Short-Story Archives: The Stain (Part 2)

    The sun has set into the island's hills in the east side of George Town which brings in chilling breezes from the port that cool the sweat on my back. "See, I suffer much, just because, of your laziness, you owe me, a favor Ah Seng," Ah Fook tells me with that smirk, a smirk so classic that even with a bag full of grain on my back I can still see it. "I could have, gone home, played mahjong, and have my, dinner early. See how, self-sacrificing, am I?" he continues, panting while carrying another bag of grain on his back 
    "So all that talk of being brothers has come to this huh? Did you remember that time you borrowed money from that kelinga man?" I ask him back and he replies with a grunt. "You forgot to pay the him even when he specifically told you that a 'Goddess of Destruction' will come for you if you fail to pay back, then you laughed and said an Indian goddess has no interest in a Chinaman. You remember what happened next?"
    Ah Seng sighs, "A dog bit my leg, yes, yes," he replies dismissively.
    "It delivered her poison, you were so sick you could not move. Now I, have to personally go to the kelinga to apologise and pay back with my own money. Then, I also slashed my back with a knife in front of him to satisfy her need for vengeance."
    "That is, not my fault, you are stupid, to fall for, a kelinga's, dirty pranks," Ah Fook replies while shooing a little boy who has been pestering him a while, trying to sell him some oranges.
    "So you are the master of all things Indian gods now? I told you not to play with these sort of things," I nag him, but as usual he dismisses it saying I am paranoid, too superstitious, too easily tricked. It is his pride talking. "After all that, your legs got better right?"
    "Yes, yes, yes, you are right brother, I can never repay you," he finally relents as we both put the bags of grain on the warehouse's door. The boss nods and gives a few coins to each of us before going back and closing the warehouse. We were lucky this time, usually the boss will starve us for the day. But his recent engagement to a girl of a wealthy Hokkien family may have lightened his mood.
    We wipe the sweat off our foreheads and count our daily pay. "Do you want to make a little more money?" Ah Seng continues with a wide grin and a blinking eye. Ah, his schemes again. I nod to satisfy my amusement. "There is another Hokkien boss who looking for laborers to carry cargo at night. You want? Pay is good."
     I feel bad to disappoint his enthusiasm. The night is setting in and I just want to go back to the dormitory and rest for another day of work. "Work until bones break for what? Enough to eat, enough to drink, what more do you want?"
    I did not mean what I said, I though it might make him accept the decline better. However, his face was aghast. "You mix with these kelinga and malai too much and now you sound like them!" he mocks me jokingly while patting my back in a friendly manner. "Live just to have enough to survive, what life is that?"
    "What do you want to do with so much money?"
    "Open business, find a wife, be rich, have children."
    "But there are so little women here, why would they marry a poor labourer like you?"
    "Then, open business, be rich, find beautiful wife, have children," he answers while laughing loudly. I admire his ambition, my wish is to earn enough so I can sail back to China and live out my old days in the village. Being unsure, I shrug. "Haiya, come, I only do this because this brother is trying to taking care of you. This is opportunity. You are stronger so you will get better pay. See, with my brains and your brawns, we can take on anything."
    Ah Fook does have a point, he is after a Hokkien clansman, a work-mate, a close friend; It is only proper I agree.