The Adventures of Fabian

Chapter 1 The Shifting of House

Sometime in the middle of 1955 the last of our family fortune,our family house was sold and we were forced to shift to an office cum house along Immigrant road.The place was small by any stand but it was sufficient to maintain our small family.It had only an office and one living room.

The house was built about fifty metres away fro the bank of the Perak river,it was a very,very wide river and reputed to be infested with crocodiles.

All of us were warned not to venture near to that river,because we do not know how to swim.Fabian was then was thirteen years old and younger brother,Francis, eleven.

Behind the house was an vacant stretch of land planted with a few very tall coconut palms but unfortunately all those tree had no coconuts on them.This land was also filled with thick growth of grasses and bushes.

Chapter 2 Learning to Swim.

With the river so near,thus we were tempted to swim in it.Now we do not know how to swim."What shall we do?" so thought Fabian.
Then learn to swim,lah."retorted Joe."yeah,lah."came from Francis,"we can learn".

The three of them then plotted out a plan how to sneaked out to the river.Then of course they also have to wait for tide to be high tide.Only high tide can they swim in that river because when low tide its river banks were very muddy.

Then one fine day before the sun set and the tide of the river was high,the three of them sneaked out without informing anyone went to the river bank behind the house.
On reaching the river bank all took off their shorts and went into the shallow part of the river.

All of them could not swim,so they splashed around in the shallow part of the river.This went on for few days,just standing all the time in knee high water level and never dared go out further.They soon got bored with it and learning no swimming.

What to do?So when the tide was low they went to locate a suitable spot to learn to swim.They spotted a spot near a small bridge and they measured and found out that at high tide that spot was only neck high for them.

Come next high tide they again sneaked out to that spot.Stripped naked they slowly went into the river.Soon they began springing from the bridge to the river bank which was about eight to ten feet in length away.

Despite the fact that there was no one to guide them they soon simply splashed their way with both arms aimlessly from one end to the other.They also learned how to kicked in the water.

Many a time they swallowed some muddy water.Anyway all have a fair share of the taste of those river muddy water before they finally can really swim in that river.There was also a time when Joe was almost drown had they not caught hold of his hand to haul him in to safety just in time.

All of us had those experiences but whatever it was all of them master the art of swimming without guidance but only their sheer determination and guts.