Two days after the ring incident, Maggie stood outside the staffroom, asking to speak to her, indicating that her presence was urgently needed. It was the luckless school gardener whom everybody called Ah Boy, for whose sick wife Maggie had months before collected a small class donation. Now it turned out that the poor woman needed a very expensive operation. A few thousand dollars, whispered Maggie, relishing her dramatic role of the savior when she should be busy preparing for the approaching school examinations. Could Miss Seetoh speak to the principal? If he declined to help, could she pass round the hat among staff members? Maggie on her part would try to get some help from her mother. She looked intently at Miss Seetoh, studying her reaction. ‘Two thousand dollars for the operation alone, and money, money for the stay in hospital, for this and that, for good food and medicine which they can’t afford. My heart feel so much pity for them, I want to help, even if other people don’t want,’ said the girl who had sensed yet another opportunity for self-worth to rise above the daily contempt.
