Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories Quotes

“It was her grandmother standing over her, Ah Ma's eyes opened, large-her blacks filling her whites. Lyssa could only see her own fear staring back at her. Her heart sank and she wondered if she was seeing things. But it was clearly her Ah Ma, with wings that protruded from its back-brown, tatty and flapping with excitement.

Her face was emaciated, the colour of her skin a sickening grey, yellow and brown. Drops of pus-like liquid fell onto Lyssa's nightie and vomit reached the top of her mouth.

'Jacob!' she screamed, but it was no use.
Her Ah Ma came closer to her bed, as though about to give her a kiss.

Lyssa closed her eyes and tried to scream, but the noise disappeared into Ah Ma's open mouth.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Her mind went quickly to Hong Kong, to the night lights of the city's skyscrapers, to the garden from the bungalow at The Peak.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The door creaked and she felt the shadow of something large creeping into her room and looming over her, despite the thick material of her blanket cover. The stench of decay was overpowering. She tried to keep as still as a dead body, but her breath was now coming out in short sputters. She thought her heart was going to give way, as though she was holding her breath underwater and her lungs were about to burst.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“From underneath her covers, she tried to lie still. She clasped a hand over her mouth to stifle her loud, short breaths but now her heart was pounding fast and hard. She heard the rattling of the doorknob, and shakily removed the jade bracelet from her wrist and hid it underneath her pillow, as though that would stop the sound.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The pungent smell of medicine mixed with camphor wafted into her room. Lyssa went into the bathroom and quickly rolled a towel to cover the gap underneath her bedroom door. Then she climbed into bed and threw the covers over her head.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“In her room, she locked the door and sat on the floor. Her breathing was now short and uneven. It was as though she was having an asthma attack. What was the creature in that room and where was Ah Ma's body? The bed had looked empty. Lyssa squeezed her eyes shut and felt tears trickling down her face.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Inside the dark confines of Ah Ma's room, she heard the low hum of the drip machine. But there was something else in there-like the soft beating of wings. Lyssa inched another step forward and what felt like velvet brushed her forehead quickly. She raised her arm instinctively, then stumbled against a side cabinet. Immediately, Lyssa ran out of the room, and back up the stairs.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“From her vantage point she could see the door of Ah Ma's room. Lyssa remembered that she had shut the door, but right now it was wide open. What had happened? Surely, Ah Ma could not have gotten up to open it herself. Strangely, she felt an odd feeling of hope. Lyssa decided to make her way down the stairs, one step at a time.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“She had hidden the jade bracelet inside her pillow cover when showering, and now she took it out and wore it around her left wrist. She rubbed the surface of the green band and saw that it was smooth like glass.

Lyssa held the bangle to her cheek and let the cool surface caress her skin. Then, she let the band rest in between her lips.

She shut her eyes and tried to think of Hong Kong and the twinkling lights of the skyscrapers, like stars in the night, but her mind went back to what had happened earlier in the room downstairs.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“A black moth was resting on his car's windscreen. Strange, he thought. It hadn't rained in weeks. He flicked on his headlights and turned on the windscreen wipers to scare away the creature. But it did not move and instead of flying away, the moth was squashed, its innards splattering all over the glass. Fuck.

Jacob pressed the lever that squirted water onto the windscreen. Just then another moth appeared, flying up to and resting on the glass. He got out of the car and flicked the insect away with his fingers, but as he did that, he felt something brush his left ear.

Spinning around, he saw another moth and swatted at it, but it fluttered all the closer. Another landed on his right eye and, cursing, Jacob choked as yet another winged insect bumped against his chin and then flapped its way into his mouth. The feel of powdery wings against his tongue made him gag and he tried to spit, but the creatures seemed to be flying deeper, making for the back of his throat.

Soon he was crouched on his knees, coughing, trying to vomit for he was sure the moth and many others had got inside his stomach.

Jacob shouted for help, but made no sound, his mouth full of wings.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“No money, no jewellery?'
'Nothing,' she said. Lyssa gripped the bangle tightly in her pocket.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“She always thought that Jacob looked like a fox, with his dyed red hair and sharp features. But tonight, there was an animalistic hunger in his face that repulsed her.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Slowly, her fingers closed round the bangle, which now slipped easily off her grandmother's emaciated wrist.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“She remembered begging her grandmother. I'll practise my piano, she used to say. But Ah Ma would knock her forehead anyway, the green bangle coming down hard on her skull. For the longest time, Lyssa had always thought that jade could break bones.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The drip tube, attached to a needle that pierced the back of Ah Ma's left hand, ran all the way underneath her sleeping gown, and was threaded through the machine that regulated how much fluid the patient received.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“When she opened the door, the room was dark and quiet, broken only by the low hum of the drip machine and a few blinking LED diodes. She turned on the lights to see her grandmother in her usual stupor.

Lyssa stared into Ah Ma's soft face. It had sagged more and more as the years had gone by.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“As soon as they left, Lyssa had decided to creep into her grandfather's room to see if there was indeed any money around. If she found anything, she had decided she was probably not going to tell Jacob the whole truth. There had been too many empty promises made in the past, like saying how he would take her on holiday to Bali. Or even the simple ones like coming to pick her up after school.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The accident had happened three years before Ah Ma finally died. The old woman had been chasing Lyssa with a cane after she refused to practise playing the piano after school.

Lyssa wasn't really interested in her grandmother's money, but she did covet Ah Ma's jade bangle, because it reminded her of her own mother, who had had something similar.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Lyssa had known about Ah Ma's gold and money because she had often declared that, when she died, Lyssa would inherit none of it. She had said it just before she slipped on the floor mat and knocked her head against the staircase railing. Now Lyssa wondered if Ah Ma regretted her words.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Doesn't your Dad give you any money?' Jacob had asked one day, as they sat on the sofa in the upstairs living room watching a movie on HBO.
'Just enough for Nina and Kakak.'
'What about your grandmother? Doesn't she have any money?'
'You bet she does,' Lyssa had said.
'Well, think about what we could do with all that cash.' He kissed her softly on the neck, before moving his hand underneath her blouse. 'We could move to a studio apartment in Hong Kong. Isn't that what you've always wanted?'
Lyssa had rolled her eyes, but sunk deeper into his arms, giggling as she kissed him.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Jacob had been twenty-four, ten years older than Lyssa, but she hadn't really minded the age difference. They had met at Club Rouge, when Lyssa was arguing with the bouncer who'd refused to let her in. Jacob, standing in the queue, had said that she was with him. They had started dating shortly after that.

Jacob hadn't a proper job, which had annoyed Lyssa a bit, but she sometimes skipped school just to hang out with him. No one had really cared anyway.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Dad was always away, in Singapore or Jakarta, on business, and Mum had left a long time ago. The only person who had always been there was Kakak. Kakak, the Indonesian maid, had made the food and cleaned the house, but she had never bothered about Lyssa's whereabouts or what she did. On most days Jacob and Lyssa had simply stayed upstairs, watching TV or having sex.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The residence sat at the top of a winding road that looked out onto the beach at Batu Ferringhi, and sometimes, Lyssa would walk to the lookout and imagine that she was in Hong Kong, looking down from The Peak onto Victoria Harbour. At night, when the porch lights were turned on, the house was a moody yellow. The driveway was always empty, except when Jacob, Lyssa's boyfriend, decided to stay over.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“She didn't mind being alone-she was used to it, having always lived an almost solitary life in the house on Pearl Hill.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The nurse massaged her patient's limbs, lifting them up and down, and flexing the knees and elbows to keep the joints supple. She monitored the drip machines, making sure the tube delivering loquid food straight into Ah Ma's stomach didn't get jammed up, and changing the bags of fluid that kept Ah Ma hydrated. She combed Ah Ma's hair and brushed Ah Ma's teeth, and gave Ah Ma bed baths.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“They say that the dead return as moths, especially to see their loved ones. Lyssa knew this was true, because, after her Ah Ma died, she came back as a moth to give her granddaughter a kiss.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“My eldest grandson even brought me a red kemboja today. He was on a school trip, and I hear they have planted many more of those trees on the island with buds from the original tree. I hold the flower in my hands, my fingers skinny and gnarly, upturned towards the sky. I lean over and smile at him.
'Let me tell you a secret,' I say.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“These days, I no longer go to Pulau Ubin. I hear that the granite quarry has been abandoned. My grandkids talk of a ghost story about a pontianak who hangs by a tree next to the quarry. She has caramel eyes and long black hair and carries a tiny dead child.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“Plucking a flower with my fingers, I brought it close to my nose. Like pomegranate seeds and spices, its fragrance was overpowering. I smelled sweet success as I closed my eyes and immersed myself in its scent. This was the essence of the Fleur de Rosalind Collection, which was launched to acclaimed success in the Asia Pacific market.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories

“The next night, I saw the red kemboja tree and I held my breath. Bright and bold, like the flames of a forest, its petals layered each other in oblongs of five. Their centre was dark plum, and the colour gradient paled to mauve as they bloomed outwards from the core, forming a perfect symmetry of five round and robust petals.”
― Wan Phing Lim, Two Figures in a Car and Other Stories