“Extra olives, please,” Peik Lin added.
—
Nick walked down the pathway past the lily pond, entering the deepest part of the woods in the northwest section of the property. When he was a boy, this was the area of the estate he never dared to venture into, probably because one of the old Malay servants from ages past had told him this was where all the tree spirits lived, and they should be left undisturbed.
A bird high in one of the trees made a strange, piercing call that Nick had never heard before, and he looked up into the thick foliage, trying to spot what it was. Suddenly a blur of white flickered past his eyes, startling him for a second. Collecting himself, he saw it again, something white and shiny on the other side of a grove of trees. He crept slowly toward the trees, and as the bushes cleared, he saw the figure of Ah Ling facing a large tembusu tree, clutching a few joss sticks. As she prayed and bowed from the waist repeatedly, the smoke from the joss sticks wafted around her, and her white blouse would shimmer as it caught the rays of sunlight filtering through the low-hanging branches.
When Ah Ling was finished with her prayers, she took the joss sticks and stuck them inside an old Milo can that had been placed in the hollow of the bark. She turned around and smiled when she caught sight of Nick.
“I didn’t know you came out here to pray. I always thought you did your prayers in the garden behind the service wing,” Nick said.
“I go to different places to pray. This is my special tree, when I really want my prayers to be answered,” Ah Ling said in Cantonese.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who do you pray to here?”
“Sometimes to ancestors, sometimes to the Monkey God, and sometimes to my mother.”
It occurred to Nick that Ah Ling had seen her mother less than a dozen times since she had moved to Singapore as a teenager. Suddenly the memory of one day from his childhood came rushing back. He remembered going into Ah Ling’s bedroom and seeing her stuff a suitcase full of things—McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits, Rowntree’s sweets, packs of Lux soap, a few cheap plastic toys—and when he asked her what these were for, Ah Ling told him they were gifts for her family. She was going back to China for a month to visit them. Nick had thrown a tantrum, not wanting her to go.
Decades had passed since that day, but now Nick stood in the middle of a forest with his nanny overwhelmed with guilt. This was a woman who had dedicated nearly her entire life to serving his family, leaving her own parents and siblings behind in China and only seeing them once every few years when she had saved up enough to go back. Ah Ling, Ah Ching the head chef, Jacob the gardener, Ahmad the chauffeur, all these people had served his family for most of their lives. This was their home, and now they were about to lose it too. Now he was letting them all down.
As if reading his mind, Ah Ling came over and put her hand on his face. “Don’t look so sad, Nicky. It’s not the end of the world.”
Suddenly, tears began to spring from his eyes uncontrollably. Ah Ling embraced him, in the way she had so many times when he cried as a child, stroking the back of his head as he wept quietly against her shoulder. Nick hadn’t shed a single tear during the entire week of his grandmother’s funeral, and now he was letting it all out.
After he had recovered himself, Nick walked quietly next to Ah Ling along the wooded pathway. When they reached the lily pond, they sat on the stone bench at the water’s edge, watching a lone egret as it stepped gingerly among the shallow marshes looking for little minnows. Nick asked, “Do you think you’ll stay in Singapore?”
“I think I will go back to China, for a year at least. I want to build a house in my old village, and spend a little time with my family. My brothers are getting older, I have so many new grandnephews and grandnieces who I have never met. Now I can finally be the rich old auntie who spoils them.”
Nick chuckled at the thought. “I’m so glad Ah Ma provided for you in her will.”
“Your Ah Ma was very generous to me, and I will always be grateful to her. For the first few decades I worked here, she frightened me to death. She was not the easiest woman to please, but I think in the last twenty years or so, she came to see me as a friend and not just a servant. Did I ever tell you that a few years ago she invited me to take a room in the big house? She thought I was getting a bit old to be trudging back and forth from the servants’ wing to the house. But I turned her down. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in one of those grand bedrooms.”
Nick smiled, remaining silent.
“You know, Nicky, I really don’t think your grandmother wanted this house to go on after she was
gone. That’s why she prepared things the way she did. She wouldn’t have taken care of me and Ah Ching and everyone else like she did. She thought of every detail.”
“She may have thought of every detail, but for me, so many questions remain unanswered. I keep beating myself up about how stubborn I was, refusing to come back to make peace with her until the very end. I wasted so much time,” Nick lamented.
“We never know how much time any of us have. Your Ah Ma could have gone on living for many more months, or even years, you never know. Don’t regret anything. You are lucky you were back in time to say goodbye,” Ah Ling said soothingly.
“I know. I just wish I could talk to her again, to understand what she truly wanted,” Nick said.
Ah Ling suddenly sat up on the bench. “Alamak! I’m getting so absentminded, I almost forgot that I have a few things for you from your Ah Ma. Come, come to my room with me.”
Nick followed Ah Ling to her quarters, where she produced an old imitation Samsonite suitcase from the back of her closet. He recognized it as the suitcase she used when she had gone back to China all those decades ago. Ah Ling opened the suitcase on the floor, and Nick saw that it contained stacks and stacks of different-colored fabrics, the kind she used to make the beautiful silk patchwork quilts that hung at the foot of the bed in every guest room. At the bottom of the suitcase was a bundle tied in dark blue satin fabric.
“When your Ah Ma was in the hospital, she asked Astrid to gather a few things from the vault and various hiding places she had. Astrid brought these down to me, to be kept for you. I don’t think your Ah Ma wanted any of your aunties getting their hands on these,” Ah Ling said, handing Nick the bundle. He undid the knotted satin and found a small rectangular leather box. Inside was a vintage pocket watch on a gold chain signed Patek, Philippe & Cie, a silk coin purse full of gold sovereigns, and a small stack of old letters tied in yellowed ribbon. At the bottom of the box lay a newer, crisper envelope with “Nicky” on the front in his grandmother’s elegant handwriting. Nick tore open the letter and began reading it immediately:
Dear Nicky,
I feel that time is running short and I don’t know whether I will see you again. There are so many things I had wished to tell you, but never found the chance or the courage. Here are some things I am entrusting to you. They do not belong to me, but to a gentleman named Jirasit Sirisindhu. Please return these things to him on my behalf. He lives in Thailand, and your auntie Cat will know how to find him. I am also entrusting you with this mission because you will want to meet Jirasit in person. When I am no longer here, he will be able to provide you with the resources that you will need. I know I can count on him to be of great help to you.
Love,
Your Ah Ma