Both Mei Lin and Mei Hang were with Ho Wang’s wife in their room. Mei Hang was holding Wai Kwan’s baby. The chubby little child looked like Lee Chang, and had his father’s sparkling eyes. He would be passed from one lap to the other like a doll. As soon as he saw a known face, his own would light up with a bright happy toothless smile. While Ho Wang’s wife concentrated on stitching the garments that Mei Lin had cut out for her, Yiu Yi arrived there with her playmates, a rag-doll in her hand. She had received a letter from her mother and was feeling much happier now. But even so, she was nothing like the lively child she had been in Makum.

‘Look, I’ve made myself a doll,’ said Yiu Yi.

Surfacing from her misery, Mei Lin looked up at Yiu Yi.

She was wearing a shabbily stitched off-white dress made of markin cloth. Her silky black hair now hung limp and ragged. Her deep black eyes looked lifeless and her soft golden skin had tanned in the heat of the harsh sun. She looked like a doll that was old and frayed.

‘What are you wearing?’ Mei Hang asked.

‘Grandma has stitched it. Don’t you like it?’

‘No, I don’t. When our lovely doll wears such clothes, how can I like it? Don’t wear this again.’

‘But the dress I came here in is torn.’

‘There are better clothes available in the canteen, Yiu Yi.’

‘But they are very costly. Besides, there are so many children in our family, and everyone needs clothes. How can grandma buy material just for me? It’s really alright, ache – what’s the point of wearing good clothes in the jail anyway?’

Unable to bear her words, Mei Hang changed the topic and asked, ‘Why have you come out in the scorching sun?’

‘We were playing inside. We came running to meet Mei Lin ache as soon as we got to know she was here.’

Mei Lin drew Yiu Yi close to her and asked the other children to sit down.

‘How do you like my doll, Mei Lin ache?’

Taking the doll from Yiu Yi’s hand, she examined it for a while and said, ‘It’s beautiful. When did you make it?’

‘I made it today. I have taken a piece of cloth from Yunlin ache’s baby clothes. But there is something else I need.’

‘And what does our fairy need?’ Mei Lin asked.

‘Can you give me a bit of vermillion? I’ll draw her lips with it. I drew her eyes with the black remains of a burned candle. How do you like her eyes?’

‘They are lovely. Will you let me do her lips for you?’

‘Yes.’