Corrine is in Grade Six now. I first met her when she was in Grade Two, she came on a Tuesday night in September. She has fine bones, rather short and tiny for her age. She has a pretty heart-shaped face with elfin features.
She was the first of three children that came for tutoring with my son. The other two are brothers who turned out to be her cousins. Corrine's dad is a brother to the two brothers' mom. Little by little, we learned more about her. She has two brothers, one in college away and the other much older than her. She lives quite a few miles away in a big house. She is very weak in all three languages but very good with colours and styles. I bought some cheap kit in making friendship bands, she had a lot of fun teaching me how to weave while waiting for her father to come pick her up.
Looking at her clothes, it is quite clear that she came from an above-average income family. Yet why is she under weight? Her two brothers, my son and I saw one each in her mother's café, we think. They are fair and more than amply proportioned. Corrine is dark skin. She has an Indonesian maid at home, but a fridge that could be empty. Her dinner could be white porridge with soy sauce. I began to cook more just in case she came empty stomach. How can a little girl learn on an empty stomach? I may not be rich, but food is a plenty in my kitchen. I began to buy biscuits that Corrine likes.
After two and a half years in that town, I moved out of a rented house and my son took a suite of two rooms. I came back to peninsular Malaya. I asked my son how Corrine is. She is still thin and small for her age. She passed her UPSR. Next year she will be in Remove, a remedial class to help her to adjust to a curriculum in Malay. Lately she was spending time in her grandma's house. One could see it on her skin, full of mosquito bites, some festering. How is her mom? Don't know. Her two café closed. Part of what is happening because of the economic slow down due to GST.
For the only daughter of a man who owns houses in Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and of course the family home in town, Corrine is having some adverse circumstances to overcome. One wonders if she was an unwanted child. Or could it be that she is not her current mother's biological child? She is far from being academically gifted. But she is highly intelligent relationally speaking. She is graceful in her movements. She has nimble fingers, could thread beads easily and colour co-ordinate beautifully. It is a good thing she is not from a poor family, else missing out on the basic education would hinder her from progressing. But with money, she will find her special niche in fields I could not begin to imagine that the internet opened up recently.
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