party at the Piersons’; you liked me, you really did. Afterwards, you kissed me in the hallway. I couldn’t stop thinking of you for days.”
Memory. The ticking of the grandfather clock, that quick, feverish fumble in the darkness. He’d been so happy with Iris that day, her pert face never more alluring, that he’d cornered her, so he’d thought, in the hallway. And afterwards, there’d been days of brooding sulkiness. Iris complaining that he’d drunk too much that weekend, the accusations that he’d brushed off, attributing them to her neuroses, his aching head. He says with sharp, sudden understanding, “That was a mistake. I never knew it was you.”
But Lydia doesn’t care. She’s gone beyond him. A dreamy look fills her eyes. “And then when Iris kept writing about how unhappy you were with her, I knew that something would happen to make her disappear. Because you and I are fated to be together: we even have the same name. The other night, at your party, when you wrote your Chinese name—I told you that I have a Chinese name as well. I was born in Hong Kong, you know.”
What is she babbling about? Doesn’t she have any sense of danger from him?
“My Chinese name has the same character—Li for Li di ya—as yours. It’s one of the Confucian Virtues,” she says.
Ren comes into the hallway to hand Lydia her hat and parasol. He stares at her, eyes huge in his small face. William thinks feverishly. Play along; he has always been able to manage. There’ll be time enough to deal with her.
“We’ll need more servants after we’re married,” says Lydia, looking appreciatively around the large, empty bungalow.
Over my dead body, thinks William. But he smiles and shows her out.
50
Batu Gajah
Monday, June 29th
Shin’s arm was broken. The right one, as he pointed out with rueful humor. My stepfather had broken the left one, and now it was my turn: a strangely fearful symmetry. I said I was sorry, resting my head briefly against his shoulder after all the uproar was over and we were finally alone. They’d put us into a private room temporarily, though the only serious injury was Shin’s arm and some cuts and bruises.
“You’re very lucky,” said the local doctor who’d examined me. “The other chap broke your fall.”
I fell silent at the mention of Koh Beng. My statement to the police about how he’d tried to kill me, as well as the whole business of selling fingers as good luck charms, made both the hospital and the local police look bad: the hospital for not keeping track of human remains, and the police for failing to prevent an attempted murder right after Y. K. Wong had been killed that very morning. Already, a rumor had conveniently spread that Koh Beng had gone mad and run amok. In the meantime, they’d been especially nice to Shin and me.
“Well, that’s the end of my job,” said Shin, gazing at the cast on his arm.
“Perhaps they’ll let you do something else,” I said.
“Don’t be silly. I can’t write, either, so no desk jobs.”
It didn’t matter. I was filled with gratitude to be sitting here with him, remembering how I’d thought we’d be sundered forever by death. But my joy was tempered with grief. What had happened to Yi? His last words, don’t forget me, struck me as a plaintive echo of his previous lament: I don’t want Ren to forget me. Was he still waiting at that empty station, or had he given up and gone onward, alone? Wherever he was, I prayed he’d find mercy. I owed him a great debt.
I released Shin’s hand guiltily as yet another nurse came in. So many nurses had come by to visit, giggling and perching flirtatiously on his bed. I’d told the police that Shin was my brother, so I could only sit by and smile. It was all right; I was used to this.
“Why won’t you let me set them straight?” Shin said, annoyed, after the last nurse was gone.
“Not now.” We had to think things through. Figure out how to get around our parents first, and not have it spread as gossip. My mother would have a fit when she found out we’d been shoved off a building. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me; the hospital smelled like disinfectant and boiled onions.
“I’ll come and see you tomorrow,” I said, standing up.
He grabbed my hand. “Stay. They offered to keep you tonight for observation.”