365. LimaKupang

it was 1990's, sekolah menengah with white shirt,
green pants and the songkok. me and the guys were
walking by the school park when we saw zaini,
a poor guy who always wore a second hand
school shirt with the hole for the name tag
was so big that u can put a finger through it,
a broken down bicycle without the chain cover,
his green school pants is filthy with the oil stain.

we approached him.
he was opening a nasi bungkus badly wrapped
in plastic and newspaper. seeing this,
just for fun, we decided to eat his rice.
yes and that was what we did.
we took his rice from his hand.
he didnt say anything,
he was either too afraid of us,,
or he might as well be having another one
stashed inside his bag. he just looked at
his rice being eaten by four hungry thugs.
i am not proud of this pocketeers,
but this is the story.
it was a normal nasi puteh with gulai and
some sambal tumis ikan bilis.
there was a fried egg too.
regardless of the nasik's simplicity,
it was delicious, the curry got a tint of
ikan masin flavour in it,
the telur goreng was perfectly cooked,
hard outer with soft and somewhat raw inner.

realizing this, the harassment continues...
'zaini.. waaa sedap la nasik kak hang buat'
'bukan kak.. mak saya buat.'
'oooo mak hang buat juai (jual) ka?'
'dak.. mak buat bagi kami bawak bekai (Bekal)'
'umph!! sedap!! kami suka!! kami nak!!
besok aku nak hang buat lagi sebijik macam ni jgak
pat bungkuih. buleh kan?'wfierce intonation
Grabbing him by his shirt collar,
fist clenched to the left jaw. he nodded.

The next day he kept his promise,
he brought us nasik.
we didnt hope for the nasik though,
we thought we could harass him again
since he didnt obey. but no he did,
4 pack of nasik badly wrapped in newspaper.
we got the nasik,we ate the nasik,
and oh my how we luved the taste of a home cooked meal
like that, i dont know how was zaini's explaination
to his mother, but there we were..
licking our finger on nasik that was not paid.

Jahat kan.. humm hummmm

-Bersambung-