Hong Kong
1945
Chapter Seven
Yut Ying
On Saturday, I met Lily.
That morning Yi Gor and I finally moved from the maids’ quarters to the second floor. Another warm day. I could feel the air thickening as I ascended the stairs, the heat pooling against my skin in a stifling wave. I didn’t complain. I’d heard there was running water and a toilet at the end of the hallway—an unthinkable luxury! Back in Tunglam, the bathroom was an outhouse that everyone shared.
Yi Gor was less impressed. “What’s upstairs?” he dared ask, inclining his chin at a staircase opposite his room.
“Madam Chan’s rooms are on the third floor,” replied Susu, “and your father and Madam Ha’s.”
Yi Gor ventured up a step, his ear pointed to the ceiling. “What’s that whirring sound?”
“That’s the air conditioning unit,” Susu said before pulling my brother back by the arm. “You children aren’t allowed on the third floor.”
“I’m fourteen, I’m not a child,” said Yi Gor peevishly.
Susu chose not to hear. “You and your sister are not to leave the house without permission.”
My brother and I exchanged a look. We’d been confined to our rooms for nearly a week owing to a spell of food poisoning, and now we were desperate to get out. We blamed our misfortune on the tofu pudding Tingting had bought us for our first breakfast,which had been so delicious we ate without restraint, forgetting it’d been years since our stomachs had digested anything sweet and syrupy.
“Are we allowed to take a shit without permission?” Yi Gor said irritably. “Or does Gu Ma want us to let her know beforehand?”
Susu offered a pinched smile.
“May I see Sai Ma?” I asked, trying to steer the topic to safer ground. It’d been four days since I’d seen my stepmother, and I was eager to start the music lessons she’d promised.
“Madam Ha is picking her daughter up from school,” replied Susu.
My heart gave a little leap. “When will they be back?”
“Madam should be back soon, but I wouldn’t disturb her if I were you.”
I frowned at the maid’s clipped tone. Sai Ma had offered to spend time with me. Why would I be disturbing her?
Without another word, Susu returned to the main floor, leaving Yi Gor and me to settle into our rooms. Though I was tired of my brother’s company, we both left our doors open as relief from the heat.
“Can’t go up there where there’s air conditioning,” he was muttering. “We could use afandown here! It’s sweltering.”
“Hush,” I said.
“I don’t care if the maid hears me,” my brother said, louder than before. “A whole week stuck in this house, and Gu Ma still hasn’t come back to welcome us—she might as well put up banners around the street that she doesn’t want us here. Just look, the second floor wassupposedlyflooded, but everything is dry as a bone.”
“Must you grumble about everything? We’re lucky to be here.”
“Are we?” My brother smirked. “I heardsheasked you to cook.”
“I cooked in Tunglam, why not here?”
“You’ll see.”
I ignored him and plucked a giant spider off the wall, opening the window in my room to toss it out. The air was fresh, perfumed by the copious shrubs of myrtle in the planters. As I inhaled, the gates below opened.
A black car entered the driveway, and I spied a girl inside with spectacles and two braided pigtails under a broad straw hat.
