Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

“Calm down, calm down. No one is going to take you away,” Mrs. Khoo said
soothingly, putting her arms around him. The tension that had been bottled up all
evening came out, and he began sobbing uncontrollably.
Half an hour later, as he sat on a barstool in the upstairs library, enjoying a vanilla
root beer float with Colin, Philip and Eleanor Young arrived at the Khoo residence. He
could hear their polite tones as they talked to Winifred Khoo in the drawing room
downstairs.
“Naturally, our boy overreacted. I think his imagination got away with him.” He could
hear his mother laughing, speaking in that English accent of hers that she put on
whenever she was talking to Westerners.
“All the same, I think he should probably just spend the night here,” Winifred Khoo
said.
Just then, another car could be heard pulling up the front driveway. Colin turned on
the television, which flickered a security-camera screen that revealed a stately black
Mercedes 600 Pullman limousine arriving at the front door. A tall uniformed Gurkha
jumped out and opened the passenger door.
“It’s your Ah Ma!” Colin said excitedly, as the boys rushed to the banister to peek at
what was going on downstairs.
Su Yi entered the house, with two Thai lady’s maids trailing behind her, and Nick’s
nanny, Ling Jeh, suddenly also appeared, clutching three big boxes of mooncakes. Nick
figured that Ling Jeh must have alerted his grandmother to what had happened at his
house. Even though she now worked for his parents, her ultimate loyalty was always to
Su Yi.
Su Yi, wearing her trademark tinted glasses, was dressed in a chic rose-colored linen
pantsuit with a ruffled high-necked blouse, looking as if she had just come from
addressing the UN General Assembly. “I must apologize for inconveniencing you like
this,” he heard his grandmother say to Winifred Khoo in perfect English. Nick had no
idea his grandmother could speak English so well. He saw his parents standing off to the
side with stunned, chastened looks on their faces.
Ling Jeh handed Winifred the towering stack of square tin boxes.
“My goodness, the famous mooncakes from Tyersall Park! This is much too generous
of you!” Winifred said.
“Not at all. I am so appreciative of your calling me. Now, where’s Nicky?” his
grandmother asked. Nick and Colin ran back into the library, pretending they had heard
nothing until they were summoned downstairs by Colin’s nanny.
“Nicky, there you are!” his grandmother said. She put her hand on his shoulder and
said, “Now, say thank you to Mrs. Khoo.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Khoo. Good night, Colin,” he said with a grin, as his grandmother
guided him out the front door and into the Mercedes. She climbed in after him, and Ling
Jeh also got in, sitting on the folding seat in the middle row of the stretch limousine with
the Thai lady’s maids. As the car door was about to shut, his father came rushing out.