Chapter 431

“So, Tun, are you going to buy me a Mercedes?” An was the first to recover after he ran down, cradling the cup of instant coffee in her hands as she stared over the rim of it at him.

“An!” His mother reached out and swatted her daughter in the arm, shaking her head. Always fast with the hands, adding a little pain to the point to make sure they understood. At least, Arthur was grateful she never took out the cane unless they really screwed up.

Like the first time he got into a fight at school and broke his opponent’s arm. It did not matter that he had been protecting his friend, he still broke the rules and gone too far. Not that he had regretted his choices then, or the way the other kids hid from him afterwards.

“What? He got so much money coming, why so cheap, lah?” An said.

“Firstly, I have nothing. I actually have less money now than when I left,” Arthur said, tiredly. “You know we don’t get the UBI when we’re in.”

“We know,” Bai An said, tiredly.

Perking up at her tone, he frowned. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” his mother spoke up immediately. “You don’t have to worry about it.”

“Ma-!” Arthur said, exasperatedly. “What is it? You know you’re going to have to tell me eventually – or An will.”

His mother looked unhappy at being cornered, but eventually answered him. “The fridge broke down when you left. Then the air conditioning. We tried to wait for a bit, but it got so hot-”

“Ma fainted because she wouldn’t pay for it. We had to take her to hospital universiti by car, and I called Ah Peng to get it fixed. He had to buy a new coil.”

“-I told you, we could wait. The heat wave broke a week later,” his mother complained, then looked at the frowning Arthur’s face. “Then Pak Abrahim, down on 316; he got ill and couldn’t work and the new Mamak Gang came along, and he owed them and…”

“You ran out of the money I saved,” Arthur finished for her.

“We did.” His mother looked away from him, looked down at her hands in shame. He reached over and gripped it, squeezing her hands.

“It’s okay. The money was there for use.” It hurt him to hear how fast things had gotten bad. He always knew they were on the edge, but with the three of them getting the UBI and the two of them working, it had been okay. They’d managed to save a little even.

“Mama,” An said, sternly.

“That’s not all, is it?”

“No. I… we didn’t have enough money, not after everything before,” his mother said, softly. A looming premonition made Arthur wince. “I had to take on his loan.”

“Tiu!” Arthur cursed, premonition coming through.

“It’s not that bad. I just needed to take a few more shifts, and An has been helping, working with Auntie Su.”

“She still running her keropok delivery?” Arthur asked, his mouth watering a little at the idea of the deep fish crackers that the auntie always made.

“Yes. Not as many as before, but I’m helping with that,” An said, proudly.

“Great. Good job.” He praised his sister, smiled a little – on the inside – as she glowered at him, but still snuck a small smile when he looked away. She, obviously, did not realise how good his eyesight had gotten. “So, berapa?” When his mom gave him the number, before interest, he winced. He knew that number would easily be twice, maybe even thrice the amount by the time he got around to speaking with them.

“You don't have to worry about it, I have it," his mother said. "You have more important things to deal with. This Clan of yours..."

"No. I am pretty sure this is my problem," Arthur said. "We've kept the gangs out of this flat for a long time. That Pak Abrahim had to take a loan…”

“A lot of people have,” An said, grimacing. “Everything’s gone up again.”

“And the UBI still hasn’t increased.” Arthur grimaced, rubbed his face. No one wanted to live hand-to-mouth. If there were jobs, many would take it; but the problem was, with automation; there were n jobs to done. So people did their best, grew their food, did their own sewing; but so much of modern life relied on separate processes and items that no individual person could make. The only real jobs left were those that catered to the rich, the necessary ones to move goods around or fix the machines when they broke, program new ones and, of course, those related to the Tower. “I’ll… figure something out.”

He had the resources, supposedly. Money, coming in. A lot more if he got the government involved, because they would certainly pay fast if he needed them to. More to the point, it would not take much to post a few policemen around, scare away the gang members on their extortion runs. Buy him time.

“You don’t need to do this…”

“They’re coming after my family. It’s my problem,” Arthur said, squeezing her hand. “I’ll do what I can, for the rest of the flats and for us.” He breathed in, exhaled. “The point of climbing was so we had a chance to get better. To live better. And we do, a big one.”

An smiled, nodding vigorously. “So, my Mercedes?”

“Learn to drive first!” Arthur said, exasperated.

“So you will get me one.” Triumphant, she crossed arms under her chest.

“After you graduate too,” Arthur said. “There are jobs still, good ones, if you’re smart like you.”

An glowed a bit at the praise, then pouted. “I still think I should try Climbing…”

For the first time, Arthur did not shoot the question down immediately. With the Clan, with the right training and enough of a seal, he could perhaps see her passing through the Tower. Whether that was the best idea, he was not certain.

“Really?” Her voice rose.

Arthur glanced over to his mum, who gestured for him to continue. In this, she ceded control and decision making, trusting in his knowledge. It gave him a flush of warmth and pride that she would trust him that much which made him slow down and consider it more. “If you want to even think about it, you’ll need to start training. Seriously.”

“With sifu?” she said, doubtfully.

“Yes.”

She let out a long sigh, and he grinned. He knew how much she hated physical exertion. Still, there were a lot more things to discuss, though turning some of his new Tower riches into real world riches might make sense.

Well, that and getting his UBI turned back on. Though the idea of dealing with Malaysian bureaucracy made him shudder.

Tomorrow, he’d get to that tomorrow. If nothing else, he needed to be up and lining up two hours before the department opened.