Page 65 of The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties

Elsa is staring at Kristofer. “Wait, hang on, are you—” She gasps. “You are! That’s Kristofer Kolumbes Hermansah. And you’re Julia Child Handoko! Oh my god. Where’s my phone?” She darts away like a frightened rabbit.

“What’s going on?” I can’t seem to stop wringing my hands. They’re here, all of them. The house we’re in, which seemed so big when we first arrived, now feels shrunken, the walls closing in around us. What would we do if things went bad? Where would we go? How would we protect everyone we love?

Julia Child shoots Kristofer a meaningful side glance and he clears his throat. “Ah, we’re here to ah, bai nian.”

“Bai nian?” Jems echoes. He looks around at us.

I’m as surprised as he is. Usually, the younger members of the family go to the house that belongs to the highest member in the family hierarchy to bai nian. Traditionally, this would be the oldest member of the family.

“But—you’re our elders, and uh, not to be disrespectful, Om Kristofer, but we’re not related. And you’re our elders,” he blurts out again. “Even if we were related, we’d have to bai nian to your house, not this way around.”

Kristofer levels a cold gaze at him. “Is that a problem?”

“No. No, of course not! Not in the least,” Jems babbles. He scratches the back of his neck, his gaze frantically moving from us to Kristofer to the aunties and back again.

“Jems,” Big Aunt says, “go make coffee for everyone.”

“Yes!” Jems practically runs out of the room. “Right away.”

Big Aunt shoots a glance at the other cousins.

“I’ll prepare some cakes,” Elsa says. “There’s plenty left from yesterday.”

“I’ll help!” Sarah says. And with that, they all scurry away, leaving me and Nathan with Ma, the aunties, and the strange trio before us.

“So.” My mind comes up blank after that one word. “You all look like you had a busy morning.”

“Yes, well.” Kristofer clears his throat again. “I—we—wanted to apologize to you and your family for the... the everything.”

Julia Child nods. “We’ve compensated the caterers at the Ritz.”

“Overcompensated, more like,” Abi mutters. “They said it was more than a year’s salary.”

“Those hardworking, talented chefs deserved more after what you had us do to them,” Big Aunt snaps.

Abi drops his gaze. Julia Child nods. “Yes, I deeply regret that it had to come to that, and I hope that our compensation goes a long way to... ah, reviving their spirits.”

I can’t help but feel some relief that those poor caterers that Ma and Fourth Aunt drugged are at least being compensated.

“Hmph,” snorts Big Aunt. “They never calling me Mami again.”

Ma pats Big Aunt’s shoulder, looking very guilty. “We will explain to them that we are the one who drug them, not you.”

Big Aunt nods sadly. “Still, a trust is betray, cannot be earn back so easy.”

“But price was worth it,” Ma says. “Now we have Erjie back.”

Big Aunt sniffs and side-eyes Second Aunt like, eh, is she really worth it? Then she smiles. “Yes, price was worth it.”

It feels as though my heart has melted into sweet milk chocolate. Big Aunt is actually looking at Second Aunt with true affection.

Second Aunt returns the smile. “I still can’t believe you all do such crazy thing to save me.”

“I think Natasya just wanted an excuse to drug people. It’s kind of her thing,” Fourth Aunt mutters. Okay, I guess this beautiful moment is just that. A moment.

Ma narrows her eyes at Fourth Aunt. “You just jealous because I always saving the day, all the time.”

“Hardly!” Fourth Aunt laughs. “Who was the one who came up with the idea of knocking them out in the first place?”

---