Bloody Foreigner by Jacques K. Lee

Author:Jacques K. Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographical Fiction
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2024-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

I normally had the visit of Sooky with his cane trolley full of stationery goods a few times a week. During these distractions he would tell me more about his daughter, Anita, and show me her photos. ‘It’s not her Indian name but nor is it an English one. We started calling her Anita, an international name, to make life easier for her at school here. She’s now studying for her A-levels,’ he said proudly. During one of our conversations I mentioned that the Chinese of my generation in Mauritius eat a lot of Indian food. ‘I was highly regarded as a good cook of Indian food in Durban,’ he boasted.

‘Really! I hope I can taste some one day.’

‘You should come and have lunch with us one Saturday. I’ll cook you one of my favourite dishes.’

But he didn’t name a date. After all he’d told me about his daughter, I was dying to meet her, more than tasting his Indian specialities. About two weeks later he finally suggested a possible date. I think that was in the summer of 1961, so after nearly a year in London, I had finally received a lunch invitation from a colleague. All right, he wasn’t English but a foreigner. So what?

I was so excited I told Mrs Wilson but was rather shocked by her reaction.

‘Oh, really. I wonder why. I hope he hasn’t got any ulterior motive. You have to be careful about accepting invitations from foreigners that you don’t know. I don’t trust them.’

My immediate response was to tell her I was a foreigner myself and Sooky was hardly a stranger. I stopped myself in time and refrained from being rude to her; I still needed her for my English lessons. But I discovered one side of that mysterious woman that day – she wasn’t all I had believed she was. If I was right in my assumption, then why was she being so kind to me? Why was I the exception, the one foreigner she apparently didn’t mistrust, the one she went out of her way to help? What was her ulterior motive?

***

Within a fortnight I was at Sooky’s place in Ealing, West London, and was pleasantly surprised to discover what a pretty girl Anita was, not at all like the schoolgirl in uniform in her photos. She was a lot fairer than her father, more like her mother, judging by the various photos of hers in their flat. She appeared rather shy with me at first but once her father had disappeared into the kitchen, she became quite talkative. She spoke English just like, well, the English.

‘My father has told me a lot about you. He said you’re studying accountancy.’

I hoped she didn’t see the surprise on my face. Yes, I did tell him that lie, when we’d first become acquainted. He must have said something about the Chinese at work all seemed to be studying something or other at evening classes or by correspondence courses, and ‘What are you studying?’

‘Me, erm, accountancy.

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