Trip Back to the Old 'Hood (Part 2)
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I wonder what happened to Ah Chong. He was sent overseas when he was sixteen and I have never seen or heard from him since then. We used to strike the utility pole between our houses with a piece of rock whenever we wanted each other to come out of the house. Usually it's after dinner a few times a week and the darkness made it easy for us to hide once we have made the signal. The secret didn't last for long since pretty soon even my father would look at me over his reading glasses whenever Ah Chong whacked the metal pole. We'd either sat in one of his dad's buses listening to one of those 8-track cassettes, roam around the kampung or hitch a ride on the ladder at the back of the town bus from the Mamak's shop to the Apek's shop, a distance of about 300 metres. Once, the bus didn't stop at the Apek's shop and Ah Chong was carried all the way to the next stop in Kampung Kuantan, a distance of about 2 miles. But that was not the worse. On the way to Kampung Kuantan the bus had to go through this place called Segenting and all our lives we have heard of tales about all the ghosts and spirits that haunt or frequent that place. That night I chased after the bus right until the entrance to Segenting and not knowing what to do next, for the next 10 minutes or so I hollered out his name madly into the night. Fortunately, he appeared a few minutes later, exhausted and panting like a mad boxer and that was our last trip in that direction of the bus route. We stuck to going towards the Mamak's shop only on our bus hitching exploits. That way, should the bus didn't stop, we'd only end up 2 miles towards Jonsen (a corruption of Junction) and there are no ghosts or vampires in Jonsen, only mad dogs and drunkards, whom we could easily outrun or kick our way to freedom.
Mok, as we called his father, is a typical Malaysian Chinese rags to riches story. He started as a labourer and when he got his first car, a Datsun 120Y, Ah Chong's mother, would ferry children to school for a fee and later came a van, then a small bus, a medium bus and by the time Ah Chong left, they still had all of those plus six big buses. He later added a Mercedes, a night club and a bungalow to his properties.
No wonder Mok and pack grew rich. Almost every day they'd only be home by 1 or 2 a.m. and by 4.30 a.m. we could hear the growling of the buses' engines being warmed up again for another day's trips. Ah Chong's mother, whom all of us called Ah Chin, is Mok's second wife. Mok's children with her are Ah Chong, Su Yok, Su Kin and Ah Leong. Every boy has a little brother like Ah Leong, except of course, the Ah Leong's of the world. Ah Leong is a bratty little kid, rats on his brother and his brother's best friend.
Mok also had children by his first wife, whom I had never met, the wife, I mean, and with her he had Ah Chin (sounds like his second wife's name), Ah Moi, Ah Lei and another Ah Chin, whom we called Ah Chin Kecik, who had the misfortune of having one leg smaller than the other. To this day, I have this perpetual vision of Ah Chin (the eldest sister) chasing Ah Leong around, trying to feed him, Ah Moi would always be in the kitchen cooking, Ah Lei forever cleaning the house and Ah Chin Kecik would go about limping around the garage with a huge broom trying to sweep every single piece of dust before the stepmother comes home. Some of the other kids called her Ah Chin Tempang but my mother forbade us to do so. Once my younger brother forgot about it and his mouth got slapped faster than you could say limp. It goes without saying that Ah Chong, Su Kin, Su Yok and Ah Leong hardly do anything at all.
Ah Leong and my brother are of the same age but they could not stand each other, unlike Ah Chong and me. We were the best of friends. Once in a while, Ah Leong would misbehave and Mok would tie one of his feet to the sewing machine with a piece of rope and he could only scamper around as far as the rope would allow. Somehow he never untied himself except when he has to go to the toilet maybe, after which he would go about carefully retying the rope so that it would look to Mok that it has stayed as such since he left the house, let it be for a few hours or a day or two. Ah Chong told me that once Mok caught him not attached to the sewing machine and made minced meat out of him so I guess that's a good reason to stay hitched to a Singer. Besides, Mok in his baggy boxer shorts with his singlet raised and resting against his ample belly doesn't really paint a painless picture, especially coming at you with a belt. I can't recall Ah Chong being tied as such, if ever.
When we first moved there, my mother told me that Ah Chin would come over to our house a few times a week and asked my mom's help to look after Su Kin, who was still a baby then. At that time her step children have not joined them yet and they have no one to look after Su Kin. Ah Chong was about three years old at that time and was big enough to follow her around. She would show up at our house with Ah Chong, Su Kin and a bottle of milk and put Su Kin down on the pavement OUTSIDE of our house and told my mother that we don't have to bring her into her house, just let her lie there and feed her only if she cries. Other than that, we could just go on doing whatever we were doing. Of course we didn't do that. My mother would carry Su Kin into the house and my sister who was about eight at that time, if Ah Chong was three, I was five and she should eight then, ya, tried persuading my mother to adopt Su Kin.
"Alaaaah, mak, kita mandikan dia dengan air tanah mak, lepas tu kita bela lah dia.....", she'd plead with our mother.
I had troubling visions of Su Kin gasping for breath as we bathe her with air tanah. Well, you couldn't blame us then, she was eight, I was five and we were not too clear about this samak menyamak process.....
.
I wonder what happened to Ah Chong. He was sent overseas when he was sixteen and I have never seen or heard from him since then. We used to strike the utility pole between our houses with a piece of rock whenever we wanted each other to come out of the house. Usually it's after dinner a few times a week and the darkness made it easy for us to hide once we have made the signal. The secret didn't last for long since pretty soon even my father would look at me over his reading glasses whenever Ah Chong whacked the metal pole. We'd either sat in one of his dad's buses listening to one of those 8-track cassettes, roam around the kampung or hitch a ride on the ladder at the back of the town bus from the Mamak's shop to the Apek's shop, a distance of about 300 metres. Once, the bus didn't stop at the Apek's shop and Ah Chong was carried all the way to the next stop in Kampung Kuantan, a distance of about 2 miles. But that was not the worse. On the way to Kampung Kuantan the bus had to go through this place called Segenting and all our lives we have heard of tales about all the ghosts and spirits that haunt or frequent that place. That night I chased after the bus right until the entrance to Segenting and not knowing what to do next, for the next 10 minutes or so I hollered out his name madly into the night. Fortunately, he appeared a few minutes later, exhausted and panting like a mad boxer and that was our last trip in that direction of the bus route. We stuck to going towards the Mamak's shop only on our bus hitching exploits. That way, should the bus didn't stop, we'd only end up 2 miles towards Jonsen (a corruption of Junction) and there are no ghosts or vampires in Jonsen, only mad dogs and drunkards, whom we could easily outrun or kick our way to freedom.
Mok, as we called his father, is a typical Malaysian Chinese rags to riches story. He started as a labourer and when he got his first car, a Datsun 120Y, Ah Chong's mother, would ferry children to school for a fee and later came a van, then a small bus, a medium bus and by the time Ah Chong left, they still had all of those plus six big buses. He later added a Mercedes, a night club and a bungalow to his properties.
No wonder Mok and pack grew rich. Almost every day they'd only be home by 1 or 2 a.m. and by 4.30 a.m. we could hear the growling of the buses' engines being warmed up again for another day's trips. Ah Chong's mother, whom all of us called Ah Chin, is Mok's second wife. Mok's children with her are Ah Chong, Su Yok, Su Kin and Ah Leong. Every boy has a little brother like Ah Leong, except of course, the Ah Leong's of the world. Ah Leong is a bratty little kid, rats on his brother and his brother's best friend.
Mok also had children by his first wife, whom I had never met, the wife, I mean, and with her he had Ah Chin (sounds like his second wife's name), Ah Moi, Ah Lei and another Ah Chin, whom we called Ah Chin Kecik, who had the misfortune of having one leg smaller than the other. To this day, I have this perpetual vision of Ah Chin (the eldest sister) chasing Ah Leong around, trying to feed him, Ah Moi would always be in the kitchen cooking, Ah Lei forever cleaning the house and Ah Chin Kecik would go about limping around the garage with a huge broom trying to sweep every single piece of dust before the stepmother comes home. Some of the other kids called her Ah Chin Tempang but my mother forbade us to do so. Once my younger brother forgot about it and his mouth got slapped faster than you could say limp. It goes without saying that Ah Chong, Su Kin, Su Yok and Ah Leong hardly do anything at all.
Ah Leong and my brother are of the same age but they could not stand each other, unlike Ah Chong and me. We were the best of friends. Once in a while, Ah Leong would misbehave and Mok would tie one of his feet to the sewing machine with a piece of rope and he could only scamper around as far as the rope would allow. Somehow he never untied himself except when he has to go to the toilet maybe, after which he would go about carefully retying the rope so that it would look to Mok that it has stayed as such since he left the house, let it be for a few hours or a day or two. Ah Chong told me that once Mok caught him not attached to the sewing machine and made minced meat out of him so I guess that's a good reason to stay hitched to a Singer. Besides, Mok in his baggy boxer shorts with his singlet raised and resting against his ample belly doesn't really paint a painless picture, especially coming at you with a belt. I can't recall Ah Chong being tied as such, if ever.
When we first moved there, my mother told me that Ah Chin would come over to our house a few times a week and asked my mom's help to look after Su Kin, who was still a baby then. At that time her step children have not joined them yet and they have no one to look after Su Kin. Ah Chong was about three years old at that time and was big enough to follow her around. She would show up at our house with Ah Chong, Su Kin and a bottle of milk and put Su Kin down on the pavement OUTSIDE of our house and told my mother that we don't have to bring her into her house, just let her lie there and feed her only if she cries. Other than that, we could just go on doing whatever we were doing. Of course we didn't do that. My mother would carry Su Kin into the house and my sister who was about eight at that time, if Ah Chong was three, I was five and she should eight then, ya, tried persuading my mother to adopt Su Kin.
"Alaaaah, mak, kita mandikan dia dengan air tanah mak, lepas tu kita bela lah dia.....", she'd plead with our mother.
I had troubling visions of Su Kin gasping for breath as we bathe her with air tanah. Well, you couldn't blame us then, she was eight, I was five and we were not too clear about this samak menyamak process.....
.
posted by dudae_simboyo at 00:30
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