KUCI

It is impossible for me to forget a boy named Kuci. Tall, slander, good looking kind of guy if you kind enough to put your standard bar a little bit lower than your usual standard. I remember Kuci had a big black mole stamped on his cheek. It was like the size of Perlis or Malacca, me and my friends made a joke out of it. Come to think again, it was a funny joke if only people can see what we saw. Those were the days when jokes are all the matters.

I remember that Kuci came from a poor family background. In fact, he was so poor, often during our recess time, Kuci can only watched us eating our meals while he, himself did not even touch a slice of bread if given by the Makcik Kantin who I believe the only person that sympathized him. He always managed to escape ‘those donations’ by refusing it with a polite smile on his face. The thing about watching him is, I really don’t understand why Kuci always preferred to watch us from the top of his “canteen’s chair”. Yes, Kuci had his canteen’s chair for himself. It was black, tall but seemed to be made from a good quality kind of wood like mahogany or ‘Cengal’. My friends told me that Kuci made the chair himself and that was the reason why people were not allowed to sit with him on his chair. I don’t mind though since I like the chair that the school provided us with. Small, creaking like a mad banshee and always seem to be at the edge of self-collapsing. I guess the condition and the sound made by it were the reason why I like to sit on my school given chair.

The thing about Kuci and his chair is that while people usually sit on their chair, Kuci had a very unusual habit to stand on his majestic chair like someone who got punished for doing something stupid in classroom and watch us while we were eating. Most of the boys and the girls in our school think that the thing Kuci did was a little bit creepy. I used to think that he was mental or retarded for that but everybody knew that Kuci was the top student at our school since he started to come when we were in form two. Nobody knows where did he come from or where did he go to school before he turned up into ours. It seemed that nobody cared enough to find out.

Kuci was just probably as much as normal boy like us. I mean, put aside the creepy and weird habit of him with his beloved chair, I believed he could be a real candidate for the most popular hunk in our school (we don’t have too many good looking guys in our school). Once I found out that a couple of girls had sent him an invitation letter for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. One of them was of course Leela, to whom I was so madly in love with. Leela was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He had a set of eyes that could melt you down before you could blink your eyes and her smile can make your life crumbles and make you wish you were never born. Well, it was true because after I knew Leela had sent an invitation letter to Kuci, my life crumbled. I remember, for three days in a row I cried like a little girl who lost her most treasured possession. I was heart broken and at that time, for the first time in my life, I learned the reality of love.

But Leela never had a chance to go out with Kuci. Kuci rejected her and the few others by simply told them that he was not interested. I became his great admirer after that because I knew Leela had to accept the rejection in the hardest possible kind of way since Kuci made the official rejection on his majestic chair during the recess. Leela screamed so hard and ran to the toilet and I was not really sure about my reaction when I saw the incident but I do remember the smile that was carved on my lips. It was the most beautiful smile I could ever conjure in a million years.

Kuci had a very special way to make the teachers annoyed. Often Kuci will address the things that he thinks should be corrected like the arrangement of chairs, the availability of teachers during off hours and the making and amendment of laws that the school should seriously think of like the abolishment of sex segregation law during assembly and the introduction of smoking areas at school compound. Usually Kuci will pick his time to deliver these ideas during the recess time. Once he got up to his self-made chair, he will raise his hands to let us know that we should listen to him. I really don’t know how but we all listened to him. I must admit that Kuci made a very good speech each time he was on his chair. It was odd though because no matter how annoyed the teachers were, they never seemed to care to stop him. Perhaps maybe the level of democracy was very high back then or they simply think that Kuci was just to entertain his school mates and should never be bothered. Once Kuci even managed to organize a hunger strike campaign because he thought the school had deliberately oppressing the poor by raising the PIBG’s fee from Rm 400 to Rm 890 per year. It lasted for one week where Kuci and a dozen of his followers tied their hands together with each other until our headmaster and a representative from the PIBG dared to face them. Consequently, the hunger strike group managed to lower down the fee to RM 300 for the poor. Rumors had it that Kuci paid the amount that the rich paid because he thought that he was not poor enough to pay the new standard price for the poor even though everyone knew Kuci was the poorest student in our school. If you asked me how poor Kuci was, I would say that he was twice as poor as the second poorest guy in our school. Nonetheless, the hunger campaign was a success even though Kuci lost two of his great companions. They were both suffered a major gastric complication and had to be sent to the hospital. Kuci personally paid his tribute by lowering down the school’s flag for two straight weeks.

Since Kuci was the very top student in our school, he usually gets the chance to represent the school in many academic competitions across the state. He was the star of our school like Zainal Abidin Hassan to Selangor’s team once. I used to represent my school in the Kuiz Keselamatan Jalan Raya once and of course Kuci was there also. He was the first seed of the competition where I was the 34th seed out of 55 seeds. In that competition we were instructed to drive our 'car' for 65 kilometres. The least amount of law we break during the journey will be the champ. The cars were equally provided by the organizer but candidate can bring any kind of technology that they think can assist them during the journey. While most of us were fully equipped with gadgets and state of the art navigation systems, I saw Kuci only equipped himself with a map, a compass and a bunch of bananas. Most of our challengers laughed at him. I was of course angry at them and tried to share my GPS with Kuci so we can both defeat the rest of them but to my surprise, Kuci rejected my assistance by telling me that it was no use to share the gadget with me since he knows nothing about how to use it. He, however still thanked me for my kindness and wished me luck. The competition was held in one of the all girls’ school in our district and obviously, Kuci instantly became the crowd favorite of the tournament. Amazingly, Kuci led the competition from the first second of the game and even managed to take a break for the rest of us to catch up with him. Nobody knows how did he became so good with the route but I did not really care to investigate much since I knew at that instant, those who were laughing at him must be eating their own hats right now. I ended up the race twenty minutes after Kuci ended his but lucky me, I begged the bronze medal after all.

Though he was so popular outside, he was practically alienated by the students and teachers of his own school. Nobody befriended him and since he once used to humiliate the girls who wanted to go out with him, all the girls in our school seemed to joint in hands to not ever come close to him. As for the teachers, even though Kuci never failed to bring us medals from outside competitions and never handed us his top student award, the teachers seemed to deserted him either. If any official or unofficial matter that they wanted to talk to him, they usually sent letters. To be honest, I really liked Kuci as a person but when I saw the whole school united in alienating him, I joint them. I hated myself back then for being such an ass to him. There were thousand of times when we stumbled to each other during recess, down the filthy black corridor of our school building and inside the toilet and my heart so desperately wanted to say hi or anything but each time of that happened, I could just showed him my smudged face and acted like I was one of his haters.

I remember that it was the saddest dawn I have ever felt in my life. Yes, it was on the 13th September of the following year. I woke up with a feeling of uneasiness in my stomach. My body refused to function as well as I have anticipated each morning and my brain kept on forcing me to continue my sleep. I spent almost one hour on my comfortable Swiss-made bed before I heard my mother yelling out her voice 'persuading' me to get my preparation done.

When I arrived at my school compound, people were already gone to their own classes. I went straight ahead to my science class with a butterfly still lingering in my belly. My brain was too quick in processing a reason and when I told Miss Kamala that the right tire of my dad’s car punctured on our way to school, she nicely let me off. On my way to my sitting place, I saw Kuci was not in the class and it was truly a shock since as far as I can remember, Kuci never missed classes. But just when I was about to sit down, Kuci entered the class.

He was wearing a black army pants with a green singlet. He matches it with his long black and shining army boot and a back pack. I thought he was being silly again when he stopped in front of the class and started to sing a weird song in a weird language. I can hear Miss Kamala scolding him like a mad person but Kuci just kept on singing. I only realized that Kuci was singing a song of a German language after I saw him giving the infamous Nazi’s salute to the class. Everyone was laughing at him accept me for I knew something weird was going on at that particular time. Kuci watched his classmate around and stopped at me. Our eyes truly met for the first time but not a single word was uttered. It was like our mind was trying to tell each other some symbolic messages but the only thing was, I can’t understand any. Everything was so vague at that time. everyone was laughing and Miss Kamala was screaming, I couldn’t hear a single sound and every movement was like a slow motion to me. I tried so hard to understand the looked that Kuci gave me. It was like a gut instinct and though I was not sure, I followed it and looked at each one of my classmate. They were all laughing and for the first time I saw how ugly they were. There was no respect, consideration and love in them. Their face looked so monstrous and I realized how horrible they were all the time because I knew, those were the same faces and behavior that I saw every day and it hit me hard suddenly that perhaps, my face looked exactly like them. I quickly turned my head towards Kuci and there he was…

The universe stopped suddenly and the only thing I could hear was my own beating heart pounding my nerve systems like jet engine. He was holding a shot gun in his left hand and a revolver in his right hand and before I could muster a single idea about the situation that I got into, a loud bang of Kuci’s shot gun erupted towards us. The laughing sound that was faded just then was once again exploded but it was not the same brutish, bestial laugh anymore. The horrible sound gun explosions were waltzing around with the scream of agony. I saw blood splattered everywhere and lifeless bodies swimming in the pool of blood created by Kuci’s wrath.

I stood there in front of Kuci. I was not quite sure why I hadn’t moved to take cover or anything. All I knew was, in the midst of that confusion, I somehow knew that I will not die on that day. Not a single bullet came near me and I was not even touched by a single drop of blood. My eyes set upon Kuci’s eyes but I could still hear the sound of gun roaring here and there.

Kuci finally stopped. Eyes still locked with mine, Kuci, then, gave me the strangest smile I have ever seen in my life before he placed his pistol on his head and pull the trigger himself. One bullet rushed into his fragile head and at once his brain celebrated their freedom by walking out from his head. With smile still on his lips, Kuci was gone…

going places

Piku heard the news late that night around 3 am. It was hard to believe at first but the moment he regained his consciousness, he had already stuffed all of his shirts and jeans to his green, dirty old back pack and ready to head off to Kuala Lumpur to meet her. The call was unusual he thought. Maybe because of the fact that he and Eve had broken up last year and the last call he received from her was 9 months ago but he knew before that this day will come. The warmth feeling of joy somehow crept slowly inside through his vain. She finally did it…she did, he thought with a smile carved on his face.

As he walked rapidly to his black, shinning and well cared Honda car around the corner of his two-storey house, he kept on thinking how his life has changed in the past three months. He had just been fired from his 2 years job at the prestigious Keller- Howard Publishing Company where he worked as their copy writer. It was a mistake he thought. His boss Mr. Keller had wanted to secure the biggest contract from the nation’s top organization and hand sent him to secure the deal. It was an easy job he thought at first but soon when he arrived at the meeting room of the organization’s building, he couldn’t believe his own eyes when he saw the very person who’s in charge with the contract was Daniel, his arch-enemy during their years in the university.

Daniel was with Eve for four years before they broke up. According to Eve, Daniel had had an affair with some girls at his economics class. Since Eve was so heart broken, he thought maybe it’s best for him to console her and since three of them were such good friends, he thought maybe he can help them to get together back. Unfortunately, it never happens since two months after that he and Eve became a couple. He remembered that it was all very confusing. He and Eve had spent the time almost every day since she broke up with Daniel. All the time he had asked Eve to try and forgive Daniel for he was sure that Daniel was fully regretted and heart broken by their break up. He even lied to Eve by saying that the affair was only a rumor and someone was ought to scam Daniel because Daniel was a very bright and handsome boy. It sounded like a very lame lie the minute he said it and at certain time it was almost sounded very gay to him but since he truly loved them to get together back, he thought perhaps he could forgive himself for saying that. Everyday, he tried to bring Eve to her right mind so she could realize how important Daniel was to him.

One day, one month after that, He and Eve was out picnic together at the famous waterfall near his grandad’s house. The waterfall was amazing since it had not been commercialized before. In fact not many people know its existence. It was surrounded by the most greenish elements they were both had seen in their life and they were surprised to see that no one except them was there. He remembered that Eve looked very lovely that day. She wore a blue Prada shirt and a long wavy cashmere blouse and she let her smooth and bouncy long hair free. Eve was always a very beautiful girl. She has the prettiest eyes in the whole wide world and a heaven’s smile that every woman wants. She was the tallest girl in their class and on top of that she possessed the body of a super model. They had so much fun that day and before the day was over, he had been on top of Eve, stroking and penetrating her.

Daniel couldn’t accept the news that his best friend had snatched his girlfriend right under his nose. He told Daniel that they had never planned it to happen and he and she deserve a chance. He even told that Eve was not his girlfriend anymore and the moment he said the word affair to Daniel after that, the only thing he remembered was Daniel’s big and muscular right hand had reached his face. Since then they had never spoken to each other anymore. Eve was furious when she saw his nose was bleeding and she couldn’t stop saying that Daniel was being so childish and mental. He watched Eve cleaning up his bloodied nose with her white handkerchief that he had bought her before with an overwhelming feeling that they will end up with marriage when the day has come. He never saw Daniel much after that and when once in a while they bumped to each other on their way to classes, Daniel usually gave him the looked of a predator waiting the right time to end his prey’s life. As for Eve and him, they became the most lovable, romantic and popular couple of the century.

He was sure that after all the years they had left the university, Daniel still had his grudge on him because the moment he saw him in the meeting room, Daniel couldn’t stopped grinding him with insults and unbelievable questions like “ If I don’t give you the contract, will you steal it?” He tried to keep his composure over the in coming non-stop insult that he received by his former best friend. He tried to be as much professional and kept on suggesting that they should proceed with the discussion but it was impossible to do it with Daniel. The insult became nastier after 30 minutes of their time together and when he decided he couldn’t take t anymore, it was a little too late because his hand had already landed on Daniel’s face. The surge of his blood that went to his brain was nothing like he had ever felt before and at that instant moment he knew that the feeling Daniel’s had when he punched him years ago.

Later that day, after been escorted by two bulky Indian guards off from Daniel’s building, he was at Mr. Keller’s room listening his boss throw his fury at him. He tried to explain the insult that he received over the meeting but instead of at least try to understand his position, Mr. Keller fired him.

One week after his sudden retirement at Howard and Keller’s he received a visit from four strangers at his house. He never saw them before but he knew that he was not lucky that day. He remembered they were bigger than him. All very muscular, clean looking and well dressed. At the first sight, they might look like secret agents or something. Before he could ask them a question, he had been beaten up by those guys. It was very painful to him. He felt like every piece of his bones was shattered to a million tiny pieces. He could felt blood running down bathing all over his face and the thumping sounds of something hard were like sweet music of jazz to him. At that time all he could think of was the government must either made a mistake in identifying a possible terrorist or must be crazy to send these guys to beat him. For almost 10 minutes he had to endure the pain and the unbearable shame for wetting himself down below, the four brutish guys finally stopped. Perhaps they were too tired to go on or thought that he was too weak to breathe. Before they got out and left him to death, he one of he men turned to him and said “Daniel sends his regards to you”.

As he laid on the floor of his house, face swollen and unable to keep pace from his own breathe, he kept on praying that someone will get to him and save him for he might have died that day but no one was there to help him. He spent a night with stinking blood covering his whole face, body too weak to move, mind too confused to reach God. Finally he managed to muster back his strength and crawled out from his house and gets some help from his neighbor.

He had to spent two weeks in the intensive care unit and another two weeks in the hospital wing before the doctor satisfied and let him go home. The moment he spent at the hospital was horrible. The nurses, most of them too old and too stressed out to handle a patient had nurtured him like a pesticide. They cleaned up his cuts roughly and he swears to God that they might even strangle him while bandaging his hand and head. At nights, he couldn’t fell asleep because it seemed to him that every 30 minutes, someone will scream their throat out and on top of that he could hear someone, probably a woman was crying near his bed but it was impossible since he stayed in a wing full of men. The day he got out from the hospital, he made a promise to himself that he will never get sick again…

He is about 10 minutes to reach Eve’s house and he could feel the feeling of sensational euphoria surging up to his brain. He knew that Eve will make the right choice and call him back. He decided that she deserves her second chance and they should forget everything that had happened between them before. He could see Eve smiling to him with the tears of joy streaming down from her eyes. He missed her so much and the thought of looking at her dazzling eyes and majestic smile make him want to sing his heart out…