first
April 1, 2009
Did she ever see it coming? 30 years and counting. Should she still count?
She sold Malay kuih in a school. For the past 10 years now. She loved kuih. Sometimes, she thought, a little bit too much. The lovely layers in Kuih Lapis, colourful delights which she ate lapis by lapis, her tongue deftly a colour brighter than the last. She loved the green soft layer of the Putri Salat and would secretly try and discard the harder bottom layer of pulut. Now as an adult, she ate the two layers together, it was…palatable.
She didn’t particular love the school kids. They were okay, she thought. At least they like my kuih. But she loved her children. Her boy used to be so naughty, now he is a respectable young man. He’s working now, an office boy. He doesn’t get paid much, but she is content that he has turned out okay. She smiles as she remembered the time he sprayed her expensive perfume all around the house, thinking that it was like air freshener. Her girl, now a woman with her own children. Her girl used to be popular with all the boys. She remembered scolding one or two when they dared to call the house.
Those were simpler times. Her children still visit, once or twice a month. But she knows it is not the same now.
Does she still count? Does he still count her? It was a valid question, she thought. She doesn’t know what questions are valid and what aren’t anymore. Not after he brought her home.
Some things happen. And then life is never the same again.
“First wife.”
