“What do we have for the lesson, professor?” asked Georgia.”Another night market? Oh, and how was your trip to the beach?”
“No. Not a night market. It would be at the Pattaya beach.” smiled the professor, suddenly realizing Georgia had already mentioned the beach. He instinctively opened his mouth to ask how could she have known he went to the beach but closed it back immediately. He knew Georgia was doing what she was good at. Playing with people. He took out his camera and handed over to Mary.
“The last picture. Thanks”
Mary took the camera from him and went into the inner room to print. After a few minutes, she came back with a picture of Pattaya beach full of tourists walking along the waves in a beautiful sunset. The camera also captured the barbecue sellers preparing the meat on the fire. Malee had never owned a camera before or taken a picture with one, but she thought it captured the scenery at the beach beautifully. She mentioned it to the professor, only for him to smile and whispered he also moonlighted as a wedding photographer when he was a young professor. Malee wondered what did he mean by moonlighted as a wedding photographer, but postponed the question till later.
Then everyone stopped at the thought of seeing how awkward it would be to ask Malee to draw instead of George. We meant it to be a secret among us, not including Georgia.
“What are you waiting for? Draw.” said Georgia to Malee. It was foolish of them to wonder how to explain to Georgia, since she had probably known about it the moment she saw the drawing in the kitchen.
Malee sat down at the chair and drew on the blank piece of paper on the drawing board. Unlike the previous picture of the night market, it was much harder for her as she wasn’t that familiar with the beach so she had to look at the picture several times as she slowly sketched the outlines of the scene. While looking at Malee draw the picture, Georgia signalled Mary to bring her a piece of blank paper and she too started drawing the scene.
“Done” shouted Georgia as she stood up in triumph. Malee had yet to add the finishing touches to the drawing, but she stopped to turn around in surprise. Georgia started drawing only after her, but she completed the drawing earlier than her. She walked over to where Georgia was and picked up the drawing on the floor after it fell from Georgia’s lap. It was a perfect replication of the picture taken by the professor. Georgia too went over to where Malee was sitting and looked at the drawing, half-completed.
“Not bad. But you need more details. Why is the lady selling flowers looked like she was 30 years younger?” commented Georgia.
“Because she isn’t old. Its selling flowers under the hot sun every day that made her look older than she is.” replied Malee.
Georgia looked astounded by the reply from Malee. So did the professor and Mary. George just chuckled. Then Georgia bursted out in laughter, like what George did. It was then that Malee saw why they were twins. They argued, they fought over every small issue, but they laughed the same. It went on for a while before the laughter died down and Georgia resumed her esteemed look and stared at Malee.
“It has been a while before someone lectured me about my drawing. Well done, girl” said Georgia before walking out of the room, leaving the rest dumbfounded. Malee wondered if she had said anything wrong and looked at Mary for support.
“Well, she asked for it.” said George casually as he picked up another piece of cake from the plate in front of the professor.
“Malee, why don’t you complete your drawing?” said the professor.
Malee nodded and went back to the chair to resume her drawing that Georgia was looked at a while ago. It was another 10 minutes before it satisfied her with the drawing and put down the pencil. The professor came over to look at the drawing and two of them spent the rest of the period discussing over the finer details to be improved upon before the professor left for the day.