Chapter XXV

Maryam, Rubiah and Osman sat on Aziz’s porch drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and eating Rubiah’s cakes while an anxious Zaiton hovered nearby, offering more refreshments and looking to her father for help.

Maryam reflected it was actually quite pleasant sitting here, if you didn’t remember why you came. It was late afternoon, so the air was cooler than it had been at noon, the cakes were excellent, the cigarettes were Osman’s, and the coffee thick and sweet. Really, a Kelantan paradise; but then thinking about being here to question people ruined the atmosphere. She strove to enjoy her coffee and cigarette before settling down to business.

‘How are you feeling?’ she asked Zaiton.

‘Oh fine,’ she answered nervously, looking constantly toward her father as though he might know better how she felt.

‘Not sick in the mornings?’

‘Well, maybe sometimes.’

‘Eat plain rice when you get up,’ Rubiah advised. ‘It’ll settle your stomach.’

Zaiton nodded and fidgeted.

‘Pak Cik Aziz,’ Osman asked finally, ‘would you mind if we spoke to Zaiton alone for a moment?’

With a long look at his daughter, who looked back imploringly, he turned and walked down the stairs. Rahman invited him for a coffee at a nearby stall, and they walked away together, with Aziz frequently looking back as if to send Zaiton moral support.

Rubiah was at her most maternal: understanding and sympathetic, yet allowing no nonsense. ‘Now Zaiton, tell us what happened after the main puteri.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just what I said. After the ceremony, did your mother go to bed? She must have been tired.’

‘I know I was,’ Maryam chimed in.

‘Yes, she was. I helped her to bed.’

‘Did you discuss anything with her?’

‘She was tired.’

‘Did you talk about your wedding?’

‘She was tired …’

‘Zaiton,’ Rubiah adjusted her glasses and looked down her nose at the girl. ‘If you don’t want to answer questions here …’

‘We did … a little.’

‘And?’

‘She was very tired, like I told you. She just wanted to go to sleep. She said we could talk in the morning.’

‘Why was that a problem?’

Zaiton commenced squirming, making Rubiah herself nervous. ‘It was just that, you see …’

‘Listen to me,’ Maryam said softly, but with menace, ‘I think we’ve all had enough of your acting and crying and being confused. Now, you tell us what happened without any more fuss. And hurry up!’

Zaiton looked pleadingly at Osman, who sat stone-faced. He agreed she had been allowed to get away with this far too long. She deflated.

‘It was just that I wanted to get it going! She’d put it off a couple of times because she was sick and she was waiting to have the main puteri finished first. She knew I had to do something soon! I didn’t want to wait till morning, and then she’d say she had to have breakfast first, and then something else, and before you know it, even more time would have passed and then what? I told her, and she just lay down and fell asleep! Just like that.’

‘Did you do anything to her?’

‘Do anything?’

‘To keep her awake?’

‘No, why? There was no point. She was already asleep.’

‘Are you sure you didn’t shake her or anything?’

‘Are you asking me if I killed my own mother?’

‘I’m asking if you shook her.’

‘No! She was asleep. She wasn’t going to talk about anything.’

‘Was the window opened in the bedroom?’

Zaiton thought about it. ‘Yes, about halfway. The shutters were opened a little. She liked fresh air.’

Rubiah nodded. She did, too.

‘And one more thing. Did your father go to sleep right away after that?’

‘No, my relatives were all here, Zainab and her family. We stayed up for a while, we were all so happy that she was cured. No one was in a hurry to go to sleep.’

Zaiton was dispatched to the kitchen when her father came back, and they reconvened on the porch. Again, coffee was served, cigarettes offered, cakes passed around. Maryam was putting her weight back on faster than she would have thought possible – but then, for the past weeks she’d been living on a cake-heavy diet.

‘Is she alright?’Aziz asked about Zaiton.

‘Of course, she is. Why wouldn’t she be?’

‘I’m just asking. I thought she looked upset.’ He craned his neck as if trying to see through the wall of the house to the kitchen.

‘Nothing to be upset about,’ Maryam said briskly. ‘Abang Aziz, tell me, what happened after the main puteri?’

Aziz shrugged. ‘We came back here, all the family. Jamillah was so tired, she was practically asleep standing up. Zaiton took her into the bedroom to put her to sleep.’

‘Did they argue?’

‘No, I didn’t hear anything. She was asleep!’

‘Alright. And then?’

He looked confused. ‘Well, we talked for a while. Zainab was here with her family, and Jamillah’s sisters, and my family. We just sat here and talked.’

‘For how long?’

‘Oh, at least two hours, I would think.’

‘And you went to sleep after that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Next to Jamillah?’

‘Where else?’ He seemed mystified.

‘And she seemed fine when you went to sleep.’

‘She seemed asleep!’ He began to look angry. ‘Did I check her? No, she was asleep, turned away towards the window. And I went to sleep. And in the morning, I tried to wake her, and you know what happened then. You were here!’

‘Yes,’ Maryam said, absently. ‘Did you notice anyone hanging around the house?’

Now he was angry. ‘If I had, don’t you think I would have said so already? Would I have kept quiet about it?’ He glared at all of them. ‘What a question!’

‘I’m just asking, Abang,’ she said mildly. ‘Just trying to get all the facts together.’

‘Well, now you have them.’ Aziz stood up, ending the meeting. ‘So you can do with them what you like.’