House of Trembling Leaves, The Read Online Free

photograph, realizing without having to be told how important it was to him. ‘‘I look at this picture every morning after I wake up,’’ he said. She studied the small movements of his face. ‘‘I cannot imagine what I would do if anything happened to you. If it was my daughter I had to put in the ground rather than Tak Ming.’’
    It was then that she’d decided to build a new pipe organ in her cousin’s memory.
    She tried not to think about this now.
    She also tried not to think about what they’d be saying about her back home, but the thoughts came nonetheless. Like a bullhorn blast, she heard her mother’s blaming tones – how can such a girl, so pretty with such shapely-shapely mouth and bright complexion do such a thing! So much going for her, you know. Clever student, good with numbers. Cha! And athletic, aiyoo, so athletic, played field hockey for the English-stream Bing Hua Upper Sixth, to boots.
    Enough, Lu See said to herself. She shook off her mother’s voice with a twitch of the head. I’m free now. I’m Teoh Lu See, I’m nineteen and I’m off to start a new life. I may be suffering from a god-awful head cold, but I’m feeling great! Oh God, I’m really doing this, aren’t I … I’m actually eloping.
    She took a deep breath. She had never slept outside her parents’ house.
    Eloping. To Lu See it was a deliciously secret word, rich in taboo and mystery and adventure. The idea of running away both thrilled and terrified her, as did the thought of the huge passenger liner she was going to board in Penang and the trip across the oceans. But at least on ship, nobody would pass judgement, nobody would chastise. There would be no marriage to the One-eyed Giant, no more tongue-lashings about seeing that ‘dreaded Woo boy’. On ship she would be free.
    Eloping. Elope. From the Middle Dutch ontlopen , to scurry away. From the Anglo-Norman French aloper : to run off with one’s lover; possibly related to the word to leap. She had looked it up in her father’s dictionary. In her mind, however, she wasn’t simply eloping – she was pursuing a dream; inspired by Adrian she was going to apply for a place at Cambridge. Truth was she was more excited by the prospect of studying at Girton College than marrying Adrian Woo.
    Lu See closed her eyes and felt the last dabs of evening sunshine warm her face.
    A few steps behind her stood Sum Sum, her best friend, confidante and maidservant of seven years. Her black cloth shoes shuffled beside a shining eel skin trunk. Sum Sum was Darjeeling tea in colour with a moon face and stringy hair that she wore tied into a bun. Whilst Lu See was willowy legged, Sum Sum was pleasantly round. She had a compact hour-glass figure and held her back imperiously straight, clutching a small red onion which she held, arm extended, towards Lu See.
    â€˜â€˜For your cold,’’ she said.
    Lu See shot Sum Sum a hurried look. ‘‘Are you serious? You expect me to chew on a raw onion?’’ As she spoke she could feel something trickle from a nostril. She blew hard into a handkerchief.
    â€˜â€˜For sure, lah. My mother was tip-top Tibetan medicine woman, lah. She gave me onion all the time.’’
    The tongkang drifted on towards Butterworth. The flag of the Malay Federation billowed in the wind – horizontal stripes of white, red, yellow and black with a prancing tiger at its centre. One of the crew, a Malaccan in a short sarong, with arms bitten black from the sun, moved cautiously to the poop, kneeling. He unfurled a thick rope with a slab of rotting mutton attached to a fist-sized hook. With one end secured to a capstan, he tossed the rope astern. The crewmen were trawling for crocodiles, hoping to sell their flesh for medicinal broths and their skins for leather. Palm fronds flowed past. A breath of wind shifted a fringe of scrub by the riverbed,