Page 25 of The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties

“Tch, you stop moving it a bit,” Big Aunt tuts. Ma does as she’s told and we all crowd around it.

Sure enough, there’s a photo of Nathan holding a red packet that’s larger than the usual size. The red packet is, as Abi described, a brilliant gold in color, with fat pink water lilies swirling across it. It’s a stunning red packet, and the sight of it in Nathan’s hands brings a pang to my heart.

“Yes!” Abi shouts. “That’s it! That’s the one!”

Fourth Aunt snatches the phone from Ma’s hands. “Hey!” Ma protests, but Fourth Aunt ignores her and swipes to the left, going to the next picture, which shows a teenage girl beaming down at the red packet in her hands. There’s athoughtful silence. All breath hangs suspended in the air, and the room is so quiet I can practically hear myself blink.

“Okay,” Abi says, breaking the silence, “so she’s the one who received it.”

“Hmm.” Big Aunt rubs her chin. “Is that Ah Gui’s eldest granddaughter?”

“Tch!” Second Aunt shakes her head. “No lah. Ah Gui’s eldest granddaughter in Sydney. Masa you don’t remember? Make us lose face ah, you don’t even recognize your own family.”

Big Aunt takes in a deep breath. “Oh, ya? So is mean you know who this girl is, ya? So? Who is she? Hanh?”

In answer, Second Aunt squints harder at the photo. After a while, she says, “Ah, yes, this is Katarina, is Meihua’s second daughter.”

“No, no,” Ma says. “Meihua’s second daughter is only twelve year old. This girl look like she maybe around fifteen, sixteen.”

Fourth Aunt snorts. “Like you know what a twelve-year-old looks like nowadays. They’re always trying to make themselves look older, haven’t you heard?”

Ma glares at her. “That’s just you. You think I don’t remember? When you twelve, you putting on so much makeup, acting like you fifteen. Even when you so small you acting like a not-right woman.”

Fourth Aunt rolls her eyes. “Oh right, and you as a teen were the saddest, most uncool thing ever. She was still wearing pigtails as a teen, did you know that?” she says to me.

I shrink back. No way in hell am I about to be dragged into this conversation. “Anyway,” I say quickly. Time to lead them back to the actual subject at hand. “So none of us know who this girl is?”

“Well, she’s got to be somebody’s grandkid,” Abi wails.

I empathize with his frustration. I, too, feel like wailing. This is the problem with families as huge as ours. We can’t even keep track of who’s who. I look down at my phone and swipe through the photos I took yesterday. There’s that girl again. Except this time, she’s standing next to a girl I do recognize. My niece Annabelle. They’re standing very close to each other and both of them are laughing, so clearly they’re familiar with each other. “Look,” I call out, raising my voice to be heard over the sound of my family squabbling with one another. “Annabelle knows her. We can ask Annabelle who she is.”

“Who is this Annabelle?” Second Aunt says.

“Aduh, how you cannot know who is Annabelle?” Big Aunt chides. “She is Selina’s third granddaughter. Like that you also don’t know? Is like you not even care about our family, how embarrass.”

Before Second Aunt can fire off a caustic retort, I quickly jump in. “Auntie Selina’s third granddaughter. Great job, Big Aunt. That would be my cousin Janis’s daughter, right? Right, cool. I’ll call Janis. I don’t actually have Annabelle’s number. Come to think of it, she should’ve been on the list of family to call, so good catch, Big Aunt.” I locate Janis’s name in my contacts list and hit Call before any of the aunties can say anything. I’ve had enough of them derailing everything with their petty arguments. Janis picks up on the third ring, and I quickly say, “Hey, Janis! It was so nice seeing you yesterday.”

“Who—oh, Meddy? Hi! This is such a nice surprise. I heard from Jems that we’re doing a cousins lunch?”

Wow, news travels fast. “Yes, yep, looking forward to it. Anyway, ah...” I falter. Now that I’m about to ask Janis forher kid’s phone number, I realize that it’s going to sound hella weird. Like, why in the world would I be asking that? I should’ve paused before making the call to think of a good excuse. Gah! I wrack my mind, trying to think of anything I know about Annabelle. She’s sixteen. She... she asked me about photography.Yes. I pounce on it. “Yesterday, Annabelle mentioned that she was interested in photography, and I would love to chat with her about it. Could you WhatsApp me her number?”

“Ah, that’s so nice of you. Are you sure it’s not a bother? I told her not to bug you about it.”

“Definitely not a bother!” My words come out so fast that they’re all strung together into a single word.

Janis laughs. “Wow, okay. Yes, I’ll send you her contact details right away.Sonice of you, Meddy.”

“No worries. I’ll see you at the lunch. Okay, byeee!” I only exhale once I’ve hung up the phone. Phew. That went well. Thank god for shared interests. We all stare at my phone until it buzzes a few moments later. There it is.Janis has sent you a Contact.I click on it and hit Call Contact. Belatedly, I realize this is probably a faux pas as most teenagers say they hate talking over the phone. But whatever, we don’t have time to waste.

“Put on speaker,” Ma whispers.

The last thing I want to do is to put Annabelle on speaker, but Ma and the aunties are all goggling at me expectantly, so I do so just before Annabelle picks up the phone.

“Hello?” Her voice sounds wary.

“Annabelle? Hi, it’s Meddy. Your ah, your aunt?” Wow, that’s really weird, referring to myself as an auntie. God, I feel ancient.

“Oh my gosh, yeah, of course, hiii, Aunt Meddy.”

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