The White Amah (2 page)

‘You’re making it sound like Dad doesn’t care what happens to me,’ said Crystal. ‘The only reason he’s letting me go is because he thinks it’s an unbelievable opportunity. Who knows what it might lead to: Broadway, Vegas, Hollywood … Mr Wong said there’s no way they’d have taken on a beginner if Lucy Andrews hadn’t sprained her ankle.’

‘Lucky you,’ said Tess, narrowing her eyes. ‘Have you told Taylor the news?’

Crystal Brooke and Taylor Ardross had been an item since year ten. Everyone thought of them as a pair: big, sturdy Taylor, captain of the school footy team, and stunning, talented Crystal. The school’s very own Romeo and Juliet.

‘I’ll tell him tonight.’

‘You better give him something to remember you by,’ said Tess. ‘There’ll be lots of girls wanting to hook up with him.’

‘And I suppose you’ll be first in line,’ accused Crystal.

‘Are the stars out tonight, I don’t care if it’s cloudy or bright, for I only have eyes for you, dear.’ Tess sang the Broadway hit in a sweet soprano, which seemed odd coming from the sharpfaced, surly teenager.

Crystal smiled. ‘Why don’t you wag school tomorrow? Come round to my house and I’ll tell you everything, and I do mean everything!’

Crystal could tell Taylor was riled the minute she got into the ‘sin bin’, Taylor’s nickname for the burnt orange panel van fitted out with shagpile carpet and a foam mattress.

‘When were you going to tell me? Were you going to send me a postcard from Singapore?’

‘I suppose Tess told you. It’s only for twelve weeks,’ she answered, embarrassed at losing the initiative.

‘Three months!’ he said. ‘I thought you were my girl.’

‘You know I am.’

‘If you love me you won’t go.’

‘I don’t know why you’re being so … unreasonable. You haven’t even begun to try to understand what it’s like to want something so badly you’d do anything to make it happen.’

Taylor winced as if he’d been kicked in the guts. Crystal
was the reason he’d turned down the offer from Collingwood Football Club to play for the Colts next season, even though he wasn’t sure if he’d be picked up by a local club.

He fixed her with a look loaded with disbelief and indignation. ‘If you go, we’re through.’

‘You’re not breaking up with me.’ Huge tears welled up in eyes of a hue as dark and inky as cloudless sky at midnight. ‘I don’t want us to end like this.’ She moved closer and kissed him softly on the neck, giving it a little flick with her tongue before moving up to his ear lobe and nibbling it gently.

Taylor knew he was lost if he kissed her back. ‘Damn you, Crystal,’ he said, too aroused to hold out, and he brought his lips down fiercely on hers. ‘Let’s get in the back’ he whispered. Once they’d made love she’d forget about show business.
Right
.

C
RYSTAL ARRIVED IN
S
INGAPORE IN HIGH SPIRITS.
On the plane the young British stock trader in the next seat had tried his best to impress the beautiful blond dancer and kept the bubbly coming. She giggled her goodbyes dizzily, teetering on high-heeled platform shoes. The hotel driver was waiting in the arrival lounge holding up a sign with her name on it. He helped her load her baggage into the mini bus.

This was Crystal’s third visit to Singapore and she felt like a seasoned traveller. The first time she’d stayed at the Raffles, the most luxurious hotel in the Lion City. There was a photograph with her as a small girl with her parents in the hotel’s foyer in front of a magnificent Christmas tree. She kept it hidden in the bottom drawer of her dressing table because her father didn’t like to have photos of his ex-wife on show.

When she was older her father had forked out for a cruise aboard the
Pacific Queen
operating out of Singapore, not just for Crystal but for her aunt, uncle and cousins as well. While they were in Singapore they stayed at the Shangrila, just a short walk from Orchard Road, Singapore’s premier shopping precinct. Every day she and her aunt hit the malls and bought up big time: fabulous clothes and shoes to die for. What did it matter if Dad and his latest girlfriend were skiing in Aspen when she was having so much fun?

It was raining when the mini bus turned into the Cathay
Hotel in Changi Village, not far from the airport. Crystal looked at the hotel entrance. Usually a major-domo, neatly dressed in an immaculate uniform, held the door open for her like she was a princess and looked after her luggage. But there was no one in sight. Uncertain whether to scream or stamp her foot, Crystal lugged her suitcase inside. Her heart sank. She could only hope there’d been a mistake. The dim, dingy foyer was as congested as a Tokyo train station at peak hour.

A harassed reservation clerk was checking out a party of Japanese businessmen. They gawped when they spotted the blond babe in the skin-tight velvet pants. As one, they took out their cameras. For a moment Crystal considered turning round and heading back to the airport, but she couldn’t turn tail. How would she face her father and friends?

Twenty-five minutes later, when the Muslim clerk condescended to check her in, Crystal was fuming but she didn’t know that Jimmy Wong had a long-standing arrangement with the management. All his acts stayed at the Cathay at a very substantial discount, too low to demand much in the way of service.

She found her room on the eighth floor. It was a family room popular with the parents of large families. What a dump, she thought. All right, her bedroom at home often resembled a tip, but this was something else. The original beds had been replaced by bunk beds; that way Jimmy only had to shell out for one room. It looked like the combined wardrobes of five fashion victims were either hanging out of drawers, strewn haphazardly on the floor or piled up on the beds. The open door of a miniscule bathroom revealed a vanity covered with a conglomeration of cosmetics and hair products. Damp underwear hung from a line over the bath. The smell of cheap perfume was overpowering.

Crystal went over to the window and tried to open it but it was sealed shut.

‘Who the hell are you?’

Crystal spun round and gaped as the cabaret star sauntered into the bedroom like a Sultan’s prized
houri.

‘I’m Crystal Brooke from Perth in Western Australia. Didn’t Mr Wong let you know I was arriving today?’ Blushing, she averted her eyes. She thought the naked woman should have felt awkward, but it was Crystal who felt vulnerable and seriously intimidated.

‘Are all those cases yours?’ The statuesque showgirl surveyed Crystal’s gear coldly and kicked her night bag out of the way. ‘This place is already like a sardine tin.’

Acting as if Crystal wasn’t there, she shrugged on a peach-and-black satin kimono, knotted it tightly round her diminutive waist and tied back her long blond hair in a scrunchy. Without a scrap of makeup, and with a nasty sneer pasted on her face, she was still the most stunning woman Crystal had ever set eyes on.

‘Give the kid a break,’ said a friendlier voice from the top bunk. A tousled blond head emerged from under the duvet. ‘Hi, I’m Melanie, and Miss Congeniality is Imelda.’ She swung shapely legs, toned and tanned, over the side of the bed and jumped down. ‘You’re probably hanging out for a cup of tea and a bickie. That was Lucy’s bed,’ she said, picking a mess of clothes off the bed and dropping them on the floor. ‘Push your case under the bunk,’ she instructed on the way to the bathroom to fill up the jug.

Dizzy from champagne, lack of food and the shock of finding out that she was expected to live in such sordid conditions, Crystal wondered if it was worth even unpacking. She glanced at her wristwatch. It was ten to eleven, recess. Back home she’d be on
the oval watching the guys play football. Normally Taylor would be looking around, hoping she was watching, and he’d kick the ball out of play just to have an excuse to be close to her.

Melanie noticed Crystal’s glum expression. ‘It’ll seem better once you’ve had a shower and a cuppa.’ She sashayed up to the sofa, endless legs exposed in an impudently short skirt. Carefully, she put down a tea tray set with surprisingly delicate teacups. ‘I was a waitress at Fat Joey’s when I met Jimmy,’ Melanie said, chatting as easily as if Crystal were an old friend. ‘I tell myself I got hired on the strength of the jazz ballet classes I took back in Oz, but to tell you the truth, kiddo, it was the size of my tits.’ She winked and lit up a cigarette.

‘Cow!’ It was said mildly; Imelda came equipped with her own set of dangerous curves. She sat down, lit a cigarette and blew a perfect smoke ring. Then she started firing questions at the newcomer. ‘If we’re going to be sharing a bath, I want to know who the hell you are.’

Crystal found herself telling two women she’d known for less than thirty minutes things she hadn’t talked about with anyone: how she felt about her mother, the woman who’d run away; and her busy father and his succession of stylish career women, none of whom lasted more than six months. And she showed them the snapshot with Taylor taken at the school ball. She bragged a bit about being picked for the lead in the school Eisteddfod, but when Imelda asked what her father was thinking of, letting her travel to Asia on her own, she decided she’d said enough.

‘Can’t we talk about you now?’ she said to Imelda.

Crystal’s eyes became rounder and rounder as Imelda told her about the clubs and casinos where she’d topped the bill, the celebrities she’d dated and the expensive gifts from rich admirers,
and Crystal blushed remembering how she’d boasted about a mere school production.

Imelda exhaled a lazy plume of smoke with a distant look in her eyes. ‘You’ve no idea what it was like performing at the Lido in Vegas on the same bill as Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow.’

‘Too right!’ said Melanie. ‘I’ve got a whole lot to learn about show business and that’s why I love listening to you talk about the old days, Imelda. I bet Crystal feels the same,’ she added and winked mischievously.

Imelda’s response was lost as a Boeing 747 took off from Changi Airport.

‘You’ll get used to it,’ shouted Melanie.

But Crystal didn’t think she ever would. This wasn’t what she had signed up for: sharing a crowded room with two women who were, well, not really respectable. She was wondering if the unhelpful clerk would call her a taxi when the door opened and Jimmy Wong rushed in like a mini tsunami.

‘Aiyoh! Welcome to Singapore,’ he said breathlessly, flicking ash onto the stained carpet. ‘Did you have a good flight? I hope the girls have made you welcome, lah. I apologise for not picking you up in person but I’ve been out to lunch with Suzy Chang from
The Straits Times.
She’s set up a photo shoot to publicise the dragonboat races. Get into your glad rags, girls, we’re off on jet boat trip round the harbour.’ He laughed, showing off stained, gold-filled molars.

He looked so pleased with himself that Crystal felt slightly ashamed. So what if she had to rough it, she was only just starting out. Her dark eyes flickered over Imelda and Melanie, who were talking together. They weren’t the kind of people she was used to
mixing with, but all the same they obviously knew their way around; she’d watch and learn from them. There was one thing she knew for sure: she wouldn’t still be in the chorus when she was their age.

Jimmy looked round the room. His fleshy lips drew together, his jaw dropped and he picked up the phone. ‘This is Jimmy Wong, room eight-eight-eight. Send a housemaid to tidy up immediately,’ he ordered. ‘And some fruits. Make it jolly quick, lah.’ He slammed down the phone. ‘Wear the white cancan costumes with the ostrich feather headbands and bird of paradise tails,’ he said, already opening the door. ‘Be ready in an hour. That’s
one
hour, lah.’ He looked at Imelda sternly. ‘Where are the others?’

Imelda and Melanie exchanged glances. ‘Out shopping,’ they said in unison.

‘Aiyoh! Call them on their hand phones. Tell them to get back here pretty damn quick. Wah, so much pressure,’ he said and swept out of the room.

‘How the hell are we going to get hold of them,’ Melanie said, running her hands through her curls. ‘If I know Tracey she’ll have turned her mobile off.’

‘Who gives a damn?’ said Imelda. ‘It’ll be their own fault if they get kicked out. They know the score.’

For the next ten minutes Melanie showed signs of intense anxiety, jumping up every time she heard footsteps in the corridor. After Crystal caught her checking her watch for the umpteenth time, a warning bell went off in her head.

‘I’m sorry,’ Crystal said, her voice deliberately casual, ‘I don’t mean to pry but can someone tell me what’s going on … please?’

Melanie looked at her for a long time, wondering how much
to tell her, how much she already knew. ‘The thing is, the girls are probably with their boyfriends and we’re not supposed to date the punters. Jimmy says it cheapens our image. ’

Imelda stubbed out her cigarette in her saucer. Balancing as easily as an acrobat on one leg, she grasped her other leg by the ankle and pulled it straight up above her head. Holding on to her ankle, she began to spin like a dervish. Suddenly she bent over and threw up the hem of her robe to reveal a very white, shapely behind.

‘High class, that’s us.’ She winked lewdly, her wicked face grinning from between her legs at the younger woman’s shocked face.

Crystal spluttered as her tea went down the wrong way. She’d been mooned!