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| Farewell Shot With the Clan |
I remember
It was December ‘65
School holidays
School holidays
Ma sprang
a surprise:
“Siddi said it’s best we shift to KL”
What seemed like
a few short days
She threw most
of our stuff into some suitcases
And when the Fateful Day came
Yat and I put
on our new stripe dresses with the Peter Pan collars
And pulled on
the bright, white socks tucked into the brown Mary Janes
“Don’t forget
the white hankies and zipped shiny purses for purchases”
When Ma heard the
‘Beep, beep’ sound of the horn
And sighted
the taxi without the permit
With its
engine running
And emitting
smoke
On the dusty
road
She said,
“Hurry up, girls,
we don’t have the red carpet and the Rolls Royce at our disposal”
No sooner than the doors were slammed
It raced to
the FMS Railway Station at the Cape of Fence
Sending us and
our baggage flying for defence
Neighbours and
uncles and aunties and cousins and friends
Were already there
to say
Selamat Jalan!
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| Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) |
I tagged along
As Mal and Yat
paced the platform
Trying to
catch the sight of the Station Master in uniform
On the side of
the grimy red engine
Were written the
words Senandong Malam
The Rhythm of the
Night was the night train's name
Which will transport us to our destination
Which will transport us to our destination
As we passed
by the shells of the cream and dark brown coaches
We thought of dust-covered
vanilla ice cream blocks on thick chocolate wafers
No doubt thrown on the
tracks by the grumpy Sun Sun Ice Cream Seller
The restaurant car was deep in the belly of the train
With shiny long
tables and metal benches
And
cooks-waiters in white aprons behind steel counters.
At the last few carriages, the writing Muatan Busuk Segera had us baffled
What indeed were
these Perishables
That must be instantly
loaded
At the tail of
the iron centipede
Before they
rot and stank and caused a stampede?
Soon the first ‘phritt’ was heard
T’was time to trace
our steps back
We kissed our
uncles’ and aunts’ hands
Hugged our
cousins and friends
By the second ‘phriitt, phriitt’
We had to get
our feet on the three short steps
Unless Ma let
us pull some stunts
We daren’t
jump on rolling wagons!
Our eyes in tears
Our cheeks wet
We jammed the stairs
Our bodies jerked
As the train made
a sudden start
When the third
‘phriiittt, phriiittt, phriiittt!!!’
Trilled from
the Station Master’s whistle
And his tiny, green
flag was unfurled.
We leant on the thin rubber padding
With blood red vinyl covering
What passed as
benches
On third class
coaches
Our arms
rested on the open window ledge
The glass was heavy
and thick
And the steel shutters
slid down
Like guillotines!
The yellow lights were kind
But the ‘whrrr,
whrrr, whrrr’ of the small ceiling fans
Kept yanking
our eyelids up
Dozing off was
really hard
When so many were
milling about
And the ‘clacketty,
clack, clacketty, clack’ as the ticket collector made his rounds
Punching holes
into thick paper stubs
Making sure no
free riders were aboard
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