Feline

A day or two later Auntie Helen was told about Lat’s hair on the lung. In the previous two or three encounters the subject had slipped for one reason or another and it was only this morning that Helen was told in the kitchen when she came in early. The grey’s miaow had alerted to Helen’s entry into the house; we two were the only ones with whom the grey was on friendly terms. As usual Helen listened patiently, with her reserved, judicial air. Helen was always fair-minded and considerate. Well, the girl, Latifah, it seemed had cat hair on the lung. She had been for X-rays and that was what the doctor had surmised. Helen had heard earlier about the woman with the cough who was due to visit; the tea, lemon and honey that had been prepared. It was Helen’s kettle that needed to be used for the elixir. Since then Lat had told about the X-ray. On subject like this, Helen's listening straightened her spine—sturdy and firm Terracotta Cat-warrior. There were five cats in the house at Lat’s employment; in her room she slept with three of them. One of the cats in particular apparently received Lat’s special loving. Lat reported episodes of cuddling and kissing this particular handsome cat. When the cat was in her arms all other thought left her. Lat described what sounded like a kind of swoon. In the more than twenty years Helen had been feeding and housing cats, she had never known anything like it. Whether she had been surprised by the tale was uncertain. Helen kept herself level and straight... Hmmm. If the girl was kissing, rubbing the cat with an open mouth say, perhaps it could happen, Helen finally concluded at the end. Rather hard to swallow you might say, but Helen would not completely rule out the thing. Landlord Tan charged Helen $50 extra for the cleaning of her aircon unit because of what the technician reported as clogging cat hair in the vents. In her previous digs at Bedok Helen at one time had kept twenty-seven cats indoors, she revealed in the kitchen that morning after listening to the story of Latifah. Helen’s brother had made the mistake of buying a flat for her on the 8^th storey at Bedok, meaning the cats could not be let out. Helen had been very happy to find the self-contained ground floor room of Tan’s. Twenty-seven cats had never presented any danger for Helen. If the story could be believed, what Latifah had been doing was something excessive. Listening quietly against the kitchen bench where she had backed away a little, Helen may have been caught a trifle off balance by such a tale. Latifah may have been a little bodoh, silly or worse; but there may too have been some kind of acknowledgement or respect raised in Auntie H. here. Two or three times now Lat had failed to keep appointments. The cough was certainly real enough; there were no false pretexts, phone calls had clearly established the matter. With the departure for Jakarta looming there might not be time to manage a meeting with Lat before the return, late June at the earliest. Mid-June Lat was going down to Bogor herself, an hour out of Jakarta. The prospect of a meeting in the capital seemed to excite Lat, never mind the ruses she would need to use for her new husband. In the case of the flame with Latifah the fuse had burnt slowly in the beginning; the first two or three meetings no kind of spark evident. Slowly, in a process difficult to describe, Lat’s ways and manner had begun to excite. On the last meeting, with her friend sitting opposite, Lat had been quietly told of the desire she had raised. The confession had come spontaneously, without any preparation. Lat’s way of swivelling in her seat like a restless youngster, her smiles that were fired like darts and with more swivelling, had unexpectedly begun to turn matters. Once, in some forgotten context, some kind of jest or venture, Lat had poked a narrow and sharp pink tongue. It had been a short reveal and quickly retracted. If a dart had been fired the poison had worked slowly. At the time not much was thought about the display and there had not been anything one would call alluring or lascivious. In love-making Indo girls did not often give the tongue. There were notable exceptions, but generally that was the case. The provisional conclusion had been that in the throes of desire due caution was necessary. For people who lived along the Ring of Fire, atop tectonic plates, it was understandable. Lat’s friend opposite was younger and more outwardly venturesome; ready to rock that lass. Yet it was always Lat who had been the more interesting. After a divorce and one child Lat had recently re-married, to her widowed brother-in-law in fact. The sensible old folk in the kampung had suggested the venture; for the sake of the children either side it was judged appropriate. On one of the meetings at the kopi shop Lat had told of the slow-blossoming affection that had developed for her new husband. The man had asked her at some point, not long after the marriage, about her feelings. In answer Lat had told him of 10% and 20% slow increments of affection. In fact a case that was uncannily like what had occurred at our Geylang Serai kopi shop here. Hair of the cat and more too would be risked for this woman, if we could bring off a meeting. Lat had had an Indian boyfriend earlier in Singapore. The lad wanted back, but Lat had said she could not do that to her new husband. Now something else was afoot. My life always like that, Lat commented in a Whatsapp message.

 

 

                                                                                   Geylang Serai, Singapore 2011-2020