4 1.4: Abang......

A few chuckling hens, crowing cocks, waddling ducks and baby chicks were happily scampering around the yard; oblivious to the thumping noises made by the women at work. A few hens even dared to move closer and peck at the ground where minuscule grains were loosened from the mortar with every thump of the long wooden pole. I then noticed a few women were using another wrap cloth as a carrier bundled with their sleeping newborn close to their sides or backs as they methodically took turns to pound the materials in the mortar. The newborns were just being satisfied being close to the warmth of their mothers.

There were some able bare-bodied men sitting on the ground with a thatch of woven mats underneath them. All of them were wearing the same kind of knee-length pants that I wore too but with colors that seemed mismatched at that moment. From the distinctive smoke and smell that emanates, I noticed a few of them were either smoking tobacco rolled with the leaves of the corn or chattering and joking away while drinking from wooden cups while pouring liquids out of wooden shaped gourds.

The scent of their rolled tobacco instantly brought about memories of how my mother used to make pipe tobacco for my father when they were both alive and well. She loved to narrate me with her wartime stories back then when I was just able to learn to walk. My mother would use a mixture of freshly squeezed pineapple juice and finely powdered palm sugar with coarse tobacco and leave it to dry under the sun for a few days in order to produce Homemade Pipe Tobacco. And that time was in the late '40s of the 20th Century!

At the end of the neat row of houses, a majestic looking 2 storeyed bamboo house stood with a complete encirclement of the wooden wall about 2 meters high. Two tough looking male guards stood at their positions, each holding wooden handled pikes and wearing almost the same attire as me; even though of different colors; stood at both ends of the entrance of the majestic house. The same type of "keris" was adorned at their waist by akind of wrap cloth and identically colored headgear was also worn as well.

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Several unlit torches were placed at the top of the wooden; meant to be lit when darkness shrouds the establishment. By the look of it, some high ranking persons may be residing within.

"OH, MY GOOODDDDDD! What kind or era am I in right now? Everything is so backward and there is no modern technology around at all!!! How am I gonna survive even a single day here???!" I thought aloud to myself with my mouth gaping wide with a mixed feeling of astonishment, surprise, overwhelming disappointment, and darkness.

At the whole sight that suddenly beholds me, I suddenly felt weak. Cold sweat began to form on my forehead and my back is drenched with perspiration. My knees went jelly-like and gave way under my weight. As soon as I hit the ground I yelped out painfully without a care in the world at all. "Aaaaawwwwwwwccccchhhhhhhhhh...!!!"

My eyes suddenly went watery as my knees hit the hard ground. Sharp-edged pebbles poked into the unprotected knees and scratched deep while some thin trickles of blood seemed to form where the cuts were.

As I was kneeling on the ground in that awkward manner, I heard a soft pattering of feet running close by; coming closer and closer every second. A silhouette of a shapely young woman stood in front of me, with the sun slightly behind her; when suddenly a tiny squeaky female voice called out, "Abang...."