"Ting!" A faint notification sounded on Hadi's smartphone. Hana's eldest brother immediately stopped working on the image of a bank robber suspect to check the message immediately. The sound was dedicated for family members only, and they only contacted him when there was something important. His family knew how busy he was all the time, working in the Police Department.
Hadi hoped that it would be something new about her missing sister. He had done all he could and even checked the security cameras within the minimart his sister frequented and the public security camera from outside. Although there was none installed directly outside the minimart, he had painstakingly used his connection to tap into multiple cameras around to check. The only clue of a foreigner his sister had bumped into was gone once he checked that no such person was registered in the local college nearby. He had been distraught with his inability to understand how Hana was gone just like the wind in between the minimart and the outside doorway.
A clear picture of a hand drawn scrawl on a dirt floor was shown in the picture with a headline, "Hana's rough location. She sent it over just now. Please help check this map, Bro Hadi. Appreciate the help. - Arash"
The map depicted a river-like line from the upper right corner to the lower left corner, with a number of clustered misshapen triangles on the upper right side where the line originated. A single tree on the lower right, and a dot in the center with an 'X', presumable where his sister resided. A cluster of misshapen rectangular shaped landmark was above the 'X' position. That was it.
Hadi nearly fell from his seat!
[It was like a three year old drawing! This da*n thing is just too obscure and even without a scale! And what's with this kindie-like tree here? I thought she was in a forest with an abundant of trees right now?! How is this tree being singled out over here?]
Hadi felt an incoming severe migraine. He knew that news of a map was hard to contain, even how 'cincai' it was. This will escalate the hope of their mother.
Nonetheless, he still called up another friend of his and sent over the picture out again with a sigh.
[I really hope we can get something out of all this farce.]
...
As what Hadi has predicted, few days later, a distraught Ma'am Shaza called her eldest son in the middle of the night. As soon as he answered with trembling fingers, his mother was already yelling while in between sobbing.
"Did you find the location?! Hana has not been answering my messages at all this couple of days! She didn't even message Arash! Do something! How's the map doing? Tell me now!"
Hadi clenched his palm tightly with helplessness. He wasn't home for a few days since he received the map image from his brother-in-law, as he stayed together with his friend to witness his friend's working on matching the location based on all the information he had accumulated and roughly triangulate the most probable location. He too had tried contacting Hana a few times to ask more about the map but to no avail.
To Hadi's expectation, not a single match could be found.
[What can you expect from a 3 year old drawing?] He complained helplessly in his heart with bitterness.
However, after some fine iteration by excluding certain factors out and rotated the map's orientation multiple times, thousands of matches emerged. This had further increased Hadi's headache. After spending some time browsing through the list, he was stupefied to find a familiar name.
It was the locality of Arash and Hana's little hometown, including the surrounding state area and mountainous natural water reservoir area. He had just given the list to Arash and informed him of the peculiarities before continuing on the wild goose chase. He wasn't going to give up from this!
Nonetheless, he knew his mother was going to explode anytime soon. After weighing the options, he answered with cold hard facts.
"Mak (1), please forgive this useless son of yours. I can't find her, yet. However, I won't give up. Please be patient."
Silence.
"USELESS!" The call was ended just like that.
He immediately dialed his little sister's number in bitterness to give her a heads up of their mother's turbulent temper.
[Sigh. True. I'm such a useless brother.] Hadi sighed helplessly.
...
It was a hot Saturday; a time where the tropical sun shone the harshest. A humble open-air popular eatery known as "Itik Salai Masthar" was packed to the brim with local diners eating their heart's out. Some newly arrived ones even had to wait for a turn to get a table. In between the sweltering heat, a group of young men were playing cheerful songs at the side to lift the mood of the customers while collecting donations for a religious school. A little boy was sweating all over while eating beside his mother. He curiously looked around and saw a miserable-looking grown up man on his right. The man was with two cute girls by his side, presumably his own daughters; one was a toddler, similar to himself, and another one was way younger. What awed the little boy the most was the man's action of pouring a bowlful of yellow colored soup with a slight green tinge atop his own white rice with a sorrowful look.
The little boy stood near his mother's ear and whispered, "Ibu, (2) that uncle (3) pour the whole soup into his rice! It's like a flood lah! So terer! (4)"
"Shusshhh! Don't look at other people while you're eating. Very rude, Che' Mat (5)!" His mother was spooning herself with a piece of smoked duck with rice while making a satisfied-looking face. Different from the sad-looking man a table to his right, his mother only spooned out the extremely spicy gravy a few times and added some kicap manis (6) to her own rice to mellow out the heat.
The man was spooning his elder daughter with a mix of rice with fried chicken while the little one was playing with cucumbers. After that, he spooned himself after adding a dollop of sambal belacan to the rice 'flood', intensifying the hotness of the rice-smoked duck-turmeric coconut soup combo. The tables around the man gasped simultaneously with reverence in their eyes.
A streak of tears went down his face.
The man was suddenly crying. A group of young buskers jamming at the side inadvertently paused their ongoing song as the singer had choked on his words. They too were observing the strange man from a few meters away while performing.
Che' Mat went over with a bottle of kicap manis and nudged the uncle gently, "Uncle, if it is too spicy, you can have this kicap. I'm sure you''ll be alright." He tried to advise the man.
Arash rubbed the boy's head after he wiped his tears away. "Thank you, kiddo. It's not that spicy. It's within my limit. I cried because I remember that my wife loved this dish so much." He smiled gently to the concerned boy, feeling a little touched by the genuine care reflected in his clear eyes.
"Ahhh..." All the uncles and aunties around nodded with a knowing glance. Sympathy clouded their eyes.
[So young, so pitiful. Even have two daughters he needed to take care by himself.]
Someone went over and placed an RM5 carrot-milk juice on Arash's table. He squeezed Arash's shoulder, "Take it, a treat for the kids. Be strong, Bro."
Arash blinked his eyes in embarrassment as he realized what all the customers around him might have been thinking. He had been a little bit too emotional just now as his wife has not contacted him for a week. The worrying had been eating at him from the inside. He nodded slowly in silence without saying a word.
The buskers suddenly changed their song into a popular heart wrenching song by a local artiste, Kaer. A mellow serenade accompanied by a beautiful piano tune seeped into the crowd with an encouraging bittersweet tone filled the air as the diners solemnly enjoyed their meals on a hot Saturday afternoon, beneath a yellow canopy. Listening to the song, several diners' eyes misted as they catch a few extra glimpses of the unfortunate man with his two daughters.
Sinaran mata cerita segalanya (Your eyes speak of every)
Duka lara terpendam (hurt and hidden sorrow)
Memori semalam (from yesterday's memory)
Tinggal segala cinta (leaving all the love)
Tiada kembalinya abadi kasih kita (our eternal affection will never return)
Kau bawa bersama (as you have brought it along)
Mimpi indah mekar (a beautiful dream)
Saat cinta bersemi (of blooming love)
Sedetik asmara syurga selamanya (a moment of amorousness, heaven forever)
Pergilah rindu ku hilangkan diri mu (Please go my beloved, never to appear)
Tak sanggup menanggung derita di kalbu (Unwilling to contain the suffering in this soul)
Pergilah sayang ku (Please just go, my beloved)
Bermula semula semangat cinta ku (Please start over, spirit of my love)
Membara kerana dia (blazing over him/her)
Tiada niatku (It is not my intention)
Maafkan daku duhai kasih izinkan ku pergi.. (Forgive me, dearest beloved, please allow me to leave)
- Izinkanku Pergi by Kaer Azami(7)
Three black lines appeared on Arash's forehead as he listened to the serenade. It was a truly beautiful song but it's about how a deceased lover encouraged his beloved to move on! It's like a curse to kill his wife!
Arash quickly finished up his meal and immediately brought his children away. A moment longer, he might just punch the well-intentioned busker.
The other diners watched Arash leave with pity in their eyes. The man must've been too sad. He must've rushed out to weep in his car. They lamented on the fate of themselves and their partners; how long will they be together before the Creator took their loved ones away? Will they be ready?
.....
Author's Note:
(1) Mak = as a reminder, it means mother, short from 'emak'
(2) Ibu = mother (similar meaning to emak, some Malaysians prefer using ibu)
(3) the uncle.. = Arash is not the boy's real uncle. In Malaysia, anyone older will be called as an 'uncle' or 'aunty' eventhough the young one who greet the person only meet him/her for the first time.
(4) So terer! = terer means awesome, contrary to the real meaning of 'terror'.
(5) Che' Mat = the boy's name, it's like when you add -er or -kun or -chan to a name to make it more endearing. Usually to kids. Sometimes it persisted until the person grows older as it'll be a permanent nickname
(6) kicap manis = no, it's not tomato ketchup, it's a unique flavored malted soy sauce. It's sweet, salty and somewhat more umph. Don't know how to explain. Usually eaten with rice (a tiny bit only to enhance flavor). Popular local brands are Kipas Udang or Jalen (google: kicap lemak manis cap kipas udang) or read the comments section here (https://100comments.com/habhals-cap-kipas-udang-sweet-soya-bean-sauce/) Some are in English. From here you guys can see how obsessed Malaysians are with this local brand of kicap lemak manis haha. The taste is totally different with the light soy sauce or dark soy sauce/molasses.
(7) Izinkan ku Pergi by Khaer Azami = a sweet heartbreaking song. We translated the song as near to the meaning as possible. We didn't translate the whole song because the verses repeat themselves a lot, so we only took the important part. Though it didn't sound so nice in English, it flows well in Malaysian language. Follow this link to listen to the song and feel the sorrow of the diners haha. Highly recommended! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRYPheSlaJ0) (Google: Izinkan ku Pergi Kaer)