Lee could understand why Fabian would be upset. But she could also see things from Jonny Ho’s side. After all, Aunty Lee was herself a second wife. And apart from substantial gifts to his first wife’s children, M. L. had left everything else, including his house, to her. Thanks to her own investments, Aunty Lee had increased rather than diminished what she meant to leave to Mathilda and Mark.
‘I saw the aunt … Patty’s sister, Beth … also. I can’t imagine her setting up anything like that.’
‘She wouldn’t. I think Beth was hoping to go on staying in the house after Patty died. You know she moved in with Patty after Ken died? It was driving Patty crazy. She wanted some time to herself: to get used to being on her own, to sort out Ken’s things. But Beth just plonked herself in the house and said she was not going to desert her no matter what she said.’
‘Alamak.’ Having lost a husband herself, Aunty Lee knew how the pain of being alone wrestled with hating the sight of every person other than the beloved dead. And Beth didn’t look as though she would be much comfort. ‘That Beth is so sand-in-my-puss!’
‘So What?’
‘Sand-in-my-puss. You remember how she was in school, right? She’s the same now. Only worse. Everything, also she is more proper, more Holy, more low calorie than you.’
‘Sanctimonious,’ Helen corrected faintly.
‘That’s what I said.’
‘Anyway, that one was born to be an old maid. Everything must be done her way. Her way is always the “right” way.’
‘You can’t call Beth an old maid. She’s a career woman.’ Aunty Lee remembered Beth’s support under Selina’s childish attempts at manipulation. ‘I think she’s found the right line. She’s got connections with some good schools, and she’s starting a children’s education centre. Very scientific. All about teaching children from young how to learn things and score on exams. Have you seen her recently?’
‘Not since school. Remember what a pain she was back then? She out-teachered the teachers! When Patty came over to our place for mah-jong, Beth would stay with Fabian and, alamak, every night she would always phone two, three times: why wasn’t Fabian taking the vitamins she bought for him? Where did Patty keep the assessment books she gave to Fabian?’
‘Sounds like Beth was just as protective of Fabian as his mother.’
‘Patty was overprotective and spoiled the boy. We all told her that and she knew it. She even laughed at herself. Beth had nothing else to do when she wasn’t in school. When she was in school she bossed the students around, so when she was out of school she bossed Fabian around.’
‘Just because she never joined us at parties doesn’t mean she had nothing to do, what. She wasn’t even in our year. She would have had her own friends.’
‘One year older. When you are in school, one year makes a big difference, but in the real world, five years, ten years, what’s the difference?’
Aunty Lee didn’t pursue it. After all, she was trying to be more mature than Helen about Beth. Beth was starting the school of her dreams while Helen’s Tai-Tai life revolved around gossip and foot rubs.
Aunty Lee remembered all the negative comments she had got when setting up her Peranakan café. People doing nothing with their lives always criticize those trying to do something. Of course, there had been friends who encouraged her: Patty, and Helen among them. Aunty Lee smiled to herself, remembering how, in the early days of Aunty Lee’s Delights, her friends would swoop down on the shop’s display counter and buy, ‘ten of everything, or however many you got left’, with the engine running in Helen’s huge white Mercedes blocking the road outside.
‘What did you do with all the kueh you used to buy?’
‘What?’
‘You used to come down and buy my nonya cakes from the shop, remember? I know you weren’t eating them because I never saw you getting fat.’
‘Oh.’ Helen looked embarrassed. ‘I don’t remember. Maybe I just exercised a lot.’
‘It was very nice of you.’ Aunty Lee reached over and touched the back of Helen’s hand lightly. Helen, she thought, had probably given the kueh to her driver or servants. Aunty Lee wanted to encourage Beth’s KidStarters the way Helen had helped her.
And maybe, just a little, she wanted Selina to see how well Aunty Lee and Beth Kwuan got along. If her grandchild got into Beth’s school, Grandma /Aunty Lee would be right there.
But she realized Helen was talking. ‘You remember that burglary we had, right?’
‘Another one?’
‘No, lah! Now we got so much security I want to go toilet at night also got lights, got noise, got police come. So we don’t even switch on. Just put up all the signs, “Alarm System Activated”. Should have just bought the signs; no need to buy the alarm. Hiyah,’ Helen sighed and hesitated.
Aunty Lee, sensing something new, perked up. ‘What? Tell me!’
‘I did something I didn’t tell you about that time.’ Helen sounded guilty.
‘Those people took money. The television sets. All Peng’s nice suits and belts and ties and watches. His good Italian shoes. The wedding silverware and crystals. Jewellery. Antiques. They just took the whole safe with them. All the bottles of liqueur Peng was collecting for so long. All the credit cards we didn’t take with us. Electronics. That was what my son got most upset about. He said that they could very easily get info on my bank accounts and credit card accounts and information on my friends from my Facebook and email and scam them.’
‘So what did you do?’ Aunty Lee refused to be distracted.
‘I called Patty to warn her about the identity theft thing. I was calling all my friends … ’
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