It was still dark. The night air remained ice cold. And there was a succubus in the room.
Provided that Sum Sum remained hidden beneath her quilt and kept completely motionless for long enough, the demon might think she was part of the bedding and take flight. If only her head wasn’t left so exposed; she would be all right if she covered it with the eiderdown. But she didn’t dare move.
The bubble of nausea climbed to the back of her throat again.
The dark spirit edged closer. Was it the man with the mole? Had he come back to hurt her? Or was it the devil himself?
The tap-tap of its cloven hooves crept up slow and even. Shadows closed round. Sum Sum squeezed her eyes shut, too scared to scream, too scared to chant her sutras. Too terrified to breathe even.
Sum Sum set her jaw and clamped her nostrils shut. Is it a ghost? Or a devil? Aiyo, must be the Pontianak – the vampire of Malay folklore? She heard a hiss. Keep absolutely still. Otherwise it will disembowel me. Scream! Scream for help! No! The incense from the joss sticks will act like a shield. The floorboards creaked as the succubus took a step forward. Sum Sum imagined the whites of the demon’s eyes bulging as it approached, the beast’s wild straggly hair, the tail with the spaded tip, the mouth half-filled with muddy brown blood.
‘‘Ssssssssssssummmm-summmmm!’’
It was a barely audible hiss, but she heard it. A ghostly voice calling her. The floorboards groaned once again. Muscles tightening in her stomach, she pictured an emaciated arm reaching out to grab her. For an instant she was aware of its presence warming the back of her neck.
Sum Sum stifled a gasp.
When she felt its touch on her shoulder she sprang upright from her bed, flinging the quilt aside and spilling her prayer beads onto the floor. ‘‘Wahhhhh!’’
‘‘Aaargghhh!’’ yelled Lu See.
‘‘Wahhhh!’’ cried Sum Sum.
‘‘You scared the life out of my bones! Are you crazy-lah, creeping up on me in the middle of the night? I thought you were a demon!’’
‘‘I thought you turned into a zombie, sleeping with your eyes wide open!’’
Hushing each other to keep their voices down, the two women glared at one another, panting, hands on throats.
Lu See, swaddled in her pink dressing gown, had to catch her breath. ‘‘I came to check on you. I heard you vomiting in the bathroom. This is the second morning in a row now. And last week you were sick too. Are you ill?’’
‘‘Aiyo, what was that tap-tapping noise? I thought it was the devil’s hooves.’’
‘‘My house slippers of course. Look, what’s the matter? Is it something you ate? You’ve been acting odd for ages.’’
In the stillness of the house the clock in the nearby church struck the quarter hour. An incense stick, stuffed into a jam pot, smouldered on the windowsill. Lu See’s concerned stare made the ensuing silence all the more uncomfortable.
‘‘Do you need to see a doctor?’’
Sum Sum didn’t know what to say. She was exhausted, she felt stripped bare, like a tree torn up by a storm, dead yet not quite dead. After a while Lu See’s hand came to rest softly on the back of her neck; stroking her hair as she would a child’s.
‘‘What’s going on, pumpkin-head?’’ Her voice was soft. ‘‘Do you want me to take you to Addenbrooke’s?’’
Sum Sum felt her heart pitch over, tumbling like the prayer beads that now danced across the floor. Both girls regarded one another through the grey light.
Lu See thought the face watching her looked lost, as stunned and innocent as a calf that had just discovered where veal came from. The muscles around Sum Sum’s mouth remained rigid. Eventually Lu See said, ‘‘We can’t go on like this.’’
‘‘Like what?’’ said Sum Sum in a subdued voice.
‘‘Both with faces as long as a grasshopper’s back leg. Tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me where it hurts.’’
Looking like a child swallowing a spoonful of cod liver oil, Sum Sum skated a hand back and forth across her tummy. Her heart burned. You are my sister. I cannot keep secrets from you. Two thick tears coursed down her face. ‘‘I been hiding this from you for weeks, vomiting every morning for the last month. Lu See, I am mengandung. I’m carrying a baby.’’
Retreating to the kitchen, the girls sat at a table before a pot of tea and a dish of biscuits. Their shoulders sagged. Lu See, shocked by the news, sieved the floating tea leaves from the surface of her cup. Smoothing her kerchief, Sum Sum contemplated her broken string of prayer beads.
‘‘I thought you were still a virgin,’’ said Lu See.
Sum Sum shrugged.
‘‘Is it Aziz’s baby?’’ asked Lu See.
Sum Sum hesitated. ‘‘Are you angry with me? I don’t want you to be angry, lah.’’
‘‘Angry? No, of course I’m not angry.’’
Sum Sum shook her head. I should have told her much earlier. Could have saved myself so much heartache. She felt sick with relief. ‘‘But do I keep the baby?’’
‘‘Well, that’s something only you can answer. It’s not going to be easy being an unmarried mother, especially in this country. And I don’t know how Mrs Slackford will react to us raising a child under her roof. But if you want to know how I feel about it, well, I’m surprised of course. Surprised yet happy. Happy because if you choose to keep the baby I think you’ll make a fantastic mother. I’m behind you whatever you decide to do.’’
Sum Sum nodded. A tiny smile crept across her taut, broad face. ‘‘I’ve been carrying this news about like a wicker basket on my back.’’
‘‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’’
‘‘I don’t know.’’ She sighed. ‘‘Scared.’’
‘‘Scared to tell me I was going to become an aunty?’’
Sum Sum offered a sheepish smile again. ‘‘I would like to keep the baby.’’
‘‘Good. That’s settled. Now, will you write to inform Aziz?’’
Again Sum Sum hesitated.
‘‘What?’’ Lu See prompted.
‘‘Nothing. It’s nothing.’’ Sum Sum saw Aziz’s face loom before her then everything flowed backwards to the days spent onboard ship. The images returned hurriedly, clear and firm – his muscular arms, his trim waist, the concentrated tautness of his body.
Bracing herself, Sum Sum shook her head. ‘‘The child will be raised fatherless, lah. I do not want Aziz to know about this. I do not want to shame him. Anyway, he never passed me his address.’’
Lu See’s mind worked fast. ‘‘Never mind. We’ll tell Mrs Slackford you’re already married. We’ll say that your husband is in the Gurkha Rifles, stationed in India. She’ll be none the wiser and nor will any of the neighbours.’’
Lu See counted out the months on her fingers since they last saw Aziz. ‘‘The baby’s due in early October, so that’s almost six months away.’’ She told Sum Sum she had to be brave. She thought back to when she was seven years old, of swimming in the river with Uncle Big Jowl. How he coaxed her into the fast-moving water. How she rose on her tiptoes, trying to keep her thighs and bottom dry as the oxen-voiced man called her name. She remembered the way she’d held her breath and plunged in headfirst, arms outstretched. She told Sum Sum now that she had to be just as brave.
‘‘Are we going to be okay?’’ Sum Sum asked.
Lu See nodded. She felt a twinge in her heart. ‘‘We’re going to be more than okay.’’ She held her friend’s hand, palm-on-palm. ‘‘We’re going to bring up this child together. It will grow up to be strong and healthy and happy. And I promise you, we are going to be all right.’’
Lu See saw the emptiness in her friend’s expression fade as her eyes turned bright against the semi-darkness. Each raised a teacup. Sum Sum’s shoulders straightened. ‘‘To us!’’ The cups knocked against one another with a plink!
They sat in the kitchen until it got light and then, changing out of their nightgowns, they walked into the fresh new day, to Fitzbillies cake shop on Trumpington Street and bought themselves four Chelsea buns to celebrate. They stood in the long shadow of the morning sun, sticky cinnamon glazing their mouths.