Georgia took in a heavy breath and pressed down the handle bar to open the door. It was a homecoming that she had planned for years in advanced, just that it was happening right in front of her. George was on a private jet, heading to Hong Kong for a business meeting. Then, he too would be home. Hope all the education fees that they had paid for the girl coming up the stairs with her suitcase was worth it.
The room was just as she remembered many years ago. But just as she predicted, the bed had shrunk, so was the full body-length mirror by the wardrobe. She used to see her entire body in the mirror, but even after bending her legs to lower her body, she couldn’t see her face in it. She sighed and wondered if the bathtub would still fit her at all as Malee entered the room with the suitcase.
“On the bed” said Georgia. Malee nodded and placed the suitcase on the bed, while kicking a roll of dust under the bed. The room was last cleaned the week before the unexpected return by the owner. Georgia took off the sunglass on her head and put it down on the table. She then walked over to the bed and threw herself on it like she used to. It was good to be home, she thought. Her life was much better overseas, but she felt a strange sense of relief being surrounded by the familiar people in an old house.
She wondered if George would feel the same way too when he had come home from the 6 stars hotels and private jets round the world for the past several years after the graduation. As for the girl standing in front of the bed, with her eyes down on the ground and her hand in-front, hopefully she had earned her first class degree as reported by the professor. Georgia jumped out of the bed and opened the suitcase on it. There were several paper bags in the suitcase, use of plastic was frowned upon in overseas where she came from.
“I am hungry. Get me something to eat and also call Mary up here.” said Georgia. Malee nodded quickly and went out of the room, towards the staircase and then to the kitchen. If she was like the same Georgia that Malee remembered years ago, she would like a thinly sliced sandwich with cheese and cucumber and coffee. But she needed to tell Mary first, so she picked up the phone at the side of the kitchen door and pressed the number to the servants’ house.
“Malee here. Is Mary there?” said Malee. She held on to the phone for a while before she heard a familiar voice on the other side.
“Yes Malee?”
“Georgia is back.” said Malee, and she heard the phone handle dropped on the floor. She wondered if Mary had a shock from the news, or she was running towards the house. She quickly finished the meal she was preparing and then check up on Mary. The sandwich was prepared quickly and so was the tea, just the right amount of milk and sugar as Georgia had shown her. Hopefully, she kept the taste, Malee thought, as she put the teacup and the sandwich plate on the silver platter out of the kitchen, to Georgia’s room.
She needed to hurry to hand over the meal to Georgia to check on Mary because Mary was already in the room with Georgia, hugging and crying. Georgia signaled Malee to play the meal on the table and leave the room. Malee nodded and carried the actions out silently so as not to disturb them. She slowly closed the door and went down the staircase to the main entry where John was scratching, while walking around the car he had not seen before.
Just like Malee, John knew the drill. Anyone other than the family or a few of the trusted servants couldn’t open the gate, and the guards were told to stop anyone from coming in without explicit approval. Since he had not heard from his parents nor from anyone of the guests arriving, he couldn’t figure out how could a car get into the gate with no one raising the alarm.
“How did it get to here?” asked John, still scratching his head. He had just came back from the garden with a new variety of flowers so was shirtless with sweat drenching all over his body. But they would have informed him in advanced if there were guests arriving. So it was a mystery to him, and why his mother was seen running to the house, and also why Malee was smiling. He wasn’t a thinking person, but he suddenly felt there were things happening behind him he wasn’t aware of.