Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
The first time Alvin received birthday money from his granny in Singapore he dismissed it flippantly and with all the arrogance of youth.
“Get real Granny…5 bucks won’t even buy me a beer after work on Friday” he said with his newly acquired Aussie accent, to no one in particular.
Alvin had come to Australia in the 90s to study engineering at RMIT and found the freedom of life in Australia irresistible. He never left. He rarely visited or talked about his family in Singapore and the very different life he had left there.
There is Japanese saying “Study the face on the bank note and all humanity will be revealed”. Alvin, although not Japanese, was very familiar with this expression but chose to ignore its sage advice and equally ignored the birthday money his granny sent. He considered it a trivial amount and being such a big shot he could do without it. Each year he stuffed the new note into an envelope he bought when he first arrived in Australia to write home…but he never did and now it was full of unused $5 notes.
Friends visiting Alvin’s very smart inner city apartment were often amused by the gaudy red and gold cat with the waving hand that his mother had sent him. Embarrassed by its crassness his constant dismissal was always “This does not belong to me”…with a laugh which implied that his superior Western education gave him the right to ridicule this silly superstition.
Alvin always enjoyed the best of everything – summers in Noosa, winters in Thredbo. When suddenly it was very cold Alvin bristled with anticipation at strapping his fancy skis to his new Audi.
A wave of happiness would overcome him as he was admired by fellow travellers as they wound their way up the mountain. Until finally they found themselves posed Norman Rockwell-like around a roaring open fire with a very fine Shiraz in hand, laughing over work stories and wondering what the poor people were doing.
Alvin new what the poor people were doing. His granny was sweeping the floors of a dingy shopping mall in Katong where she was ignored by haughty young beauticians with diamante fingernails and attitude to match.
But every week she put money aside and once a year she sent Alvin, her beloved grandson who was so far away, a crisp new $5 note.