“You’re the one who’s busy. I never think you’d have time for me.”

“When did I ever say—”

“Forget it, okay? I don’t want to talk about it.” Lina lit a cigarette and drew hard from it. She’d looked insouciant doing that at school, sometimes right outside the gates in defiance of the discipline mistress, but now she merely seemed anxious, and the nicotine was already leaving faint brown stains on her teeth and fingers.

Lina, Siew Li realised, wanted to be back at school, where confidence and swagger had been enough for prominence. Now there was actual work to be done, and it was Siew Li who was better at navigating labour regulations, Siew Li who was rising faster within the movement, unsuitable spouse notwithstanding.

Siew Li was doing well. She allowed herself a moment to acknowledge this, then asked Lina if she had to be home for dinner, or if she’d like to go for fish ball noodles on Chin Chew Street. They ended up ordering far too much food and picking at it for hours, gossiping about everyone else in the office. Lina, to her relief, found the ideological know-it-all men just as annoying. She wished they’d had this talk sooner.

That seemed to do the trick, at least enough that Lina and a handful of others showed up at her wedding, a small affair at Wesley Methodist. No banquet, they’d decided, just a sandwich buffet after—better to put the money towards their new flat, which was a stretch even with Jason’s family helping them.

Then there was no time to think of anything but the impending birth. Her mother came round every other day with tonics and strengthening foods, and she cut back on her days in the office as she became unfeasibly large. When her water broke, it was just like in the movies, pain and frantic joy all mixed as Jason rushed her to Kandang Kerbau in a taxi where, to their surprise, it turned out to be twins, so they needed both names after all. A boy and a girl. Henry and Janet.