CHAPTER 4

"Bonsoir, Gabriel!" the voice of my teacher woke me up from my reverie.

"Bonsoir, Mme le Blanc. "C'était bon, votre weekend?"

"Très bon, merci. Es-tu prêt?"

"Oui."

I liked Mme le Blanc. She was a very good teacher, and her dedication was rather phenomenal. She grilled us with questions at the beginning of each class until she was sure that every single one of her students had a firm grasp on the previous lesson before she started on a new subject. This evening, we were grasping the logic behind French's tricky grammatical rules. I followed her into the classroom, the air behind me thickened with the smell of frangipanis.

Inside, Lili waved me to the seat next to her. I inched my way over and planted a kiss on her cheeks. "As per normal this evening?" she whispered, asking whether we would stop for café au lait at our favourite coffee place. "OK," I whispered back as Mme le Blanc began to address the class.

"Bon. Tournez à la page cinquante-cinq. Nous révisons le dernier leçon. Nina, veuillez-vous commençer?"

KC's was not the first death that I had experienced. The year before, when I was ten, my eldest sister passed away after a protracted battle against tuberculosis which she had contracted from my father. Her departure sort of softened the blow of KC's passing. And when my father died a couple of years later, I was much better prepared.

The year following KC's drowning brought some changes into my life. I grew quieter and became more reserved. The absence of kids my own age made me gravitate towards older boys in their mid to late teens. Being around them made me realise that there was a lot more to the world of teenagers than what KC had taught me.

I learnt new games, new way of speaking and expressing myself plus a whole new set of vocabulary that I had to know. The boys introduced me to new secrets and teenage code of conduct. One of them introduced me to my first lesson in carnal knowledge.

His name was Tony. At sixteen, his body was finely developed, like a body of any highly active teenager should be. I did not quite remember how our friendship started, but it was his passion for badminton that brought us together.

The incident at Maiden Tear had dampened my enthusiasm for swimming. The once inviting community swimming pool no longer beckoned. Instead, my attention slowly turned to the animated yells and cheers coming from the nearby all-purpose hall where active games of badminton were played almost every afternoon and on weekends. Tony and his three friends played every Saturday from morning until about lunch time. They would play doubles and take a dip in the swimming pool before going home for lunch.

One Saturday, I waited for Tony and his friends to show up. At about nine o'clock they arrived, but one of the boys, Tony's regular partner, was not with them. Tony's face lit up when he saw me. "Don't worry guys, I can double with Gabriel here," Tony smiled at me. "What do you say, Gabe?"

I was only too glad to join them.

We played a few good games until it was time to go home. The three older boys took their customary dip in the pool. I sat on the diving board, watching. Tony remained in the water after his two friends left, swimming from one end of the pool to another in no particular style.

"Hey, Gabe!" he suddenly yelled. "Why don't you join me?"

"Naah, not today, thank you," I said, pained at a sudden thought of KC.

"OK. Suit yourself."

"How come you're not going home yet?" I asked.

"Well, my Mom and Dad aren't home. They're out of town visiting my aunt. So I can stay out as long as I want," he elaborated.

"Well, I can't. If I don't go home for lunch now my Mom would send a search party," I said, getting off the diving board.

"I've got an idea," he said. "Why don't you come home with me?"

I protested that I had not had lunch yet.

"Precisely. My mother prepared more than enough food for me to last the whole weekend. All I have to do is to heat it up. You like chilly crabs, don't you?"

That sold me. My stomach was already growling, anyway.

"Come on, then. You can call your Mom from my house."

Quietly, I followed Tony home, my mouth watering at the thought of juicy, tender crab meat in his mother's famous chilly sauce.

And who knew what sort of dessert she had prepared for her son...