The crowd soon dispersed, and Annie let out a sigh then proceeded to her mother’s store.
Mrs. Lin, who had been busy with attending to customers that early morning, didn’t catch a whiff of the chaos going on inside the apartment building.
“Ma, Good morning.” Annie walked up to her and greeted.
Mrs. Lin didn’t answer her though. She simply carried on with what she was doing.
“Ma. Are you still mad at me?” Annie followed her to the counter. “It’s okay. I might be able to fulfill your wish someday. Please let’s be patient. When the right time for something hasn’t come, you can’t force it, right?”
“Annie, why do you keep angering me?” Mrs. Lin glared at her. “Might. What do you mean by might? Are you planning on not to ever get married just because that boy broke your heart?”
“It’s not like that, Ma.”
“Then tell me how it is. Why do you speak of the right time when you don’t even know what the right time is? Will the heavens bring out a microphone and yell out ‘This is the right time, Annie, you are now free to bring out a husband and get married.’? Aren’t we supposed to take our own fates into our hands and let the heavens support us? Stop telling me about the right time, Little Girl. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
This time, Annie sighed heavily. She poured some water into a glass and handed it to the woman. “Please drink it, Ma. Calm down, okay?”
“You-“
“Ma, please drink it.” Her coaxing tone somehow persuaded the woman and Mrs. Lin took the glass from her.
She drank the chilled water and her heart cooled down a bit. “We’re alone in this city, Annie. Your brother is also useless. Isn’t it better to find a mature and stronger man who can look after us?”
Mrs. Lin didn’t care about money. She could fend for herself and her family. But what happened between them and Mr. Su revolutionized her thinking.
In the past, Mrs. Lin would think that as long as they could live happily, she didn’t need the protection of any man. She had been so angry with Old Lin that she didn’t care much about having a man in their life.
That evening, if at least they had someone strong and capable, Mr. Su and his wife wouldn’t have been able to do much damage. Even if her son was around, Mrs. Lin was sure he wouldn’t be capable enough to handle those thugs.
“Annie, if it was Old Lin coaxing you to get married, you wouldn’t have given him a hard time, right?”
“Ma, please don’t speak like that…”
“No matter how hard I try, I can’t control you and that boy. What a fool I was to think I could live with a peaceful mind when Old Lin isn’t around.”
“Don’t worry about Dylan, Ma. He’s going to do well.”
“I’m not only worried about Dylan, I’m also worried about you!” Mrs. Lin didn’t mean to yell, but she couldn’t control herself.
That evening, the apartment building was bustling.
It seemed everyone had forgotten about Mrs. Ming and Mrs. Tan’s fight in the morning. Mrs. Tan’s closed shop and Mrs. Ming’s empty stall were the only signs that something had happened to the women.
Since going to their apartment, they never left the building.
“Those women need to know that the world doesn’t revolve around them. Annie, let me go and check on them. Make sure you cook a lot.”
While Annie was helping Mrs. Lin prepare dinner, the woman suddenly wiped her hands and decided to go check on Mrs. Tan and Mrs. Ming.
It wasn’t until a while ago when she had finally cooled down that her daughter told her about what happened between the women.
After putting the ingredients in the pot, Annie sat on a stool in the kitchen, waiting for the food to finish cooking.
She picked up her phone and dialed Dylan’s contact again. It was still unreachable. She decided to send him a text instead.
[If you don’t come back, Dylan, we’ll announce you missing. And you know what the police do to guys that run away from home. It’s either you’re labeled a drug trafficker or a drug addict.]
She sent the text and before putting down her phone, a message notification popped up.
Thinking it was Dylan, Annie quickly tapped into it, only for her hope to be dampened.
[Mrs. Lim, aren’t you going to come back even tonight? Do you want me to come and drag you out of that building?]
[Then the whole world will know that Mr. Lim and I are married. Isn’t that going to be great news?]
Annie sent the reply and dropped her phone.
At the other end, the man’s expression darkened as he read her text. Inside the small apartment, Andrew was sitting at the dining table with untouched food in front of him.
The man who didn’t like to eat outside was forced to prepare something for himself. The pot had burnt and the food looked darker than coal.
[Mrs. Lim, part of your duty is taking care of your husband. Do you want to incur the wrath of the heavens?]
[Mr. Lim might as well hire a babysitter.]
Annie sent the short reply, and the man’s message didn’t come again. She looked at her phone for a few minutes, as if anticipating the screen to light up.
Minutes later, an aroma filled up the kitchen and she turned off the stove then took down the pot.
She served the food in two huge flasks and left the remaining inside the pot. On her way out of the apartment, she met her mother returning with a solemn look.
“Those women are crazy. Are they children or what? None of them want to calm down,” Mrs. Lin complained. “Right, you’re done. Make sure they don’t reject the food. Those women haven’t even eaten for goodness sake.”
Annie nodded to her instruction and left the apartment.
.
That night as she slept inside the bedroom, her ears perked up when sounds began coming from the window.