ELEANOR YOUNG: C allhome now!
Nick handed the phone to his wife, Rachel, and sank into his seat. After the euphoric high of the concert, he felt like someone had suddenly knocked all the wind out of him.
Rachel read the text messages quickly and looked up at Nick in alarm. "Don't you think you'd better call?"
"Yeah, I guess I should," Nick replied. "Let's get out of here first, though. I need some air."
-
As the two of them exited Radio City Music Hall, they hurried across Sixth Avenue to avoid the crowds still milling under the famous marquee. Nick paced around the plaza outside the Time & Life Building to make his call. There was that familiar dead pause for a few seconds, usually followed by the distinctive Singapore ringtone, but today, his mother's voice abruptly came onto the line before he was ready for it.
"NICKY? Nicky, ah? Is that you?"
"Yes, Mum, it's me. Can you hear me?"
"Aiyah, why did you take so long to call back? Where are you?"
"I was at a concert when you called."
"A concert? Did you go to Lincoln Center?"
"No, it was a rock concert at Radio City Music Hall."
"What? You went to see those Rockette girls with the kicking legs?"
"No, Mum, it was a ROCK CONCERT, not the Rockettes."
"A ROCK CONCERT! Alamak, I hope you wore earplugs. I read that people are losing their hearing younger and younger now because they keep going to those rock-and-roll concerts. All those heepees with long hair are going stone-deaf. Serves them right."
"The volume was fine, Mum-Radio City has some of the best acoustics in the world. Where are you?"
"I just left Mount E. Ahmad is driving me to Carol Tai's-she's having a chili crab party. I had to get out of that hospital ward because it was getting too chaotic. Felicity is being her usual bossy mother hen-she said I couldn't go in to see Ah Ma because too many people had been to see her already and they had to start restricting the number of visitors. So I just sat outside for a while and nibbled away on the buffet with your cousin Astrid. I wanted to show my face so no one would dare say I didn't do my duty as the wife of the eldest son."
"Well, how is Ah Ma?" Nick didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was rather anxious to know whether his grandmother was dead or alive.
"They managed to stabilize her, so she's okay for now."
Nick looked up at Rachel and mouthed, "She's okay," as Eleanor continued her update: "They put her on a morphine drip so she's sedated at the moment in the Royal Suite. But Prof Oon's wife told me that it's not looking good."
"Prof Oon's wife is a doctor?" Nick asked, confused.
"No, lah! But she's his wife-she heard it straight from the horse's mouth that Ah Ma's not going to last long. Alamak, what do you expect? She has congestive heart failure and she's ninety-six years old-it's not like they can operate at this point."
Nick shook his head derisively-patient confidentiality was obviously not high on Francis Oon's list. "What is Mrs. Oon even doing there?"
"Don't you know Mrs. Oon is the niece of Singapore's First Lady? She brought along the First Lady, Great-aunt Rosemary T'sien, and Lillian May Tan. The entire floor at Mount E has been sealed off to the public-it's become a restricted VVIP floor because of Ah Ma, Mrs. Lee Yong Chien, and the Dowager Sultana of Perawak. There was a bit of a fuss over who would be put in the Royal Suite,*1 as the Malay ambassador insisted that the Dowager Sultana had to get it, but then the First Lady intervened and told the hospital's chief officer, 'This isn't even up for discussion. Of course Shang Su Yi must have the Royal Suite.' "
"Wait a minute, Mrs. Lee and the Sultana of Perawak? I'm not following you … "
"Aiyoh, you didn't hear what happened? Isabel Wu had a psychotic breakdown and kidnapped her children from school and flew them to Singapore and barged into Rosalind Fung's Christian Fellowship Banquet and threw a bowl of extra-hot laksa at Astrid but missed and it landed all over the ladies but thank God Felicity was wearing one of her pasar malam*2 polyester dresses from that tailor of hers in Tiong Bahru so the soup did NOTHING to her and slid right off like Teflon but poor Mrs. Lee and the Dowager Sultana got drenched and are recovering from first-degree burns."
"Okay, you've completely lost me there." Nick shook his head in exasperation, as Rachel gave him a questioning look.
"I thought of all people you'd know. Isabel Wu accused Astrid of spreading her legs … I mean, having an affair with her husband, Charlie! Right in front of Bishop See Bei Sien and everyone in the banquet hall! Aiyoh, it's so shameful-now it's out in the open and all of Singapore is talking about it! Is it true? Is Astrid Charlie's mistress?"