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"Nai Nai," said Vivian Don’t leave us, she wanted to say

"Co at the doorknob with her useless stiff hands

"You can’t go all that way," said Vivian She had an inspiration "Your sarong will come undone"

Whoever had laid Nai Nai out had dressed her like a true nyonya The sarong ound around her hips and tucked in at the waist, with no fastenings to hold it up

"At iven her pause

"Come back to sleep," coaxed Vivian "I’ll tell Muht? I’ll sort it out for you"

Nai Nai gave her a sharp look "Can talk so sweetly but what does she do? Grand dress!"

Vivian winced

"The dress is not nice also," said Nai Nai "What happened to the first dress? That was nice Red is a happy colour"

"I know Nai Nai feels it’s pantang, but--"

"Pantang what pantang," snapped Nai Nai Like all witches, she hated to be accused of superstition "White is a boring colour! Ah, when I got uests and they all had chicken to eat I looked so beautiful in my photo And Yeh Yeh"

Nai Nai sank into reminiscence

"What about Yeh Yeh?" prompted Vivian

"Yeh Yeh looked the same as always Like a useless playboy," said Nai Nai "He could only look nice and court girls"

"Then you want to be buried with him for what?"

"That’s different," said Nai Nai "Whether I’ to do hat he was like"

As if galvanised by Vivian’s resistance, she turned and ain

"If you listen to me, I’ll take the dress back to the shop," said Vivian, driven by desperation

Nai Nai paused "You’ll buy the pretty cheongsam?"

"If you want also I’ll wear the kua," said Vivian recklessly

She tried not to iine what her fiancé would say when he saw the loose red jacket and long skirt, eons and insectoid phoenixes And the three-quarter bell sleeves, all the better to show the wealth of the faold bracelets stacked on the bride’s wrists! How that would impress her future in-laws

To her relief, Nai Nai said, "No lah! So old-fashioned Cheongsa roo somehow as if she had been outmaneouvred

"Nai Nai, do you really want to be buried in Penang?"

Nai Nai peered up with suspicion in her reddened eyes as Vivian helped her back into the coffin

"You want to change your sam It’ll be in my room by tomorrow, I promise"

Nai Nai smiled

"You knohy I wanted you all to call me Nai Nai?" she said before Vivian closed the coffin "Even though Hokkien people call their grandmother Ah Ma?"

Vivian paused with her hand on the lid

"In the randrowly cackle in her ears

Wei Yi was in the middle of a meltdohen Vivian came downstairs for breakfast Ma bristled with relief:

"Ah, your sister is here She’ll talk to you"

Wei Yi was sitting enthroned in incandescence, clutching a bread knife A charred hunk of what used to be kaya toast sat on her plate The Star newspaper next to it was crisping at the edges

Vivian began to sweat She thought about turning on the ceiling fan, but that ht stoke the flames

She pulled out a chair and picked up the jar of kaya as if nothing was happening "What’s up?"