darren.’ Aunty Lee had already told Darren to say ‘No’ to any investments Mark came up with.
‘We’re not asking for your money!’ Selina snapped in her usual voice. Mark looked worried and started to say something, but Selina put a firm hand on his arm and reassembled the smile on her face. ‘We need your help with a problem, that’s all.’
‘Of course we will come and help you, Silly-Nah!’ Aunty Lee loved solving other people’s problems almost as much as she loved cooking, which was saying a lot. Friends and customers often brought her little puzzles and conundrums. As the late M. L. Lee had said, his ‘kiasu, kaypoh, em zhai se’ (tireless, fearless busybody) little wife was happiest when digging clues out of problems and marrow out of bones.
Of course, not everybody appreciated Aunty Lee’s advice. Indeed, Selina had described Aunty Lee’s previous attempts to help as ‘bossy interference’. This was the first time Selina had come to her for help, and Aunty Lee intended to enjoy it properly,
‘Come and sit down with me in the dining room. Tell me about your nursery school. How can we help?’
‘I don’t need you, just Nina. I want to borrow Nina for a few days. For a couple of weeks, at most. Just until Beth’s maid turns up or she gets a replacement from the agency.’
Nina had come in and was silently slicing and deseeding tomatoes. She looked up on hearing her name. Selina threw her one of what Aunty Lee called her ‘condensed milk’ smiles (thick, sticky, and over sweetened), and Nina looked alarmed.
‘Nina, my friend Beth’s maid disappeared two days ago. The early education nursery school we’re setting up is going to be run out of her house. It’s a very bad time right now because of all the renovations going on and deliveries and workers, and we need to get everything ready in time to show parents to get them to sign up for next year. Aunty Lee is always saying how much you helped her set up this place, right? Beth just needs somebody to clean up the mess and be there to keep an eye on the workers.’ Selina turned back to Aunty Lee. ‘I told her that Nina has been working for the family for years and is completely reliable. Look, I never ask you for favours. Don’t let me down.’
‘Hiyah, Silly. Your baby not even born yet. Why are you already worrying about what school to send it to? Anyway, Singapore got so many schools, what for want to start your own?’
‘Selina isn’t just trying to get our baby into KidStarters, she’s helping to set it up,’ Mark explained. ‘She’s one of the partners, and she’s going to be on the school board. We were considering homeschooling but there isn’t really a homeschooling network in Singapore. This way it will be like homeschooling only other people will be paying for it!’
‘We were looking at value-adding nursery schools when I met Beth Kwuan, and she told me she was setting up a playschool. Mark asked her whether it was going to be one of those Montessori places, and Beth said that in an environment as competitive as Singapore there’s no point wasting time on playing. Right from the start, while children’s minds are still open, they should learn to learn by learning! Otherwise how are they going to get ahead and stay ahead? They need to learn self-discipline and how to obey rules!’
From the fervent respect in Selina’s voice, Aunty Lee suspected she longed to have attended such a school herself.
‘Beth and I agreed on all points. I’m going to help set up the curriculum. Beth knows the Singapore education system inside out. She’s been a private tutor to the top students from all the best schools in Singapore, including the Anglo Chinese School and the Raffles Institution. I’ve been researching the psychology of gifted children, and how to support them and teach them to create safety 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!