“Ladies, thank you all for coming tonight to join in fellowship with Christ. A quick warning to everyone before we start: I’m told that the laksa*5 is dangerously spicy tonight. I don’t know what happened, but even Mary Lau, who everyone knows has to have extra chili with everything, told me that she buey tahan*6 the laksa. Now, before we continue to nourish our stomachs and our souls, Bishop See Bei Sien will begin our program with a blessing.”

As the bishop started one of his notoriously tedious prayers, bizarre noises could be heard coming from behind one of the ballroom’s side doors. It sounded as if there was a heated argument going on outside, followed by a series of muffled bangs and scrapes. Suddenly the door burst open. “NO, I SAID YOU CANNOT GO IN!” a female attendant shouted forcefully, breaking the silence.

Something could be heard running along the side of the ballroom, wailing intermittently like an animal. Daisy prodded the woman at the next table who had stood up to get a better view. “What can you see?” she asked anxiously.

“Dunno, lah—it looks like…like some crazy homeless person,” came the reply.

“What do you mean ‘homeless’? There is no such thing as a homeless person in Singapore!” Eleanor exclaimed.

Astrid, who was seated at the far end beside the stage, wasn’t fully aware of what was happening until a woman with extremely disheveled hair wearing stained yoga sweats suddenly appeared at her table, dragging two young girls in school uniforms behind her. Mrs. Lee Yong Chien let out a gasp and clutched her purse tightly to her chest, as Astrid realized in astonishment that the two girls were Chloe and Delphine, Charlie Wu’s daughters. And the deranged-looking woman was none other than Charlie’s estranged wife, Isabel! The last time Astrid had seen Isabel, she had been exquisitely attired in Dior couture at the Venice Biennale. Now she was completely unrecognizable. What were they doing here in Singapore?

Before Astrid could properly react, Isabel Wu took her eldest daughter by the shoulders and turned her toward Astrid. “Here she is!” she screamed, spit forming at the corners of her mouth. “I want you to see her with your own eyes! I want you to see the whore that spreads her legs for your daddy!”

Everyone at the table gasped, and Rosalind Fung immediately made the sign of the cross, as if it would somehow protect her ears from absorbing the obscenity. The hotel’s security guards came rushing up, but before Isabel could be properly restrained, she grabbed the nearest bowl of laksa and hurled it at Astrid. Astrid backed away reflexively, and the bowl ricocheted off the edge of the table, splashing scalding extra-spicy soup all over Felicity Leong, Mrs. Lee Yong Chien, and the Dowager Sultana of Perawak.

* * *

*1 Most of the guests left five or ten dollars each, except Mrs. Lee Yong Chien, who never left anything. “I do all my giving through the Lee Family Foundation” was what she always said.

*2 Hokkien for “Gotten so old!”

*3 Hokkien for “bear a child.”

*4 Methodist Girls’ School, which we Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) boys used to call Monkey Girls’ School.

*5 A spicy noodle soup dish served with cockles, fish cake, and thick rice noodles.

*6 Singlish for “cannot endure it.”

CHAPTER THREE

RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, NEW YORK

Patti Smith was in the middle of belting out “Because the Night” when Nicholas Young’s cell phone began lighting up like a firecracker in his jeans pocket. Nick ignored the call, but when the lights came up after the concert’s final encore, he glanced at the screen and was surprised to find one voice mail from his cousin Astrid, another from his best friend Colin Khoo, and five text messages from his mother. His mother never texted. He didn’t think she even knew how to text. The messages read:

ELEANOR YOUNG: 4?Z Nicky#

ELEANOR YOUNG: p lease cakk me at once! Where are y

ELEANOR YOUNG: oy? Why don’t you answered any of your phines?

ELEANOR YOUNG: Ah Ma had a massive heat attack!

ELEANOR YOUNG: C allhome now!

Nick handed the phone to his wife, Rachel, and sank into his seat. After the euphoric high of the concert, he felt like someone had suddenly knocked all the wind out of him.

Rachel read the text messages quickly and looked up at Nick in alarm. “Don’t you think you’d better call?”

“Yeah, I guess I should,” Nick replied. “Let’s get out of here first, though. I need some air.”

—

As the two of them exited Radio City Music Hall, they hurried across Sixth Avenue to avoid the crowds still milling under the famous marquee. Nick paced around the plaza outside the Time & Life Building to make his call. There was that familiar dead pause for a few seconds, usually followed by the distinctive Singapore ringtone, but today, his mother’s voice abruptly came onto the line before he was ready for it.

“NICKY? Nicky, ah? Is that you?”

“Yes, Mum, it’s me. Can you hear me?”

“Aiyah, why did you take so long to call back? Where are you?”

“I was at a concert when you called.”

“A concert? Did you go to Lincoln Center?”

“No, it was a rock concert at Radio City Music Hall.”

“What? You went to see those Rockette girls with the kicking legs?”

“No, Mum, it was a ROCK CONCERT, not the Rockettes.”

“A ROCK CONCERT! Alamak, I hope you wore earplugs. I read that people are losing their hearing younger and younger now because they keep going to those rock-and-roll concerts. All those heepees with long hair are going stone-deaf. Serves them right.”

“The volume was fine, Mum—Radio City has some of the best acoustics in the world. Where are you?”

“I just left Mount E. Ahmad is driving me to Carol Tai’s—she’s having a chili crab party. I had to get out of that hospital ward because it was getting too chaotic. Felicity is being her usual bossy mother hen—she said I couldn’t go in to see Ah Ma because too many people had been to see her already and they had to start restricting the number of visitors. So I just sat outside for a while and nibbled away on the buffet with your cousin Astrid. I wanted to show my face so no one would dare say I didn’t do my duty as the wife of the eldest son.”

“Well, how is Ah Ma?” Nick didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he was rather anxious to know whether his grandmother was dead or alive.

“They managed to stabilize her, so she’s okay for now.”

Nick looked up at Rachel and mouthed, “She’s okay,” as Eleanor continued her update: “They put her on a morphine drip so she’s sedated at the moment in the Royal Suite. But Prof Oon’s wife told me that it’s not looking good.”

“Prof Oon’s wife is a doctor?” Nick asked, confused.

“No, lah! But she’s his wife—she heard it straight from the horse’s mouth that Ah Ma’s not going to last long. Alamak, what do you expect? She has congestive heart failure and she’s ninety-six years old—it’s not like they can operate at this point.”

Nick shook his head derisively—patient confidentiality was obviously not high on Francis Oon’s list. “What is Mrs. Oon even doing there?”