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  “All right, all right, stick to the same course. No point arguing over what I don’t know. Let’s see what the dice say.” Yeow noticed that Shoot Bird was about to draw lots to match up the four finalists.

  Smiling Shoot Bird was a man who took pride in his organisational ability. He was also quite a showman. He used the loud hailer to calm the excited crowd and then announced dramatically, “The final at Table Five is Bedok against Jurong! Table Two is Bukit Ho Swee against Punggol!” A thousand voices roared, their echoes bouncing back from the red hills, and twice the number of hands punched the air.

  • • •

  Kwang kept staring at, and mind-talking with, his pet before the final match started. He did that every morning during the training sessions. By the magic of his skill and the strong bond, he had won in the seven preliminary rounds to enter the grand finals, despite his spider’s serious handicap. Ah Seow swooned from happiness when he saw their cash flowing back, doubled to nearly six grand. The whole team was ecstatic, and even the girls were jumping with delight.

  At the other side, Bedok was competing against Jurong, and the latter was also winning. Within four rounds, his opponent had run away with no arms left. Like Chai, all the experienced punters were now one hundred percent behind Jurong. The odds were two to one in Jurong’s favour and the cash held by the five referees totalled more than thirty thousand dollars from more than a thousand gamblers, including those who waited at home.

  • • •

  It was now time to prepare for the grand finals. A clock with a loud alarm was placed in the arena and the time set for three o’clock. All the gear from the other preliminary stages were used in setting up one big stage, so that as many people as possible could watch the action. The seats were numbered with chalk to reduce confusion and prevent fights. Once everything was ready, Shoot Bird, with his five referees, proudly took their seats on their bricks. Beside them, the two finalists focused only on maintaining telepathic communication with their beloved spiders, giving them a last pep talk before the great fight.

  At five minutes to three, the chief referee rang a brass bell and called out, “Five minutes left!” The privileged few, with numbered tickets, took their assigned seats. The rest scrambled to stand at the back, even though they would not be able to see the action properly, while some others went up the hill just to watch the crowd.

  When the alarm went off at three o’clock, the chief referee stood up and, with a swift downward chopping motion above the platform, shouted, “Start!” He released the two gladiators from their glass cages.

  Although Kwang had no left arm, and Jurong was by now limping on only five legs, the two tired spiders war danced for a record thirty seconds before they jumped at each other. It was Jurong that made the first leap, his jaws aimed at Kwang’s arm. Wrestling spiders are hot-tempered creatures, so once they clashed, they kept going, from crawling to standing, using everything they had. They stabbed, bit, boxed, wrestled and pushed—then crumbled up into each other like a ball before flinging each other apart again. The referee shouted, “One round!”

  In Round Nine, the tip of Kwang’s remaining arm was caught in Jurong’s powerful jaws. Kwang shook his arm repeatedly until the joint snapped and Jurong fell backwards, still holding the tip of Kwang’s arm in its mouth!

  Undeterred, Kwang leapt up to smash his head against Jurong’s mouth, knocking off a tusk and some teeth. Violently, they started smashing their heads against each other like bulls, half-crazed from their injuries, moving closer and closer to the edge of the platform.

  The crowd shouted, “Record! Record!” when the referee announced the tenth round.

  By this time, Jurong, having smashed jaws and fewer legs, started to wobble against Kwang, which had a harder head and stronger legs, even though its damaged remaining arm was almost paralysed. Kwang kept pushing until Jurong reached the edge of the block, whereupon the wining spider used its remaining strength to push the other over the edge and send it tumbling down the bottle-crate cliff.

  In their rush to get a close look, the roaring crowd kicked down the stadium.

  16

  And Her Oyster Cried

  KWANG RETURNED FROM Redhill to discover that his mother had quit her job. Wong had promised to help her set up a food stall near the temple.

  “That is not all bad,” Big Mole said, trying to cheer Kwang up. “At least your two brothers are not somewhere else we don’t know!”

  “All of us will look after them even if you are not around,” one of the lead spider boys said. “We are rich now because of you.”

  “Where are you going to stay?” Kim asked Kwang. His mother had thrown his clothes out of the house and Sachee had retrieved them. Kwang now carried his clothes in his shoulder bag.

  “Stay with us!” Sachee interrupted fiercely, fanning the fire in the clay stove. “Just buy a canvas bed! Right or not?” he asked Ah Seow, who was helping to boil some water for coffee.

  “Not now,” replied Ah Seow, adding more wood. “The bed shop just closed.”

  “I have a spare bed at home,” said San pleasantly, sitting on a box opposite Kwang. “I can get it now, if you want.”

  “Yah, okay for temporary,” Kwang agreed with mixed feelings. “Tomorrow I will buy a bicycle in Chinatown, look around for a new place.”

  • • •

  Also back in Chinatown, Yeow privately pondered his next move on Kwang. Chai, who was with him, mourned the heavy defeat, “We only lost by half a nose!”

  “I lost five times more than you, so don’t grumble about it, okay?” Yeow saw the loss as a blessing in disguise. After a meal at his favourite coffeeshop, they caught a taxi to Bukit Ho Swee.

  “Come to my place first or what?” Chai asked when they were near his house. It was a pitch-black night.

  “No, I see you later.” Yeow took the torchlight from Chai. “I want to check how Big Mole and Sachee monkey around myself.”

  Going by Kwang’s house, Yeow paused at the sight of Kim at the balcony. She was alone, cleaning the table after her father had eaten and retired to his room to read his comics. Yeow switched off his torch to watch her more closely. The reflection of light from the kerosene lamp on her long hair, which she had swept to one side, made her look even more beautiful. He coughed to catch her attention.

  Kim looked out. “Who is that?”

  “Just me.” Yeow said. “I’m here to see you and Kwang. I come up?”

  “Huh, so it’s you,” she said sarcastically, placing her hands on her hips. “I thought you are not talking to me again. You’d better not come up. Kwang is not living here anymore.” She pretended to look annoyed, but inwardly she did not feel so sure about herself.

  “How come!” he said in a shocked tone of voice. “I... I don’t understand.”

  “And I don’t want to waste time talking to you,” she sneered, tightly pursing her lips. “Go and see Big Mole and find out for yourself.”

  “I am not going unless you tell me why,” Yeow insisted playfully, to prompt her to talk further. But fire was in her nature. She took Yeow’s remark as a challenge.

  “Do you want me to call my father out?” she spat back impulsively.

  “Shssh...! Okay, okay,” he backed off, holding a hand up. “I’m going, I’m going.” But he slipped on a fresh mango skin left on the ground by the kids, and fell backwards with his right hand breaking his fall and his left still holding on to the torch.

  Kim felt sorry straightaway and rushed out with the kerosene lamp. Yeow painfully limped up to her.

  “Did you hurt your leg?”

  “No, just twisted the ankle a bit, sprained my hand, that’s all.” He held the injured hand with the other and clutched the torch in his armpit. Kim helped him up the three flights that led to the balcony.

  “I have some sprain medicine inside. You’d better stay here awhile.”

  “What about your father! All right with him?”

  “My father is not a busybody.” Kim
went into her room to get a bottle of herbal lotion. “This stuff is very good, made by Kwang’s kung fu father a long time ago.”

  She squatted down. Yeow took off his shoe to rub his ankle and let Kim massage his wrist.

  “Hey, Kim,” he smiled. “If you don’t mind me asking, what about Kwang now? Do you have quarrels or what?”

  “No, it is not like that. His mother is back.” She told the story of the day briefly, then tore the bandage cloth off with her teeth.

  “That is sad, very sad. Where is she now?”

  “At a neighbour’s place with his two little brothers.”

  “And your own brother?” He meant Ah Seow.

  “At Big Mole’s with Kwang. They’re all there.”

  “Kwang can’t stay there forever,” he dug further. “That place is too small. It is not a good move. I can give him a hand.”

  “Just there for tonight. He is looking for a new place tomorrow.”

  “I’d better see him. Let’s go together, okay?”

  Kim made her excuse after a second thought. “No, you go yourself. I have other things to do.” Remembering what Big Mole had told her, she still felt distant. But once Yeow disappeared into the dark, she started to wonder why he made her feel so high. Thinking about his fall on the mango skin somehow reminded her of her falling overboard at Clifford Pier, and she laughed to herself as she washed the dishes.

  • • •

  The night was still young as the party went on in celebration of the spider victory at Big Mole’s place. The place was packed inside and out, even in the tiny kitchen where some half-drunk older boys drank rice wine from small teacups.

  “One more cup! One more cup!” they insisted to Sachee, who had suggested the wine and was already drunk. Sachee had been smoking and fantasising again about his pet fish business.

  “Okay, all right,” Sachee said tipsily. “Let’s see who can drink more!” He finished his drink in one gulp.

  “Tell my Big Brother to do the same!” Sachee said. Kwang was, however, already flat out. Being a non-drinker, he had had a fair amount of the rice wine, and was now dozing on Sachee’s bed. Big Mole was going about tidying up the tiny space, rather drunk as well but feeling great at the outcome of the day, which had saved her from being evicted.

  Ah Seow was the only sober one left. “No use drinking too much,” he advised Big Mole. “What do you know?” She turned on him. “Once in a while is okay.”

  • • •

  Yeow arrived just then. He could not believe what he saw. There was hardly any room for him inside, so he watched the crowd through the window at first. When he eventually decided to squeeze into the apartment, Sachee saw him and tried to shoo the surprise visitor out.

  “Hey! What are you doing here? This party is for Bukit Ho Swee, not for Chinatown! Are you trying to spy around? Get out!” Sachee burped. “Get out! Big Mole and me are not going to depend on you anymore. We want to do business ourselves!” He tripped over somebody sleeping on the floor. “Go! This is not your place!”

  Yeow knew the small Sachee too well to be offended. He ignored him and squeezed into the bedroom, looking for Big Mole. But other spider boys agreed with Sachee and tried to block his way, saying, “You’d better go back to Chinatown. This is not your territory. Get out!”

  Yeow did not take them seriously. “Just make sure you all don’t burn down the house,” he warned and using the damper to smother the fire on the wood stove, where a pot of water had nearly boiled away.

  • • •

  He headed for Chai’s place. It was almost two kilometres away and a cold wind was blowing. Yeow walked more quickly, but he could not beat the rain, which came down midway on his trip. He ran to the nearest place, Kim’s home, and dashed up the steps.

  “Kim! Kim!” he called out.

  Kim was sitting on her bed, folding the day’s washing. She came out at once at the sound of his voice.

  “You again,” she sighed. “You are so thick skin! What do you want now?”

  Flexibility was Yeow’s resource. The rain was pounding on the roof. “Look at the rain,” he pointed upwards as it whipped at his wet face. “Is it possible to borrow an umbrella? Just a small favour. If you don’t mind.”

  “How are you going to give it back? My father has to use it in the morning to get to work if rains again.”

  “I go to Chai’s place now to borrow another one, give you back right away, okay?”

  She looked hard at him. “How are you going to hold the torch with that bad hand and hold the umbrella with the other one all the way there at the same time?”

  “You are right, you are right,” he admitted with a smile. He squatted down and looked up at her. “Either I wait here awhile, or...”

  “Or what?” she pressed further, scowling down at him.

  He gestured helplessly. “What about help me with the umbrella to Chai’s place... Just a ten-minute walk or so. Please?”

  Kim agreed to hold the umbrella for him.

  The wind whipped through the increasing rainfall. Kim and Yeow huddled close as they walked in the fierce, howling storm, and their bodies kept rubbing against each other. The friction, rhythm and sensation of closeness took the two of them from a point of nowhere to a place where the mind could not say ‘no’ any longer. It all happened so smoothly and suddenly. They did not even talk to or look at each other, but when the wind tore the branches of the umbrella apart and the rain soaked them to the skin, they took shelter in the hollow of the banyan tree and started kissing fervently. Kim pushed her chest into Yeow’s face, and he feverishly reached under her drenched tee-shirt, inhaling and sucking on her uncovered breasts, over and over.

  In the darkness, the lightning flashed again and the thunder roared. Heedlessly, Kim lay on the ground, yanked off her panties and started to rub herself. With her other hand, she unzipped his trousers and pulled him on top of her. Now using both her hands, she reached around to grab his buttocks and force him into her, purring with pleasure as she controlled his rhythm in accordance to her need. Finally, her oyster cried “yes!” and brought tears to her eyes.

  There was another powerful flash of light and a thunderous roar. In fright, Yeow looked at the shrine in the tree hollow, wondering if the deity was angry with what he had done, and he held Kim in a tight embrace until the storm died down.

  “Do you love me?” she asked him tenderly.

  “Yes, yes. Always,” he admitted nervously. “But what about Kwang? Do you love him?”

  “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.”

  They agreed to keep their secret to themselves.

  • • •

  Over at Big Mole’s place, the party was over and everybody prepared to go home, mainly because Sachee, the most talkative of them all, was knocked out from having had too much rice wine. Kwang, the hero of the day, had likewise drunk too much and was also still sleeping. His bed was squeezed in between Big Mole’s and Sachee’s, where there had been just enough space for it to fit in. Joined together, the three beds now appeared like one king-size bed.

  By the time Big Mole had cleaned up the party mess and was ready to go to bed, she had second thoughts about switching off the kerosene lamp hanging above her. She looked hard at Kwang, who was sleeping sideways with his back facing Sachee. Kwang slept wearing only shorts and used his shoulder bag, with his clothes still inside, as a pillow. Although she had been raised in a brothel, where she had seen naked men of all shapes and sizes, and had also had tangles with street boys, some of whom had tried to rape her, it was a totally new experience for Big Mole to be lying so close to somebody she respected above anyone else. She yearned to be touched, especially when the night was now cool after the rain and there were no mosquitoes to disturb her thoughts. After observing Kwang for a long while, she shifted to make squeaky noises on her bed to see if he would stir. When he did not, she leaned over him to push the snoring Sachee on his side. Finally, Kwang opened his eyes sleepily.

  “Do you feel
cold?” Big Mole pretended to ask.

  “Yah, a bit. But never mind,” he mumbled with eyes half closed. “You want to share my blanket?”

  “If it’s okay with you?” Big Mole nodded shyly.

  “Yah, okay,” he replied without concern.

  Big Mole cuddled close as Kwang went back to sleep.

  • • •

  At dawn, the cock crowed, and that meant the day ahead was going to be good. Kwang wasted no time in climbing up to the farmland at mid-hill, where he allowed his spiders to drink morning dew. He contemplated them for a long time before he decided to free his beloved king, along with a few females for company. He also put a thick wad of cash into a tin and buried it.

  On his way back down, he called in at Chai’s place. “I heard Yeow is here with you. Where is he now?” he asked Chai, who was sitting on the bench outside the gambling den. “I heard from boys he’s looking for me.”

  “You didn’t see him?” Chai avoided answering directly. “He told me he is going to look for you at Big Mole’s place. I’m still waiting here for him. He must have used the temple way.”

  “I just came down from the hill. And you, what about you now? Came back to live here, or what?”

  “No, no, can’t be bothered with my old man now, he criticise me like mad. Too many pipes of the black stuff. Can’t stand to be around here anymore. I’m packing up. You? I heard your old mother hen broke off with you?”

  “Yah, nearly killed everything for me at Redhill.”

  “At least you are fat from yesterday. What’s the score?”

  “Enough,” Kwang replied modestly.

  “I am giving up the spider business, what about you?”

  “Thinking about it. Have to do something different.”