“You forgot to buy the spring onions again?! I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose, Thomas.”

Thomas groaned and slapped his forehead. “Damn, I knew I missed something.”

“Oh drop the pretense.”

“I’m serious, Tamm,” Thomas fixed his sister in an earnest gaze. “I was going to get it but along the way, I met someone.”

Tamm rolled her eyes as she set the table for three. “You know, if you’re going to lie, at least make it believable. You’re a policeman, Thomas - at least learn to lie properly.”

“But I’m not lying!” he protested.

Tamm placed the last plate down on the circular, wooden table and turned to look at him. With one hand on her hip, her sharp eyes bore into his.

Thomas gulped under her scrutiny. His elder sister was the figure of authority ever since they were kids. A single look from her was enough to have him scuttling for safety when he had done something naughty. Now that they were older, her thick, frizzy hair and long diamond-shaped face accentuated the sharpness of her expression even more.

He held his breath as she looked at him squarely. Then Tamm lifted her hands in defeat. “Fine. So who is this someone you met?”

Thomas almost sighed in relief. “Do you remember that girl I used to hang around when I was a teen?”

Her face scrunched in thought. Tamm took a few seconds before replying, “Was it that wild, pretty one whose mother was a second wife?”

“Yes, yes! Sandra, remember?” Thomas enthused.

A smirk grew across Tamm’s lips. “You still like her after all these years? I didn’t know my little brother was this loyal.”

Red bloomed across his cheeks. He spun back towards the kitchen, busying himself with bringing out the glasses of water. He heard Tamm chuckle in the dining room and he grimaced, wishing he hadn’t brought it up in the first place.

When he re-entered the dining room, he averted his eyes from Tamm. But as he placed the glasses on the table, he felt a hand ruffle his hair.

“Alright, I won’t tease you,” Tamm said between muffled laughter. “So how is she? Why is she back?”

Thomas grumbled under his breath. He glowered at her for a moment before sighing in resignation. He could never stay angry with her for long. “She looks as radiant as before. Apparently, she’s taking a break from work. So she’ll be teaching art at our old school.”

Tamm raised an eyebrow. “A break huh. Interesting.”

“Yeah, I guess Shawn will be seeing her in school. Where is that boy by the way?” Thomas looked around the house, trying to catch a glimpse of his nephew.

Her shoulders raised in a shrug as Tamm ran a hand through her long hair. “Where else? Probably stuck to the computer or his phone again.”

Noting the hint of frustration mixed with resignation in her tone, Thomas patted her shoulder. “Want me to talk with him?”

She shook her head and flashed a weary smile. “Maybe later.”

Before he could ask anything further, a young voice with a playful edge rang out in the room, followed by light footsteps padding down the staircase. “Did someone call me just now?”

“Dinner’s ready, Shawn,” Tamm called out before heading back to the kitchen when she heard the oven ding.

Thomas watched as a mop of black hair peeped out of the stairwell. At the sight of his nephew’s impish smile, Thomas chuckled. “Were you eavesdropping just now?”

The lanky teen skipped the last few steps and landed on the floor with a loud thump. He ambled towards Thomas and dropped into the chair across from him. A wide grin still splitting his lips, he grabbed a fork and poked at the vegetables on one of the dishes. “I wasn’t eavesdropping. Just happened to listen in.”

Shaking his head, Thomas sighed and pulled out a chair before settling down on it. He regarded his nephew with an affectionate look. It was hard to dislike Shawn with his winning smile and sweet words. But the teen was difficult to handle at times since he feared no one, not even his mother.

Fear was like a double-edged sword - destructive if used wrongly but sometimes needed to guide someone back on the right path. Thomas’s stomach curled at the memory of being whipped to within an inch of his life. Pushing the thought away, he focused his attention on Shawn instead.

“So you heard what your mum said about you being too addicted to your phone?” he said gently, without directly admonishing Shawn. He knew that didn’t work on the kid.

Shawn gave a careless shrug, one hand already digging into his shorts pocket for his phone. It was as if the phone was a magnet that sucked the kid’s hand to it. Thomas always wondered what young people nowadays were doing on their smart gadgets the entire time. Facebook? Games? His eyes would tire of looking at the screen after more than an hour. Maybe he was getting old.

“I heard you guys talking about the new art teacher though. Who’s she?” Shawn asked, even as his eyes flitted over the screen of his smartphone.

Watching Shawn’s fingers fly over the small device, Thomas could understand his sister’s frustration and despair. He wished there was a better way of telling the teen that there was a lot more to life than what was on that small screen. But for now, he let it slip.

“She’s an old friend of mine. She’s a singer now, maybe you’ve heard of her?” he said.

Shawn quirked an eyebrow and he looked up from his screen. “Oh wait. Do you mean that small-time singer who’s from here? She’s the new art teacher?”

A little indignant, Thomas cleared his throat. “Her album did pretty well actually. It got featured many times on the radio, you know.”

Shawn simpered as a grin crept across his features. “So you really do like her, Uncle Thomas.”

Red erupted across Thomas’s cheeks and he launched forward in his seat, ready to protest. But before he could deny it, Shawn added, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our secret.”

Deflating, Thomas sank back in his chair and massaged his forehead between his thumb and forefinger. “You really are incorrigible, Shawn.”

The young teen laughed and returned his attention to the screen. His agile fingers danced across the keypad as he typed out a quick tweet to his followers.

>> Breaking news! Guess who our new art teacher is?? This lady:

http://the-songstress-sandra.com

The second his thumb hit “Send”, a notification popped up on hundreds of people’s feeds. Many of Shawn’s friends and classmates replied almost instantly with emojis and short texts, all newly discovering who this Sandra person was.

But one person, in particular, had a vastly different response. After the small pop-up had materialized on his computer screen, tears sprung to his eyes. He lunged for the monitor, his trembling fingers reaching out to caress the thumbnail of Sandra. He whispered lovingly to the smiling picture of her.

“I know where you are now, my goddess.”