The Ghost Bride

by Yangsze Choo

My amah told me how in earlier days, my father had bought a few exotic fruits for my mother. A handful of apples and pears grown under temperate skies.

Its hard to think of those as exotic compared to malaysian fruits

And their graveyard, with its neat green sward and tidy gravestones under the frangipani trees, seemed a far more comfortable place than the wild Chinese cemeteries perched on hillsides.

that cuts you if you ran your finger along

Tense

Women had little security other than jewelry, so even the poorest among us sported gold chains, earrings, and rings as their insurance.

Diamonds - fren

The walls were covered with dozens of clocks in every style imaginable.

Noooo they must be deafening

Time, it seemed, could scarcely go unmarked in this house.

“I knew your mother before she was married, when we were children,” she said. “She never mentioned it?”

Lol to a 3 year old?

“Why didn’t we do that too?” I asked. “We should have conquered them before they came to Malaya.”

Lol you gotta read guns germs and steel

It was only at Qing Ming, when general offerings were burned to ward off evil, that these unfortunates received a little sustenance.

I pulled the ribbon loose. It was nothing special. The color was a common pink, but who was I to gainsay her? She grasped it with a hand that trembled.

it was the womenfolk, the mems, who were most against it. Naturally they disapproved of their men acquiring mistresses and going native. I couldn’t say that I blamed them for it. I too would hate to be a second wife.

I was most interested in the ox. How did the ox know that the heavenly maidens were coming? Why could it speak? And most of all, why did the ox have to die?

Many times I would find that silverfish or bookworms had begun to consume the paper,

But I suspected that even if I had been a boy, I would not have been enough to console him for the loss of my mother.

She never seemed bothered by her ability to embrace two opposing things at once.

Somehow, I had managed to exist between both Amah’s world and Father’s, but what did I really think?

and to get an article of your clothing so we could meet like this.”

So Yan Hong’s mother had bought her daughter’s happiness with her life.

Yan Hong had seemed cheerful, busy, and fulfilled. How I had envied her fortunate marriage. Nothing was as it seemed, after all.

:(

After all, if he who had longed for my mother so much was unable to see her, or grasp any essence of her spirit, why then surely the afterlife must not exist.

The only thing that comforted me was Tian Bai’s watch.

a marriage alliance I had in mind for you since you were a child has fallen through.”

Remembering his steady gaze, I felt weak. Was this love? It was like a consuming flame, licking through my defenses at a slow burn.

Girl u met once

That was my father: clever but no will, no impetus to follow through,

Oh, it’s bad enough that he had to outshine me in life but even in death

Usuallt the dead one is at a disadvantage lol. Its konda obvious hed outshine you when he's the only live one

As Lim Tian Ching said the word death, I noticed something strange. His figure blurred for an instant, but it was merely a flicker,

“The border officials are on my side, and they said I have a right to you!”

Like border officials btw life and death

On the third day

Did she dream tho

During the past week I had had no dreams.

“Didn’t Yan Hong tell you? I’m a Catholic.”

The worst was the lake of blood into which suicides and women who had died in childbirth or aborted their children were consigned.

One of these things is not like the otgers

The more I heard about the Lims, the less surprised I was that the ghost of their son behaved the way he had.

It was a veritable city of the dead.

I dropped my gaze, embarrassed at how quickly I had learned to eye men.

Burn cash for yourself, she had told me. Did that mean funeral offerings? Was I fated for death?

in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another’s superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.

How many times have I made you steamed-blood pudding? Smells like pig, I’m guessing pig.”

Lolllllll

If I married Lim Tian Ching in a spirit wedding, it would satisfy almost everyone, I thought. Amah would have a better old age; my father’s debts would be canceled.

In the meantime, I had preparations of my own to make.

Girl no

Hell must surely have seen inflation, given the recklessly high amounts of currency that were regularly burned.

“Was she that young then?” I had always imagined my mother as being much older than me,

It was a shame that dying had done so little for his physique.

Ew

Someone important has granted me special restitution for the crime committed against me. I need only complete a few trifling tasks for them.

“What crime?” I asked, although my skin was prickling. “Surely you don’t think a strong young man like me could die suddenly of a fever, do you?” he said. “I was murdered.” I blinked nervously. “And are you trying to discover who did it?” “But I already know. It was my dear cousin, Tian Bai.”

I wondered what pressures he had brought to bear in the Lim mansion, and for the first time, felt a twinge of pity for his parents.

That tall, horse-faced girl who had been so unfriendly to me.

Ugly = evil

his pupils were dilated as though he himself were taking stimulants.

Downers:

Ghosts, it was widely believed, had the greatest difficulty turning corners and could be easily flummoxed by odd angles and mirrors. But they could also slip through cracks and dwindle like candle flames. None of these rules seemed to apply to me, and I wondered whether the fact that I was not quite dead had anything to do with it.

the glistening thread still clasped in my hand.

Lol princess irene

for never in my life had I been alone outside like this.