This is to continue from my previous story.
When I was small , my villlage ( kampung) was the most magical place for me.
In front of my grandmother's house was a padi field, spread out to other neighbouring villages. At the end of the padi field, infront of grandmother's house was a stream running around the village leading towards the Rembau town, a few kilometers away.
Sure, the padi field was dried up , but it did not stopped us from having fun. We fished in the padi field, we played chase in that padi field. We were afraid of leeches but as kids we forget that there were leeches in the padi fied when we go off on our adventure. We never had any casualty from leeches.
But, we also had a look out person to see wether there were snakes.
Once, there was an alert , we ran through the padi trail trail running back home but I had slipped and fell into the mud.My foot sank deep into the muddy floor, everyone was screaming , tryingto pull me up the trail, but my foot was stuck in the mud. Everyone yank me up , I managed to get up the trail but I had lost my slipper.
I had to go to the town that evening to buy a a new slipper.
The padi field was our playground.
My brother, cousins and I would run on the pathway , slipping into the muddy field , screaming , shrieking and we had a ball of a time. At the end the of day , before the call of 'azan' from the nearest mosque , we would head back home.
Our parents would shake their head as the five of us walked into the house grounds, like a creature from' swamp thing'. We were ushered to the back door and immediately pushed into the big bathroom, girls first of course.
The bathroom,was the old fashion bathroom, zink and wooden walls, cement floorings, there was a pipe and a small pond that act as water reservoir. The water was so cold.Each of us grab a pail and started splashing each other with water. We did not want to get out until our moms knocked at the door.
We were to get out immediately, the boys were dirtying the floor........
There was also a railway track that runs through the village.
When I was small, while waiting for dinner my cousins and I could here the distant sound of the train passing through.
There was one time, that my aunt took, my cousins , my brother and I walking at the railway track. I had not watched "stand by me" at that time but when I watched the movie I would have a big grin on my face.
We were like that. We were waking on the track , trying to balance ourselves on the metal railing. When we heard the distant sound of a train approaching we would get off the track , stood at the side and wave andshout at the train.
One of us tried the 'Tonto ' method, laying down and put our ears at the metal rail to hear any trains approaching. Never worked with us.
We got down at the village behind ours and walked on a massive field until we reached a river.
We wanted to go across to the other side. In the middle of the river was a cow and its calf. They were just lounging in the middle of the river, cooling themself in the water.
All of us took off our slippers and rolled our pants up. One by one we enter the blissfully cool water. The river was clear, we could see our feet and the sandy bed below.
The river was shielded with bamboos and shady trees.
I really felt like Indian Jones, trudging throuh the water.
We should had known that something was wrong when the calf kept glancing at us.
It even had a guilty face.
Sort of like saying , 'I can't, I can't , I'm sorry................aaaahhhhh'
Peerrgh......Out from its behind came ou a brownish goo..
Oooooh noo.....it did not! Screamed one of my cousin.
The worst part was that the current was towards US.
'RETREAT!!Retreat!!!!!' Cried one of us, who was it, I couldn 't remember because I was trying to run. It was not easy when your already waist length in water.
We tried to run against the wind and the current.
Finally ALL of us manage to get to the river bank.
The cow and calf were stll looking at us.
We walked along the river bank and we were sure that there were no abnormal sightings in the water, we bravely went in again.
The whole evening we walked, following the water until we reached town, where we stopped to buy slippers.
Oneof us lost a slipper through the cow dunk adventure.
If we keep it up loosing slippers , the store owner would be rich.
Until next time, that was my story from kampung for today.
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