“You forget. Mrs. Wu is an actress.”
“Was an actress.”
“Is an actress. They never forget. Like bicycles, elephants.”
As the car pulled up outside the Raffles, Wong leaped from the passenger seat and sprinted through the lobby and into the ballroom.
He arrived puffing to find the room full of raised voices. It was clear that people had now realized that Abbot Sin Sar’s stricture meant the race would be unlikely to go ahead at all.
Lim Cheong Li was onstage, trying to maintain order.
The feng shui master marched up the tiny stage staircase and took the microphone from him. “So sorry, Mr. Lim,” he said. “Must just fix this small small problem for you.” C.F. Wong tapped the microphone hard, twice. Then he started speaking: “Excuse me, rich people, sponsors, businessmen, and et ceteras, I want to say something.”
He continued to tap the microphone and call for attention. The crowd’s attention was eventually caught by the skeletal man on stage with the thick Chinese accent. Conversations died down.
“Ancient Chinese legend says exactly what Abbot Sin Sar said,” Wong explained. “The first shall be last and the last shall be first. I know this is also in the Bible. But Bible originally was Chinese, as everyone knows. As Sin Sar says, whichever car crosses the line first will be declared the loser. Whichever car crosses the line last will be declared the winner. But Sin Sar forgot to say one important thing: Chinese legend says that racing-horse riders should ride each other’s horses. This is the traditional way.”
He glanced down at an event program before continuing. “So Mr. Emerson Brahms will drive the car belonging to Mr. Andreletti Nelson. And the vice will be versa. Mr. Andreletti Nelson will drive the car belonging to Mr. Emerson Brahms. The car which crosses the line last will be the winning car. This is the Buddhist way. This is the Singapore way. This is the best way. Thank you. Goodbye and good night.”
There was silence. People took a few seconds to ponder the implications of the change he had outlined. Slowly, the room broke into laughter and applause.
As Wong carefully climbed down the steps from the stage, he wondered how long it would take for the drivers themselves to realize what his proposal meant. If Brahms and Nelson were driving each other’s cars, each would do his damndest to try to get that car into the most UNdesirable position: first place. Each would drive with as much speed and skill as he could muster. And there was a certain Zen quality about the paradox that would give the race a truly Asian flavor.
The heavens had been right when they guided Wong to select Sin Sar.
Lim saw immediately that it would work. He followed Wong offstage. “Nice going, feng shui master. Let me buy you a drink.”
“I like iced tea,” Wong said. “But no ice cubes.”
About the Contributors
Monica Bhide’s work has appeared in Food & Wine, the New York Times, Parents, Bon Appetit, Saveur, and many other publications. Her food essays have been included in the Best Food Writing anthologies (2005, 2009, and 2010). She has published three cookbooks, the latest being Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen. In 2012, the Chicago Tribune picked her as one of seven noteworthy food writers to watch.
Colin Cheong was born in Singapore in 1965 and graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1988. His debut novel, The Stolen Child, was awarded the Highly Commended Fiction in English Award by the National Book Development Council of Singapore in 1990. His novella Tangerine was awarded the Singapore Literature Prize in 1996, and he also won the Merit Award in that competition for his novella The Man in the Cupboard in 1998.
Damon Chua is a playwright, poet, and film producer. His plays are published by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus, and his poetry by Ethos Books. A recipient of grants from UNESCO, Durfee Foundation, and the Singapore Film Commission, Chua is a lover of film noir and is delighted to be a part of this collection. His grandfather once operated a pig farm in Mandai village, a stone’s throw from Woodlands.
Dave Chua’s first novel, Gone Case, received a Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996. Gone Case: A Graphic Novel, Book 1 and Book 2 — with the artist Koh Hong Teng — were recently published. Chua’s latest book, The Beating and Other Stories, was longlisted for the 2012 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
Colin Goh writes and illustrates Dim Sum Warriors, the multiplatform children’s graphic novel series that Fast Company named one of the Top 10 Coolest Original Digital Comics of 2012. He also wrote and directed Singapore Dreaming, a feature film that won the Montblanc Screenwriters Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Best Asian Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Philip Jeyaretnam is a novelist and short story writer, whose first book, First Loves, topped Singapore’s Sunday Times best-seller list for eighteen months. His novel Abraham’s Promise was described by the New York Times as a “novel of regret for actions not taken and words unspoken, eloquent in the spareness of its prose and the gradual unveiling of the narrator’s self-deception.” Jeyaretnam has chaired the Singapore Writers’ Festival since 2007.
Johann S. Lee is the London-based author of a triptych of novels (Peculiar Chris, To Know Where I’m Coming From, Quiet Time) depicting the experiences of gay men in Singapore, where homosexual acts remain criminal under the country’s penal code. “Current Escape” is his second short story.
Suchen Christine Lim’s latest novel is The River’s Song. The winner of the Southeast Asia Write Award 2012, her other novels include Rice Bowl, A Bit of Earth, and Fistful of Colours, which won the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize. Other published works are The Lies That Build a Marriage, Hua Song: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora, and fourteen children’s books. Awarded a Fulbright fellowship, she was an international writing fellow and writer in residence at the University of Iowa.
Lawrence Osborne is the author most recently of The Wet and the Dry and the novel The Forgiven, both published by Hogarth in New York. His short story “Volcano” was selected for Best American Short Stories 2012. Born in England, he lives in Bangkok.
S. J. Rozan is the Edgar Award — winning author of fourteen novels and three dozen short stories. She’s also half of the thriller-writing team of Sam Cabot. She lives in New York City but travels widely and her goal is to write at least one story set in each place she’s touched down. She loves Singapore, especially for its food.