“Robert’s father is on the board at the Batu Gajah Hospital.”
He grunted.
“He said that if I’d like to apply for a scholarship to study nursing, he’d put in a word for me.”
This was an old, sore argument that we’d had. My stepfather didn’t consider nursing a suitable job for a young woman, what with having to bathe and perform intimate acts for all manner of strangers, including men.
He turned to look at me. “It’s not a job for a single girl. But if you’re married, you can do as you please.”
I could hardly believe my ears. “Why does it matter whether I’m married or not? The job’s the same.”
“You’ll be your husband’s responsibility then.”
“Does it matter to whom?”
My stepfather removed the toothpick from his mouth and regarded it. “As long as he makes a living, I don’t care who you marry or what you do afterwards.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you promise?”
He looked me in the eye. It was impossible to know what my stepfather was thinking at times like this.
“Yes,” he said. “Once you’re married, you’re not my responsibility anymore. Nor your mother’s.” He nodded at the black scrape that Robert’s car had left on the curb. “But learn how to drive properly.”
26
Batu Gajah
Saturday, June 20th
It’s Saturday, the day of the party. Ah Long let Ren sleep in, and it’s almost nine o’clock in the morning when he wakes with a start. The fever has gone and the mysterious sensation of well-being still remains.
Hurrying, he scrambles into his white houseboy’s uniform. Ah Long is already busy in the kitchen, stirring a large pot of beef rendang, slow cooked with coconut milk, and aromatic with kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, and cardamom.
“Fever gone?” he asks.
Ren nods, bright-eyed.
“It’s nice to be young,” Ah Long grumbles, but he seems pleased, and after Ren has eaten breakfast, he sets him to work on the hundred-and-one last-minute preparations for the party.
William is around. Ever since the tiger print was discovered at the edge of the garden, he hasn’t gone out in the evenings but has, instead, locked himself up in his study and written more letters.
Ren often wonders where those letters go. The postman comes by and picks a few of them up, but never the letters with the thick, cream-colored envelopes addressed to a woman named Iris. Ren puzzles over this and can only conclude that William takes them to the Club and drops them in the postbox there. Or perhaps he hands them directly to her at some sprawling colonial bungalow. As much as he tries, Ren can’t picture what this Iris lady looks like. The only foreign woman who comes to mind is Lydia. She’s the one that he imagines opening the letters, drinking tea on the veranda. Going to the hospital with William. The funny thing is that they almost get along. It’s just that the master always pulls back, as though Lydia reminds him of something he wants to avoid. It must be very disappointing for her; there’s no one else around so well suited, according to servants’ gossip.
Ren sets the long table with plates and silverware and starched napkins cunningly folded into peacocks. The cutlery is real silver, from William’s family in England with a crest and a curling, ornate “A” engraved on each piece. Ren spent all of Wednesday morning polishing it. Each spoon and fork is weighty. Ah Long says it’s a measure of the master’s quality. The last doctor he worked for had stainless knives and forks, not good silver like this. When Ren timidly asks William if his family is famous, William only laughs shortly and says something about black sheep, though what sheep have to do with silverware isn’t clear to Ren.
William is on edge today. He smokes cigarette after cigarette, leaning on the wooden railing of the veranda and gazing at the lush green leaves of the canna lilies that surround the bungalow. It must be because of the note he got this morning, delivered by a Sinhalese youth of thirteen or fourteen with a sullen look.
Ren is shaking out a dustcloth at the front door when the boy comes by on a bicycle.
“Tolong kasi surat ni pada awak punya Tuan.” Give this letter to your master, he says in Malay.
It’s a folded handwritten note. The writing has a childish, unformed air as though the writer isn’t very confident about the letters. Mr. William, it says.
“Do you need something from my master?” asks Ren with curiosity.
The youth looks scornful. “Not me.