Lee’s new partner, Cherril Lim-Peters, was a very skinny, very smart, young woman who never seemed to get tired. Aunty Lee liked Cherril’s energy. What she found difficult to deal with was Cherril’s constant need for change and improvement. She was always coming up with ways to do things faster, better, and to greater profit.
Selina Lee, Aunty Lee’s stepdaughter-in-law, said Cherril was compensating for growing up in a Housing Development Board flat and studying in a government school. Selina never missed a chance to correct Cherril’s pronunciation or grammar. But Cherril knew far more about business productivity.
Given that Cherril’s determination was directed towards building the business and making more money, taking Cherril on as a partner had certainly been good for the business side of Aunty Lee’s Delights. It also made Nina’s temporary absence possible. (Aunty Lee had picked out several honeymoon packages to start off the marriage Nina was rejecting). Before Cherril came on board, Nina had taken care of Aunty Lee’s accounts, ordered supplies, and planned menus as well as helping with the actual cooking and serving.
Initially, Cherril had only taken over the drinks side of the business that Aunty Lee’s stepson, Mark, had started and given up. But lately Cherril had been talking about introducing new healthy alternatives. She had also taken over the accounts and balancing the books after taking an online course on cost-effective business accounting. Nina was just Aunty Lee’s assistant in the kitchen again. And not even the sole assistant, now that Cherril had hired two Chinese nationals to help in the shop during peak hours. Avon and Xuyie were both fair, pretty girls who claimed to speak English.
Aunty Lee could not understand their English any more than they could follow her Singlish. Luckily Cherril could give them instructions in Mandarin. Aunty Lee wondered if Nina felt left out, listening to the three Chinese girls chatting and giggling incomprehensibly. Aunty Lee certainly did. Both Aunty Lee and Nina were comfortable enough with Chinese dialects to do their marketing, food ordering, and scandal gossiping in Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese. But neither had studied the government-sanctioned Mandarin. In the old days, newcomers to Singapore had learned English to integrate. The recent influx of Mandarin speakers no longer seemed to find that necessary.
‘All residents are encouraged to report any suspicious persons to the authorities immediately.’
‘Turn off the radio,’ Aunty Lee grumbled. ‘Frighten people for nothing, only.’
Normally, Aunty Lee loved public service crime announcements, but not when she had just been reported as a ‘suspicious person’ herself.
Obligingly, Panchal turned off the car radio.
‘You were telling them one of your friends got burglarized?’
‘My friend, Helen Chan. They took her jewellery, a television, and two computers!’
But even Helen’s losses didn’t interest Aunty Lee very much today.
‘Did you have home security put in? You should think about it, you know.’
Aunty Lee shrugged. The most precious things in her house were the photo portraits of her late husband she had in every room. Housebreakers were hardly likely to take them, and even if they did, Nina had digital copies of all the images. Aunty Lee appreciated Nina even when she was cross with her. And she had not given up yet.
‘Here we are,’ Panchal said, pulling up across the road from Aunty Lee’s Delights.
Nina was watering the row of potted plants in front of the shop. Their branches were heavy with tiny green limes, the larger limau purut or kaffir limes, kumquats, and chillies in various shades of red to be plucked as needed. Until then, they provided good feng shui.
A familiar car was parked in front of the ‘no parking’ sign.
‘Shouldn’t you fine them for parking in front of the fire hydrant?’ Aunty Lee asked hopefully.
‘I’ll leave that to the traffic wardens.’ SS Panchal knew the car belonged to Aunty Lee’s stepson, Mark, and his wife, Selina. Like almost everyone else except Aunty Lee herself, Panchal preferred to stay clear of Mrs Selina Lee.
Selina was expecting her first child, and stressing over what schools and colleges he or she should someday apply for had made her even more tense and terrifying.
Nina stared at the police car, looking worried. She had been looking worried a lot lately, Aunty Lee thought, feeling a stab of guilt. Well, once Nina was safely married to her policeman she would be happy again. And she would thank Aunty Lee.
‘You went to the police post?’ Nina asked suspiciously after Panchal drove off. She could not bring herself to ask if her boss had spoken to Salim.
‘I found daun kesum!’ Aunty Lee held up her leaves like a peace offering. ‘The construction people finally took down the hoarding over the drain and I saw the plants, so big already, so I went and grabbed. We must make a laksa special today! I invited people to come and eat! China people, I think. Must let them try real Singapore laksa!’
Nina Balignasay was the opposite of Aunty Lee in many ways. Aunty Lee was a fair, plump, busybody while Nina was thin, dark and wished everyone would mind their own business as she herself preferred to do. She was not, however, as skinny as she had been when she first came to work for Aunty Lee and her late husband all those years ago. Whatever the complications of working with Aunty Lee, she was as generous with food as with her advice. And Nina was no longer the scared, inept girl who had arrived hopeless at something as simple as separating egg yolks from whites. Now she was competent in the kitchen, powerful on the computer, and financially stable. She knew how much she owed Aunty Lee but she was not going to listen to her and let Salim destroy his future.
‘Master Mark and Madam Selina are here.’
‘Alamak,’ Aunty Lee groaned dramatically.
Nina knew Aunty Lee found Selina entertaining rather than offensive.
‘Silly-Nah is just Silly lah!’ was one of Aunty Lee’s favourite sayings. But with Mark and Selina expecting a baby, Aunty Lee was on her best behaviour. Her stepdaughter, Mathilda, had two children who Aunty Lee adored. But Mathilda and her family lived in the UK, well out of range of any culinary grand-mothering. Aunty Lee fully intended to be involved with the new grandbaby when it arrived.
The front entrance was locked since Aunty Lee’s Delights was officially closed on Mondays. Regulars in search of food knew to go round to the kitchen entrance, as Aunty Lee did now.
Inside, the industrial sized cooker set on low was simmering and scenting the air with a promise of cloves, peppercorns, tender curried chicken, and soft spicy potatoes. Aunty Lee could hear Cherril’s voice but there was no sign of Avon and Xuyie. The girls were in Singapore as students and there was a limit to the hours they were allowed to work. But Xuyie often hung around the kitchen even when she was not on duty. She seemed genuinely interested in Singapore food and enthusiastic about practising English. Avon on the other hand preferred to go out dressed in short skirts and high heels.
Aunty Lee’s Delights
