Chapter 2 Small Boy, small Girl Friend

In 6th.June 1942,a baby was born in a small town called Telok Mak Intan,during the Japanese occupation.Those cruel Japanese soldiers roaming the streets heavily armed shouting'"Pagiyaaroo!!!!!!",everywhere at the people they came across and every one seeing them must bowed or be arrested and be prosecuted as spies.

Those arrested if they be unable to satisfy those Japanese will faced their torture chambers.Tortures which included forcibly draining piped water directly into their throat or worst the pulling of nails etc..Such were some of the the cruelties of Japanese atrocities.They will also execute prisoners as they seem appropriate such were their insane justice.

An uncle of the baby (mother's brother) was arrested as a spy.Poor fellow was not even given a trial.That uncle was a handsome and tall guy,when facing the shorty Japanese soldiers they had to look up at him.This, surely annoyed them and did not like that and apparently forced him to kneel down.By this they can looked down on him.A more comfortable situation for them.

With his good youthful looked he was condemned as a spy outright and executed without trail. After the execution the poor mother had to bride the Japanese soldiers to allow her to search for his dislodged head among a pile of heads chopped and also those scattered around that compound.How awful and what a scary gruesome sight to behold let alone to locate her beloved son's head.The half dried thick blood bled over the heads,and those splattered all over the floor, made the search more difficult but the unyielding love of the frantic mother finally paid off as she retrieved it among that heap of heads.

The pile of dry skulls in "killing fields" were gruesome but these were heads just chopped only a short while ago,therefore many folds worst. Unstoppable tears from the mother could not quenched her sadness nor can it consoled her grieved.Finally it was hastily laid to rest with body and head together at the cemetery in Durian Sabatang in a very,very simple funeral for fear those Japanese might changed their minds about the head.

Those were the days under the Japanese occupation but presently they may have surrendered and gone but the spirits of those with heads chopped off still haunt the compound for the chopping block.Most notable was the one behind an old Chinese School,need not I reviewed that name it is in everyone's lips.Don't have to believe in me,just visit that eerie place late at night and you find them welcoming you with out stretched arms.Those horrible ghostly cries at night can still be heard.

Of course that was not the only place where they executed spies.For example the market was also an execution area and many others.

Fortunately the Japanese surrendered in 1945 and the baby now named Alex grew up under those Japanese threat.Well he was just a baby then all the above were related to him by his late paternal grandmother.As a child Alex used to run about the house and compound staked naked.Extra hyper active so much so his maternal grand mother nick named him,"Naughty,naughty,big bully Leong" or in Cantonese "Ngua Ching Leong".

It was only in at the age of six he begin wearing short pants and shirtless all the time.Neither was he worried about the cold.As a kid he used to play with all his cousins mostly girls make believe marriages etc., anyway what do kids so small know about girls.

Only about twelve years old that he walked a tall and beautiful girl home.That girl was the same age but she was very much taller than him at least by a shoulder to head.So it was quite an awkward situation and his friends teased him about it making him shunned a short distance away from that girl.What an embarrassing position he was in,fortunately being a big town girl,she was understanding with her encouraging smiles.However,still a boy could not understand fully about the difference between them.That relation did not blossomed, in the end.But it surely was a start for Alex.

Dolly was her name and she shifted away into Government quarters very near the Convent School,and he being so immature,Alex just let it be and did not follow up to extend his relationship with her.Thus the friendship evaporated into thin air.

Alex interest in girls was very dim although his school was co-education and he being small in statue was made to sit in front near to them, yet no close encounter between them.Of course there were then only a handful of them in his class.
They practically ignored and dismissed him and others in front as small boys.Those girls were by no mean taller and bigger in size.

He only developed an interest in girls when he was sixteen plus too late I presumed but that was a fact.Still those class mates did not interest him.By then his family being poor had shifted on to Changkat Jong Road where they resided in the plantation's quarters.

He roamed with school mates the streets of Teluk Anson only to look at girls but never dared to make any contact.Yes only enjoying the sight of pretty girls and learning to sing.Their favourite were songs by Elvis Presley,Ricky Nelson,Paul Anka and Johnnie Mathis.There were occasionally wolf whistles and never more than that.Those were his earlier days with girls.