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The Riot Act

Sebastian Sim
Chapters (21)
  1. The Riot Act
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Part One
  4. Chapter 1
  5. Chapter 2
  6. Chapter 3
  7. Part Two
  8. Chapter 4
  9. Chapter 5
  10. Chapter 6
  11. Part Three
  12. Chapter 7
  13. Chapter 8
  14. Chapter 9
  15. Part Four
  16. Chapter 10
  17. Chapter 11
  18. Chapter 12
  19. Epilogue
  20. About the Author
  21. Acknowledgements

The Riot Act

Sebastian Sim

ISBN: 978-981-47-8575-4
First Edition: April 2018
© 2018 by Sebastian Sim

Author photo by Eng Chun Pang. Used with permission.
Cover art and design by Yong Wen Yeu
Published in Singapore by Epigram Books
www.epigrambooks.sg
All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

  • Part One
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Part Two
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6
  • Part Three
  • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9
  • Part Four
  • Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
  • Epilogue
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgements

Part One

ALSO FROM THE EPIGRAM BOOKS FICTION PRIZE

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Misdirection by Ning Cai

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2015

Now That It’s Over by O Thiam Chin (Winner)

Let’s Give It Up for Gimme Lao! by Sebastian Sim

Death of a Perm Sec by Wong Souk Yee

Sugarbread by Balli Kaur Jaswal

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To my brother

Part One

A Hairy Situation

Chapter 1

Hashwini worried, in retrospect, if she had triggered the Little India riot of 2013. If so, Rodrigo would have to share the blame.

Rodrigo was a sleek and handsome stray cat with a docked tail that roamed the neighbourhood where Hashwini and her grandmother lived. One rainy night several months before, the bengal cat had followed Hashwini home, then lapped up the saucer of kopi susu she had laid out for him and decided to stay. Hashwini’s grandmother checked for fleas, did not find any, and so gave her stamp of approval. She was going to call him, simply, Cat. Hashwini vetoed this. It had to be named after her Brazilian idol, Rodrigo Santoro. No other name would do.

Rodrigo’s inexplicable urge to topple containers and dinnerware off the edges of counters made itself known quickly. Her grandmother would leave a plate of briyani on the dining table, but as soon as her back was turned, a crash would follow. Hashwini would step into her room and find her bottles of nail polish underneath the dressing table, cracked and leaking. Even a pot of simmering broth left to cool on the stove did not deter him. Rodrigo had a metaphorical itch to scratch, and the exasperated chiding from Hashwini and her grandmother fell on deaf ears. There was no taming the new male in their household.