The monthly delivery begins

As mentioned in one of my earlier postings, a particular charity club has agreed to sponsor monthly groceries for Sofie’s and Lin’s family. Yesterday, I finally got the go ahead from the lady in charge to start getting the stuff from a particular minimarket near my office and deliver the stuff to the respective families.

Since each family is getting RM300 worth of goods, I was not about to get the things for both families at one go. So this morning I told the minimarket owner that I’d be taking the stuff for the first family in the afternoon while for the next round for the second family, I’d come again on Saturday morning.

I decided to visit Lin first. I sent her a text message yesterday saying that I’d be coming today to her pisang goreng stall. She replied, asking me to come to her home because she had not been doing any business for the past 3 days as advised by the doctor.

This afternoon, I went over to the minimarket, stuffed my Kenari with rice, sugar, cooking oil, flour, milk, canned food, anchovies, onion, garlic, dried chilly, eggs, soap, laundry detergent and whatever other goods prepared by the minimarket owner, then off I headed to Lin’s house for this month’s McPi McDelivery!

The moment Lin opened the door, I saw her right wrist in bandage. She had been feeling some pain at her right wrist for some time already, but since to her “takda kerja” means “takda gaji”, she went on with her daily routine at her pisang goreng stall. That was until last Friday when she wanted to do something in her kitchen and she suddenly felt a sharp pain. After that her wrist became somewhat swollen and the pain became more and more unbearable, so she sought the help of a friend to bring her to the hospital. Done the x-ray, nope, no broken bone. The doctor just bandaged her wrist, gave her some pills and told her to take a complete rest for at least a week.

“Doctor bagi surat cuti tak ni?” I teased Lin. “Kalau ada pun saya nak bagi kat siapa?” Lin replied, laughing away.

I guess the delivery of the groceries couldn’t come at a better time! Lin may miss one week’s worth of pisang goreng sales, but today she got one month’s worth of groceries, more than what she used to buy.

And oh, remember the last time I brought them shopping for schooling needs… her youngest daughter Marlia was not around because she was enjoying herself at her paternal grandma’s house? Well, apparently their father, Mr Darling, had bought Marlia’s school uniforms etc but didn’t bother to buy anything for Rahim, Marlia’s older brother. When Marlia finally returned home, she showed off all the new school stuff their father had bought for her, just to make him jealous. How do you think Rahim must have felt? Well, Rahim didn’t want to lose out either. He went to his room, took out all the stuff bought for him when I brought them shopping, and it was his turn to show off to his little sister, “Alaaa… tak heran lah. Makcik Afizah hari tu belikan untuk abang lagi mahal lah!” Hehehe… it was Rahim’s turn to make Marlia jealous.

Anyway, amongst the excuses Mr D gave to Lin when he was late in giving her the monthly alimony, was that he was short of cash after having to buy all the school stuff for Marlia. So I conspired with Lin… I told her to get the receipts for all the school stuff Mr D bought for Marlia, and since both Rahim and Marlia are under our sponsorship programme, I’d reimburse LIN with the exact amount Mr D had spent.

Guess what? Lin did manage to get the receipts (and whaddaya know, the supermarket where Mr D bought the stuff is called Pasaraya Borong Sakan!”) totalling RM145. And so today I reimbursed Lin with that amount. At least that will cover part of the alimony she’s supposed to get from Mr D. But of course, it’s hush hush lah… Mr D doesn’t know anything, otherwise he won’t pay the alimony at all!

I think Marlia must have been pampered when she went to stay with her paternal grandma during the last school holidays. Chances are, to jaga hati, whatever she asked for, she got. When school reopened recently she was pestering Lin, saying she wanted to go stay with either her father or her grandma. And the girl kept on pestering even when Lin was busy at her pisang goreng stall. I think Marlia was just trying her luck with her mother, who knows, maybe if her mother didn’t want Marlia to stay with the father, then she (Lin) would more easily give in to Marlia’s other requests.

Well, it didn’t work out that way. Lin of course wanted Marlia to stay with her, but she got so fed-up, she picked up her phone, and right in front of Marlia she called Mr D, telling him to come fetch Marlia after work so Marlia could stay with him. “12 tahun saya jaga dia, dia dah tak nak dok dengan saya. Abang ambillah dia, tukar sekolah semua sana terus, senang cerita!”

Mr D got worried. I don’t think he worried that Lin got mad – he worried that if Marlia stays with him, he’d have to spend more monthly. He seems to spend a lot on his present wife and step-daughter, and so having Marlia staying with him may trouble him even more financially. The older children who visit their father from time to time, always come back reporting to their mother, “Kita dulu kalau makan, satu lauk aje. Dengan mem baru ni, berderet lauk…”

After that incident (the call from Lin asking him to fetch Marlia), Mr D didn’t answer anymore calls coming from Lin or any of his children. When his 3rd daughter tried to call him to get a copy of his salary slip (for scholarship application purposes), he didn’t answer either. The daughter finally sent him a text message, and a few days later the reply came, telling the daughter that he left his salary slip on the TV set at their Opah’s house.

He seems to avoid meeting the children. (hmmm… must have been lectured by present wife for spending so much on Marlia already!) But you know what? His 3 older daughters are all already in higher learning institutions, including one studying overseas. In a few years time, they’ll be working. I betcha it will be Mr D who’d be wanting to see his children more often then…