I can’t believe it turned out to be just another day of “eating frenzy” I was hoping for something more. It was my fault to begin with, but it was nonetheless nice and I have no complains at all, except for the fact that I forgot to ‘salam’ (pay respect?) with the family members including my parents. I completely forgot about it, yeah I know it’s hard to believe but my family is already dysfunctional. It was already less eventful to begin with. But then again I really was oblivious about it; most of my time was spent outside the house and when I was at home I’d be sleeping. I only realized about it in the evenings and at that time, I somewhat thought that ill just let it slip away and it was probably too late, hence I let it slip away. I sure hope that the family members won’t notice/remember it.
A few days passed by, and I noticed that I was already starting to expand due to the excessive eating’s, sometimes I just eat to remind myself that I wasn’t fasting anymore and could eat whenever I felt like it. It was a Tuesday; a friend called in the afternoon saying that they were going out to a friend’s house in Kuala Kubu which is situated far away from where we live. I readily agreed. I was excited of the thought of going on a long drive and to go to a kampung. I got prepared and as usual waited for quite some time for my friend to come and pick me up. When he arrived, we went to a friend’s house which was kinda like the ‘meeting place’ where everyone was supposed to meet.
We were the last ones to reach there and the guys were set to depart. There were six of us and so we decided to go in one car. It was an SUV and was supposedly supposed to be comfortable. It was, comfortable, but only to a certain extend. The seats at the farthest back were dreadful. The seats couldn’t be slanted back or adjusted in any way hence causing extreme discomfort. I might by stating this, risk sounding spoiled and whinny but believe me, it was terrible. I and one other unlucky friend had the privilege to sit there. What made it worse was that it was more sensitive. The slight bumps and curves on the road felt like riding on huge mountainous waves? (It was uncomfortable).We were experiencing headaches and stomach cramps.
After almost two whole hours of dreadfulness and now, dizziness we finally reached destination. I was really relieved that the ride ended. It wasn’t nearly the joy trip that I had expected. The Kampung air was nice but soon enough, overflowed with cigarette smokes. I saw my friends who smoked, light up their ciggies and somewhat looking at them I was convinced that it had to give them some sort of fulfilling sensation, judging by the look on their faces while smoking it. We went in, and this time I didn’t forget to ‘salam’ the parents of my friend and then found our seats. Some of the guys who were already acquainted went to the T.V room and browsed through the channels. We were served with chocolate cakes and some drinks. The cake was superb.
A few minutes later we went to the dinning table and stuffed ourselves up with more food. When we were done stuffing ourselves up, as usual the smokers went out for a smoke while the rest went into the T.V room and started playing winning 11 (5) on the PS console, so much for being at a Kampung. Nevertheless, it was entertaining and challenging as usual and the risk of getting into a fight was quite high seeing that most of the guys lose their cool rather easily.
After an hour or so of competing and cussing each other out and feeling rather worn out, we decided that it was time to return home. We said our thank you and headed outside. This time I and the friend who sat at the farthest back sat in the middle while the guys who sat in the middle before us, had no other choice.
The trip back was nicer and oddly shorter. We reached home sooner than expected. It wasn’t really far away but coming back home seeing the huge buildings, feeling the dust polluted air, and unfinished roads was a pleasant feeling, simply because it was home. We stopped at the ‘meeting place’. It was past midnight now, some had to go back while the rest who didn’t want to go home decided to go for a drink instead.
At the café, we found a good spot but didn’t really talk as much due to the weariness, I am guessing. Our times were spent looking around pointlessly and enjoying the cool weather and occasionally coming up with uncalled stupid jokes.
The guys who left for home were starting to come back and we once again felt hungry and decided to order for food. A few minutes later, the food arrived and we were about to dig in, a friends phone rang and he picked it up. We didn’t pay any attention to it and was about to help ourselves out with the food. He then stood up and said that the friend who was supposed to join us spotted some suspicious guys outside his house believed to be robbers.
The place we lived in was filled with criminal activities and was known for its dangerous-ness. Almost every family had their own share of experience of being a victim or at least seen someone get mugged. And anyone who walked alone in the middle of the night would almost certainly get mugged. Criminal cases were normal and I guess some of us, grew into it. I had a few friends who occasionally bragged about beating up bad guys that they caught, despite their own criminal doings. Even the police joined in and they too seemed to have their share of fun.
It was different this time though, it was much serious, and this time we might be dealing with really dangerous people. There were 5 of us. Three of us ran to the car while the other two was supposedly supposed to look after and guard the food. It wasn’t really far away, the friend’s house, and had been the target of robbers before: he had a car stolen before this. I guess those are one of the consequences of being rich, being the target of people in badly need of quick money.
We reached there in a matter of minutes. I was, just like my friends excited. We get to beat the hell out of someone and still get the glory. A phone rang again and during the brief conversation I heard that there were actually 4 of them and he said that they were Indians. That turned down my feeling of excitement. I was feeling nervous and scared now. I was imagining 4 Indian dudes with parang’s in their hands, grinning at us now.
Before we got down off the car, we searched for weapons that might be helpful. We only found 2, to be exact. One was a steering lock and the other was a broken umbrella. I got the umbrella. The other guy who didn’t get any weapon to attack or to protect himself with, was supposed to drive the car to the front side of the house to ‘ambush’ the robbers and using the car as his weapon, try to knock down the robbers by hitting them. That is, if things go according to plan.
As soon as we got out, to my surprise there was another car that stopped directly behind us. It was the police. Never before, I felt so happy seeing them. The friend whose house had been targeted must’ve called them. Two of them stepped out of the car with machine guns; MP5’s to be exact (thanks counterstrike). They looked so cool, then. I jogged into the tiny, pitched black alley surrounded by bushes led by my friend and followed by the cops. Here was when I started to once again lose my respect to the cops and I didn’t feel so secure anymore. My friend turned back and rudely said to the police, “seorang pergi kat depan arr, apsal semua nak ikut belakang!” one of the policemen replied, “okay-okay”, and when back into the car, which headed to the front. The policemen looked nervous too. They were human after all.
We now walked briskly yet, trying to refrain from making any noise. I walked side by side with my friend now and we came to a halt. I saw a man standing straight ahead holding a metal object looking at us. I grasped the umbrella in my hand tighter. We continued walking ahead, my heart started to beat faster and I was pretty much determined to charge forward.
I hadn’t been into a fight for a long time already and it somewhat felt strange. I remembered the last time I got into one, which wasn’t even my fight, it never was. I was trying to help my “nice friends” out from one. I succeeded in doing so but ended up being the one fighting against 15 or so other so called “gangsters” and my “nice friends” all of the lot, just stood there helplessly. My closest friend didn’t come to help till the very last moment. I didn’t really blame or cared much about the incident though, saying to myself that it was just not their way of settling things. Come to think about it, most of my so called nice friends wont even bother helping me out if I was the one facing the actual situation, they were too concerned for their own safety and I guess wouldn’t want anything to ruin their bright future.
But this time, I was trying to protect a friend and perhaps his family too. I tried to convince myself. However, I started thinking he wouldn’t really care about my intentions; he would just assume that I’d like to get into brawls and that would be the end of it. This is weird but, after it all ended I couldn’t help but thinking about the Indian dudes (the robbers) as well. All their lives they were cussed and looked down to. Some even looked at them as criminals even before they became actual criminals. And they didn’t get a chance for a proper guidance or a proper upbringing. And now, they were just meeting the public expectation. Weren’t they actually fulfilling their promised/destined life?
I brushed the thoughts off of me. This wasn’t the time for that. The man who stood across us now pointed the metal object at us and light came out through it. It was a damn torch light. Later, we found out that he was one of the neighbors. A very lonely man, I would like to add. We got closer to him and he started talking endlessly and even started reminiscing about his past experiences. We weren’t nearly in the mood to make new friends. I just nodded to what he said and so did the friend. I walked past the old man to look around for the robber.
The old man handed me the long metal torch as if handing down a burden. I took it and we began to search the drains. My “brave” (idiot) friend went to the extend of climbing down the drain to look for occupants in it. Luckily enough there was no one in there. I helped him out the sewage and we started walking up the black, back alley with the help of the torch, now in the friends hand. We thought that, there could be the possibility of the culprit still hiding nearby. So we looked around nervously, we tried to be as discreet as possible. We walked past houses looking through its fences and expecting someone to pop out all of a sudden, out of the blue. It almost felt like in the movies just more vividly real. After almost reaching the end of the alley, we decided that the culprit was already gone and that the show was over.
We walked to the front and were met by a crowd of people including the house owner, the guard and some other old dudes, who looked pretty much calm. They talked as usual and acted normal. It was over; I now realized that the friends who were supposed to guard the food were with us now. I guess they didn’t want to be missing out in the action. We got back in the car and returned to the café. The drive back was silent; one of the friends broke the silence by jokingly saying that he passed the responsibility of guarding the food to a waiter there. We returned and were glad to see the plates and drinks still on the table. It was uncared of and was already cold. Nevertheless, we finished it up in a few minutes.
I was glad that it was all over, but for some odd reason I felt disappointed too. The robbers might’ve known that they were spotted and must’ve fled even before we arrived. In the end it was all futile. No one did talk about the incident ever since, even at the cafe. I guess it was nothing much to think about. I returned home tired and it was the end of another day.
