Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

Eddie was annoyed to see that his parents had gone outside too, and he was determined
that he would under no circumstances join them. Thank goodness Fiona had taken the
kids to the zoo, otherwise they would surely want to be part of this idiocy and make the
Aakaras feel like they were truly hot shit. He ducked out of view and hid in the service
hallway, waiting for everyone to come upstairs, knowing it was always the custom at
Tyersall Park for guests to be served iced longan tea in the drawing room when they first
arrived. Two waiters passed by rolling cocktail trolleys filled with glassware and large
silver samovars of tea, mystified by Eddie lurking in the hallway. He glared at them and
hissed, “You didn’t see me! I’m not here!”
When Eddie began to hear voices coming up the stairs, he ambled into the drawing
room with his hands nonchalantly tucked into the pockets of his salmon-colored
Rubinacci trousers. Auntie Cat was the first to arrive at the top of the grand staircase,
chattering away excitedly with his mother in that distinctive convent-schoolgirl lilt of
hers. *2 “What a surprise to see you and Malcolm out front! I thought you weren’t arriving
until this evening?”
“That was the plan, but Eddie managed to fly all of us down on a private jet yesterday.”
“Wah, gum ho maeng!” *3 Catherine remarked, as a waiter approached them bearing a
silver tray filled with tall glasses of iced longan tea.
Eddie studied his aunt for a moment as she sat down on a divan next to his mother,
marveling at how different the sisters looked. Auntie Cat’s stocky, athletic physique was
enviable for a woman in her seventies, and in such contrast to his other aunties with their
bony, aristocratically malnourished frames. Unfortunately, she did take after her sisters
in her fashion sense—on a charitable day, Eddie might have politely described her style as
“eccentric.” Today, she just looked god-awful in that boxy purple silk pantsuit, obviously
tailor-made and obviously several decades old, mud-colored Clarks open-toed walking
sandals, and the same pair of Sophia Loren bluish-tinted bifocals he had seen her wear for
decades.
Catching sight of him, Catherine exclaimed, “My goodness, Eddie, I hardly recognized
you. You look like you’ve lost a bit of weight!”
“Thank you for noticing, Auntie Cat! Yes, I’ve lost about twenty pounds in the past
year.”
“Good for you! And your mother tells me you flew the whole family down yesterday?”
“Well, I was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos as an official delegate and
my client Mikhail Kordochevsky—you know, one of Russia’s richest men—insisted that I
borrow his Boeing Business Jet when he heard about Ah Ma’s heart attack. And you
know, it’s such a huge plane, I thought it was a pity that I was the only passenger. So
instead of flying straight to Singapore, we made a detour to Hong Kong so I could pick up
the whole family.”
Catherine turned to her sister. “You see, Alix, I don’t know what you keep complaining
about—your son is so thoughtful!”
“Yes, very thoughtful,” Alix added, trying to block out the memory of Eddie screaming