A few weeks later, Siew Li was running some errands on Orchard Road when she ran into Mollie outside Robinson’s, holding hands with a boy, both of them still in their school uniforms. She was mid-laugh, her face more open than Siew Li had ever seen it. Mollie blanched, but then quickly recovered and, with the immaculate manners of a convent girl, introduced her companion. The boy had a cocky grin, Eurasian by the look of him, and told her to call him Barn, “or Barnaby if you’re feeling formal.” He offered his hand like a diplomat.

At the next Low family dinner, Siew Li casually asked Uncle Roger—as she was learning to call Jason’s dad—whether he approved of student romances, and he said most certainly not, he believed schoolboys and girls should focus on their studies, and Mollie would definitely not be doing anything of that sort till she finished Form Six. Mollie held her gaze steady, but there was a ripple of panic in her eyes, and that was all Siew Li needed. She bent her head demurely over her soup, and said no more.

Somehow, that was all it took for Siew Li and Mollie to become friends, or at least friendly. They went on a cautious shopping expedition, but predictably enough they turned out to have completely different tastes and budgets. Despite the lack of common ground, Siew Li was fond of Mollie’s warmth and spiky sense of mischief, now that she could see it beneath the smooth exterior. When Siew Li found out she was pregnant, she and Jason told Mollie first, and they spent a long time discussing how best to break it to the parents.

•

When she announced she was going to marry Jason, her mother said, “I hope he improves his Chinese, so he can address me properly.” But then she added, “He’ll treat you well.” Which was something like approval. And who wouldn’t approve of Jason? His neat haircut, his steady job. People seemed to assume she would give up work and just be a married woman, but she didn’t think she could do that, and he never asked her to.

Jason’s parents were ecstatic. Uncle Roger grabbed his son’s hand and pumped it up and down, beaming. Auntie Mabel started talking about the dress—of course they’d have to do it soon, before she started showing, but even then corsetry would be necessary. To her relief, they appeared completely unscandalised at their grandchild’s illegitimacy, though this would be obvious to anyone who could do basic arithmetic.

Once the process was set in motion, she had little to do but submit to it. Without any discussion, it was decided that the Lows would pay for the wedding, and that therefore it would take place in their church, though Jason would go through a tea ceremony with Siew Li’s mother if it made her happy. There were meetings with the priest to be endured. They’d never discussed Jason’s religion—it was just something he did on Sundays—but now she understood that as the wife, she would be expected to attend services with him, and that this child would be baptised. When she mentioned this to her mother, the only response was a shrug. “You marry a rooster, live like a rooster; marry a dog, live like a dog. That’s how it is.”