Mr Darling the Dalang…

Once upon a time, back in 2007, when I wrote about Yah’s episode with Mr Darling… about how he proposed to her during their first meet, about how Yah simply gave her phone number to him, and about how after that Mr Darling started calling her and sending her text messages in the middle of the night, many of my blog readers told me to let them be. They’re both adults, they said, and since they’re both HIV+, then maybe they understand each other, bla, bla, bla. You can read the posting here. I wasn’t in favour of it because to me, it meant trouble.

At that time I had not yet been introduced to Lin, Mr D’s ex-wife, who only came into the picture in late 2007, after Yah had started going angau over Mr D.

To cut the story short, when Yah sort of started to stalk Mr D, he distanced himself from her. Thank goodness. It took quite some time for Yah to regain her sanity, but now she has started working and her children are all back staying with her again. Mr D tried to coax Lin to remarry him, to no avail. So finally he ended up marrying somebody else who never came into the picture before. I’m not even sure if the lady knew of his HIV status, or if she was a PLHIV herself, all I know is that she has a daughter from her earlier marriage.

Recently, during the PLHIV gathering we organised at the Ipoh GH, Lin pulled me aside and told me about Mr D raping his stepdaughter. We couldn’t really talk much then, since there were people around, so I didn’t really get much details. During one of my clinic duties after that, I did see Mr D, but he pretended he didn’t know who I was (we only met once at Lin’s house when he went to visit his children). When I met the nurse after that, the nurse said Mr D just told her that he was no longer with his wife, without giving much details. All he said was, “Susahlah, orang dah tak nak…”

I used to visit Lin on a regular basis last year – every month without fail to deliver groceries donated by a club. But the groceries supply was only until December last year, and after that Lin’s older children began to complete their studies, with 2 of them already working now, so I don’t really have to worry about supply of groceries for the family. They can already survive on their own. So I have reduced my visits to Lin’s house so I can concentrate on other needy cases.

Well, today I went to visit Lin again. Lin and her daughters are coming for the Family Day – they now have their own transport but they don’t know the way to the venue.  So I figured the best way to explain to her how to get there is to meet her face to face. It won’t be easy explaining to her on the phone.

Oh well, since I’d need to fetch for some other families at the Ipoh bus station in the morning, Lin finally decided to wait at the bus station, and then just follow my car to the Family Day venue. Duh, that one I could have just told her on the phone…

But then again, I had not visited her at home for some time anyway, so it was still worth a visit. At least I could get more updates on her children.

I also took the opportunity to ask about Mr Darling’s case. None of her children were around, so Lin could be more open with me. Actually Lin herself knew all the story from her children since she herself did not see her ex-husband.

Lin and her children had not known that Mr Darling had to spend one whole week in the lock-up when he was remanded after his wife lodged a report against him for molesting her 14 year daughter, his stepdaughter. So one fine day, Mr Darling called his 3rd daughter, who had by then started working, to come and fetch him from the police-station. Thinking that all she had to do was to fetch him, the daughter went, only to find out that she had to BAIL him out. And so she did, albeit, reluctantly.

Mr Darling then stayed with his mother, his wife filed for divorce, and his stepdaughter taken back to her home-state, away from him.

Then one day, Mr D called his daughters asking to meet up with them, but outside, not at their grandma’s house where he’s staying. Apparently he wanted to tell them his version of the story before they heard from anybody else.

You’d probably think he’d tell them that he didn’t do anything much, that the report made to the police was brought out of proportion etc, but to my dismay, he actually told them that he stripped his stepdaughter’s clothes off to teach her a lesson… because she’s a bohsia. Only problem was he spoke in thick Perak dialect and the girls weren’t too sure of the meaning of certain words, and therefore they are not too sure if he had actually raped her, or he had inserted his fingers.

Anyway, even if he did not plead guilty to rape, he’s still guilty of molesting the girl. And even if it’s true the girl is such a bad girl, that didn’t give him the right to do what he did! And knowing his history of sleeping around with women even when he was still married to Lin, I doubt he didn’t satisfy his sex needs after seeing the girl totally naked.

What I don’t understand was how he could have told this to his own daughters – as though he didn’t do much wrong because the girl was a bad girl. She’s only 14 for heaven’s sake!!

His eldest daughter had never been fond of her father. This episode makes her hate him even more.

As it is, he is already making it sound as though his daughters “tak mengenang budi” because they don’t visit him at their grandma’s house.

Well, let’s just wait for the outcome of the case. Mr D now has to go to 2 different courts including the Syariah court for his divorce case. Not forgetting he has to report himself from time to time at the police station until the case is heard in court.

Mr Darling… Mr Darling… you can’t blame your children for staying away from you. First you gave HIV to their mother… they saw how their mother suffered right before their very eyes. And after the divorce, you didn’t bother to help them out financially either even though they are your children. And now THIS? You’re lucky they still agreed to see you when you asked to see them. Stop trying to make them feel guilty by saying they are anak durhaka. You are the one who should feel guilty, not them!

You b*****d!!

 

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…

Shopping for schooling needs – Round 5

I promised Lin I’d fetch her and her 2 schooling children to shop for their schooling needs today. This morning while I was still at my office I called her up to ask if I should fetch her at home or at her goreng pisang stall. She told me her stall is closed for today, so I should fetch them at home.

I got to Lin’s house at 3 pm – on the dot. After I honked, I saw Lin coming out with a girl. At first I thought the girl was Marlia, Lin’s youngest daughter, but when I looked again, eh… lain pulak muka! After a while, Rahim, Lin’s son came out. When they got into my car, Lin introduced the girl as her niece who spent time at her house during the school holidays. Lin’s brother (the girl’s father) knew about my role and so it wasn’t a problem for the girl to tag along as she knew me as the lady from the charitable organisation helping Lin’s family out.

But Marlia was not around. She was still at her Opah’s kampong house. She was supposed to be back on Sunday (yesterday) but with so many cousins around, she postponed it to this coming weekend. When Lin called her last night to inform her that Makcik Afizah would bring them shopping for their schooling needs today, her reaction was, “Alaaaa…. NAK IKUT!” But I wasn’t about to postpone my plan just because she was not back, so today we went ahead without Marlia. Marlia’s father had already bought her school uniforms and work/exercise books from school, but had yet to buy her shoes, school bag and other stationeries.

So today we just went to buy uniforms, school bag and a pair of school shoes for Rahim and stationeries for both Rahim and Marlia. Although Marlia did mention what type of school bag she wanted and what size her shoes were, we figured it’s better for Lin to wait for Marlia to come back and let her choose her own bag and shoes, and then Lin would submit the receipts to me so I could reimburse her.

Well, I think I’m done with shopping for schooling needs  for this year. Next year is just a few days away anyway. There are still a few families who have yet to submit their claims to me, but at least I’m not the one who has to bring them out shopping…

Anyway, I was informed by Lin that her ex-hubby, Mr Darling has begun to slack in paying the monthly alimony of RM300 ordered by the court. He’s either paying it late, or less; giving all sorts of excuses. His present father-in-law got sick and he needed to spend extra lah (that’s not Lin’s problem is it?), he had bought Marlia’s uniforms and workbooks lah (isn’t that his responsibility? That shouldn’t be deducted from the alimony!).

So guess what? I told Lin to do a few things…

1. Since Mr Darling works with a government agency, I told Lin to arrange for the alimony to be automatically deducted from his salary. At least he cannot give any more excuses such as the above.

2. I got Lin to give me the whole list of Marlia’s schooling needs that had been paid for by Mr Darling so I could reimburse Lin with the money. At least it would cover for the alimony that he’s not paying her.

3. I told Lin to remind her children NEVER to inform their father that they are getting financial help for their schooling needs. If he finds out, chances are he’d leave his children’s financial needs totally to our care!

Another reason for Lin to arrange for the alimony to be deducted from Mr Darling’s salary is to save him the trouble of having to come over to send the money to Lin. In the first place, even without salary deduction, all he needed to do was to bank in the money into Lin’s bank account. But he’s not doing that. The salary deduction may also save Lin the trouble of having Mr Darling come over to the house, sometimes at odd hours. He recently came over at night to give October’s alimony – knowing pretty well that his 2 younger children were at their Opah’s kampong house. Luckily their 18 year old son was home, so at least Lin was not alone. But since he came at night, Lin was already in her sleep clothes (her baju kelawar).

Not wanting to let Mr Darling in, Lin just stood at the door to take the money from him. Lin didn’t realise that with the light from inside her house, and Mr Darling outside in the dark, her baju kelawar was rather see-through. And Mr Darling had the cheek to say, “Jaranglah baju. Tak tahan tengok.”

Gatal punya jantan! Dah ada bini baru pun masih tak hilang miang lagi!

Freaked out!

Although Zainab’s house is not far from my office, I don’t really visit her often as I can’t be too sure when she works day shift and when she works night shift. But not having visited her for quite some time, I thought it’s about time I visit her again. I especially need to know how her daughter’s doing – the one with kidney problems.

So yesterday I sent her a text message; asking if she’d be home today. I didn’t receive any reply, so I thought she was at work. Later last night, a call from an unfamiliar number came in on my hand phone. The call came from Zaki, Zainab’s husband, who called from a public phone. Apparently Zainab ran out of credit for her hand phone and was unable to reply my message. Zaki told me Zainab would be in today so I promised I’d drop by.

My initial plan was to visit them later in the afternoon after going shopping to buy some tidbits for the children. But when I was in my office this morning, I received a text message from Lin…

“Kak… saya kat hospital. Saya tak tahan nak nangis ni. Saya tengok orang2 kat sini yang sakit dah teruk kulit dia. Saya terbayangkan saya pun macam tu satu hari nanti. Dah nak menitis airmata dah ni.”

Oh dear, she must have freaked out seeing some of the PLWHAs with skin diseases. You know, like the ones shown in some of our TV dramas… giving the impression that all PLWHAs will end up looking like that.

Today was not the first time Lin went for her appointment, but I guess it just so happened that today there were quite a number of those with terrible-looking skin diseases. Lin got scared she may look like that one day.

I called Lin. She answered after just one ring. I could sense she was trying to hold back her tears. I couldn’t simply leave my office to go meet her, so I told her to call me after her appointment with the doctor was over. I decided to change my initial plans. I thought it would be good to bring her along in my house visit to Zainab’s house so she could meet Zainab.

About 12.45 pm, Lin called to tell me she’s done at the hospital. Nice timing. Off I went to fetch her. The moment she got into my car, I could see tears in her eyes. I brought her out for lunch first. We needed to talk privately before I could bring her to meet Zainab.

Lin’s CD4 count has dropped to 380 from 400+ previously. She is not yet on HIV medication. What worried me was that her BP shot up to 180/95. Apparently, Lin has been on medication for quite some time for her hypertension, with her normal BP being 140/80, which is already quite high for her age. My guess is that she has so many worries on her mind – what with her HIV, her children, her ex-hubby etc. Although most of her children are doing okay academically, her 4th who is also her eldest son seem to be having problems in school. He had been caught with cigarettes in his school bag before (he’s in form 5 this year), he loves to lepak around with friends after school and recently he was suspended from school for a week for allegedly painting the walls of his school building with his friends. He claimed he didn’t do it, and that his friends were the ones who did it, but even if that was true, he was there with them.

Lin already has enough worries in her mind. After the scene at the HIV clinic today, she got even more worried. She freaked out!

During lunch, I told Lin to say out whatever was in her mind. There was no one at home she could talk to about this. Her 2 older children whom she could confide to as friends are away from home (one in KL and the other one overseas) and so Lin has been keeping everything inside her. If she didn’t talk to anyone about this, she could possibly one day simply break down. Talking things over with her ex-hubby is out of the question as all he’s interested in is having sex!

Lin told me of late she feels “dirty”, she feels unwanted (except by her gatal ex-hubby), she feels like nobody wants to sit anywhere near her (and it wasn’t even her fault she got infected with HIV!). Every time anyone looks at her, she thinks it’s because they look down on her. That was what happened at the HIV clinic today. She felt as though the people there were staring at her. Well, with her looking scared and almost at the verge of tears, I’m not surprised if people stared. I would probably do the same too, although I wouldn’t be making it too obvious.

Even sitting outside the HIV clinic, Lin felt as though those at the other end of the corridor (waiting to see other doctors for other ailments) were looking down on her in shame for being infected with HIV.

I told Lin it was just her feeling. Whenever I’m on clinic duty and I see any of my clients outside waiting to see the doctor, I would selamba-ly sit outside with them amongst the PLWHAs without feeling the slightest shame, without fear of what others may think if they see me there. I never felt as though anyone was staring at me.

Of course, it is much easier for me. I am not infected and so I couldn’t care less what others may think. When you are infected, you’d think people are thinking of things they are not even thinking of!

I told Lin there was nothing for her to be ashamed of. She was just a victim. I told her if she keeps on thinking negatively, her condition will deteriorate faster. She needs to be strong and she needs to think positively. I told her I was there for her and I’m willing to stand and sit by her without fear.

I know, I know… not easy for her but what else was I supposed to tell her? I wanted to hug her there and then but that would probably create more stares from the people around us!

After our lunch, we headed to Zainab’s house. Since I didn’t have the time to buy any tidbits for the kids, I tapau-ed some food for them from the stall where Lin and I had our lunch.

Zainab, who was expecting my visit, came out to greet us, with bedak sejuk all over her face. Zaki was not home as he went out to buy his cigarettes.

Kakak and adik (Zainab’s kids) were about to have lunch when we got there. Kakak looked much better. I introduced Lin and Zainab to each other. While Zainab did talk quite a bit, Lin on the other hand was rather quiet; unlike when she was alone with me. I guess she still did not quite trust others enough although by right she should feel more relaxed with Zainab who is a fellow PLWHA.

Anyway, Zainab related how she too felt depressed during the initial stages and that she managed to get over things and accepted the facts after thinking that she needed to be strong for her kids. I honestly hope that would at least give Lin some sort of motivation.

While on the way to send Lin back to the bus station, I asked Lin if her ex-hubby, Mr. DD, was still trying to tackle her. Well, this Romeo doesn’t seem to give up despite the “tiada harapan” answer he got during their earlier meet. Every time Lin tries to contact him to talk about the children, he’d call her sayang and the likes (nope, no darling with Lin… only with Yah) and would ask her if she’d like to go out with him. Usually when something crops up regarding the children, Lin would just give him a missed call and Mr. DD would immediately call back if the missed call came from Lin. But every time he calls, according to Lin he'd always try to menggatal.

Mr. DD did ask Lin for another favor. Whenever Lin needed to come for appointments in Ipoh GH, he asked her to tell SN that he and Lin are back together. Huh? What the *#@& for??!! You see, he was hoping someone at the HIV clinic would pass the story to Yah and hopefully after that Yah would stop calling him.

Oh for crying out loud! Couldn’t he himself tell Yah straight in the face that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Yah again?

Hmmm… come to think of it, maybe I’d just tell Yah that I heard Mr D wants to remarry his ex-wife. I wouldn’t be lying. Mr D really does in fact want to remarry his ex-wife. I don’t have to tell Yah the part about his ex-wife not wanting him back, kan?

Hehehehe…

Desperado...

As I was about to go to sleep on Monday night, a call came in on my hand phone. The call came from one of my aunts, telling me that my 94 year old grandma just passed away. So, off I went to my grandma’s house (which is less than 200 meters away).

Then as I was about to make all the necessary calls to relatives, I noticed there was a message on my hand phone that I had not read. The message was from Lin…

“Saya nak minta pendapat. Bekas suami datang tadi nak rujuk balik. Tolong bagi nasihat kat saya.”

Haiyo!! Mr. Darling now approaching Lin direct instead of going through their children to get her to remarry him…

Well, I was not about to crack my head thinking of the Yah-Lin-Dah-Ling drama that night. My own family comes first. I ignored that message and proceeded with whatever that needed to be done in relation to my grandmother’s death. I didn’t get even a minute of sleep that night.

The next day was another busy day with the preparations of my grandma’s funeral. Alhamdulillah, everything ran smoothly.

That night another text message came in; this time from Shila. She had just started a new combination of medication for her HIV and was feeling really weak. Although by then my grandma’s funeral was over, I was feeling really tired as I had not slept for more than 36 hours. I ignored that message too, as I did with Lin’s message. But unlike Lin who didn’t pursue further when she didn’t get any reply from me, Shila on the other hand sent me another message 15 minutes after her first message – asking me where I was and whether I received her earlier message. This time I replied her message telling her that my grandma passed away. And she then replied, apologizing to me.

Shila is not under my care, but her assigned buddy is on holiday overseas, while her co-buddy is celebrating CNY, which was why Shila decided to get hold of me instead. Too bad, wrong timing…

Actually I didn’t ignore Lin’s and Shila’s messages altogether. I just postponed responding to them. I had my priorities. Later when my family matters were settled, I decided to call them both to find out more.

Shila was feeling weak due to the effects of her medication. It is quite normal for those who just started taking their medication to feel weak, dizzy, nausea, etc. I told Shila not to worry. I know whenever she falls ill, Shila always start thinking that she’s dying soon.

Anyway, when I re-read Lin’s message, many thoughts crept into my mind.

Did Mr Darling manage to coax Lin to get back into his life? I thought Lin has made up her mind never to remarry him?

If Lin remarries Mr Darling, what would happen if Yah keeps on stalking him?

Will Mr Darling still look around for HIV positive candidates if Lin agrees to remarry him?

Alamak… peninglah ini macam!

So I called Lin to get the whole story.

That day, our Romeo went to visit his ex; asking her to go out with him to a coffee shop somewhere. He wanted to discuss some things with her. Thinking that the discussion would involve their children's well-being, Lin agreed. Her children were teasing her, “Fuyoo… mak pergi dating!” I’m not sure if they would still tease her like that if their mom went out with someone else instead of their father…

While on the motorbike on the way to the coffee shop, Mr D asked Lin if she’d like to follow him to his rented house (where he stays alone!). Lin’s first reaction was, “Buat apa? Buat dosa?!” So no, Mr D didn’t bring her to his house.

At the coffee shop, Mr D asked Lin to remarry him – under the pretext of “for the children’s sake”. He even told her he’d bring her to jalan-jalan to Thailand. THAILAND?! Lin smelled something fishy. All their married life, he never brought her holidaying anywhere, now he wants to bring her to Thailand?! Mau kawin lari ka??

Mr D kept on pleading, telling Lin that he’d follow whatever conditions set by Lin as long as she agrees to remarry him. Our Lin is quite cunning I must say. She told our Desperado Darling that she’d remarry him, take care of him, cook for him etc as long as he agrees NOT TO TOUCH HER! She knew that was THE one condition he couldn’t live with, and true enough, Mr D’s answer was, “Kalau syarat yang tu, beratlah!”

Since he didn’t agree to the condition, Lin’s answer was a clear NO. And our pathetic desperado’s response was, “Jadi tak ada harapan lah ni ya?”

First he wanted her to follow him to his rented house where he stays alone… then he wanted to bring her to Thailand… then he couldn’t agree to Lin’s condition that he shouldn’t lay his hands on her. It is obvious all he wanted was “that thing”.

Actually Lin and I were chuckling away while Lin told me the whole story. Thank goodness Lin was firm with her decision. The only reason she asked for my opinion and advice was that she didn’t have anyone to talk to on this matter and she was afraid she may have made the wrong decision.

After telling me the whole story and getting my support, she felt a whole load of burden off her shoulders. She said although she was determined to get on with life without him, she just needed someone to talk to about it, and she then thanked me for the few minutes I spent talking (actually more of listening) to her.

No problem at all… she can talk to me if she wants to… although sometimes (like this time) I may have to postpone my response.

I'm beginning to think about what would happen between Mr double D (desperado darling) and Yah now that Lin is firm with her decision not to get back into his life. Since Yah is also a desperado in her own way, will their relationship move on to another episode? What if Mr DD manages to get to know any of my other female clients and starts tackling them too? Will I have additional heroines in this mollywood movie?

Oh dear God...

The twist continues...

It was already 3 pm when I finished running some errands around town yesterday and so I thought I might as well go straight to the bus-station to wait for Lin. I told her earlier that I should be free after 2.30 pm and Lin promised she’d inform me once she reaches the bus station. Although she didn’t call yet by then, I didn’t want to get back into town. There’s always traffic jam in Ipoh town centre whenever it’s nearing Chinese New Year and the past few days were no exception.

So I just went straight to where we promised to meet up, got myself a parking space and waited in the car. Lin sent me a text message about 3.20 pm. I got down and walked to the nearby taxi stand where she promised to wait for me. Lin was surprised when I came from behind her as she was actually looking elsewhere expecting to see my car.

As I said, I didn’t want to get caught in the traffic jam in town, so we just walked to a nearby restaurant. Just like the first time we met, Lin simply ordered exactly what I ordered. So yesterday we had rojak pasembur and milo ais kurang manis…

This time Lin was even more relaxed than the first time she met me. I felt more relaxed too… we got along really well like we were old friends whereas we only got to know each other a month ago and this was just our second meet.

Lin works as a helper at a restaurant. She has never worked before this but this time she simply had to work because her ex-husband, Mr. Romeo Darling, is not consistent in giving money for the children who are staying with Lin. At the most he’d give the 4 children a total of RM300 for the whole month. Sometimes when they ask from him, he’d give only RM50. He always complained about not having enough money to give them. Hmmm… wonder where his salary usually goes to...

Now that he knows Lin is working, I bet it’ll even be harder to get any money from him. But as of yesterday, Lin had not got her salary yet. Hopefully by today she’d get it.

Actually originally it was Lin’s eldest daughter who applied for and got this job. But right when she got the job, the offer to continue her studies in a nursing college came. When she asked the employer if someone else could replace her, the taukeh simply said yes although Lin was initially not too confident about it… the person who got the job in the first place was a young lady half her age. Frankly I think Lin was the better person for the job… she had to wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, etc so she’d probably stick to the job longer. A younger person would probably quit soon enough to find another job. Lin may not be as young and energetic as her daughter, but at the same time she’s not too old either. Heck, she’s just 2 or 3 years younger than me and I am NOT OLD! Mature maybe, but not old. (Sebut betul-betul… MATURE… not MORE-TUA!)

As we were gossiping… oops… I mean chatting… naturally the topic of Mr. Darling came up. Recently Mr. Darling got ill and you know lah how some people can become so manja whenever they’re ill. Mr. D was no exception. He called his children asking them to take care of him at his mother’s house. Lin’s 3 older daughters are actually angry with their father for causing the mother to be infected with HIV, but Lin managed to convince them that no matter what happens, they still need to respect their father. And so yes, her eldest and 3rd daughter went to take care of him (her 2nd daughter is overseas). But these girls, who are so supportive of their mother, went back (after their father got better) and were giggling away telling their mother what their father told them. And what did their father tell them?

“Sebenarnya bukan tak ada orang nakkan abah ni, tapi abah masih sayangkan mak kamu.”

Haha… yah, right… I know the person who wants him so much but he’s the one who’s trying to avoid her… I’m sure you readers know who too, yah? ;)

Anyway, somehow Lin and I did end up talking about “this other woman” Mr. Darling had been seeing. Lin knows I know about her ex-husband and since she heard this other woman also has HIV, she figured I knew this other woman as well. But she’s not at all bothered. Except for the financial problems, Lin actually feels a lot better without Mr. Darling in her life. When I suggested to her that this other woman (I didn’t mention Yah’s name) was probably feeling lonely and enjoyed the attention given to her by Mr. Darling (at first lah), Lin agreed that her ex-husband is a soft-spoken person and THAT was probably his strong point in winning women’s hearts.

After some time, I decided to send Lin home so that next time I know how to get to her house on my own. The town she’s staying in is not that far from Mr. K’s place, so the next time I visit Mr. K’s family, I may visit Lin’s family too.

Lin and her children stay at her father’s house in a nice kampong environment. So at least she doesn’t have to worry about paying rental. Her only problem is that the house was transferred to her eldest brother’s name some time ago by their father (who now stays elsewhere with his new wife). Their father thought it was best to transfer the house to his eldest son whom he thought would be the best person to handle the family’s properties. Although the brother did not say it openly, he did confess to another sibling that he’d sell the house once his father dies.

Lin simply didn’t want to think that far ahead. To her, if need be, she’d just have to move out and look for another place to live in. Hopefully, if that ever happens, by then Lin would be more stable financially.

Judging from her character, I’m not worried about Lin’s reaction if she ever gets to meet Yah. I’m not sure how Yah would react though… apparently she’s still heads over heels over Mr. Romeo Darling…

Yep, I do have some updates on Yah after all… she has got herself a job too. Yah works as a helper at a restaurant.

JANGAN BETULKAN COMPUTER SCREEN ANDA.

You read that right. Lin works as a helper at a restaurant. Yah works as a helper at a restaurant. BOTH Lin and Yah work as helpers at restaurants. How much more coincidental can things get?!

But thank goodness they’re not working at the same restaurant. Lin works at a restaurant near her house while Yah works at a restaurant in Ipoh.

Yah actually have not told me yet that she found herself a job in Ipoh. I guess earlier on when she called me to talk about her problems with Mr. Darling, she was probably expecting me to advice her on how to find ways to get hold of him. I instead gave her a short lecture. I told her that if Mr. D changed his phone number he probably wasn’t interested in her. I told her she must think about her children’s well being. When she started going out for karaoke sessions and taking taxis instead of buses to travel out of town, and then sent me text messages telling me that she ran out of milk powder and diapers for her toddler, I decided to put the onus back on her.

I know for a fact that other than the monthly welfare aid she gets, an anonymous donor has also been banking in a fixed amount into her account every month. And since her 2 older daughters had gone to an orphanage since the beginning of this year, she has 2 less dependents. So I told her that the money banked in by the anonymous donor is meant to buy her children’s necessities and as such she should use the money to buy milk powder and diapers instead of asking from me.

The good thing that came out of it is that Yah has now found herself a job. But why did she specifically look for a job in Ipoh? Further away from her children? Her 2 older children had already gone to an orphanage and now she left her 2 younger children to stay with their grandparents?

As I said earlier, Yah had not told me about her new job. Ever since the lecture I gave her, she did not call or SMS as often as before. She knew I was upset with her. So how did I know about her latest development? Well, she started to call/SMS a male colleague of mine instead. This colleague of mine is the person in charge of our clients’ welfare and so he had been helping Yah with her welfare application earlier.

Recently Yah said she needed some help from this colleague of mine and so she wanted to meet up with him. And guess what? She somehow managed to get Mr. Darling’s new number (hendak seribu daya!) and when she met my colleague she gave him Mr. D’s new number and asked my colleague to call him to ask how he was. Mr. D had met my colleague before during one HIV clinic and so they knew each other.

Mr. D didn’t know that Yah was right beside my colleague when they were talking over the phone. My colleague just pretended like he didn’t know anything. Mr. D did ask if my colleague had met Yah. With Yah right beside him, my colleague just answered with either yes, no or I see…

No, Mr. D did not ask about Yah because he missed her. He actually told my colleague that he didn’t like Yah and asked my colleague if he could arrange to introduce him to other HIV positive women. He really needs a wife but Yah has been blacklisted!!!! Ooh la la… isn’t this the same guy who told his daughters he didn’t remarry because he still loves their mother? Oh boy! Now he wants my colleague to introduce him to other HIV positive women?

My colleague didn’t say anything much then, but when he related the story to me later, he said no way he was going to play match-maker!

Not long after my colleague’s call, Yah herself called Mr. D direct. I guess our romeo simply didn’t know how else to avoid her. Changed his phone number, she somehow managed to find ways and means to get the new number. Don’t ask me how. Maybe she hired a private investigator? Haha!

Initially it was Mr. Darling who proposed to Yah before even attempting to get to know her better. He called her in the middle of the night… calling her darling… bringing her for karaoke sessions… spoiling her rotten! Now that he realized he didn’t like Yah, it is Yah’s turn to stalk him! Should I just say PADAN MUKA? Muahahaha…

Whatever it is, I am still upset about the negative changes in Yah. Now that she’s staying alone in Ipoh, and all her children are being taken care of by other people, she’d probably be enjoying herself more. There’s a reason she specifically looked for a job in Ipoh without even attempting to look for a job at her hometown. I suspect she wants to get nearer to Mr. Da…da…da… daarrliiing!

Aiyo… apa mau jadi?!