Writing

AH writes to clear her head off these 'avalanches' of ideas... and like avalanches it comes n goes without warning. this means most of her writings do not have a plot and usually do not have an ending either.

Although writing is a major part of her life (she has always been scribbling away as far back as i can remember), she doesnt write for an audience. kekadang dia marah kalau kita baca. now this short piece is something i'd found tucked away in a remote little corner of my laptop. till i figure out my password for the K2A warehouse (place where i store whatever i can scrounge of the kiddoes' meanderings), i'll just 'park' it here :)


UNTITLED (it almost always is untitled hehehe) - by AH 2007

KFC or McDonalds?
How could someone choose between those two franchises? It was like asking a mother to choose between her beloved children. It just couldn’t be done. It indeed wasn’t possible for a bachelor out for dinner alone, it was completely impossible for a 15 year old girl with triplets hanging onto both her arms and hugging onto her legs to decide. The girls were all scared of letting go of her. Sara looked like she was about to burst into tears and her sister Fara was glancing around the mall uneasily. Even tough little Zara looked worried. Elliya didn’t blame any of them. She was 10 years their senior and was trying hard not to break down in tears.
She could not have believed it when Ezri Zhafran, her so called brother, parked by the road to drop off the kids and her, promised to come back in half an hour, told her to decide what to buy for lunch and had driven off, all the while seeming to have completely lost his mind. It was amazing how irresponsible her high-school graduate brother could be. She could just imagine herself delivering a perfect kick to his groin for all the trouble he was giving her. The little girl holding onto her right hand, Zara, the ‘eldest’, tugged at her so strongly it hurt. Obviously she wanted a little attention from the person in charge of the situation. Elliya turned her attention to her, all of a sudden weary.
How was she going to survive this outing, she wondered.
“I need to go shee-shee.”
Zara’s ‘shee-shee’ chanting increased in volume when Elliya sighed, catching a few of the passerbys' attention. Only a couple of seconds afterwards, Fara, the middle kid, began tugging at her other hand, pointing at the ice-cream kiosk perched outside McDonalds. Sensing the commotion and most probably growing more uneasy, Sara, the baby, started to quietly sob. Between the chanting, and the tugging, and the sobbing, Elliya felt like throwing up.
Instead she gathered what was left of her sanity and told Fara, who was usually the calmest, to sit on a bench near them with her baby sister and stay put. When the girl grabbed hold of her sister’s hand and did as she was told, Elliya took Zara’s hand and had only begun to advance a few steps backwards when Fara realised what was going on and yelled at her to stop. Looking into the girl’s flashing eyes, she realised she had no chance of leaving them behind.
It was a dumb idea anyway, she tried convincing herself, sighing.
When she took a step forward in the bench’s direction, Zara gave her hand a sharp tug, her small feet planted firmly on the floor. It wasn’t hard to understand that Zara’s needs were urgent. Nothing could stop her from going to the toilet, not even if her mother asked her to wait for a second. Desperate, Elliya pulled her along, determined to convince Fara before heading to the toilet that it was going to be alright.
Then Zara started shrieking.
This added to her already pulsing headache, and she looked at Fara, hoping she could understand the desperation in her eyes. But Fara wasn’t going to let it go. She shook her head over and over, her eyes already welling with angry tears. Elliya turned, scooped Zara into her arms and slumped on the bench, cursing everyone who stared at them. It was bad enough they didn’t hide their amused stares, they didn’t bother asking if she needed any help either.
She was already beginning to give up on humanity’s kindness when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
“Need some help?”
At first she thought it was some kind young woman who understood what kind of situation she was in. A kind young woman who looked as if she could be trusted with two scared little girls. Instead, it was an innocent-looking girl that stood in front of her who looked her age and who seemed completely unaware of the situation which she was offering to help with. She introduced herself as Sharifah Alya Dayana Syed Mukhriz, and flashed her a pretty smile.
“I’ll stay with them if you want.” She offered kindly after Elliya had finished filling her in. She didn’t look as if she could handle a kid in the toilet so Elliya hastily agreed, even though there was a nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach, warning her not to leave the girls with this stranger. But Fara and Sara didn’t seem to feel threatened. They were looking at this Alya girl curiously, in silent awe.
As much as she trusted kid’s intuition, she didn’t want to take a chance. She could just imagine what her mom would say if she lost them. Probably along the lines of how stupid she was. After Zara had relieved herself (without any incidents, alhamdulillah), she took the little girl’s hand and rushed back to the bench were she had left her other chargers. She almost expected to see Fara screaming her name at the top of her lungs with sobbing Sara by her side. Instead, Fara was enjoying an ice-cream cone, chatting happily to Alya. Sara on the other hand, was perched on a young man’s leg, smiling innocently up at him as she silently ate hers.
When she walked up to them, Alya gave her pretty smile while the boy only glanced at her, acknowledging her with his cold eyes. At first it was the eyes which got to her. His eyes were captivating, icy and mysterious, reminding her of an owl’s watchful gaze. Then it was his sharp features that captured her attention. At first she didn’t think he was malaysian, but his skin tone made her think twice about her conclusion.
Zara, blinded by the ice-cream, released her hand and rushed to Fara, who reluctantly shared hers. Alya was still smiling at her when she took a seat between her and the silent boy. At first she didn’t know how to react, what to say. Alya seemed too good-natured to be real.
“I’ll pay you back for the ice cream.” she said cautiously, eyeing the ice cream cone then glancing at Alya. The girl shook her head and pointed at the boy beside Elliya, grinning.
“I didn’t buy it. Syed practically melted when Sara smiled at him.” She explained, giggling. When Elliya turned towards him, he avoided her eyes. There was a slight flush in his cheeks which made him look a lot younger. She was suddenly unsure of his age. His eyes hinted that he was older than her brother, but his appearance told her otherwise.
“It was nothing.” He said quietly, looking up at her only when Sara climbed onto her lap. As the baby, Sara was the clingiest. The one who loved to cuddle the most. For unknown reasons, Sara had stuck to her. Tomboy Zara had stuck herself onto Zhafran, following him around everywhere he went. Fara, the serious one, had stuck herself onto her parents. She was always around when they were talking, sometimes looking as if she understood every word they said.
She gave the little girl a quick peck on the cheek, to which Sara responded by giggling. When Elliya looked up to glance at Fara and Zara, she noticed ‘Syed’ staring at her and Sara. She gave him a smile before making sure Zara and Fara were getting along alright. Thankfully, they were.
Then Syed got up, clearing his throat pointedly. Alya followed suit, glancing at her with that smile of hers.
“I guess I better go.” She glanced at Syed then glanced back at her. “He’s Syed Farhan Akira Syed Mustapha by the way. Call him whatever you want. I just call him Syed. Well, as long as you don’t call him Akira.” She added with a small laugh.
Elliya stood up too, holding onto Sara’s hand as she did. She hadn’t introduced herself, she realised. “I’m Elliya Balkis Muhd Azri. Everyone calls me Balkis. So you can too if you want. Thanks a lot for your help.” She extended her hand, which Alya took almost instantly.
“It was nothing, really. Nice meeting you. See you later, Balkis. Bye girls.”
She nodded and watched them go, smiling at the guy with the weird name when he gave her a sideway glance. With that, they were gone. She was only aware of the butterflies in her stomach when they ceased. It was a confusing feeling, both nice and uncomfortable at the same time. She had had the feeling before, once.
And that was the moment Orlando Bloom appeared on the cinema screen as Legolas.
“Elliya, I’m hungry.”
Back to more pressing matters.
KFC or McDonalds?

**

She woke up the next morning by the ruckus her brother was making on her door. He was banging on it as if there was no tomorrow. Her first reaction after yawning was to scream at him to go away but realizing her mother was probably waiting at the foot of the stairs to see if she was going to start a fight, she decided against it.
Instead, she unlocked her door, took the hand phone offered by Ezri and held it to her ear, shutting her door as quietly as possible, careful not to wake Sara, who had rushed to her room after being woken up by a nightmare sometime in the middle of the night. It was Hayati, and she was excited. Last night she had told her all about Syed Farhan and Sharifah Alya. Turns out both of them were popular but for different reasons.
Farhan was popular because of his looks, as expected, and his cousin Alya was popular because of her long list of boyfriends. Elliya couldn’t have stopped smiling when she found out they were related. After all, they were together at the mall, and they did look rather intimate. Well, in a way. She couldn’t imagine Farhan, as little as she knew him anyway, to be truly intimate with someone. Or rather she didn’t want to.
“He doesn’t have a girlfriend.” Hayati, or Hayat, sang and she could just imagine her friend grinning on the other line. “There’re rumors saying he HATES girls.” At that statement, Elliya, who was brushing her teeth, paused for a moment at the absurdity of it.
How could a guy hate girls?
It just didn’t seem possible.
Sara appeared at the door of the bathroom, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She groggily said good morning and headed towards the sink, taking her toothbrush from Elliya and squeezing lemon-flavored toothpaste on it. As Elliya continued listening to Hayat’s steady stream of chatter, Sara eyed her curiously.
“Run the tap in the bathtub, sayang.”
Sara obediently did as she was told, pausing from eyeing her to put her plastic turtle in the tub.
“Thanks, Hayat. Talk to you later.”
“Sure. Anything for my poor, love-sick Aqish.”
She hung up the phone and slid it on the sink counter, stifling another yawn as she helped Sara out of her clothes. The small girl stepped into the bathtub, reluctantly letting Elliya wash her back. Sara had always wanted to try doing everything herself. Elliya, on the other hand, enjoyed doing small things for her. It was a source for her to feel good.
“I had a dream about mama yesterday.”
The little girl told her silently, glancing up at her as she played with her plastic turtle. Her eyes were clouded with fear and uncertainty, as if the topic she was about to discuss was a bad thing. Elliya told herself not to flinch as she gently splashed warm water on Sara’s back.
“Your mama will be back for you and for Zara and Sara too. She promised didn’t she?”
Sara nodded quietly, refusing to elaborate on the subject. She couldn’t magine how her baby cousin was feeling. Her father had died in a car crash a year earlier, and her mother had accepted a job in Egypt to gather herself to face her babies. For now, her cousins were staying with them. Elliya had only begun to search for things to talk about when Fara came barreling into the bathroom, Zara running after her. Fara was holding her teddy bear, or Mr. Black, and Zara was holding onto hers, Mr. Strip. Both of them were laughing, happily throwing their beloved bears at one another.
Elliya stifled a small smile
At least she didn’t have to think about ideas for conversations.
“Along, Angah, hurry up and take your pajamas off. We don’t have all morning!”

***

That afternoon, as usual, Ezri had lost his mind and had left them at the Sri Desa Mall to pass the time. Her mother had gone to visit a sick relative, taking Fara with her. Zara, who had no interest in roaming around the mall, had talked her way into hanging out with Ezri and his college buddies. So that left Sara and her, with no money (Elliya was flat out broke) and no idea of what to do.
The mall was equivalent to their home, practically their second home. They had already gone to every shop there was. The only place worth going to again was the library situated on the fifth floor. It was also a Cyber Café but it was impossible to get a computer. It was almost always full. Since Elliya loved to read, and Sara loved listening to her read out loud, she decided it was the best place to go. So she took the girl’s hand and led her to the elevator. She had never gone to the library alone before. She usually went with Ezri or her mother. But deciding it was either the library or a bench somewhere, she told herself to grow up. After all, Sara was a good girl. It wouldn’t be hard to control her. She didn’t have to worry about that.
But when she got to the elevator lobby, she started to think twice about getting on it. There were a group of mean-looking boys who sneered at her when she uncertainly stood behind them. Sara, oblivious to her discomfort, hurried onto the elevator, pulling her along. The boys stepped in, crowding around them. When one of them bumped into her and flashed her a naughtly grin, she realized they were doing it on purpose. They tightened their circle around her, and she had the sudden shock of panic when the elevator door started to close. One of the boys stood near the buttons, and he had on a devious smile. Her grip on Sara’s hand tightened and she stepped forward, trying to break the boys’ circle around her. When they snickered and refused to let her pass, she could only stare at the doors close in horror.
“Bang, hold it!”
A hand shot through the small gap between the doors and pushed them back open. At one point, she could’ve fainted with relief. At least, even though the newcomer was also a boy, he wasn’t one of them. At first when he called her name and shoved through the boys in front of her to stand between Sara and her and them, she didn’t recognize him. Then she looked into his eyes and recognized their intensity.
“Why didn’t you turn when I called you, sayang?”
She wasn’t sure how to react. She could only stare at him in confusion, noticing how he was blocking the boys from them with his frame. There were beads of sweat by the side of his face, and he was panting slightly. She pulled Sara protectively in between them, her heart still hammering from her previous horror.
“Hi Abang Farhan!” Sara cried out happily, grasping his jeans as she gazed up at him in awe. Elliya wasn’t sure if she completely understood the situation they had been in, but Sara looked as if she had at least felt her panic. Her baby-ish tone and volume was what no longer made them the center of attention. In fact, the boys looked as if they had done nothing.
Farhan gave her shoulder a little pat and glanced up at Elliya, giving her a small smile. At such close proximity, she found out that it was hard for her to breath. In fact, every breath she took intoxicated her with his cologne.