The Story of A Cat Killer
It was Friday night...or was it Thursday night? Let's see..ermm. From how it was narrated to me, it was malam Jumaat. So that means the next day will be Friday lah kan? Kan? Malam Jumaat is it not the same as Friday night, me thinks..or so i was told. Sebab if we refer to a particular time as a Friday night that would mean the daylight preceeding it was Friday and the day after would be Saturday, correct? Hmmm..
Damn it. I am going to tell a story about a Cat Killer. Fuck whatever night it was.
.....
It was dark.
It was dark because it was night time, and it was very late. It was dark also because the Pontian-Batu Pahat road had very few illuminations then. Mat Yep was behind the wheels of his father's official car. It was a big-engined late 1980 Volvo that hummed smoothly despite the age.
Mat Yep was tired. He was. He had a long day. Everybody in the car with him had a long, mentally and energy draining day. In fact it has been a week of long days. Weddings are just that, no? But Mat Yep got his lucky number up; he got to drive the long way home tonight.
Father was fast sailing away into dreamscape in the passenger seat. Mother, alone at the back, slipped into deep slumber once the car moved out of the kampung. Earlier Mat Yep tried to keep father in conversation, just to keep himself in check. But father was beyond rescue from fatigue and Mat Yep let him be.
The road was empty. Apart from the lights from kampung houses along the road, everything else was dark. Mat Yep wanted to get out onto the Highway as fast as he could. He had the headlights on high beam. He wanted to floor the gas, but remembered father's words to lookout for stray kambings and lembus. Lembus are known to camp in the middle of the road on cold nights like this.
The car was approaching a main crossroad. A little bit more lights here. Mat Yep shifted in his seat. From afar, under a lamp post, he saw a cat by the roadside, standing on all fours looking across the road.
A Kampung Cat. A normal shorthaired grey tabby, with a choker minus the bell. "Kucing orang bela ni.." Mat Yep thought to himself.
The Cat started to walk across. Slowly and lazily, taking its own sweet time. He's got nothing to rush, no? Mat Yep lifted off the accelerator. The Volvo hummed lower from the engine's low rev. From the distance Mat Yep judged that The Cat will have already passed the dotted line in the middle of the road by the time The Volvo arrived. The Cat suddenly stopped dead in its track and stared at The Volvo's headlights as it looms. Mat Yep saw that and hit the brakes lightly to slowdown, thus making room for The Cat to decide what to do. Like cats do, The Cat quickened its pace in small hurried steps and passed the dotted line. Looked like The cat is home free. Mat Yep put his foot on the gas again now that his track is cleared.
And that is when it happened.
The Cat suddenly stopped, stared at the headlights again, seemed indecisive, finally changed his mind, decided it was best to do a u-turn, turned back and ran into the path of The Volvo, and The Volvo is just too close.
Mat Yep saw what the cat did, cursed the bloody cat but he did not have time to even lift his foot of the gas. He went "Oh Shit..!" and braced. The Cat went out of his sight and went under.
*Thump* *Thud*
Mat Yep felt left front tyre hit and went up over slighty before the thumps and the thuds. He did not want to look into the rearview mirror to see what became of The Cat.
Father was abruptly awoken by the Thumps and Thuds.
"Apa benda tu..?" Groggily.
Father was a cat person.
"Takda apa-apa...batu besar kut.." Mat Yep answered.
"Oh.." Father went back to sleep.
.....
Mat Yep kept the story to himself until years later.
"Dah ajal kucing tu.." he said, with a tinge of remorse, albeit remotely while we were having a round of afternoon The Tarik.
Damn it. I am going to tell a story about a Cat Killer. Fuck whatever night it was.
.....
It was dark.
It was dark because it was night time, and it was very late. It was dark also because the Pontian-Batu Pahat road had very few illuminations then. Mat Yep was behind the wheels of his father's official car. It was a big-engined late 1980 Volvo that hummed smoothly despite the age.
Mat Yep was tired. He was. He had a long day. Everybody in the car with him had a long, mentally and energy draining day. In fact it has been a week of long days. Weddings are just that, no? But Mat Yep got his lucky number up; he got to drive the long way home tonight.
Father was fast sailing away into dreamscape in the passenger seat. Mother, alone at the back, slipped into deep slumber once the car moved out of the kampung. Earlier Mat Yep tried to keep father in conversation, just to keep himself in check. But father was beyond rescue from fatigue and Mat Yep let him be.
The road was empty. Apart from the lights from kampung houses along the road, everything else was dark. Mat Yep wanted to get out onto the Highway as fast as he could. He had the headlights on high beam. He wanted to floor the gas, but remembered father's words to lookout for stray kambings and lembus. Lembus are known to camp in the middle of the road on cold nights like this.
The car was approaching a main crossroad. A little bit more lights here. Mat Yep shifted in his seat. From afar, under a lamp post, he saw a cat by the roadside, standing on all fours looking across the road.
A Kampung Cat. A normal shorthaired grey tabby, with a choker minus the bell. "Kucing orang bela ni.." Mat Yep thought to himself.
The Cat started to walk across. Slowly and lazily, taking its own sweet time. He's got nothing to rush, no? Mat Yep lifted off the accelerator. The Volvo hummed lower from the engine's low rev. From the distance Mat Yep judged that The Cat will have already passed the dotted line in the middle of the road by the time The Volvo arrived. The Cat suddenly stopped dead in its track and stared at The Volvo's headlights as it looms. Mat Yep saw that and hit the brakes lightly to slowdown, thus making room for The Cat to decide what to do. Like cats do, The Cat quickened its pace in small hurried steps and passed the dotted line. Looked like The cat is home free. Mat Yep put his foot on the gas again now that his track is cleared.
And that is when it happened.
The Cat suddenly stopped, stared at the headlights again, seemed indecisive, finally changed his mind, decided it was best to do a u-turn, turned back and ran into the path of The Volvo, and The Volvo is just too close.
Mat Yep saw what the cat did, cursed the bloody cat but he did not have time to even lift his foot of the gas. He went "Oh Shit..!" and braced. The Cat went out of his sight and went under.
*Thump* *Thud*
Mat Yep felt left front tyre hit and went up over slighty before the thumps and the thuds. He did not want to look into the rearview mirror to see what became of The Cat.
Father was abruptly awoken by the Thumps and Thuds.
"Apa benda tu..?" Groggily.
Father was a cat person.
"Takda apa-apa...batu besar kut.." Mat Yep answered.
"Oh.." Father went back to sleep.
.....
Mat Yep kept the story to himself until years later.
"Dah ajal kucing tu.." he said, with a tinge of remorse, albeit remotely while we were having a round of afternoon The Tarik.
posted by ikanblues at 9:37 AM
|
