Page 22 of The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties

“How long are you going to let Nathan sleep in?” Elsa asks, sipping her coffee. “If he sleeps in too long, he’s never going to get to sleep tonight.”

Oh god. I can practically feel my pores opening up andsweat seeping out. Nathan. How the hell have I forgotten that nobody else knows that Nathan’s not here? “Uh—” Quick, come up with a good answer! A believable answer! Anything!

“Tch, let the poor man sleep,” Fourth Aunt laughs. “They’re newlyweds, you don’t want to know what those two get up to at night.” She gives us an exaggerated wink.

“Ew.” Jems makes a face. “Please, Auntie Mimi, don’t put such images in my head.”

“I’m just saying.” Fourth Aunt shrugs. “If a newlywed husband isn’t left completely wrecked in the morning, then something ain’t right.” With that, she cackles while Jems and Elsa make gagging noises.

I catch Fourth Aunt’s eye and silently mouth “thank you,” and she waves a manicured hand at me flippantly. Thank god for Fourth Aunt. As I spoon some porridge into my mouth, I mentally berate myself for not being prepared. I should’ve been able to answer such an easy question quickly, but I’d just frozen in the moment. This is the thing about my fight-or-flight response. It’s completely broken. When most people either fight or run the hell away, I freeze like a hamster and hope that no one notices me because I’m so still. It never works, so I don’t understand what sort of evolutionary glitch has led to this survival instinct.

The rest of breakfast is just as excruciating. Everyone seems to want to linger over the breakfast table, chatting about how wonderful it was to see the extended family yesterday. When Uncle Ping says, “And today, shall we all go to Grand Indonesia?” I blurt out, “No!”

Every conversation falls silent, scythed by my extremely rude outburst. Eyes turn to stare at me.

“Ah, sorry.” I falter. My mind is a mess. What should I sayto them? I need to come up with an excuse that’s polite and respectful, one that won’t make Ma lose face.

Big Aunt clears her throat. “We’re very excited to take Meddy around Jakarta. And Nathan. But this morning, I want to take Meddy to my old kitchen at the Ritz.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Auntie Wati says. “Can we come too?”

“No,” Big Aunt barks. Then she hesitates and adds, “Ah, um, they limit the number of visitors who can go inside the kitchen. You know, for sanitary reasons. Anyway, it’ll be hot and awfully noisy and we’ll be back by lunchtime. Then we can go to Grand Indonesia.”

The other aunties and uncles smile, though a couple of them look uncertain. Big Aunt doesn’t leave any room for questions as she stands up abruptly and says, “Ayo, Meddy, we go now.”

Second Aunt, Ma, and Fourth Aunt jump up as well, and we leave the dining room after saying bye to everyone. The back of my neck burns as we walk out. I’m sure that everyone thinks we’re being really rude and weird, and my skin crawls with guilt because they’ve all been nothing but lovely toward us. Once this is all over, I’m going to be so, so nice to my poor cousins and aunts and uncles.

We go back up to our rooms to grab our purses, and when we exit out the front door, we find Abi waiting outside, with a huge minivan. Second Aunt primps her hair with obvious delight, and we all climb in.

“I’ve booked us a private dining room at the Formosan,” he says as the minivan travels onto the road. “We’ll be able to make all our calls without anyone overhearing.”

I gaze out the window as we drive, my thoughts consumed by Nathan. I wonder if he’s okay. I hate that his first visit herewith my family has ended up this way. At the same time, I’m distracted by the sights of the city. Jakarta changes so rapidly, new skyscrapers popping up each time I visit, all of them behemoths made of steel and glass, looking very futuristic. And all the tropical plants growing in lush abundance everywhere, along the streets, turning it into a garden city. It’s so beautiful it makes my stomach twist because Nathan isn’t here to take in the gorgeousness with me.

By the time we arrive at Formosan, my insides are a writhing mess of snakes. We are greeted by a hostess, who leads us to a private dining room, as promised. The room is beautiful, decorated in a traditional Chinese style, with paintings of cranes and water lilies on the walls. The round dining table is already filled with cold dishes. The hostess bows and tells us to press a small bell if we require anything, then she leaves and shuts the door behind her. We’re finally alone and ready to dive straight into business.

Phones are whipped out and brandished like weapons. Second Aunt takes out the master list of names we came up with last night and puts it in the center. Big Aunt regards us with the solemnity of an army general. “Ermei, you take these names,” she announces, pointing to a bunch of names on the list. For once, Second Aunt doesn’t argue. “Sanmei, you take these. Simei, you call these ones, and Meddy, you call these ones down here. Okay?”

We all nod.

“And remember,” Abi pipes up, “you can’t let them know that anything is amiss.”

Big Aunt frowns at him, probably annoyed that he’s interrupted her command. “I was going to tell them that.”

Abi blanches. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry, Dajie.”

“Hmph.” Big Aunt sniffs and turns to us. “Let’s begin.”

Heart thudding, I look at the list of names I’ve been assigned and start dialing. Of course, as soon as we are connected, we find out another problem: the aunties are freaking loud, and they’re all trying to talk over the phone in a confined space. This means that the volume in the room quickly climbs from normal conversation to shouted “Eh! Can you hear me? HELLO? HELLO AH HUAT! YOU HEAR ME OR NOT AH?” and the aunties all flap at one another, hissing at the others to quiet down,can’t you see I’m trying to have a phone call?

I walk to the farthest corner of the room and dial the first number. I put my finger into my other ear to try to drown out the noise of Ma and the aunties. No idea how the person I’m calling, my cousin Frensin, is going to hear me, but I’ll figure that out as I go.

Frensin picks up on the first ring. “Meddy? It’s so nice to hear from you!”

“Ah, hi!” I wasn’t expecting her to pick up so quickly, and now that she has, my mind is a blank.

“It was so nice seeing you guys yesterday. It’s been way too long. We should do a cousins lunch to catch up with you!”

Guilt worms its way through my stomach. I swear, by now, I’m fueled by a mixture of anxiety and guilt. Those seem to be the main two emotions I have. “Yeah, totally,” I make myself reply. “Ah, anyway, so I was wondering...” Oh god, this is so much more awkward than I had anticipated. “Um, have Ryan and Joen opened their red packets yet?”

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