366. LimaKupang 2

Pocketeers, its tuesday, and i hope i can post a
'Wordless Wednesday' tomorrow. So here goes...
sambungan to the 365.LimaKupang story before.



...licking our finger on nasik that was not paid.

After the recess ended, we went to see Zaini,
he was already behind his desk waiting for the
'Banguuuuunnnn... selamat pagi cikgu' all by himself.
We asked him, if we were to pay for the nasik,
how much would it be. 'Lima Kupang!' was his reply.
(Do bear in mind that this was 20years ago)
We paid and we ordered another batch tomorrow.
He smiled and kept his promise.

After 3 days of daily nasik to us, Zaini's nasik increased.
started from 6 pack on tuesday, 8 pack on wednesday,
12 pack by thursday, and went double by the week after.
People saw him bringing the nasik,
people saw us eating em, people asked around.
its way better then to spend in the school canteen
where the ajinomoto is so richly used,
u'll be dehydrated till the end of the day.
Everybody started to order from him,
after a while. Zaini would appear in the class room
with 3 big plastic bags of nasik nearing 40 packs.

We still order, we still pay, lima kupang.
But our nasik would be different,
there is always something extra,
a piece of fried chicken wing, Drummet u call em?
Or three piece of beef from the gulai by the size
of a 20cents syiling,
or half of a small ikan temenung goreng.
It was not much but somehow we took
it as a gesture of gratitude from zaini's mother
to the guy who bullied her son by eating his rice.

It was not springtime all year long for zaini, winter came.
The canteen stopped him one day and told him
that he's not suppose to sell nasik to students
by himself. They told him to put the three big bags
of nasik on the canteen counter instead.
With the Cikgu displin by their side, zaini nodded.

They kept his nasik at the back of the counter
and told him that no one wanna buy his nasik
by the end of the day. This goes on for 3 days till
he stop bringing those nasik to the canteen anymore,
he started to bring em in his school bag,
They strip those too. waited for him by the school gate
forcing him to show the content of his bags.
he couldnt complaint much,
he's just a student trying to make his way along.
This wall of obstacle might be too high for him
to hop over.. and so he stop.

I could not remember much about Zaini then after,
I do remember hearing that his mother went full time into
the nasik business, confident enough to set up a small table
with a parasol, upgraded to a small pondok by the road
selling her nasik.
And i heard she's doing fine by herself.
Heard that Zaini ended up in a good school,
couldnt remember where but i know he's not
wearing those shirt with holes patched all
over anymore.

There u go pocketeers, a piece of my memory,
story about bullies from my school time.
bullied anyone lately pocketeers?