Two days later, my sister tells me that Titi has sent for me.  I am to go back right away.

Anita had taken the next boat to Macau and gone straight to our grandmother’s house.   Anita demanded that Titi take us back.  Titi was not moved.

Anita threatened to tell “all of Macau” that Titi, herself living in a mansion and protected by such an established family, was allowing her sister’s daughters to be thrown to the wolves.

Titi agreed to take me back, but only me.

My sister explains things to me.  She says that Uncle Pedro offered to send her away to school but she couldn’t go because of me.

She says Titi is a monster.  When I go back, I will have to prove myself.  I will have to be First of the Class just as she was.

I guess I look as stunned as I feel.

My sister continues.  Don’t worry about her, she says.  Remember the fortune teller who predicted our futures?   He said that the man she marries will reach the top of his profession.  He also said that I, on the other hand, have open hands.  Wealth will just flow through me.

I believe that my sister will succeed in anything she wants.  As for my having open hands, I have no idea what the fortune teller was talking about.  I hardly remember him.

But my sister has given me a condition: I have to be First of the Class.   I don’t even think of questioning it.

Penha, our neighborhood in Macau