“Sister is leaving us?” cried Ah Boon.
“But sister, you haven’t finished teaching me yet,” protested Ah Hin. “There’s still three more chapters of the Baby God book to go.”
“What are you talking about?” Guet Imm said to Tet Sang. “Madam Yeoh wantedyou!”
“Yeoh Gaik Tin wants a nun,” said Tet Sang. “I told her already, I am not a nun. You are.”
Guet Imm had lost all her usual calm. Her eyes flashing, she said, “So what, I’m supposed to turn up at her house and ask her to let me stay?”
“Why ask? Tell her you’re staying,” said Tet Sang. “You didn’t ask when you joined us.”
“And you never wanted me here,” said Guet Imm in a cold fury. “You don’t need to say. I know! You couldn’t wait for a chance to get rid of me, and now you have it.”
This was all so unlike Guet Imm that it distracted Ah Hin and Ah Boon from their distress.
“Don’t be upset, sister,” said Ah Hin. “You have misunderstood Second Brother. He is thinking of your benefit.”
“It is a good thing for you,” said Ah Boon. “Better life than being on the road, having to sleep in the jungle and run from the mata.”
Guet Imm ignored them.
“But what if I don’t want to go?” she said to Tet Sang. “Hah, you never thought of that, did you? You can’t force me!”
Fung Cheung took it upon himself to intervene.
“Sister Guet Imm, nobody is forcing anybody,” he said, in a maddeningly reasonable manner. “But if Madam Yeoh is paying us five taels plus and forgiving our debt, she must have what she wants. This is a good solution for everybody. It’s not like you could have stayed with us forever. As Ah Boon says, this is no life for a nun.”
“I sat alone in a cell for ten years,” said Guet Imm. She was still looking at Tet Sang. “Compared to that, this cannot be considered a hard life. Of all people, you should know that, brother!”
“Enough, sister,” said Tet Sang. “It is for the best.”
“That’s right,” agreed Fung Cheung. “Ah Sang has settled everything. There’s no need to argue so much. Sister Guet Imm can go to Madam Yeoh’s house with the men tomorrow to deliver the relics, and then she can stay.”
He turned to Tet Sang. “You and I should go tomorrow, but who else?”
Before Tet Sang could answer, Guet Imm said, “Do what you want, brother—leave me behind, get rid of the treasures, pretend you don’t have a past. It won’t work. You’ll bring yourself along wherever you go, and the deity will find you there.”
She turned on her heel and stormed off into the trees.
A stunned silence followed Guet Imm’s departure. It was Fung Cheung who broke it.
“Women!” He shook his head. “It’s time Sister Guet Imm moved on. I don’t know why she’s making such a fuss. If I could stay in a rich woman’s house and chant scriptures for my rice, I would want also.”
Tet Sang made an affirmative noise, since Fung Cheung had said this for his benefit. It did not make him feel any better, but his feelings did not matter. Nor did Guet Imm’s indignation at having her fate decided for her, justified though it was.
When she calmed down, she would see this was theright decision for both the group and herself. She was becoming the focus of the men’s discontent at the hardships and misadventures that were necessary incidents of a life like theirs. In time, the resentment would inevitably spread from Ah Yee and fester, even if Guet Imm behaved herself—which seemed unlikely, given her prior record.
Tet Sang did feel some unease when Guet Imm did not return to the camp at nightfall. This was shared by Fung Cheung.
“Should have taken the sarira from her,” he muttered. “The Yeoh woman said she would pay even if there was no nun, right?”
“Don’t worry,” said Tet Sang. “She won’t have run off.”
But he had a restless night, plagued by dreams of the past. The next morning, Guet Imm still had not appeared.
Ah Hin was distressed enough that he forgot the deference the brothers usually showed Fung Cheung.
“Big Brother should have been more patient,” he said at breakfast. “What if Sister Guet Imm has been attacked by a wild animal?”
