by Ming Cher
Kim said as she stepped in, “It’s like that.” She pushed the mosquito net aside and sat on the edge of her bed. “I just had a bath to wash away the sticky blood.”
She started to strip reluctantly and was unsure of herself, yet she undressed in slow motion with a naughty look, giggling a little. He watched her like a spider, saw her kick away her underwear, her thighs easing apart to reveal a faint patch of dark hair round her vulva. She edged forward a little on her bed, and parted her legs farther.
“You can look now,” she said meekly.
Holding her knees, he bent and squatted between her legs. He observed her private part with a scratch of his head. “Last time you didn’t have hair there.” He touched the curly patch with the tip of his middle finger, moving it forwards and backwards lightly.
“Last time… what?” she asked in a faraway voice.
“Last time, last time… when we didn’t wear underwear!” he recalled. “When our mother nearly killed us for copying Panther Tiger fucking, your father nearly fought with your mother—you remember?” He continued fondling her.
“You made me do it!” She pursed her lips. “I am scared now—don’t touch me like that.” She quivered, heaved a breath and gripped her thighs tightly together, holding his trapped hand with both of hers. “Our mothers will beat us to death.” She jerked and shivered again as her heart beat faster, the memory of the lashes mixed with a burning lust to dare again.
A magical moment set her body ablaze. She wriggled her bottom as her hands worked to smooth the cane scars on his body. The tension in his lean hard body hardened, refusing to surrender to pain. She felt it as she caressed his shoulder and nibbled at it.
“Panther Tiger bites,” she heaved. “You’re hard as leather and never scared.”
She was right. He pulled down his shorts. “You want to see mine? I also have some hair around here too now.” His penis sprang straight up. Her body vibrated again and snapped the chains of fear. They rode each other like their sex-hungry wrestling spiders, over and over. It was more pleasurable now, after a space of about five years. They lay sweating after that, slumbering together, the mosquito net drifting messily about her bloodied bed, until Kwang’s little brothers came back and demanded money for food. Kwang gave them what they wanted, then took Kim to town for a medical examination.
Inside the clinic, the kind old doctor said, “Don’t worry, it’s very natural. From now on you will be having your period every month until you have a baby or get old like me. You are a very beautiful girl. Don’t let anybody cheat you.”
Kwang and Kim didn’t give a damn. They made love some more and shared everything from then on. She cooked for his brothers and, having renewed energy, even insisted on helping to wash their clothing. They went to the market together and ate together day and night. Kwang felt brand new. Even the lines of stress on his face, accumulated from the years of his mother’s disciplining, faded. He started to sparkle. He took Kim out to see the colours and variety of Chinatown by night, bought her new clothes and ordered street food, cooked in front of them in a flaming wok. The sights dazzled Kim, who had not left the village all her life. She loved it and was very happy, and happiness made her look even more beautiful as she continued to grow.
• • •
Early in the morning one day, Kwang and Ah Seow were at their usual place by the big yam leaves. Ah Seow, wanting to flatter Kwang, said, “Money’s always rolling in, people come to us. Everybody says you can win the big one this year. Do you know?”
“Not so easy.” Kwang yawned and opened a box for a ‘Mr. Spider’ to emerge and jump between his hands.
“I also think you can,” Ah Seow poked about. “Another six months for you to become this year’s new king of spider boys.” He squatted to sort the boxes.
“No need you to tell me lah… aaah…!” He grumbled and waved away Ah Seow’s curious goodwill in a sudden change of mood. He turned round to let his spider leap onto a leaf, then watched it dreamily, Kim on his mind.
The more he watched his spider, the more he thought of Kim. A strange thought was developing in his mind. He wondered what would happen to his spiders if Kim allowed them to drink her menstrual blood. “My spiders live on my blood from my bedbugs,” he pondered. “Kim is fierce. Maybe my spiders will like her blood too? Maybe should try out a few and see what happens?”
When his best spider had finished drinking, he released a female spider onto the leaf so that they would mate. He watched them under his magnifying glass.
Ah Seow, who observed his new behaviour silently, did not say much all morning. On the way down from the farmer’s plot, he ask, “Do you know Yeow came to our village with Chai a few days ago?”
“Who told you?”
“San!”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing much. San just said Chai’s luck is bad. You should ask the kite boys, they are all laughing about it.”
“Did he stay long?”
“I think… no.” Seow shook his head. “San didn’t say… I think he just came to smell around you, or Chai is showing off. What do you think?”
“Showing off,” Kwang answered at once, waving his hand.
“You’re scared of Chinatown Yeow?”
“Scared of what!” Kwang barked. “You just say things anyhow. He dares to come to our place, I dare to go to his place. I am going to Chinatown today. You want to come with me?”
“No, not free,” the boy said, cowardly. “I have a lot of homework to do.” They walked more quickly as the slopes got steeper.
That same morning, Kwang skipped school again. On the way to have a meal at the market, he told Kim, “I am going out to buy you cotton for your blood—still a lot coming out this time?”
“Same as yesterday. Where you going? Chinatown?”
“Yah, you want to come?”
“What time are we coming back?”
“Up to you.” He shrugged, palms turned up.
“Daytime is no fun, go at night.” She held his hand as they walked.
He swung her hand and revealed, “I thought of you this morning when I watched my spiders drinking…”
“About what?” She stopped swinging hands, smiling.
“About my spiders drinking your that blood and see how.”
“What? What do you think I am?” She slapped him. “Your spider’s mother?”
“Don’t be like that,” he said, rubbing his face. “You always say we can always talk about anything together, remember?”
“Go away!” She pushed him away.
“Don’t be like that!” He lied, “Just joking.”
She flattened her lips. “You think until there is nothing to think and still think!” Privately, she was amused by the thought of the exotic, ticklish feeling of spiders as they drank the blood from her vagina. The more she fantasised, the more she wanted sex.
They made love again when Ah Seow left for school in the afternoon. Squatting over the spider box, she giggled as a male spider drank a drop of her blood.
“I let a female hop in, see what happens?” Kwang asked. The female spider jumped into the box and the male went straight for her and frenziedly mated under Kim’s bottom.
As Kim became more excited, a large drop of blood fell out and landed on the two spiders. The creatures were not deterred, but then the blood dried up and the spiders were stuck together and they died.
They both felt bad. From then on, they stopped having sex. Kim felt nauseated at the thought of dead spiders inside her every time they tried.
8
Rebuilding Hon Moon
THE BUSY NEW Bridge Road going through Chinatown ran parallel to a long, smelly monsoon canal, which led to the Singapore River. Over the canal was a concrete bridge with the Tai Wah cinema at one end and a well frequented bus stop at the other. During rush hours, ladies often pulled their change out from their purse before they hurriedly got onto their crowded bus, and sometimes their coins rolled into the canal. A
concrete staircase under the bridge took the street kids of Yeow to the bottom of the canal, where they tried to salvage these lost coins and other recyclable rubbish during peak hours, and sell these items when the day cooled. Sometimes, tourists would deliberately throw coins into the stinking sludge and take photos while the kids scrambled down to get them.
Yeow had a habit of relaxing on the bridge, leaning against the railing to watch life go by, especially at sunset when street hawkers’ activities in Chinatown started to bring it to life. That vantage point gave him insights into the comings and goings of his informal territory, allowing him to review his position in the overall scheme of things and to reflect on his visions and ambitions. One day, at the same evening hour, he watched as Sachee insisted on waddling breast deep among a dozen bigger boys in the water, sinking his rattan shovel into the black sludge and sloshing the black water out to look for coins and saving tin cans and metal scraps. Big Mole squatted on the canal stairs beside his finds, sorting them.
Kwang and Kim had just finished watching a movie at Tai Wah. They drank sugarcane juice outside the cinema, then started to walk across the bridge.
“Hey, that is Chinatown Yeow.” Kwang stopped and pointed, then walked forward again.
“What is so big about him?” Kim pulled Kwang backwards by the collar. She peered over his shoulder to look at Yeow leaning on the bridge railing and watching the canal activity.
“See if he has anything to say.” Kwang walked more quickly. “Yeow!” he yelled out from a few metres away from the other boy.
Yeow swung around. “Hey! What are you doing here? Almost can’t recognise you, you’re taller by a lot!” Surprisingly, Yeow showed a very welcoming face.
“Just came out of Tai Wah,” Kwang grinned back delightedly.
“Aah?” Yeow lifted his smooth brows at Kim. “The Living Desert, all about animals in the hot sand. I saw it twice.”
Kim glanced briefly at Yeow and shied away to watch the boys in the canal. Yeow took a second glance at the girl and said to Kwang, gesturing between the couple, “Are you together?”
“Yah, this is Kim.” Kwang rubbed her slim waist and introduced her with a thumb movement. “Kim, Yeow.”
Kim turned around. Yeow nodded and gave a small smile. “Good movie?” Village girls had an inferiority complex when meeting people from town and Kim was no different. The handsome and well-dressed Yeow made her feel uncomfortable. “Not bad,” she said quietly and turned back to look at the boys slogging in the canal.
“I think I saw her before when I came to your village with Chai some time ago,” Yeow smiled at Kwang.
“Really?” Kwang’s small eyes widened in mock surprise and he grinned. “I heard from somebody you came. For what?”
“Just looking. What about you now—going home?”
“No, look around first.” Kwang patted his girlfriend’s back. “Kim, want to walk now?” He winked at Yeow.
Yeow gave Kwang a thumbs-up and winked behind Kim’s back. She saw the wink as she turned. Their eyes engaged for a moment.
“This means you,” Yeow did a thumbs-up at her. “Very beautiful—don’t look so angry.”
“You know how to talk,” Kim smiled. “Why are you here?”
“Watch them,” Yeow pointed and shouted down the canal, his hands cupped around his mouth. “Sachee! You have enough!”
Sachee looked up with his muddied face, and didn’t respond. Obstinately, he waddled his way towards Big Mole on the canal stairway with a handful of electrical wires; these could be sold for melting down into copper. Big Mole hissed at him, “He is calling you! Better go up quick!”
Sachee slammed his shovel against the stairway. “No!” he grunted.
“Everybody come up!” Yeow shouted more loudly.
The boys scrambled up the stairs.
“Sachee,” Big Mole shook his arm. “Better go up now!”
“No!” Sachee shook his head with a splash of his hands on the filthy water.
“Make any food money?” Yeow asked the first boy who climbed up.
“Only scraps, Sachee picked up a few coins,” the boy said and bashed his shovel against the bridge railing so that the dirt rained into the canal.
Another boy, shorts dripping wet, swung his wet sack down from his naked shoulder. “Yeow,” he asked timidly. “Any opening for a job?”
Yeow gestured at Kwang proudly. “Meet my friend Kwang, from Bukit Ho Swee, and his girlfriend… er… Kim.” He added her name hastily, a smile breaking on his face on remembering it.
The boys crowded around to shake hands with the pair enviously, as if they were VIPs. A few of them reminded Kwang, “We clashed spiders before.” One of the boys said, “I heard a lot about you.” Yet another one said, “I remember you fighting at Lim Eng Bee Street with one of us.”
Kwang swelled with pride and his ears turned red. “Come to my place!” he invited them, his face shining.
Yeow smiled confidently, like a man born to rule. Kim gave him a look of disdain and shook Kwang’s shoulder. “Don’t talk so much. I want to go now.”
Yeow’s spidery sense picked up on it. He knew Kim felt left out among the group of boys. “Can you wait?” he said to her. “I go down to get Big Mole and Sachee up first.” When he walked down the slippery stairway in his smart clothing, his boys stood in awe.
“Sachee, Sachee!” Big Mole bit her fingernail. “He is coming down to get us, better go up fast.”
“So what!” Sachee growled. “He touch me again, I bite him!”
Yeow pulled his trousers above his knees and squatted beside Big Mole. He tapped the back of Sachee’s muddy shoulder and asked quietly, “Hey, big man. Want to come with me? That shark-head boy call Monkey Boy you always talk about is up there, I am eating together with him. Big Mole, you coming?” Yeow stood and walked back up.
Big Mole scratched her matted hair. “Yeow will be very mad! I am going up. You want to come?” She lifted a jute sack with some of Sachee’s finds inside. Sachee knew his time was up. He followed Big Mole.
• • •
The sun was setting and the day started to cool. The street lamps on the main road came on, afternoon school was dismissed, night classes for adults were beginning, and the traffic started to jam up. The neon signs at the Tai Wah, Kim Wah and Tong Hong cinemas began to flash again for another night of movies. The evening markets also began as hawkers of all kinds pumped up their powerful kerosene lamps on the pavements and along the streets as Chinatown became enlivened with more variety, colour, competition and people.
Everybody was in a good mood. The canal boys felt they were walking back to happiness. Kwang and Kim were like stars among them. Kwang was their new hero, especially Sachee’s, who knew he was Chai’s rival. Chai had threatened to beat Sachee up ever since he let down his tyres.
Kim was afraid of the heavy traffic and made everybody laugh when she hesitated at the busy road. Big Mole was happy to lead her across. She asked, “Where do you stay?”
“Bukit Ho Swee, you know where?” Kim asked in return.
“Don’t know where,” Big Mole said.
“Any jobs for me there?” Sachee joined in loudly.
“Plenty of jobs to carry shit…!” Yeow teased.
“Just asking also cannot!” Sachee shook a fist at Yeow.
“The moon is bright tonight, come tonight?” Kim tugged at Big Mole’s scrawny hand. “Late night at our temple tonight!”
“Ask Yeow first,” Big Mole whispered meekly.
Kim tapped on Yeow’s back with hands on hips. “Bossy Face, do I have to ask you for her to come to my house?”
Yeow pointed a sideways thumb at her boyfriend. “Ask him.”
“Don’t have to ask him,” she snapped and turned back to Big Mole. “You come tonight. What is your name?”
“Everybody call me Big Mole,” she said sadly.
Kim felt terrible for her. “Kwang!” she demanded with a slap on his shoulder. “Big Mole is coming. I wan
t to buy something now and cook at home.”
All the boys turned their heads in the direction of the embarrassed Kwang. He felt he had lost face and ignored her.
Nothing escaped Yeow. He smiled slightly, put his arm around Kwang and whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry about losing face with my boys, you’d better please Kim. If she is not your girlfriend, I will chase after her.”
“That means very give face,” Kwang whispered back seriously. “If she likes you, it’s okay by me. Just don’t play dirty.”
Yeow was shocked and touched. Nobody so much younger than he had ever dared to challenge him so directly since he was nicknamed Chinatown Yeow. He knew at once that Kwang was a good find. “Don’t worry about me over a girl,” he assured him quickly and turned around. “Big Mole, go with Sachee if you can find a place to sleep. I come and see you all tomorrow.”
“Big Mole,” Kim said in a carefree manner, “you and Sachee sleep at Kwang’s mother’s bedroom. Kwang can sleep back at his old room with his small brothers.”
• • •
Moving on, they followed the boys into the back lanes, where ancient prostitutes and opium smokers moved like shadows in and out of back doors, and went on into karang guni lane, where old men living in tents bought and sold scraps—from discarded clothing to rags, from old newspapers to duck feathers—anything that could be recycled. The boys were not the working type, but would fight at the snap of Yeow’s fingers for their three meals, and sometimes for some pocket money. They sold what they had and gave their sacks and shovels back to the karang guni men.
Coming out of karang guni lane onto the outskirts of Chinatown at Neil Road, the boys were greeted by a woman in her fifties as they trooped in, like soldiers returning to their barracks after hard labour. The woman sat at her cigarette stall on the doorsteps of her home in a row of prewar one-storey houses. She sold the cigarettes by the stick from their tin container, as well as sweets and other tidbits, which she stored in glass jars.