4 The 'Seksu' Shows Up at the Door

Mak and Bee have not heard from Bapak since their abrupt move from Bukit Keramat about a year ago.

However, one lazy afternoon after a heavy lunch, when Mak is reading her broadsheet newspaper on the rattan settee and Bee her Enid Blyton adventure series on the vinyl flooring, they hear a gentle tap on the front door.

They both look up from their reading materials and at each other. They cock up their ears to the second set of gentle tap on the wooden door. Mak gestures at Bee and turns her head towards the door. Bee scrambles up and turns the door handle to stare at Bapak's secretary leaning against the balcony railings.

"Who is at the door, Bee? Why are you frozen like Patung Chendana?"

"Oh, it's Kak Kamisah, Mak. Bapak's secretary at his Batu Road office."

"Well, are you going to stand there like a jaga or are you going to invite her in?"

"Oh, do come in, Kak Kamisah ... "

********
Desperate times call for desperate measures. When Kamisah does not hear from Bapak, she summons her courage to look for him at his estranged wife's unit.

There really is nothing to lose, she tells herself. As it is, she is already relegated an Old Maid at 22. All her female office mates - Hana, Zee and An - have moved on to secure jobs and the security of marriages, leaving her to hang on to a shell of a post in a shrinking work space.

Her parents' and siblings' mockery at home, day in, day out, is getting unbearable. And she has to hang her head low to her chest every morning and evening, as she shuffles her way to and from work, pretending that she does not hear the wicked whispers of spiteful neighbours behind drawn curtains at the police barracks next to the Merdeka Stadium.