Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

CHAPTER TWELVE
BOTANIC GARDENS, SINGAPORE
It was still dark when Colin and Nick entered the grounds of the Botanic Gardens. *1 They
followed to a tee the instructions in the mysterious letter that Nick had received—parking
in the Gleneagles Hospital parking lot and crossing Cluny Road to enter the gardens
through a little-known side gate. Just as the letter had said, the gate had been left
unlocked.
As they walked down the tree-lined pathway, monkeys could be heard chattering and
leaping through the bushes, no doubt alarmed by the sudden presence of humans in this
secluded part of the garden. “God, it’s been years since I’ve been here,” Nick commented.
“Why would you come here? You had your own private botanic gardens right next
door!” Colin said.
“Sometimes my dad and I would go on walks here, just for a change, and I only wanted
to go to the lake with the two islands in the middle. I called it my ‘secret island.’ Wait a
minute, let’s check the instructions again,” Nick said, unfolding the map that had been
placed inside the envelope. Colin held his iPhone up to provide some lighting, while Nick
peered at the map intently.
“Okay, the animal topiaries are over on the right, so I think we’re supposed to cut
through this grove of trees right here.”
“There isn’t any path,” Colin said.
“I know, but the arrow points down this way.”
Lit only by the light of their phones, they ventured into the thick of the forest, Colin
feeling a little creeped out. “It’s pitch-black in here. Why do I feel like I’m suddenly in The
Blair Witch Project?”
“Maybe we’ll run in to a pontianak,” *2 Nick joked.
“Don’t joke—a lot of people say that parts of the Botanic Gardens are haunted, you
know. I mean, the Japanese tortured and killed people all over the island.”
“Good thing we’re not Japanese,” Nick said.
Soon the trees gave way to a trail, and after following it for a few minutes, they came