by Ming Cher
“Midnight ghosts!” San commented. Those men had been at it throughout the night, their cigarette smoke floating around them. “That old woman is…?” Ah Seow pointed nervously at Ah Paw.
“Chai’s grandmother,” San whispered back. “She is deaf, but her eyes are very sharp…”
That was true. The Old Owl saw the boys and galloped on wooden clogs towards them. “San!” she squeaked. “So early this morning? Chai’s still sleeping. He treats the day like the night!” She went back to her work.
The boys stood at a table where a pot of ‘free for all’ tea was kept hot inside a cloth-padded rattan basket. There were some tea cups in a bucket of water. San patted Seow’s shoulder. “Pour yourself a cup of tea, sit down awhile and wait for me.”
Ah Seow reluctantly sat down on a smooth bamboo bench and watched as his friend disappeared into the back door. He stared dreamily at the large coloured poster of the Three War Gods at the doorway shrine. Recalling one of the Blind Man’s stories, he said aloud, “Black face Zhang Fei full of brawn with little brain. Red face Guan Gong has brain and brawn but not cunning. Pale face Liu Bei less brawn but very cunning to become Emperor of the Shu Han Dynasty through their great blood brotherhood spirit.”
Engrossed in his thoughts, Ah Seow was totally unaware that old Ah Paw had arrived to sit quietly beside him. She squeaked, her cigarette still between her thin lips, “Did you eat breakfast yet?”
Shocked, Ah Seow answered meekly, “Eat already.”
Ah Paw watched Ah Seow’s lips and edged closer. “Hmmm… what did you eat? Talk in my ears!” She squeaked more loudly, “I am deaf!”
He stammered, “I, I… kueh lopis.”
“Aaaa, from Fatty’s Family?” She guessed and touched Ah Seow’s cheek.
Ah Seow froze and looked down awkwardly.
“Chaaay…!” she scolded. “You are useless! You have no guts, where’re your balls?” She started to fiddle around between his legs.
Fear of the pontianak fanned Ah Seow’s imagination. “No, can’t be in the daytime,” he assured himself as he tried to glide further away on the bench.
The old woman became bolder and would not let go. Instead she grabbed his shorts, pulled him closer and hugged him. Ah Seow turned stone stiff and allowed Ah Paw to do as she liked. She spat her cigarette butt into her bucket and talked lip-to-lip with Ah Seow. “I like to eat Fatty Family’s cakes. You look, take a look. I am like a baby, I have no teeth, give me a kiss.” She forced a kiss on the boy.
The cigarette stench and her bad breath combined rose into Ah Seow’s nostrils and made him blink and shake his head to fight for control over himself. The old woman took the opportunity to kiss him again, leaving him completely helpless. Making a face at Ah Seow to scare him even more, she started to dig and fondle inside his shorts as if she were a playgirl once again, nicknamed ‘Little Chilli’ for her predatory escapades.
Her mood now changed. Pointing at the concrete tank, she said, “That thing is deep inside the ground. At night you can see the moon making a big pearl inside. Be good to me, I will show you my children inside.”
Looking delighted, she dragged the spellbound Ah Seow to the tank, which was two metres below ground level. The old woman tiptoed to touch its edge and said sweetly, “Look inside.” Ah Seow robotically obeyed.
“I show you my children,” she grumbled, sweeping the weedy water once. A pair of black-and-orange carp fish, each about one metre long, swam up.
Ah Paw swept the water again, this time twice and with both hands. Three big, fat goldfish with fluffy fins and tails and the size of newborn puppies appeared.
Tiptoeing higher, she fluttered her fingers on the water surface. The three goldfish swam towards her and nibbled her fingers. Those carp rubbed against her hand and she made a sweeping gesture towards their heads. “This is the male, this is the female. They are older than my youngest grandson Chai. They are like dogs, they have good sense, they know me very well. That three naughty goldfish are no good, belong to my useless son, that Old Substance. They come to me only for food!” The moment she spoke, the three goldfish swam away.
She dipped her hands deeper into the water to caress the bellies of the carp couple. Ah Seow, entranced, thought he heard the fish speaking.
“What do you think that boy thinks of us, darling?” the female carp said.
“Darling!” said the male carp. “You always ask the same questions when you see somebody new. Can’t you see? It is all about curiosity. No difference, really. He wants to know you, like you want to know him.”
The female carp asked, “Don’t you think it is boring doing the same thing? All the time?”
The three goldfish appeared again and sang, “Just-t be-ee grateee-ful! For whattt you have! No-ooo boo-dy is eat-ee–ting us…”
The male carp said, “Yes, yes, I agree.”
“You mean be here now?” asked the talkative female.
“Exactly! Just relax! Why don’t you stop talking?”
“Darling! My fish brain is not born like that!” she replied and asked the goldfish, “What do you all think?”
“Pay no attention to the old woman!” they together advised and dived back into the milky depths.
“Ah Seow!” Chai’s husky voice boomed out behind San as he pushed his bicycle in through the door. The bicycle was decorated with cut-outs of film stars.
At his entry, Ah Paw click-clocked away after a sideways glance at her nearly fourteen-year-old grandson. Chai looked like his father in every aspect: he had a big and bulky head, broad face, short thick neck, long thick body and short stubby legs, and he was taller than the average man. He had started to make his own living at nine years old through spider betting and bought his own bicycle at ten.
“Ah Seow,” San asked with a wink. “What are you doing here? Let’s go outside first.” Ah Seow, awoken from his strange experience, followed the two boys out.
Outside the main intersection of the village, Chai stopped his bicycle and leaned against it. “Ah Seow!” He frowned, fresh pimples clearly visible on his face. “Next time you come to my house, don’t talk to my grandmother, okay?”
Ab Seow didn’t like to be treated in that manner. He turned to San and said, “She is very strange; crazy?” He wanted to irritate Chai.
“Something wrong, like your name,” Chai shot straight back. “Everybody in my house is crazy and strange. My grandmother is the worst! Thinks she’s a little girl and likes boys.”
“In the daytime not so bad,” San said. “At night, she will try to take off your trousers. The main thing is you must not be scared of her.”
“All right, all right, don’t talk about my grandmother.” Chai rubbed his hands, “Ah Seow, let’s talk money first. Did you say your boss is betting big today?”
Ah Seow boasted, “More than fifty dollars himself. Can you handle that?”
“Any more?” Chai lifted his round chin in expectation.
Ah Seow seized the opportunity to declare, “That means the match is on. Seven match from noon?”
Chai shot a look at San. San nodded slightly. “Okay!” Chai said, “Make it twelve to twelve-thirty. San, tell our side to be ready for ours is sure to win the show first.” He pulled out a short comb from the back pocket of his tailor-made shorts to comb his weak hair backwards, left and right.
• • •
At the balcony, Kwang’s brothers were playing cards with a group of small kids, using cigarette boxes as currency. “Rare brands worth more” was their system of evaluating their money market, which fluctuated according to supply and demand; they were learning basic mathematics through gambling. Sometimes two Cat brand casings were worth five cents and would buy one otak-otak, grilled fish meat in banana leaf, that Kwang’s brothers were now eating with one hand as they played cards with the other. One Cat brand casing was also worth ten Navy Cut brand casings.
Kwang, on the other hand, was teasing a Mr. Spider with a Miss Spider, which he held under his thum
b. Kim, closely following the action, butted her head against Kwang’s and giggled. “Look, look,” she said. “Look at their desperate face, look!”
“See the male’s stick thickening?” he asked and nipped at the bud of her flowering breast. She wore a light cotton tee-shirt.
“Don’t do it here!” She winced, her ready-to-laugh eyes widening. She was focused on watching the magnified white-face spider struggle helplessly to free the black face, keen to discover what a female spider did to attract the male ‘like crazy’. Regardless of how long Kwang’s thumb had her locked in position, the male would try to mount her. Kim knew this because she had seen it happening. Such fantasies sometimes got into her head.
Ah Seow stepped up the bamboo balcony and reported, “Everything arranged, Chai agreed on twelve to twelve-thirty.”
“Okay, good,” Kwang replied and continued frustrating the male for a further five minutes before he separated the spiders into two different boxes. Scratching three stripes on the corner of the box with a coin to rank the male spider, he gave the casing to his assistant. “Nah, Ah Seow.”
Kim elbowed Kwang. “Why don’t you let them live in the same box together?”
“It is a trick! Make the male think about the female and be angry at other males when the match starts. If win? I will let them stay together again.” Eyeball to eyeball with Kim, Kwang felt that her almond eyes melted him, knocking him left and right all the time because it came out of his own soul; it came from laughing at his odd look since they were growing up. And in turn she felt warm and sexy, because she felt pity at the way his mother beat him.
“Why!” She again butted her forehead against his.
“Why?” he said. “I know everything about my Panther Tigers.”
“I want to make some money today. What time is the match?” she asked, leaning back.
Feeling a little left out by their renewed intimacy, Ah Seow said loudly for attention, “Twelve to twelve-thirty!”
Kwang stretched out his hands, looked at the sun and yawned. “Woh! Eleven o’clock already! Hey Kim, how about asking all your girlfriends to come? This time Chai will surely die.” He winked at Ah Seow for support.
“Yes!” All Seow continued on his behalf. “The more people on our side the better, Chai has more money and people than us. Double the money with five cents can make a lot.”
“Don’t make me lose face!” she warned Kwang, waving her finger like a tomboy and walking away to gather her girlfriends.
Ah Seow went into his room to count the money and prepare the paperwork for the match. Kwang continued to warm up his spiders.
4
Betting Big
KIM WAS A popular girl in the village, so she brought more than a dozen girls about her age to the match.
Ah Seow was thrilled. He asked them, “You all know how to bet?”
“Don’t know!” one talkative girl said. “Your sister pulled us here!”
“Easy!” said Ah Seow, taking out a pencil and a record book. “Better play kongsi, five cents a share. We pool the money together, divide the shares later. Sometimes five cents can make more than one dollar in the seven matches today!” He patiently taught the girls the mathematics until they nodded in understanding and called him smart. Ah Seow was delighted by their full attention. The girls had saved harder than the boys, and some girls bought ten shares.
The talkative girl asked again, “How long do we have to wait?”
“We go now!” Ah Seow exclaimed, in a jovial mood from feeling a sense of importance. He led the way with a schoolbag over his shoulder, with all the spiders and the betting book inside it. Kwang and Kim took turns to piggyback each other, following behind Ah Seow.
Their playground was usually quiet in the mid-afternoon, but today it was busy with spider boys. When the girls arrived, all the boys’ heads turned. A boy in Chai’s larger team said, “Aaayah? They bring girls to show off!”
Another boy said to someone who had many sisters, “Don’t lose face, ask your sisters to bring their girlfriends.”
“Go… go, don’t lose face,” San encouraged him.
“Okay, okay,” the boy agreed with a smirk and took off.
Kwang’s boys were already waiting by the hollow in the banyan tree, where there was a small shrine for Da Bo Gong, the God of Prosperity. They crowded around Ah Seow, who took down names, collected shares and gave out receipts for pool betting. Without his mother’s presence, Kwang felt positive. “Don’t worry,” he encouraged them. “Gamble your guts out today!”
“Girls also dare to play!” Ah Seow tried to encourage more bets as he counted and double-checked the coins.
The people who did not take sides gathered around the usual spider arena at the edge of the shade of the banyan tree. Boys and girls bantered gaily and the atmosphere was building. More independents started to crowd around their team. Kim, with deeply dimpled smiles, was soaking up the atmosphere.
It was just past noon. More spider boys had arrived. Just before twelve-thirty, Chai turned up, ringing his bicycle bell. He was a dashing figure. He dismounted and lay his bike flat on his patch. Passing his shoulder bag to San, he pulled out his short comb and combed his hair backwards, left then right. “Hey, San, what are those girls here for?”
“They come to bet with money,” a spy reported.
“Big betting today,” San said.
“That is better,” Chai fidgeted with the teeth of his comb. “We will dry out all their pockets today.”
San asked, “Did you bring any new spiders today?”
“Don’t worry,” Chai slipped the comb into his pocket. “All are conquerors from Redhill and Pasir Panjang.”
Ah Seow walked over and called out at a distance, “San! Want to set up the table now?”
“Up to you!” San shouted back.
The boys took out their gear for staging the spider matches—a smooth brick-size wooden block on a metre-square piece of plywood, which was supported by four other blocks below. Then they clapped their hands and waved their team forward. The space was flat and spacious, which was just nice, not too dim, unlike at the centre of the tree, which was thick with leaves and buttress roots.
The boy with many sisters returned, lots of girls following behind him. The two referees now urged everyone to draw a coloured satay stick from a tin to determine their viewing position. “Tew chiam! Tew chiam! Red in front! Blue, white, green follow behind!” Nearly two hundred boys and girls jostled their way into the arena.
Tomboy Kim pushed the boys away. “Girls sit in front!” she demanded. The boys felt embarrassed about quarrelling with the girls, so they made way for them to take the front rows. Kim squatted beside Kwang. It did not take long for everyone to be packed like sardines in a crater formation, with the front rows squatting, the subsequent rows half-kneeling and half-squatting, hands on knees, and the back rows standing.
Referee San rang a brass bell. The commotion stopped. Opposite the arena, the two chiefs calmly pulled out spider boxes from their bags and held them up to the crowd. Referee Seow spun a coin to decide who would start. Chai combed his hair and tried to guess, “Head!” It was tails. “Wrong guess!” Ah Seow pointed at Chai in a referee-like manner. “You start!”
Chai took out a packet of Navy Cut brand of cigarettes and a lighter from his big side-pocket and coolly placed them on the plywood. He sought out a spider box from his bag and passed it to Ah Seow. Ah Seow put the spider on the white block so that the audience could see it.
Referee San pointed at Kwang. “You want to weigh?” Kwang snapped his fingers at Chai’s spider as he blocked its path. The spider jumped onto his palm, and he felt the weight and the force of the spider as it jumped and landed between his two hands. “Enough,” he said coldly and handed it back to Referee San. He searched for a box in his bag. “Kim, give to him,” he gestured at San with his thumb.
Kim snatched it, giving Chai a glare as he handed the box to San. The referee let the spider out for a little wa
lk. “Enough?” Ah Seow asked the public. There were no complaints.
“Your turn to weigh,” Ah Seow said to Chai authoritatively. Chai waved a middle finger in front of Kwang’s spider, as if saying, “Get a fuck, get a fuck”, making the audience laugh and irritating his opponent as he waited for the spider to jump onto his finger. Chai felt its weight and studied it, casting a quick glance at Kim. Kim gave him another unhappy look. Kwang stayed cool with his arms folded.
“Kembang! Kembang!” Ah Seow rang the bell for betting time. Referee San announced the rules. “Seven matches today! Unless banker is bankrupt!”
“Chai? Your call!” Referee Seow said. Chai took out a bundle of one-dollar notes from his bag and placed it on the plywood. He licked his hand, peeled out the notes dollar by dollar and floated them onto the table slowly. “Twenty dollars,” he said, with an air of a poker player intending to annoy and raid his rival’s capital. Including his own money and more than fifty crews averaging twenty-cent bets each, Kwang had more than twenty dollars in the pool capital. “Eight dollars for a start. Leave some for others to play,” he said coolly as he counted the coins and gave them to Kim.
Kim sucked on her lips and pushed the coins to the centre. Chai lit a cigarette with a puff of smoke at the money on the table. Ah Seow counted the money again and said, “San, twelve dollars left.” San stood up to ring his bell and announced, “Twelve dollars extra! Twelve dollars on the table for public bet! Any challenge! Any more challenge!” He squatted to pile the cash on the side.