Aunty Lee's Delights Part 12

Aunty Lee had explained simply that she and a friend of Marianne's had located Komal and were bringing her back. Komal had been frightened and still was; and "the friend" of Marianne's wanted to talk to both Komal and her mistress.

Anne Peters looked at Carla Saito for so long without speaking that Aunty Lee wondered whether she had made a mistake in bringing her here.

Then Anne Peters said to Carla, "I think I always knew at some level. But you know what it is like being a minority. Even after we have been here for so many years. It would just have been one more thing to make her life more difficult. If she were here right now, we would be fighting about it. I would not approve because I am her mother and it is my job not to approve."

"She kept saying it would have broken your heart, that you would never have approved," Carla Saito said. She was daring Mrs. Peters to contradict her. She could not feel sorry for this woman who had been the cause of so much of Marianne's unhappiness.

"It is my job to protect her from other people. But what can I do now?"

Carla said, "You can change other people."

"I would not have approved. But it is wrong of you to say I would never have approved. Did Marianne tell you I was against my son marrying Cherril?"

Carla was confused by the change of subject. "She never mentioned that. But I remember her saying she was glad Cherril was around because you had someone to do stuff like shopping and manicures with. She hated stuff like that."

"I always thought Marianne was a bit jealous. Cherril was Chinese and from a broken home. She was a flight attendant without a university degree. Please listen and let me finish-" She held up a hand as Carla started to interrupt. "I didn't approve because making a marriage work between two different personalities is difficult enough without adding two different backgrounds. And it was my duty as a mother to make potential difficulties clear to them. But once they were married, it was my duty as a mother to stand by them."

"Marianne didn't like Cherril. She said she didn't know what Mycroft saw in her. She said you didn't like her either, but you were pretending to because you wanted to have grandchildren."

"It's true. I didn't like Cherril before she married my son. Now they are married it's irrelevant whether I like her or not because she is family."

Carla Saito waited.

Anne Peters went on: "You would have become family too, given time. I want you to know that." That was why she had shared her initial reaction to Cherril Lim with Carla. It was something Marianne would have appreciated, Carla thought.

"The shock is still too strong. I know she is dead and I should feel worse. But she's been away so much I still keep expecting to get another text message from her saying where she is now."

"When did she send that last message?" Aunty Lee asked sharply. "And where is her phone? And her computer?"

She had been silent for so long that they had almost forgotten she was there.

"Marianne's laptop is missing. Komal said she asked for it, which is strange because Marianne usually used the computer at work or her iPhone. The laptop was several years old and she hardly used it. And though she asked for her laptop, she did not ask for her charger."

"You thought Komal stole her phone and her computer, didn't you? But she didn't. She brought them to the man she thought was Marianne's boyfriend. And Mycroft knew that. He also knew Marianne didn't have a boyfriend. So he thought you had sent Marianne for ex-gay therapy. That's why he wouldn't let anyone report her missing. Laura Kwee told Mycroft she had proof that Marianne was having an affair with another woman and she knew someone who could help her change. At the same time Laura befriended Marianne, telling her she was on her side and wanted to help her."

"I don't understand," Anne Peters said. "We would never have sent Marianne for any kind of corrective therapy. Her health-"

"Marianne had epilepsy," Carla said. "She had to be very careful not to trigger . . . Do you mean she died during ex-gay therapy?"

"But that would not explain what happened to Laura Kwee," Aunty Lee said.

15.

At the Hospital Aunty Lee always maintained that it was impossible to tell how a dish was going to turn out just by reading about how it was made in a recipe. You had to put all the ingredients side by side and prepare them before you could tell how they were going to react with one another. And, of course, there was always the chance that a new ingredient you were unfamiliar with would throw everything else off.

This time the new "ingredient" showed up, not only in the form of a Joseph Cunningham, a tall, gangly, ginger-haired young man (whom Aunty Lee had been expecting and curious to meet), but also in the form of the person he brought with him.

Joseph Cunningham's Singaporean partner, Otto, had arrived at the hospital within an hour after getting Aunty Lee's phone call.

"Actually we were both in Singapore already, before you called, so it wasn't a problem. We were planning our commitment ceremony. I was hoping my parents would fly in, of course, but I didn't know they were already here."

So that was the Cunninghams' big secret, Aunty Lee thought. "How are your parents?"

"Very good considering how things might have turned out. The doctors said to watch out for local infections and cellulitis and it's going to be painful for a while, but with luck they'll be fine in three weeks."

They were talking in Lucy Cunningham's room. Her natural warmth had already broken through her prejudice against gays, and while her son talked to Aunty Lee, Otto was sitting by her bedside listening to her stories about Joe as a child. Now and then she looked over to Joe and Aunty Lee with a big smile on her face. In spite of the angry-looking red-and-white burn blisters visible on her arms and legs (fortunately, she had instinctively blocked her face in time), Lucy Cunningham looked better than Aunty Lee had ever seen her.

"And how is your father taking it?" Aunty Lee asked Joe.

"Do you know why they came to Singapore without telling me? They-or rather my father-wanted to meet up with Otto's parents to try to enlist their help in breaking us up. That was what Laura Kwee was helping them with. Actually she told them that since same-s.e.x relations.h.i.+ps are illegal in Singapore, they could threaten to have Otto arrested if I didn't swear never to see him again. But my mother refused to go along with that. So Laura said she would link them up with Otto's parents if they came out here. She told them that if both sets of parents confronted us together, we would have to give in and they could bring me home. But then she never showed up. Anyway, it wouldn't have worked. Otto's father is dead and his mother totally accepted me. It didn't happen overnight, of course, but she was helping us plan the commitment ceremony. Or rather she's organizing everything."

"Looks like she's going to have some compet.i.tion . . ."

They both looked across the room as Lucy Cunningham laughed. "What does he mean there are no photographs-I have hundreds, thousands of photographs of my Joe. We can go through them and pick out what you'll use for the montage . . ."

Otto grinned at the others as Joe Cunningham made a wry grimace. This family would go on relatively unscarred, Aunty Lee thought. And she said precisely that.

"I always thought they'd come round," Joe responded. "People who really care find a way to deal with it. Even my dad will, given time. The people who get most upset are those crazies in LifeGifters-you know, the ones who want to save people from being gay? Laura Kwee was involved in it."

"You know Laura Kwee?"

"Never met her. Knew of her. In uni, she had this big crush on Otto. They used to do stuff together. He told her he was gay and thought she was okay with it and supportive, but then she started saying how her father back home kept asking when he was going to marry her and he got scared. Then she started stalking him online and spamming all his friends. She even wrote to the pastor of his church saying he had AIDS after he blocked her on Facebook."

"Why?" Aunty Lee asked.

Joe shrugged. "She thought she was saving him. That's what that LifeGifters network is all about. It's pretty brutal actually. There are stories of how they actually kidnap people to reprogram them for their own good. It's called 'reparative therapy' to supposedly turn gay people straight."

"How does it work?"

Joe looked at Aunty Lee suspiciously but saw only earnest curiosity. "You're locked up and told to pray and read the Bible, particularly verses that cast h.o.m.os.e.xuality as an abomination. The only people you get to see are those who have given up the 'gay lifestyle.' If you resist, you get tied up and only released to read the Bible and attend church."

"Does it work?"

"Didn't work on me. That's when I told my parents I never wanted to see them again."

"But you invited them to your commitment ceremony."

"I knew they only wanted what was right for me. I wanted to show them I'd found what was right for me."

Frank Cunningham was alone in his room when Aunty Lee went in. She had brought him some of her brightly colored little cakes, but he only stared at them glumly. Like his wife, his arms and legs were bandaged, and in addition he had a black eye.

"Don't you find it hard to accept people like them?" Frank asked Aunty Lee. "Don't you people have any decency here? It's supposed to be against the law. It's unnatural." But perhaps due to painkillers, he wasn't as vehement as before.

"I believe G.o.d gave us brains and logic because He wanted us to learn to use them." Aunty Lee smiled. "We all live by standards that some other people find ridiculous. Laura Kwee was e-mailing you about your son, wasn't she?"

"It was supposed to be confidential. It was for his own good."

"Knock knock!" Harry Sullivan called out, ushering Selina in ahead of him.

"Purely business," Selina said. "Harry says we should come to visit and see how our friends are doing so they don't try to press charges-ha ha! Unless you're already seeing to that, Aunty Lee?"

"Oh no." Aunty Lee waved her hands dismissively. "All over to you. I just came to talk."

"Good. We were just thinking-the shop's been closed for some time now. Customers are going to stop coming. Maybe it would be better to think about closing shop for good and moving on. You're not getting any younger, you know."

Selina was just not very good at the soft approach, Aunty Lee decided. Everything she suggested made Aunty Lee want to head in the opposite direction.

Harry Sullivan stepped in. "Hey, this is not the time, Sel. We just wanted to make sure you folks were okay-you too, Aunty Lee. Not too stressed out from all the traumatic events."

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Selina pointed out.

Harry Sullivan might be balding, paunchy, sweaty, and with damp palms, but these were all physical and therefore superficial details. Still, Aunty Lee wondered whether Selina, in trying to overlook these details, was overlooking too much.

"I just looked in on your wife," Aunty Lee said to Frank. "She's doing well, very well. You know your son's here, don't you?"

"They are sick people. We should be helping them change, not helping them give in to this perversion," Frank said from his bed. "I need more painkillers. Where are the nurses? Where's my wife? She's not as badly hurt as I am. Why can't they send her in to look after me?"

Aunty Lee promised to send a nurse but said no more. This was something Frank Cunningham would have to work out for himself.

As far as Aunty Lee was concerned, people ought to go through the ideas they carried around in their heads as regularly as they turned out their store cupboards. No matter how wisely you shopped, there would be things in the depths that were past their expiration dates or gone damp and moldy-or that had been picked up on impulse and were no longer relevant. Aunty Lee believed everything inside a head or cupboard could affect everything else in it by going bad or just taking up more s.p.a.ce than it was worth.

Harry Sullivan and Selina followed her out of the room. They were talking about claims and insurance. Surely the fire damage hadn't been that extensive?

"I remember it was old Harry Sullivan after all," Lucy Cunningham said when she saw Harry come in. "It's coming back to me now. That's what was on my mind. Harry Sullivan is the name of that old man who had a shop along that row opposite St. Leonards Junction, remember? Across from the old cemetery we went to for your great-granny's hundredth-what would have been her hundredth if she'd made it, and for a while it looked like she was going to. We brought you with us, don't you remember?"

Joe Cunningham did not.

"Your dad got to talking with him. Your old dad can go on forever about his gardening, and the two of them got along wonderfully. We went back to his house to see his precious garden. It was one of the last houses along Park Road where it joins River Road. A dead-end road and terribly steep, ending in a drop with nothing but a footpath from there down to where they were fixing up River Road. The road was so steep they had frames set into concrete to hold the cars in place. But the garden was spectacular. It must have been under a hundred and fifty square meters, but he had pots and trellises with runner beans and cuc.u.mbers. And I saw what I thought were some kind of pumpkin, but they turned out to be the largest tomatoes we ever saw in our lives. He said it was all about the seeds. He insisted on giving Frank some of them, even though Frank said he didn't have the patience to sit around and wait for things to grow. The best seeds from his bull's-heart tomatoes. And they weren't just large. They tasted good!

"He was talking about turning his house into a community garden when he died," she continued. "But then I heard he went so suddenly there was no time. His nephew took care of everything and sold the house."

"How did he die?"

"In his car, strangely enough. One night he got into it and-well, he was an old man and not familiar with driving. He just went straight down and crashed through the barrier at the bottom."

"Why do you say it's strange?" Aunty Lee asked.

"Did I?" Lucy thought about it. "Not strange at all. Just unexpected because he hadn't driven that car for years. He said he didn't even think it still worked, but it cost too much to tow away."

"What's wrong?" Selina asked Harry Sullivan. "Aren't you going to ask her how she is?"

"I think she looks fine," Harry said. He left the room.

"We just need to hear you say you're feeling all right," Selina explained to Lucy before following him. "So that later you can't turn around and sue the cafe."

"We won't sue you, anyway," Lucy Cunningham said to Aunty Lee. "Not when you've been so kind."

Selina and Harry Sullivan were still in the lobby when Aunty Lee joined them to wait for Nina, who was bringing mushroom barley soup for the invalids.

"Aunty Lee, Harry just told me Laura Kwee was the one writing all those nasty reviews of the cafe!"

"How did you find out?" Aunty Lee asked him.

"I have contacts," Harry said with an air of mystery. "Of course, I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but I always suspected something there. Laura could come across a bit strong sometimes. She was either living in her own fantasy dreamworld or she was putting it on to hide something on that computer of hers! Do you know where it is, by the way? I heard it wasn't found at her apartment."

"She probably had it with her. She took it everywhere with her. Laura kept records of everything. She used her phone but backed up everything on her laptop as though she was some kind of secret agent," Selina said, already bored with the talk about Laura. "Laura was the sort to have complicated pa.s.swords for the files and then have a list with her pa.s.swords because she was also afraid of forgetting. But she kept them in her address book as addresses. That was clever. What was maybe not so clever was her telling people she did it!"

"She didn't have the laptop with her the night she disappeared-I mean the police didn't find it. At least they never said they did," Harry Sullivan persisted. He looked at Aunty Lee. "She didn't leave it at your shop, did she?"

"Nina would know," Aunty Lee said, making a note to warn Nina.

Just then Joe and Otto came out of the room and grabbed Aunty Lee. "We wanted to thank you."

"We're putting together a big family alb.u.m-digitally," Otto announced. "Joe's going to play it back at the ceremony to show his parents that he did value them and family and everything. He told his mum about his project and she's sending for her huge alb.u.ms that have been in storage for years."

"It was Otto's idea," Joe said quietly. "I wish I'd thought of it. It made my mum really happy that someone wants to go through all her old photos. If Ots knew all the baggage that came with me . . ." He shook his head.

"Young man, you look at me," Aunty Lee said sternly. "You have so many good men coming after you that you can afford to throw them away?"

"What? No. Of course not."

"Then don't be so stupid. If a Chinese man doesn't want you, you will know. Otherwise the fastest way to drive him away is keep telling him that he should not want to be with you. Chinese men don't like fighting at home. At home they are always very agreeable. One day Otto will agree with you just to get you to stop. Is that what you really want, Joe?"

Joe Cunningham looked blankly at Aunty Lee, almost as though she had been speaking in Mandarin. Then he glanced at Otto.

"I agree," Otto said with a straight face. Aunty Lee found herself liking this young man more and more-she liked both of them in fact, which was nice. Too often, when it came to couples, there would be one she could not stand.

"What?" Now Joe was looking at Otto as though he could not understand him either.

"Look. Would I be marrying you if I didn't want to be with you?"

"I thought I kind of forced you into it. Because I'm insecure and you're nice."

"I'm not that nice. And I love you even though you're not that smart. So just listen to the nice aunty, okay?"

"Thank you, nice Aunty," Joe said obediently. They were all laughing now, Aunty Lee with a touch of exasperation. How could anyone believe in all those theories of evolution if young people today were just as goondu as the young people of fifty years ago had been?

"Thank you, Otto," Aunty Lee said. "Now I want to ask you a favor. Will you stay in the hospital for the rest of today at least? You can work here in the waiting room. Show the Cunninghams your photo alb.u.m. Just stay around here?"

Otto hesitated. "It's not ready. We were going to put in borders and backgrounds and dates and comments and everything."

"Never mind. You can do the fancy work later. I just want you to hang around here for now. Remember, what happened to Frank and Lucy wasn't an accident. The person who attacked them so clumsily this time may do a better job next time."