Bitter Sweet Harvest (17 page)

“This way, please,” he said. They walked through the splendid hallway, past the stately official rooms and into the glass covered courtyard. She stopped. Seated in an alcove of carefully arranged bamboo was Hussein, his head dropped into the palms of his hands. Next to him was Shalimar, her tear-stained face jerked up at An Mei’s entrance. Her eyes beseeched An Mei’s. Facing Hussein and Shalimar, their backs towards An Mei, were Rahim, Faridah and Ahmad.

“I am sorry but this was exactly what I found when I went to my sister’s room,” An Mei heard Ahmad say. “Hussein was on her bed and my... my sister, damn her soul for the shame brought to my family, was in his arms. Her bedclothes were dishevelled and he, he was naked!”

Hussein’s head shot up. He did not see An Mei. “I do not know how I came to be in her bed. Believe me. I did not go to Shalimar. I have no recollection.”

An Mei saw his bloodshot eyes, the fear and bewilderment in his face. Her own heart was thumping.

“What?” Ahmad shouted. “Are you accusing my sister of seducing you and forcefully taking you to her bed. If you did not go to her, then somehow she must have forced you into her bed! Do you wish to add more shame to my family?”

Hussein turned to face Ahmad and as he did he caught sight of An Mei standing at the entrance. His face turned a bright red. “Please, you have to believe me,” he appealed to An Mei, “I do not know how I came to be in Shalimar’s bed. I remember nothing.”

Desperately, he reached out for Shalimar’s hands. He shook them. They lay limp under his.

“Tell them the truth. Tell them nothing happened.”

Shalimar remained silent. She looked up at her brother, Ahmad. An Mei saw the fear in her eyes before she turned her gaze towards the floor.

“
Malu!
The shame!” cried Faridah clasping both hands to her ears as though she was trying to block out the unpleasantness. She placed her head on her husband’s shoulder and sobbed. “Do something,” she cried.

“If I can make a suggestion,” said Ahmad to Faridah and Rahim. “I do not wish any unpleasantness. All I want to do is restore the honour of my sister, the honour of my family. Betroth them.”

“No!” cried An Mei. “You can’t do that. We have just got married.”

“A mistake,” snarled Faridah. “Yes, a bad mistake. If you love him, why don’t you stay with him here in Kemun and stand by what he does? Why do you abandon him to his loneliness? The consequence of your actions is before you. And you dare to protest and refuse him the chance of rescuing himself from this... crisis... dilemma.”

“I did not abandon Hussein. I was waiting for him to join me in KL.”

Hussein jumped up. “I told An Mei to stay in KL to be out of your way and your displeasure. I was, in any case, to spend half my time, if not more, in the capital to attend to matters of the House once I am elected. That is why she remained in KL.”

“Look, I do not care about the issues between yourselves. I would like the matter of my sister’s honour resolved,” interjected Ahmad. He stepped between Hussein and his mother. He did not want a standoff between mother and son. It would not help his cause. He glared at An Mei and Hussein. He was bristling with self-righteous indignation.

“The house is surrounded by the paparazzi outside, waiting for news. What do I tell them? Do I tell them that my sister has been molested... raped... or do I tell them that she is to be married to Hussein?”

“How do they know? Who sent for them?”

“At the moment, it would seem they know nothing. But someone must have alerted them that a story is about to unfold from within these walls,” said Ahmad. “I will, of course, tell them nothing if things are resolved amicably.

The security guard looked guiltily from Ahmad to Faridah and her husband to Hussein and Shalimar. Ahmad had instructed him to alert the reporters that an important announcement was to be made at the residence that evening and he only did as he was instructed.

Five pairs of eyes turned towards An Mei.

“Will you agree to this? Under Muslim law, your agreement is essential for a husband to take another wife. Of course, he must treat all of his wives equally,” explained Rahim. “My son’s future lies with you.”

The crowd was dispersing. Slowly, people were drifting away. Cameramen, tired of waiting lowered their cameras. Some were already packing away their equipment while others were lighting up cigarettes to mark an end to a busy day of waiting for a drama to unfold.

An Mei released the drapes, allowing them to fall back to their original position to block her view of the front drive, the gates and beyond. Her voice was cold. “So they have been fed the news that they have been waiting for,” she surmised.

“No, they were promised that they would be the first to know, once we are ready to give them news of an important occurrence. We have not told them anything yet,” replied Hussein. He sat dejected, humbled by his recent experience. “I meant what I said earlier in the courtyard. I have no recollection and do not know how it happened.”

She burst into a giggle, a harsh hysterical gurgling driven by desperation, disbelieve and hurt. There was no humour in her face when she turned to him.

“No recollection of a consummation of an act of love? Shalimar will be insulted!”

With a sudden change of mood, she went to him. She pummelled his chest, hitting him with all the force she could muster.

“How could you? How could you? Why didn’t you answer my calls? Why if you were so desperately lonely, didn’t you ask me to come to you? I would have. I would have. Instead, I waited for you.” Her body shook uncontrollably.

“But I did call. You were not in, even in the early hours of the morning. Where were you?”

“I was with Aunt Nelly.” She pushed him away. “How dare you try to pin the fault on me. How dare you doubt me? Does it give you an excuse to go with Shalimar?”

“Listen someone is trying to separate us,” he said. He caught hold of both her hands and held them to him.

“The more I think of it, the more I believe that the whole thing has been fixed,” he said. “This has all the makings of what happened previously... before we got married.”

She struggled, but he maintained his grasp.

“My not being able to get hold of you, nor you me,” he said. “I did not go to Shalimar. In fact, I have not even had time to speak to her all these weeks in Kemun. I was just going from campaign to campaign. I was exhausted at the end of each day, so much so that mother had to concoct all sorts of strengthening potions to revive me. All I remember was going to the opening ceremony of this shopping complex in the town, participating in the dinner as a guest of honour and being driven home. I do not remember the journey and I certainly have no recollection of being driven to Ahmad’s house or of seeing Shalimar. I must have blacked out in the car.”

She snatched her hands away and turned to leave. She walked, her back straight and proud, but two steps away, she turned back to face him.

“At this moment, all I know is that you will have a second wife! And I cannot bear it.”

She could not check her tears. She did not want to cry, but it was like a floodgate over which she had no control. It rose from her chest and came out like a moan that shook her very being.

“What will you have me do? If I don’t take her as a wife, Ahmad will see that I am finished.” He pulled her to him. “Please believe me.”

She shook her head. She felt numb. She felt she would drown under the weight that had gathered in her heart.

“I don’t know,” she confessed, “I don’t know what I should do.”

Nelly sat silently listening to An Mei. They were in Nelly’s house. An Mei had gone directly to her after flying back from Kemun. When An Mei finished she clasped her in her arms, rocking her gently, soothing her with little kisses.

“
Yow mang, yow tak ta seong
,” she said. “If you have life, you can think and find a solution. Do not despair.”

They sat cradled together with Nelly rocking gently forward and back, as though putting a child to sleep, and with time An Mei’s sobbing ceased. She felt a calm descend on her. She felt her eyes, heavy and swollen, close. She heard Nelly’s voice, soft and soothing.

“You will have to try to make the best of a bad situation. Do you love Hussein? Do you believe in him?”

An Mei nodded. She believed in Hussein; she could not believe that he would betray her in such a way. Yet at the same time, she was angry and held him accountable for the situation. Why did he allow himself to be manoeuvred in such a disastrous way?

“Then, you might well have to accept his marriage to Shalimar,” advised Nelly. “Don’t make a rash decision. But also don’t let your actions be governed by pride and hurt.”

Nelly was profoundly shaken by the turn of events. She felt An Mei’s hurt as if she was the one who had been cheated. A sigh escaped her as she took An Mei in her arms again. “A marriage is sacred; it is not a union to go into and discard the following day. But it also shouldn’t be a millstone that ties you until death if it is clearly not working. You have to think about it carefully for yourself. Go to your father and mother. Away from it all, you might be able to think more clearly what to do.”

“Thank you, Thank you for not saying, I told you so,” whispered An Mei.

M
ei Yin tucked the blanket firmly around Ming Kong’s knee, released the brake of the wheel chair, and pushed it towards the newly extended arrival hall in Terminal 3 at Heathrow. Throngs of people were heading purposefully in the same direction. She wheeled the chair suddenly to the left to avoid three young children running helter scatter after their parents.

“You shouldn’t have come. She would not expect it. It is too soon after your heart attack. Really, Ming Kong, you should take it easy.”

“I’m fine. Don’t fuss. I am not dead yet. I owe her that much. All these weeks in the hospital and at home, have given me time to think and mull over the hurtful things I have said to her. Nelly and I had a long conversation on the phone. Well, you were part of it, so you know. She made me realise the folly of my action. Perhaps, if I had listened and not just set the rules and expected them to be followed, all this would not have happened.”

He fell silent brooding over the role he might have inadvertently played in An Mei’s headlong rush to marry Hussein. Mei Yin sensed her husband’s sadness.

“Don’t blame yourself. I am sure it was not Nelly’s intention that you should blame yourself. I think An Mei would have married Hussein whatever we might or might not have done. It is a new age. Our children, and I am not speaking only of An Mei, but also the boys, cannot be handled the way children were handled in the past.” Mei Yin spoke quietly; uncertain as to how Ming Kong would respond. Despite her newfound confidence and Ming Kong’s mellower manner, she still half-expect him to burst into a temper. He disliked being proved wrong.

Ming Kong reached up and patted her hand. “You are right.” She did not see his smile. “I’m excited. I have so much to say to my daughter, but I fear I will not be able to say them.”

“Me too,” agreed Mei Yin. They arrived at the terminal and headed for the flight arrivals screen. She watched the screen change.

“Her flight has landed. We’ll wait over there, the same spot where she met us,” said Mei Yin, excitedly. She pushed the chair to the meeting point and stood, one hand steadying the chair, the other firmly on her husband’s shoulder. She knew how much it had cost him to eat humble pie. She looked around her; noted the casual manner in which people hugged one another; the kisses exchanged; the cries of endearment, “darling”, “love”, “sweet-heart”. She knew that Ming Kong was not comfortable with such shows of affection, but Nelly had told her not to hold back. “If you do, it will make An Mei feel you do not love her,” she had said. “Hug her. She needs you.”

She could hardly hear the arrival announcement for the noise in the hall. She saw An Mei, her head shrouded in a hijab, looking in search of them. She looked different, older and thinner. Her eyes were wary. Ming Kong made a movement; he was attempting to rise from the wheel chair.

“No!” Mei Yin said. “Wait! She has seen us. She’ll be here any moment now.”

An Mei was half running towards them now, her shawl flying behind her, her hair loosened; her long skirt made her stumble. She checked herself, hitched up her skirt and continued towards them, pulling her suitcase behind her. The case wobbled, spun left and right and then righted itself. Still she ran.

“Mama! Papa!” she cried coming to a stop in front of them. She was breathless, her chest heaving, her eyes questioning. A moment’s hesitation and she was in Mei Yin’s arms. No words were exchanged; no words were needed. An Mei dropped to her knees and embraced her father, shocked at his appearance, surprised that he had come. Mei Yin looked on, her eyes bright. Nelly had been right. A deed was better than words in expressing how they felt.

Ming Kong got up from his bed and made his way to the window. He drew the curtain aside to look out. It was dark and the street deserted. The street lamps cast an eerie glow, lending a mystical air to the houses alongside them. Shadows formed and broke. A cat meowed; a dog barked. Then stillness.

“Can’t you sleep?” asked Mei Yin, pushing herself up to a sitting position.

“No! I did not mean to disturb you. I thought I was keeping very quiet.”

“You were. I couldn’t sleep either. I keep thinking of An Mei.”

“Ahhh... me too! I am so full of anger,” he said, rubbing his chest as though to ease the pain. “I am frustrated by the inability to do anything to help. Did I drive her to marry Hussein?” he asked Mei Yin. “I had no idea that she was so much in love with him. I had no inkling. In my eyes, she was my little girl. I just could not adjust to the fact that she is a grown woman. I could not accept that she could really be in love with someone. I was so angry and so wrapped up in my own grievances; my mind just would not accept her loving a Malay.”

“I know,” she said, “but it’s no use blaming yourself.”

“Why? Why him, of all people?”