Not Out of Hate. Ma Ma Lay

Po Thein wore a pink gaung-baung, the end of which hung down to touch his shoulder. He wore a Mandalay silk jacket that buttoned across his chest, and a brand new reddish copper-colored Bangkok silk longyi. While waiting downstairs for Ko Nay U to arrive, he called up, “Way Way, aren’t you ready yet?”

      Way Way put some cologne in her handkerchief, clenched it in her hand, looked one last time in the mirror, and said, “Coming, Daddy,” and then came running down the stairs.

      Although she had told her brother that morning to come suitably dressed, she worried that he would not. He turned up only at seven o’clock. He was dressed in a jacket made of pinni, a kind of homespun, a black Bangkok-style silk longyi, and leather thonged sandals.²⁰ Way Way wondered critically why he had not worn Western shoes.

      “Well, let’s go,” U Po Thein said as he led the way. Way Way and Ko Nay U followed him side by side. When they got to the front of the house next door, Way Way saw a heavy curtain hanging over the doorway to assure privacy from the main street. In front of it stood an Indian watchman, resplendent in a white turban and a long white knee-length coat with brass buttons all the way down. He looked very impressive. When U Po Thein’s party entered the compound, the doorman stood up straight, his feet together, gave them a salaam, and drew the curtain aside.

      The room inside was lit with a diffused greenish blue glow. U Saw Han, dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and long black serge pants, arose from the sofa and came forward to greet them. “Please,” he said, turning first to U Po Thein, “Don’t take off your shoes, keep them on. Don’t take yours off, Way Way.”²¹ U Po Thein had taken off his velvet sandals, but out of deference to U Saw Han’s requests he put them on again even though he felt uncomfortable doing so. U Saw Han wouldn’t let the others take off their sandals either.

      Way Way and Ko Nay U sat down on the sofa. Since the sofa and the two matching stuffed chairs were placed around the edges of the large carpet, the people sat quite apart from each other. Way Way was gazing at the porcelain vase that held an arrangement of New Zealand Creeper. Ko Nay U started the conversation by asking U Saw Han, “Well, what do you think of my house?”

      “Oh I like it, but since the roof is made of zinc it gets very hot upstairs in the afternoons, so I usually have to rest downstairs at that time.”