Catherine Lim: Ah Bah's Money

Taken from

"Or else the lightning god" by Catherine Lim.... Ah Bah's money, in two one-dollar notes and an assortment of coins, lay in a pile on the old handkerchief but Ah Bah was reluctant to pull up the corners into the bundle to put inside the cigarette tin. He had already done the following things with his money: spread out the notes and ranged the coins in a row beside them, stacked up the coins according to their denominations, stacked up the coins to make each stack come to a dollar. But still he wanted to go on touching his money. He could tell exactly which coin came from whom or where. For instance, the twenty-cent coin with the greenish stain on the edge was given to him by Ah Lam Soh who was opening her purse when the coin dropped out and he picked it up for her.

"You may keep it," she had said on that occasion, and thereafter Ah Bah made sure to watch very closely every time Ah Lam Soh opened her purse or put her hand into her blouse pocket.

The ten-cent coin which had a better shine that all the rest, he had actually found it near a rubbish dump, almost hidden from sight by an old discarded slipper. And the largest coin of all, the fifty-cent coin, he had earned proudly with his own effort. He was still rather puzzled about about why Kim Heok Soh had given him so much money; he had been required merely to stand in the front portion of the house and to say to any visitor: "Kim Heok Soh has gone to the dry goods shop and will not be back till an hour later. She has asked me to take care of her house for her." But all the time Kim Heok Soh was in the house; he knew because he could hear her in the room and there was somebody with her.

He counted his money-five dollars and eighty-five cents, and his heart glowed. Very carefully, he pulled up the corners of the handkerchief at last into a tight bundle which he then put inside the cigarette tin. Then, he put the cover on firmly, and his money, now safe and secure, was ready to go back into his hiding place in the corner of the cupboard behind the stacks of old clothes, newspapers and calendars.

Now, Ah Bah become uneasy, and he watched to see if his father's eyes would found his money-two dollars in twenty and ten cents coins- tied up in a piece of rag and hidden under his pillow, and had taken away for another bottle of beer. His father drank beer almost every night. Sometimes, he was in good mood after his beer and would talk endlessly about this or that, smiling to himself. But generally he become sullen and bad-tempered, and he would begin shouting at anyone who come near. Once he threw a empty beer bottle at Ah Bah's mother; it missed her head and went crashing against the wall. Ah Bah was terrified of his father, but his mother appeared indifferent. "The Lunatic," she would say, but never in his hearing. Whenever he was not around at home, she would slip out and play cards in Ah Lam Soh's house. One evening she returned, flushed with excitement and gave him fifty cents; she said it had been her lucky day. At other times, she came back with dis spirited look, and Ah Bah knew she had lost all her money in Ah Lam Soh's house.

The New Year was coming and Ah Bah looked forward to it with intensity that he could barely conceal. New Year Meant ang pows; Ah Bah's thin little fingers closed round the red packets of money given to him by the New Year visitors with much energy that his mother would scold him and shake her head in doleful apology, as she remarked loudly to the visitors, " My Ah Bah, he feels no shame whatever!"

His forefinger and thumb feeling expertly through the red paper, Ah Bah could tell immediately how much was in the red packet; his heart would sink a little if the fingers felt the heard edges of coins, for that would be forty cents or eighty cents at most. But if nothing was felt, then joy of joys! Here was at least a dollar inside.

This year, Ah Bah had eight dollars notes. He could hardly believe it when he took stock of his wealth on the last day of the festive season. Eight new notes, crisp, still smelling new, and showing no creases except where they had been folded to go into the red packets. Eight dollars! And a small pile of coins besides. Ah Bah experienced a thrill such as he had never felt before.

And then it was all anxiety and fear, for he realized that his father knew about his ang pow money; indeed his father had referred to it once or twice, and would, Ah Bah was certain, be searching the bedding, cupboard and other places in the house for it.

Ah Bah's heart beat with violence of angry defiance at the thought. The total amount in his cigarette tin was seventeen dollars and twenty-five cents, and Ah Bah was determined to protect his money at all costs. Nobody was going to take his money from him. Frantically, Ah Bah went to the cupboard, took the bundle of money from the cigarette tin and stuff it into his trouser pocket. It made a conspicuous bulge. Ah Bah didn't know what to do, and his little mind worked feverishly to find a way out of this very direful situation.

He was wandering about in the village the next day as usual, and when he returned home, he was crying bitterly. His pocket was empty. When his mother came to him and asked him what the matter was, he bawled. He told her, between sobs, that a rough-looking Indian had pushed him to the ground and taken away all his ang pow money. His father, who was in the bedroom, rushed out, and made Ah Bah tell again what had happened. When Ah Bah had finished sniffling miserably, his father hit him on the head snarling, "You Idiot! Why were you so anxious to show off your ang pow money? Now you've lost it all!" And when he was told that the sum was seventeen dollars and twenty-five cents, his vexation was extreme, so that he would not be contented till he hit the boy again.

Ah bah's mother cleaned the bruise on the side of this face where he had been pushed to the ground, and led him away from his father.

"You are a silly boy," she scolded. "Why did you carry so much money around the house with you? Someone was sure to rob you!" And feeling sorry for him, she felt in her blouse pocket and found that she could spare fifty cents, so she gave it to him saying, "Next time don't be so silly, son"

He took the coin from her, and he was deeply moved. And then, upon impulse, he took her by the hand, and led her outside their house to the old hen-house near the well, under the tree, and he whispered to her, his heart almost bursting with the excitement of a portentous secret successfully kept, "It's in there! In the cigarette tin, behind that piece of wood!" To prove it, he squeezed into the hen-house and soon emerged, reeking of the hen-house odours, triumphantly clutching the tin. He took off the lid and showed her the money inside.

She was all amazement. Then she began to laugh and to shake her head over the ingenuity of it all, while he stood looking up to her, his eyes bright and bold with victory.

"You are a clever boy," she said, "but make sure that you don't go near the hen-house often. Your father's pocket is empty again, and he's looking around to see whose money he can get hold of, that devil."

Ah Bah earned twenty cents helping Ah Lau Sim to scrape coconut, and his mother allowed him to have the ten cents he found on a shelf, under a comb. Clutching his money, he stole out of the house; he was just in time to back out of the hen-house, straighten himself and pretend to be looking for dried twigs for firewood, for his father stood at the doorway looking at him. His father was in restless mood again. Pacing the floor with a dark look on his face, and this was the sign that he wanted beer very badly but had no money to pay for it. Ah Bah bent low, assiduously looking for firewood, and then through the corner of his eye, he saw his father go back into the house.

That night, Ah Bah dreamt that his father had found out the hiding place in the hen-house, and early the next morning, his heart beating wildly, he stole out and went straight to the hen-house. He felt about the darkness for his cigarette tin; his hand touched the damp of the hen droppings and caught on a nail, and still he searched - but the cigarette tin was not there.

He ran sniffling to his mother, and she began to scold him," I told you not to go there so often, but you wouldn't listen to me. Didn't you know your father has been asking for money? That devil's found you out again!"

The boy continued to sniff, his little heart aching with the terrible pain of the loss.

"Never mind," his mother said, " you be a good boy and don't say anything about it; otherwise your father's sure to rage like a mad man."

She led him inside the house and gave him a slice of bread with some sugar.

She was glad when he quietened down at last, for she didn't want to keep Ah Lam Soh and the others waiting. The seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents (she had hurriedly hidden the handkerchief and the cigarette tin) was secure in her blouse pocket, and she slipped away with eager steps for, as the fortune-teller had told her, this was the beginning of a period of good luck for her.