“You’re the girl from the coffeehouse,” said Fung Cheung.
“What’s your name?” said Tet Sang.
The waitress folded her hands. “At my tokong they called me Nirodha.”
Tet Sang raised an eyebrow. “And your actual name?”
The waitress held his eyes for half a second before her gaze faltered. “My birth name was Guet Imm.”
Ah Hin had digested the implications of the waitress being a follower of the Pure Moon.
“That girl is a witch!” he said. “Must be she enchanted me, that’s why I fell asleep!”
Suspicious muttering rose from the group like a bad smell.
“Did you enchant Ah Hin?” said Tet Sang.
Guet Imm looked injured. “No! Brother was already sleeping when I came. He looked tired, so I tried not to wake him up. I was looking for you, brother.”
“What for?”
“You’re the one I know,” explained Guet Imm.
Tet Sang jerked his head towards Fung Cheung. “You know him.”
“Yes, but you’re the one I trust,” said Guet Imm.
“Because of you, I fought that guy!” said Fung Cheung, offended.
“Yeah,” said Guet Imm apologetically. “Sorry, brother. But because of your fight, Mr Aw fired me.”
“He would have fired you anyway. You cannot go around hexing customers and expect to keep your job. It’s bad customer service.”
“He might have changed his mind before you got involved,” argued Guet Imm. “Anyway, this brother was actually helpful.” She gestured at Tet Sang. “He gave me money.”
“He did?” said Fung Cheung. He clapped Tet Sang on the back, delighted. “Ah Sang, you didn’t say! When you’re always scolding me for being too generous! All the more we shouldn’t worry. That coffeehouse earnt a lot of money today. It would be too ungrateful if they put the mata on us after all that.”
“I’m not at the coffeehouse anymore,” said Guet Imm. “Isaidthey let me go.”
“Big Brother,” said Ah Hin urgently, “what about the witch’s jampi?”
But he’d lost his moment. Fung Cheung would have forgiven the nun much worse for such ammunition against Tet Sang as she’d given him.
“Come on, Ah Hin, you don’t need this sister’s jampi to fall asleep on watch,” said Fung Cheung. “You’ve done it so many times, must be you offended some spirit. We better take you to visit a sinseh in the next town, see if he can cure you.”
Amid the ensuing merriment at Ah Hin’s expense, Tet Sang said to the nun, “I gave you the money so you would go away. What happened to it?”
Guet Imm held up a soft black thing like the hide of a small animal. It turned out to be a wig. “I bought this so I’m not so conspicuous. It fell off when you jumped on me.”
She put it on her head. The effect was singularly unconvincing.
“I still have the rest of the money,” she added. “I thought of getting pots and pans, maybe some cooking chopsticks. But I wasn’t sure what you all had already.”
“Huh?” said Tet Sang.
“Oh, I’m joining you all,” said Guet Imm, wide-eyed. “Didn’t I say already?”
“You definitely did not say that!”
