Chapter 15 Our Final Days At Anson Road.

Alas,we come to our final stage of our stay in Anson Road.Yes,there were things we would missed dearly.I was than about twelve years old.

For example our dear wooden house which had provided with much warm  and shade us from the raging sun.Although "attap" roof   shielded us from those torturous rain falls.We would also missed those floods which came after the rain in rainy season.

The flood that reached almost to our raised ground floor,where we always laid by its door steps to watch the flooding water moved around.Bringing tiny green worms  floating by.Though we tried catching them but let them off as soon as the wiggled in out tiny hands.

However the flooding water never raised above our floor level.Our floor had been raised in anticipation with the routine flooding.After the floods walking in the gardener were almost impossible because much mud would stick on to our feet.Two pieces of planks were place from our door steps towards the main road to facilitate easy movement.

There were two mangoes trees in front of our house these trees had served us well by providing us plenty of mangoes during its season.We will also missed our red hibiscus fencing where we played around it most of the time. 

The side drain marking the boundary between us our neighbor,where we did much fishing? .Fishing? Nor really but fishing ells from holes by the side of that drains.Those dank brown snaky thing were quite huge in sizes.

We dared not consumed then just for playing then  released back where they came from.The water table in our land was quite high and a foot of digging water would flow out to fill that hole.That where we kept our ells but the next day all would have escaped.Nevertheless it was fun fishing them for those ells gave strong struggle before we can hauled them off their santuary.

Like to know how we learned to badminton? .Owning those expensive  rackets and and shutter cocks were beyond our means.In most evening our neighbors were always playing badminton with their friends at a court near our boundary.

Although fenced with bard wire there were also a line of bamboo planted to prevent others from looking into them.The beauty here was that at times their shutter cocks over shot and landed on our side where retrieving them  were quite impossible.

When ever that happened they allowed the shutter cock be as it was on our side.Well.all we had to do was just to wait for them to go away from their game.Only then we would collect those dropped over and used for ourselves.

For rackets we fabricated them from pieces of planks.All we need to do was to shaved one end small sufficiently for our grips.Not much of a racket without any tension but it served us well as beginners.From that humble beginning we became badminton players although not by world standard but we do know how to play badminton.The three of us enjoyed our game tremendously..

Our days of having our own sweet potatoes roasting no more.Those days we used to dig up from the field at the back.Our maternal grandfather had planted all those sweet potatoes whenever he was around our place.Beside this he also planted other vegetables..

Gone will also be our sole source of pocket money from those coconut trees.I think it was good as I have nothing more to climb.Remember those tall palms were quite dangerous,a simple slip could be fatal.

We would be missing our dear friends the Chong brothers and others like Loke Weng Cheong. Remember Suan Leng was my protector all those while.Now shifting away would mean I have to stand up for own self.But was that possible  as I was never very strong or tough.

The Chongs had been our benefactor for years.Their father had been very generous to us as year after year he had been supplying  us our school books.Although used but it help us tremendously as we were very poor then and our parents could ill effort all those books anyway.Therefore we are indebted to them.His honorable gesture will longed be remembered and treasured by us.

I would be against all odds and have to fight my own battle when we shift away.We have to grow up somehow  sooner or later.We would be moving to an area known for its bad hats.That part was like the new villages,people were all Chinese.Known rowdies were from those areas.

It was called in Chinese."par Mei" or the other far end of the field in this case town..Now that we were shifting we had just to do as the Romans when in Rome.In short we be in the company of a totally different set of people.Those rough and dirty language type.To them XXXXXX your mother appeared to be "good morning". 

Our life styles will definitely be not the same anymore.We were not the high class type nor we the middle class.We were from the struggling workers type - a more gentle type.

The whole episode grief our dear grand mother deeply.She  cried in silence but whatever it be it was all over her face.Every morning she wake up with very, very sad look.As she walked around her face seem blank walking away aimlessly.

And out of no where she would suddenly clapped her hands and opened her palms wide as if to denote that everything were no more,all gone.Her thoughts ran wild.Fortunately there was our Auntie who when learning of her plight  immediately took her home to Kuala Lumpur,away from this sad environment so created.

Poor grand mother she was blaming herself for the lost of the final property.She never got over that idea of having sold the property.No amount of kind words could bring mind back to happiness.To think of it brings back bad memories for her.