39Kan Jieh looks at me sharply, and reaches for my hand. Holding it firmly, the old amah traces the lines across my right palm.
“You see these lines, Miss Ping? Your destiny is in these lines. Your birth was an accident.”
“Why didn’t Ah-ku tell me? Why did she tell you and not me, Kan Jieh? How did she meet my father?”
“Aye, Miss Ping, your generation asks too many questions. My generation and Madam’s ne’er questioned our elders like this. My poor Madam…”
Kan Jieh’s eyes grow distant. Outside the pavillion, the sky is a brilliant blue. The fierce white afternoon heat and high humidity has bathed us in sweat.
“After her mother died, Madam’s father, that good-for-nothing, sold her to Sum Koo who owned a brothel. When the Japanese bombed Singapore, and the gwai-lo English left, Sum Koo’s
