A Story *The Daughter* PART I

A story titled: The Daughter.

PART I

This is the story of a daughter, Mei.


Mei grew up in a normal family, two elder brothers, her father and mother. In fact, she had a great childhood, spent most of her time playing with her girl cousin, Bi who is the same age as her. Bi and Aunty Sam stayed with Mei’s family from when she was around three till maybe eight yrs old. Those were the greatest time of Mei’s life! Aunty Sam is Mei’s mother’s younger sister, so naturally their children grew up close together – despite the fierce competition that Mei’s mother’s attempt to force into Mei, but she was rather indifferent. She simply enjoy the fun time she spent with Cousin Bi and Aunty Sam.

Aunty Sam and her husband, Uncle Yong, have always been kind to Mei. Since Cousin Bi was the only child, Mei was like a playmate to her. So wherever fun places that Uncle Yong n Aunty Sam brings Cousin Bi to, they will invite Mei along! With this privilege, Mei experienced many things, food, new sights that her slightly average income family could not afford to provide for her. She still remembers her first MacDonald’s Fillet-O-Fish burger (then Mei could only have the occasional Hamburger – the cheapest on the Menu, provided she did well for exams or birthdays), the taste of Processed Ham from NTUC (usually Chinese family ate canned Pork Spam/luncheon meat), the savoury texture of Campbell’s Mushroom soup…. Not forgetting her first Disney on Ice at the indoor Stadium (those days it was like a BIG thing!), visits to Haw Par Villa, Jurong Bird Park etc….

Mei’s father had two jobs to keep the young family going… Mei remembers only very vague image of her father… it’s always that Santa Claus image… comes home in the wee morning, if she is awake for the morning session, she will get to see her father just a couple of minutes before leaving for school. He will mostly be sleeping when she gets home from school in the afternoon and will leave for work again around late evening time. All in all, when Mei learnt to read the time, she calculated that her father works at least 16hours a day, 24/7 except for Day 1 of Chinese New Year holiday. Nevertheless, being the only daughter, Mei is naturally dotes on by her father – just that she didn’t know it then.

When Mei was about primary three, her mother decided to find out outside since Mei and her brothers were more independent now. Within six months, things changed at home. Her mother and father seemed to be quarrelling now frequent, not so much about money this time round. It was mostly about complains that her father spent too much time at work, neglecting her mother. This usually leads to glass breaking, lots of shouting and screaming… but mostly tears in Mei and her siblings’ eyes. At the tender age of nine, 11 and 14, they couldn’t understand - what changed?!

One day when Mei and her elder brother, Hao, came home from school, they immediately dropped their school bags at the entrance of the house and ran into the kitchen. Their mother was sitting across the edge of the kitchen window, half her body in the house, the half dangling outside. Both Mei and Hao immediately kneed down on the kitchen floor and begged their mother to come down… they made promises to be good in schoolwork, score well in exams, be more obedient etc… because they took it that their mother were mad at them for their misbehaviour. Their mother was crying hysterically, screaming non-stopped about getting a divorce etc. Mei couldn’t remember now if she was holding on to the kitchen knife that day…maybe it was the other day when she threw another frantic attempt to get a divorce from their father. It probably took them 45minutes to persuade to “come” inside the house – it was the longest 45minutes in their life.

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