Mary too, Malee noticed, became more relaxed. She grabbed Malee’s hands and walked towards the gate. She halted in half-way from the house to the gate, as if she had seen something she wasn’t expecting. Malee followed her eyes to a spot at the far corner of the garden where a man and a boy were pulling out a tree from the ground. Malee recognised the man as the gardener who took away her cart.

“Oh no, why isn’t he studying?,” Mary grunted.”That is my son, John. He and young master were born the same year, and he used to play with him when they were young. But now, he is helping his father.”

Just as she was about to go to the spot where her son and husband were, Mary suddenly turned to Malee. She told Malee about coming back to the house the next day as the young master had instructed her to take Malee into her care as a servant. Malee was about to ask to what happened to her cart when the sounds of a pair of slipper slapping the concrete road stopped her.

It was the young master, but he was out-of-breath from running that it took a while before he could speak to both of them. He was still wearing the same set of clothes from when they last seen him but his shirt of tucked out of his pants. He must have ran out from the room in a hurry as Mary had never seen the young master in such a state before.

“I forgot to pay you for cleaning the room and the cart. Here is what I have now. Smith hasn’t returned the rest yet.,” the young master spoke while holding out his hand with a few notes to Malee. Malee had never seen the color of those notes before and wondered if she could even use them. Before she could say anything, Mary pushed her and signalled her to take those and whispered in her ears.

“Go ahead. Take those and say thank you to the young master.,”

Malee gently took the notes and said thank you with a forced bow from Mary’s hands, pushing her head down.

“I will give the rest when Smith returns my money. Oh and Mary, did you tell her to come back tomorrow?,” asked the young master in an apologetic tone as if he was ashamed of the what little amount he was giving to Malee.

“Yes, young master. I have instructed her to return here tomorrow.,” replied Mary with a slight bow. With that, the young master turned around and ran back into the house. Mary let go of Malee’s head and continued walking towards the gate.

“Whatever he gives or ask, just agree to it. Understand?,” taught Mary. “We are not to talk back to them or disagree with them. They are our masters. And your old dress, you can keep this one. I have thrown out your old dress.”

“Yes, Mdm, ” said Malee with a slight bow. She realised that from then on, she would have to do a lot of bowing as a servant in the house. Once she was on the other side of the gate and Mary had left her, she looked down on her hands to check the money George had given to her. It comprised crisp, newly minted 500 and 1000 baht notes, totalling nearly 10000 baht.

Malee had never seen or held more than a few hundreds in her life and nearly broke down and cry looking at the money in her hand. If it was nothing more than a small change as she had heard, how much really does George and the rest of the family have? Must be in millions, Malee thought.

Malee folded the notes and placed them in the left pocket of the dress with a fist over as if to guard them with her life. She looked around the street and started walking towards the corner exit which she recognised as the path which exited by mistake in the rain earlier. The familiar scenes of limping dogs and rubbish smell overwhelmed Malee soon after, and she had to look back at the narrow exit to assure herself that she wasn’t dreaming.