4

“Hello?”

“Heeeellllooo?”

Shi Hui listened intently into the phone. Not a single sound.

“Heeeellloooo? May I speak to Susan pleeease?” She pretended her Mum had came to the phone and chatted excitedly. In the meantime, she continued pushing the buttons of the phone.

Her dad smiled, and continued to read his newspaper.

“There should not be any trouble,” He thought.

“I had pulled out the telephone line.”

Her dad did that as a precaution, knowing that Shi Hui enjoyed pressing all the numbers repeatedly, especially the number ‘9’.

It was almost past midnight, but she was not tired. She was waiting for her super Mummy to come home. Shi Hui enjoyed sleeping next to her Mummy. It made her feel safe, though some nights her Daddy would come in and start making strange noises with Mummy. She learnt to ignore that.

The lock at the main gate unclick.

Shi Hui jumped on her feet and waited excitedly behind the wooden door.

“Mummy!” She ran and gave her Mum a big hug.

“Aiyo, Mei Mei.. Why you have not slept?”

“Cannot sleep without you mummy.”

“Haha! Okay, okay, you let mummy have some food, then I go bathe and change, then we sleep okay?”

“Okay!”

She went back playing on her phone, and lost track of the surroundings. There were noises. And it was getting louder.

“Heeeelllooo? Por Por are you coming?”

She continued to pretend that her maternal grandmother was talking to her. She had to cover one side of her ears because it was getting nosier.

“Shi Hui! SHI HUI! SHI HUI LOOK UP!”

Her head snapped up. Never did she realized, the very next picture she saw, would have scarred her forever.

“Shi Hui, be a good girl. Put the line back, press 999” Her mum said coolly.

But she froze. She looked at the shiny object her dad was holding against her mum’s neck. She knew what that was; her mum had warned her not to touch it. It was a chopper!

“You call? You dare to call I will kill your mummy!”

Shi Hui never liked her dad shouting at her, so she did what any normal 4 year old would do. She started crying.

She was confused.

“Shi Hui! Call 999.. Call the police come and catch your daddy!”

“I am warning you, don’t put the line back or I will kill your mummy!”

“You stop scaring her!”

“You give me money first!”

At that point, her memory blurred. Like a scratched disc, it skipped forward. She had no recollection what happened in between.

Suddenly her house was filled with people. Her maternal grandparents, aunts and police were around. She was still crying. Her Aunt carried her, comforting her. She realized that a period of time had past. Shi Hui needed her mum.

“I want my mummy.. I want…” She wailed. Her Aunt tried to pacify her. But if there’s one thing you want to know about Shi Hui was that, she was a really stubborn child.

Her Aunt gave up, brought her to the kitchen. But in there, another saga began. All she saw was grandpa and dad was shouting at each other.

She looked at the man, whose face was so unfamiliar…

“Who are you? Why did you hurt my mummy?” She thought.

The police finally escorted her Daddy out of the house; her mummy put her to bed, and slept next to her.

“Mummy’s here, don’t cry… Sleep baby, sleep… It’s okay…”

That was music to her ears.

The house was peaceful once more. Her eyes were heavy from all the tears she cried.

“Who was that man?”