“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…

“Fine. Come in.” said George, giving into Georgia’s whims as he used to. He, like the rest of the servants, had been dreading the day she returned home from overseas and it seemed he wasn’t wrong. Georgia had always been a thick-headed sister of his and as much as he loved her, he couldn’t tolerate her at all. She had all the brains, but none of the EQ. She had been pushing everyone off the edge as soon as she had returned, and it seemed relentless.

Suddenly , the master boomed. “Oh, these are very good fried potatoes. I have not had them this good since I was in the army. Who made those?” Mary stepped forward and pointed to Malee. “Malee made it, sir. She just joined us last week to help the young master.” said Malee with a slight…

“Oh, she is new here. Understudy to Mary.” replied George while shifting his body to introduce Malee to the girl. “Malee, this is Georgia. My sister. She is coming back here during school holidays.” Malee bowed. “She stinks the same. Both of you need a good shower.” remarked Georgia and pinching her nose at the…

“I am so sorry, George. I came down as soon as I can” said the commissioner in a different tone from before. The whole environment has changed, and it somehow relaxed Malee enough to release her grip to George’s hand. “Has the flight landed?” asked George, standing up, looking at his watch. “Yes. But we…

“So lets hear it again. What happened this morning?,” Malee wasn’t sure whether they wanted to know the truth or their version of what happened. She could sense the frustration from the men who would not be satisfied with the truth. That they brought both her and George to the police station and asking questions…

Malee was the first to left the spot. But she quickly noticed George was still standing on the same spot so she had to twist her body to ran back to the hut and pulled his hands. George felt the wind behind him as Malee took off, but he was too occupied in his own thoughts to take any actions. It was only when Malee’s hand grabbed and pulled him he realised their only option was to ran and ran as quickly as possible, till the main road at least. They were soon followed by the two thugs who had finished their job with Malee’s father and hell-bent on recovering their money by any means.

Malee thought it was a familiar voice as she fell on the road. Luckily, the front wheel bicycle hit her leg as she was running and aside from the few scratches, she didn’t felt any other pain. She got up from the road and dusted her clothes to meet the face of someone who looked like George. She wiped her eyes to make sure her eyes were not tricking her.

For the next few days, life went about the same usual for Malee and the rest, albeit sense of doom and despair on everyone’s faces. As the day to master’s return got closer, Malee noted that some servants became more active and less noisy than usual. Michael and his father worked almost the whole day in the garden, watering and planting new flowers constantly. There were also much more clothes to wash and hang for Malee. Even George wasn’t as cheerful as before, to which Malee put it down to news of his sister coming back along with the master.

“George, have you heard any news about the master coming back next week?,” asked Mary once she had closed the door. “Yes, he emailed me last month. He said he would be back at home for a while this time.,” replied George , wondering why this is news since it had been spreading among the servants…