Malee took the book from Georgia’s hand and sat down at the nearest chair. She then held the book and started flipping through the pages. As Georgia said, it was a picture puzzle book by a man called “MENSA”, whom Malee had never heard before. He must have been pretty bored to come out with such silly puzzles for children. Malee looked up at Georgia and expected to see her laughing at the joke it was, but strangely, Georgia’s face looked more intense than usual. Malee looked down at the book again. Not that she had much choice, anyway. The instructions were clear and simple. She was to solve the puzzle and tick the right box to select the answer.
Malee looked around for a pen or pencil to tick the box with and conveniently, there was a pencil lying on the table. Malee picked up the pencil and started doing the puzzles in haste, just so she could have more time to practice her walk with the heel. The whole book only had less than 200 pages, and each page had its own puzzle and varying amount of answers. Malee became engrossed in the puzzles she didn’t realise that one whole hour had passed by before she turned to the last page. She felt more tired than usual after she completed the last puzzle and unheard of for her; she felt sleepy as well and she had not even prepared for the lunch yet!
She closed the book and looked up the clock. It was near noon and Mary must wait for her to help her with the lunch.
“Go. Change back to your slippers.” said Georgia, knowing what Malee was thinking, as usual. Malee nodded and quickly took off the heels and changed back to the slippers below the table. It was when she stood up that she remembered what Georgia meant by being more painful after wearing the heels then while walking with them. She felt her ankles twisted as if she was wrestling with the older boys and had to slowly limped out of the room to the amusement of Georgia.
If walking out was painful, coming down the staircase was unbearable. Malee had to stop at every step so the pain would subside before the next step. From the top of the stairs to the half-way took her 10 minutes. Mary passed by the stairs towards the kitchen and saw Malee standing on the stairs. Mary was about to ask why she wasn’t in the kitchen, but noticed the pain on her face and the way she was holding on to the handle. Knowing full well Malee had never worn heels before, she smiled at Malee and went towards the kitchen.
By the time she had come down 3 quarters of the stair, she looked more like someone who cleans the handles with the way she was hugging them than coming down the staircase. That was probably what the Master, and the Mistress were thinking when they passed her by on their way towards the kitchen. Then it was Georgia. Then George, who stopped by to look at her.
“High Heels, yes?” asked George.
“Yes.” replied Malee. George sighed. Georgia had done it again. The party was the next day, and she had to make such troubles for everyone with her demands. She should have handled it better. Mother had blessed Georgia with insanely high IQ, but not much EQ. She handled people around her as nothing more than toys for her to play with.
“Ok, here put your arms over me. Let’s go slowly to the chair there.” said George. Malee told as instructed, and with one side of her body balanced on George, it was easier to come down the stairs and soon, she was on the firm ground. George led her to the chair nearby so she could rest her ankles.
“Sit here. I will get someone to help you with the ankle.” said George.
“But the lunch.”
“In your current condition, you think you could help with lunch?” asked George. Malee must admit she could hardly walk, let along carry dishes around the dining room. “I thought so too. Just sit here.” said George as he disappeared into the back of the house.
Malee sat there for a while wondering what kind of trouble shot got into and then saw someone emerging from the hallway. It was Michael. George must have told him about her as lunch hour involved all other adults in various duties around lunch time.