Auntie talked about Winston as we ate dinner. “Aya, jin hao se, so young and yet a life already wasted.”

Uncle Stephen sighed. “Gao liao, enough already.”

“You give up on your only son so easily,” Auntie growled back. “If you were a good father, he would be here. He would not be stateless. He would be Canadian.”

“Aya, Choo Neo,” Mother said. “He’s got permanent residence in Brunei. He’s not without status. You should be proud of him. He has started his own business. He’s building his future. He’s not living in a long house with the Iban.”

Auntie Choo Neo scoffed, surprised that my mother would dare challenge her. “He might as well be with the orangutans in Temburong on the Brunei River! How can you think he has a future when he is nobody! His car dealership is like that plastic bag blowing in the wind. It’s flying high now towards the clouds, but once it falls, it will be treated like the garbage it really is.”

“Choo Neo, at least you know we’re safe in Canada,” Uncle Stephen reminded his wife. “Thanks to Ah Loy’s foresight to sponsor all of us, we are not without status.”

Auntie Choo Neo turned to Father. “Yes, Ah Loy is a dutiful brother. But what good is it for us to be here when my son is languishing back home?”

“It’s never too late,” Father said. “You should continue to talk to Winston, put some sense in him.”

Mother laughed bitterly. “Time will tell if there is any sense in moving here. What would Winston do here? Work in the mine with you and Stephen, Ah Loy? He’s running his own business back home, driving a nice car, and living in a nice house that is being cleaned by an amah. He’s his own boss, and he has youth on his side. That is more than I can say for the two of you.”

Father shifted in his seat, set down his satay, and pushed his plate towards the centre of the table. “You envy Winston, Swee Hua,” he said, “but his life is a house of cards. He relies on a Malay to even have his business. His name is not on the ownership papers. Everything he has built could be taken away just like that. One day, a storm will come, and everything will tumble down. No amount of money could help him crawl out from under the rubble and rebuild. If I were Winston, I would ask, ‘Why would I put my life and that of my children’s at risk?’” Father wiped his mouth with his napkin and continued. “We are nothing to those in power. They don’t recognize you. They don’t look at you. They can discard you and kick you out. Winston, like all of us stateless people, is expendable, and I don’t want to wait for the day when my life and the lives of my children come crashing down. I’m sorry, Choo Neo, but you do have reason to worry. If I were his father, I would drag him out of that jungle and bring him here.”