Thursday, June 26, 2008

Forty years earlier, Goldtooth had gone by a much more subtle name with an even gentler personality. Her mother had named her Lulu, after the Scottish singer who had made her acting debut in the movie, To Sir With Love. She was conceived while the hit single To Sir With Love was playing on the radio.

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on...

They were only 17 and childhood sweethearts. He was being groomed to take over the family business, a successful importer of consumer goods like coffee and powdered milk, while she was going to the Teachers' Training College in Kirkby, England on a government scholarship.

But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try...

It was a balmy Saturday afternoon. They stripped off their school uniforms, more in eagerness to feel the cool air on their skin than to satisfy their increasingly compelling cravings for each other.

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high...

The cane furniture in his parents’ living room in Kenny Hills creaked under their weight as they clawed each other in hunger and desperation. Lulu’s yearnful strain accompanied their climax.

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I, would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love...


They lost their virginity in his living room in Kenny Hill while being observed by monkeys.

Thirty eight weeks later, Lulu Loo Ai Ling came bawling into the world. She was born 11 miles away from Ipoh, in a small attap house in Kampung Baru Chempedak, a Chinese new village, far from the prying eyes of gossiping aunts who would have felt it their duty to announce to the world that their unwed niece, only 17, was already blemished with the seed of a Malay boy.

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