‘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 a native Mandarin speaker. And he speaks Standard Mandarin, not like the Singapore Mandarin people here speak. He says that the people in China would laugh at how people here speak Mandarin.’ Selina was sensitive about not speaking Mandarin at all, having studied Malay as her second language in school.
‘Jonny Ho inherited Patty’s house at Kakatua. But she didn’t leave him much else, that’s why he and Beth are turning it into a school. Did you know Patty Kwuan well?’ Selina seldom encouraged Aunty Lee’s stories, which tended to meander without a point. But there was always a chance the old woman knew something that might be useful. After all, you couldn’t know too much about people you were going into business with.
‘I always wondered what happened to that man. They say he is very good-looking. I never got a chance to see him. When Patty first got married again, Helen Chan threw this big dinner party for them so that we could all get to meet her new husband. I couldn’t go. That was around the time when those stupid people were blaming my chicken buah keluak for poisoning them, remember? But Helen told me, wah, that one is a real leng zai.’
‘That means “pretty boy”,’ Mark told Selina.
‘I know that!’ Selina snapped.
‘Anyway, I was waiting for a chance to look at this handsome man Patty had married. But then right after that Helen and her husband went to Glasgow to get a flat for her son. Her son is studying medicine there. And then, so terrible, while they were away their house got burglarized! That’s when the house break-ins just started, remember? The insurance still hasn’t paid up for everything; don’t know why so slow.’ Aunty Lee’s eyes shone with remembered excitement. Even Patty’s handsome new husband had been overshadowed.
‘And then after that Patty just stopped seeing people. She wouldn’t accept any invitations, didn’t even join us for the Founder’s Day reunion dinner. I told Helen one of them must have said something to offend her or her husband but she swore they never said anything. Then the next thing we knew, Patty was dead. Must have been one of those sudden cancers or heart attack or something. Maybe she found out about it and didn’t want people to know. She should have told us she was sick, but maybe she lost her hair and didn’t want us to see her. Patty was always very proud of her hair.’
‘So you don’t remember Beth Kwuan?’ Selina said with emphasis on the name.
‘Oh, of course I remember that Beth: Elizabeth, she was in school; now I know who you are talking about. Elizabeth Kwuan was one year ahead of us in school. She was a school prefect, always very fierce. She went with Patty on that tour to China where Patty met the PRC tour guide that she went and married.’
‘So will you help Beth out? She’s your old friend’s sister after all. I’m sure you can trust her—’
‘The mushrooms haven’t come yet.’ Cherril, finally off the phone, dashed into the dining room looking desperate. She was followed by Avon and Xuyie. ‘Can you believe how many things can go wrong at once?’
‘What? What? What? Quick, quick tell me!’
‘That was Elena Lim-Garibaldi on the phone. About this afternoon’s do. About the curry chicken.’
‘Hiyah, I told you those skinny dieting people wouldn’t appreciate curry chicken … so what do they want you to change it to?’
‘Oh no, they want the curry chicken. The spices are supposed to be good for stimulating the digestion or something like that. But they want only thigh meat without skin. And they don’t want any potatoes in the curry.’
Aunty Lee could have told Cherril that catering a party for a group of skinny businesswomen celebrating corporate weight loss was not a good idea … indeed, Aunty Lee had told her young business partner several times, though without any real intention of cancelling the job. Aunty Lee liked giving advice almost as much as she liked cooking.
‘But the potatoes are the best part of the curry!’ By the time of the party the soft chunks would have absorbed the perfect essence of curry and chicken. ‘And organic, some more!’
‘Can we take out the potatoes?’
‘I can take out the potatoes,’ Xuyie offered helpfully.
‘Of course you can,’ Aunty Lee was surprised but pleased by the girl’s offer, ‘but not yet. Leave them inside until three o’clock, otherwise the gravy will be too salty and too thin. Then we can use