Axiomatic Dreams

A Malaysian Tale

Ah Hock was swinging a stick as he sauntered along the tree lined river. It was a breezy morning … that swayed the branches on the trees … in a rhythm … like dancers doing a choreograph. His attention was drawn to the stones on the ground … and it raised the sudden interest in him … to find another … rocky dream. It was a light blue stone he had picked up … on the river bank … that was smooth as glass … and depicted curious markings … that appeared like a mountain scene … faces of people … anima … trees and so forth. He was simply fascinated by it … and it appealed to a strange sense of dream in him … that came and went in him … like moving pictures.

The river flowed by … leisurely … spraying over the rocks on the river bed. He took his eyes away from the ground … to look into the water … and gosh! … the shadowy shapes of fish swimming in their sideward motion … caught the breath in his throat. Just as suddenly … his excitement waned … and he realized it was always the same. He'll dream constantly of fishing … and once landed about 7 of them … on a single trip … but he had done that … and thereafter it was simply a dream … he'll chase after … in mock imitation of enthusiasm.

He kept on walking … picked some berries … on the bushes … and chewed on them. On the path to the village … a short distance away … Samy … his friend was returning from the grocer's … with a bag. He called to him … and Samy responded with hand gestures to say that … he had to get home with the grocery … but will be back after that. Ah Hock stopped at the guava tree … and checked out the fruits for the characteristic greenish yellow of being ripe. Satisfied that there were some … he climbed the tree … and using the top branches for grip … made his way along the branches to get to the ripe ones.

The guava tree is made of hardwood … with its characteristic brown and faded bark. Its so firm … that even a small branch makes a person climbing the tree … feel like he's in a secure trapeze. He was onto his 5^th fruit … when Samy called from below. He fished into his pocket … took out one … and tossed it down to Samy. When he had picked them all … he made his way down. The boys were in their adolescent years … 11 going onto 12. Samy was tanned slightly … while Ah Hock was creamy yellow. Both were about the same height.

Ah Hock passed on to Samy another 2 guavas.

' Did you see Abdul today?' he asked Samy.

' Probably at the video arcade, ' Samy replied … between mouthfuls of the juicy guava. Then he laughed. ' I saw his mother looking for him with a cane in her hands. Everybody was calling out to her … to tease her.' Ah Hock smiled in response.

' Serves him right!' said Ah Hock … in the tone of sudden puritanical discipline. ' He caught two merbok* the other day … I saw him walking past my house … but when I asked him … he said it was only one. Kamsiap! ' he blared out in the Chinese dialect … calling Abdul selfish.

Samy pulled back a little … and took a step away from Ah Hock. It was the puritan ethic … he told himself. Ah Hock had an ethic about him about friendships … and that was that … as far as he was concerned. It made Samy strangely concerned about his own attitudes.

' I think he gave one to … Jamilah … the trishawman's daughter,' Samy offered. ' I saw a merbok in a cage outside their home.'

' Ah yah!' Ah Hock exclaimed in exasperation … ' why couldn't he have told me that?' he asked judiciously.

' Didn't want you to think that he was soft on her,' Samy replied.

' As if!' Ah Hock continued … ' he could have given one to his grandmother … for all I care … why did he lie to me?' he bellowed in a tone of dismissal.

It occurred to Samy … that Ah Hock lived a life of … vicarious atonement … as if he shared every fault displayed by anyone … like it was his own. It was like the sun … that brought its rays to everyone … and cuddled with their passions … about the joys of attainment in life. It explained Ah Hock's attitude about Samy … in the sharing they experienced … of an attitude of giving. As they continued walking down the river … Samy shook his head … in the musings of romance … and individual privacies … that seemed to have escaped Ah Hock completely.

It must have been held by Ah Hock … that they were going to be friends forever … in a certain intimation of the eternal in our lives … like the stars in the sky.

' Only the stars live forever,' he had shot out … before he could pull the reins on that.

' What?' growled Ah Hock … in a bored bearish burst … his eyes had grown dilated … as if … he did not think there was any manner of defense about … physical evidences … that are distorted by personal preferences.

' Its a song,' replied Samy in quick recovery. It was his way of clamping down … on communication … viewed as … over the top … by folks not initiated into self examination. He experienced a displacement about himself … and may well have been on the Himalayas … relating to himself.

Ah Hock had turned away … pondering on the rare inexplicable … in his friend … Samy.

' Hoi!' came a voice from behind them They turned to see Abdul standing under the guava tree.

' What! … have you guys plucked it all?' he yelled in disappointment. They apparently had … and had also finished eating the last one.

Not wanting to be put on the defense … Ah Hock returned the yell in a tone of just desserts,

' Your mother is looking for you!'

merbok* … zebra dove