This one was not unexpected; indeed anticipated some way out. In this instance the trickery was the rapidity at the end.
Last week the old woman serving at her usual place, the stall run by her youngest son. Even Monday she may have been in attendance. Two, three or four day absence. She was poorly; a chest infection. Then improved.
Two days later, "gone already," in her younger brother's blunt statement in answer to the enquiry.
Did he mean last night or the night before? One or the other and likely the latter.
Three, five or seven day mourning the standard in the Buddhist tradition, the brother informed. The funeral would be Monday.
With his particular manner that suggested the night before last. Two, three days of laying-in, rapid decline and two of mourning had the man adjusted to stony acceptance. Plain and matter-of-fact. Suffering and hardship for the family had been minimized.
In his mid-seventies the man; firmest soldierly manner. Understandable conveying to a customer, even a regular.
Earlier in the year or two previously, his regard for his elder sister had been hinted. She had suffered much, he had indicated, loose chin shaking on the large horse-head.
As eldest in the family she may have helped with the mothering: the man had said something of the sort. Brief words that would stand for all that could not be divulged. Man’s English was in fact more than serviceable.
When the fellow first began helping his nephew & sister at the stall it had taken a number of visits to notice the resemblance. Striking when properly observed.
One guessed the costermonger husband had been a tough old boy; the woman’s own flinty toughness suggested as much.
Legal purchase Camel unfiltered, spluttering in her ragged office chair at the end of the shelves. (Younger brother & son were attempting to cut down on their “sticks”.)
The old mum had lived with Youngest Son, who had carried on dad’s trade. Mr. Lim the greengrocer at Haig Road Market, from the housing block close behind. Soft and feeling chap easy to see. Siblings visited periodically and for New Year. Hopefully there would be no grasping at leftover monies. (Mum likely had made provision for her own send-off.) The $900 government largess for its Pioneers in the run-up to the election would help defray expenses.
And more bass notes again shortly after mooning out the second floor hotel window on the return from morning teh.
Some plein air painting in the back lane...
That was nice. Shop-houses from the rear taking in some of the garbage bins & grimy back-kitchen entries. There was far, far too much of shop-house streetscape through the filter of trees cluttering up the walls of galleries, offices & condominiums across the island.
One of the artists wheelchair bound.
Not one, two in fact.
Slow steps of perception, before the line of wheels was noted.
Not elderly any of them; nor hobbyists.
Leaning forward concentrated just off the path, five or six in the row.
Protruding brushes even then still unsighted.
It was the circle mouths that were first visible. Kissing shapes; cartoonishly alarmed ghost-sighting faces...
One Chinese chap angled in his chair made an out-sized O like a lifebuoy.
Slowly revealed.
Were the teeth active here?
No. In that case the shape would have been different.
Strengthening mouth muscles.
Relaxing to look and renewed gripping.
Slowly, painstakingly attained control and mastery.
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