Tersadung, Tersembam dan Perkara yang Sewaktu Dengannya

Growing up in seaside settlement in the era where no one would want to kidnap us, we kids were scattered everywhere in Teluk Bahang.

And to make things easier, my parents got me a bike.

Since I am the firstborn and my brother is just 1 year my junior, sometimes it means having him tailing me, when he's not at the beach rolling his tongue and hands against the splashing waves.

I was an adventurous and a difficult kid, and exercised no safety measure when on the bicycle.

One unfortunate day, I was speeding along a bumpy lane, with my brother on tow and I hit a bump pretty hard that we were thrown off the bicycle, exactly in front of the wooden stairs of whoever house it is.

I bet we crashed so loudly for the lady inside the house to dart out.

As my brother and I blew on our scratches and try to got back on our feet, the lady stayed still at the top of the stairs, horrified, yet still managed to analyse our genealogy (it was a tight knit community, where people know each other way too deeply)

Help didn't come as it should, instead a stupid question came our way.

"Hampa ni cucu Mat Bodo ka?"

(Tok appa was known as Mat Bodo and I embraced the nickname cooly. Mainly because the name is not vulgar, I knew of some uncle who carried penis as their second nickname)

We were both scratched and bled.They were not that bad, still, the small me was hoping that the aunty would do something like coming down to us and offer at least some comforting words and picked my bicycle up for us.

But no. After conforming her that we are indeed Mat Bodo grandchildren, I gathered my bicycle and my brother and start cycling home again and that lady went back into the house.

Such a courteous gesture to kids who were thrown off their bicycle.

When in Standard 2, I got a grandeur bicycle, a blue one, as a present for excellent report card.

The bicycle change but the owner's habit of speeding stayed the same.

One day, I was in school uniform and tailing behind my friend to another friend's house.

The plan was to cycle to the school together.

It was a scorching afternoon and the main road was pretty deserted.

My friend already zoomed across the mini bridge spanning a deep drain, very assured that I'll be behind her still.

Unfortunately, the front rim took a wrong turn and I ended up upside down in the deep drain along with the heavy school bag and the bicycle.

I was trapped and sweating in my kurung inside a deep drain and I had no way of getting out by myself.

I was whispering in pain and my jutting legs didn't even pass out of the drain.

So, help took some time to come to my rescue.

All I remember is few people getting the bicycle off me and extracted me from the drain.

I don't remember whoever they were but I still remember the saving hands.

I had some dab of minyak gamat and some fresh damp towel at my friend's house and next thing I know is, we 3 were cycling for school, and were worrying if the usual mad old man would walk a road that we will be passing and spitting vulgar words at us.

Those are about the bicycles. There were times when discovering the village and nearby hotel nooks was preferable by foot.

It was a quiet afternoon and I had a small group with me, one of them is a cousin from the city visiting.

We wandered up to the tennis court and since it was a hot afternoon and the usual way back would take longer, I decided that we should cross the partly smashed railings.

As the leader, it's obvious that I should be the first to cross.

And as I lifted my leg, my hand caught on stray wires from the railings and I fall on my chin exactly on the edge of someone front door made of crude grey brick and my head hit hard on the small cabinet that they put in front of their house, sending a carpet, luckily not that thick or larger, on top of my head.

It's no more sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga, it's sudah jatuh tersembam ditimpa permaidani atas kepala.

Poor those small ones behind me, they must be shocked to witness such a drama.

I vaguely remember it but I think the lady of the house came out and got the carpet off me and those small ones across the cursed railings.

My mom the tiger never let me off, and imagine what would happen when I came home bleeding from long scratches with obvious bump on my wide forehead, and behind me, trembling small kids had it not been my aunt visiting.

To cap the falling incidents off, I had the last major one at school.

In Kemahiran Hidup workshop to be exact.

It was the day where we were supposed to wear those fussy co-curriculum uniform.

I had the habit of stuffing my legs (they began to shoot scarily when I hit 2nd year of high school) inside the modified cupboard under our table.

Thing is, I had the fan-cut style skirt and the cupboard had a hook to keep the door shut properly.

As we stood up to say our thank you and recite a short verse from al-quran, my skirt caught the hook and I lost balance.

It happened for a worst 2 minutes, the classmates were between shocked and reciting the verses as I assume the movement of jellyfish.

At last, the balance was completely lost and I hit the floor as they said amen.

In the skirt that's responsible for the fall.