10

Shi Hui waited excitedly for her mum to pick up the phone.

“Hello mummy? It’s me, Shi Hui. I just ended school. I’m at my friend’s place now, I’ll be back before dinner, okay?”

Silence.

“Hello mummy?”

“COME BACK NOW!” He shouted.

Stunned, Shi Hui’s mind went blank.

“Did you hear me? COME BACK NOW!”

Shi Hui answered timidly, her heart pounding furiously against her chest.

“But Daddy, I want to prepare Jie JIe’s birthday present please. My friend has a …”

“COME BACK NOW!” He screamed.

Tears were on the verge of breaking loose, reluctantly, she agreed and put down the phone. She glanced upon the beautiful 3 dimensional T-Rex puzzle and sighed.

Gathering up her jotter book and stationeries, she said a quick thanks, and started making her way home.

As if the situation was not dramatic enough, dark clouds formed, thunders rumbled from a distance. Her pace quicken, steams of tears had already found their way down her cheeks.

“Stupid Daddy! I hate you!”

It was the month of November, and school had officially closed for the holidays. Shi Hui wanted to surprise her second sister with her handmade activity book.

“It’s a great project! Jie Jie would have loved it!” She grumbled angrily.

“I hate you…”

Shu Hui had chanced upon the 3 dimension T-Rex, while doing homework with her friend. When the idea of the activity book popped into her mind, she wanted to sketch the T-Rex as a dotted puzzle.

Despite the fact that she was escaping the rain, she really dreaded going home. But alas, she was at her void deck. The rain finally came.

Wiping her tears away, she slowly ascended the stairs to her house at the fourth level. She felt drearier with each step she took. Her heart was pounding again, not because of the adrenaline rush, but for fear that something bad would happen to her.

“Please guan yin niang niang… Please help me…” She chanted her prayers to her favourite goddess repeatedly in her mind.

At last, she stood at her gate. She checked the shoes.

“Oh man! Both Jie Jie not at home.. Die…”

She unlocked her gate silently because her dad was sleeping in the living room. Something she never understood.

“Why Daddy don’t sleep in the room …”

The goddess of mercy’s altar was a few meters from her father. Shi Hui fixed her eyes upon her, hoping that the goddess will hear her prayers. She was thrilled and thankful when she successfully crept past him.

She went to bathe, and began working on her little project.

“Maybe I should just draw without the model and see how it goes.”

Her stomach growled. The clock says it was close to 6 in the evening. She continued sketching, erasing in her jotter book, subconsciously praying that her mum will appear soon…

Suddenly, her dad stood at the room door and said,

“The clothes are done. Go hang it up!”

“Orr..”

As Shi Hui walked past her dad, he slapped her back, almost causing her tears to flow again.

“Stupid girl…” He continued swearing hokkien profanities at her. Amazingly, Shi Hui realized that her Dad does not stutter whenever he swears.

She hung the clothes indoor near the basin, as the rain was still pouring. She felt accomplished as she was putting out the last pieces of clothing in a bamboo pole. Her thoughts began floating back on the pages of the jotter book.

After setting one end of the bamboo on one side, she stretched her arms to set it at the other end.

“Aiyo!” She said to herself. “I should set from inside next time.. So difficult…”

After some time, she managed to set it. She let her arms dropped freely as it was aching. But as she did so, the force of her falling limbs fell on top of a chopstick, which was on the dish rack, and broke it.

“Aiyooooo… Why was I so careless?”

“WHAT WAS THAT?”

“Oh, er, nothing Daddy. I accidentally broke a chopstick”

“What?!” He stormed into the kitchen.

One half of the chopstick remained on the dish rack, while the other, in the basin. He glared at Shi Hui.

“You not happy is it?! Huh?! You stupid girl!”

Before Shi Hui could explain herself, her dad grabbed her face with one hand, and started slapping her.

As the slaps went back and forth, she felt her heart had raced to the maximum. She prayed desperately to guan yin to stop him. She prayed that her mum or sisters will be home to stop him.

No help came.

“Sorry Daddy Sorry! I didn’t do it on purpose!!” She pleaded repeatedly.

“Don’t you dare cry, you useless girl!” He completed the slapping symphony with his baritone range of Hokkien profanities.

Finally, for what seemed like an eternity, he stopped. Shi Hui stood there, with a headache, her cheeks stinging with pain, and her right ear ringing.

“Now do the dishes, you hear me?!”

Shi Hui nodded and proceeded to wash the dishes.

“I…. hate…. You” She whispered angrily.

After drying her hands, she walked back to her room, where her jotter book awaited.

“Oei! Come here!”

She did an immediate 180 degrees turn and walked towards the man she had to call father.

“Go to mummy and ask her for money, if not no dinner!”

“Okay, I go toilet first can?”

As she turned towards the scene of the crime, her dad caught sight of the evidence left behind. Shi Hui’s right cheek was bruised.

When she came out of the toilet, her father took an acne lotion, which belongs to her sisters, and applied on her face. The stinging pain was gone, she felt nothing. It was numbed.

“If mummy ask, say you fall down.”

His breath reeked of cigarettes, she agreed and ran away from him as quickly as she could.

Everything still seemed to be blurred. She walked towards the petrol station, her heart jumped for joy as she caught a glimpse of her mum at the cashier.

“Mummy!” Shi Hui greeted excitedly.

Her mum was still busy serving customers, but she nodded and smiled.

“She heard me!”

She waited patiently as she observed her mum serving the customers cheerfully.

As her mum packed up the counter while the last customer in the line was served she asked,

“Yes Shi Hui? Why are you here?”

“Daddy ask me to take money from you for dinner mummy. What time are you coming home today?” Shi Hui prayed that her mum would be able to hear the desperation within that question.

“Oh, mummy is finishing already. We can all go out and eat together, and….” Her mum stopped. Her eyes rested on her daughter’s swollen and bruised cheeks.

“And what mummy? Are you going to bring me somewhere else?” She smiled at the thought of holding her mum’s hands.

“What happen to you?” Her cheerfulness ceased.

“Er… I fell down mummy.. I was careless”

Suddenly, the whole incident flashed before her eyes again. Her tears threatened to fall.

Her mum walked closer to her.

“Look at me and tell me, what happen to you? Who tell you to say you fall down?”

Whimpering,   she answered, “Daddy..” and then she cried.

Her mum hugged and kissed her, asking her to relate what happen.

By the end of the conversation, her Mum was furious with Dad.

As she watched how Dad silently stood there, getting a huge lecture from Mum. She realized that Dad was afraid of Mum. She looked at her Mum and realized that she was her pillar of strength.

In her heart, she despised and hated Dad more.