Catherine Lim replies:

 

Dear Sir,

I am really at a loss about what to do. Could you please liaise with the Department for the Inculcation of True Moral Values and let me know of your joint decision? Needless to say, I will go by that joint decision.’

 

The Ministry of Environment and DITMOV reply:

Dear Catherine Lim,

After much discussion, we have both agreed on a compromise. The anecdote may be retained but ‘mosquitoes’ should be replaced by any insect whose presence, even in swarms, does not reflect poorly on the hygiene of a country. Needless to say, flies, lice, bugs, ticks, fleas, leeches and chiggers are OUT.

 

Catherine Lim replies:

 

Dear Sir,

Will bees do? There are some Chinese legends which show bees in a very favourable light. In fact, there is one in which the Queen Bee is a reincarnation of a most august warrior princess.

 

The Ministry of Environment and DITMOV reply:

 

Dear Catherine Lim,

Bees are okay.

 

Catherine Lim sighs with relief. The story is finished at last. With much trepidation, it is presented at the International Writers’ Conference in Oslo. Alas, to Catherine Lim’s intense disappointment, it receives no prize. Indeed, it is not even deemed fit for the Honourable Mention list. The writer is crestfallen and is about to rush out to send a telegram home, apologising for failing her country, when her attention is suddenly drawn to the words of the chief judge on the flower-bedecked, light-filled stage.

“We must make special mention of the entry from Singapore. Although it has not been placed, we must congratulate the writer for a story that was so unique as to defy all easy categorisation for judgement. It makes use of disparate elements, so disparate and opposed that it has required a feat of imagination to pull them together into a story. The concrete and the abstract, the real and the imaginary, myth and fact, the arcane and the ordinary – all these have been brought together in a narrative mode that fits no existing category. For instance, there is a reference to a spittoon, mysteriously crafted so that while it serves some mundane purpose, its interior remains pure inlaid mother-of-pearl, And there is a strange bird that is a mixture of earthiness and ethereality, of the crude sounds of the earth as well as the brooding silences of heaven. The symbolism is tantalising, and has so far eluded the judges. We would like to say that the fact that the Singapore entry has not been placed does not reflect on its quality; it simply reflects the judges’ inability to comprehend its full meaning. Therefore, it is our pleasure to award a special prize to the Singapore participant, a prize for creating a new genre of the short story, and for opening up new vistas for creative exploration which we hope other writers will be inspired to emulate!”