Abang Azim were three years older than me, and had dropped out after primary school. He stayed home and fixes cars and motorcycles with his dad, Pakcik Usud in vast backyard of their wooden home. My dad would pick me and my baby brother Desmond from school and drop us at Pakcik Usud's before heading back to the grocery store again. Mom drove us every time dad is out of town, while my third uncle looked after the store.
I was never close to Ben; my older brother of five years. Our age gap never allowed us to share the same level of maturity and interest; by the time I was old enough to make any sense of the world, my mom and dad had already sent him to Melbourne. I see him once a year, sometimes, once every two years; whenever he feels like showing up. My baby brother Desmond spent most of his time reading LAT and taking naps in Pakcik Usud's house while Abang Azim and I played hide and seek outside with the kids few houses away, Khairul and Yazid. Sometimes, we set up traps for birds with a basket, but the birds fled faster than the basket drops. When the monsoon season came, we played in the flooded mud, sometime, we stayed in and watched tv.
During school holidays, I would wake up early to help mom plant seeds underneath the coconut and mango trees in the morning and watch the vegetable grow slowly. In the afternoon I would pick up fallen dried, brown coconut leaves and make a kite out of the branches with the plastic bags that Abang Azim got from his makcik.
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It was the last week of the school holidays. Next Monday, I would be transferred from 4B to 5A, the class for best students in primary five. It meant nothing to me, other than that I'd be separated from my best friend, and soon to be ex classmate, Little Ming. My mom bought me a small box of LEGO and a pair of new shoe that afternoon and walked me and Desmond to Pakcik Usud's house before heading to the grocery store. Ben waited in the car.
"Jom gi tangkap ikan." Abang Azim said, grabbing the rusty can that Makcik use to water her potted plants. Makcik was already sound asleep with Desmond next to her on the bamboo mat in the living room. We sneaked out quietly into rain and ran quickly towards the flooded mud lands behind the house.We caught six black fishes that looked like magnified sperm.
Pakcik showed up behind us, soaking wet, holding a piece of metal rod that looked like the interior of a car. He told us to get back into the house or the lightning would strike both of us dead. The lightning never struck, only sound of thunder. Abang Aziz and I went to the store room instead and waited for the thunder to stop.
"Blum potong ker?" Abang Aziz asked, looking down at my penis.
"Ha?" I chucked.
"Nih," He said, pointing at my foreskin. "Abang dah sunat dulu." Abang Aziz said as he shook the last drop of piss and showed me his circumcised penis.
I pulled my pants down further and showed him. I rolled the skin back a little bit more to reveal the pinkish head. He held it with two fingers, and rolled it back further to reveal the entire head. Tak sakit ker?. I shook my head and felt it grow between his fingers. It was still raining outside the hut, our shirts and shorts were wet and dirty from playing in the mud. I was shivering, not from the cold but the touch of Abang Azim. I was the first time someone had ever touched it. The sensation was foreign, but welcomed. Abang Azim kept pulling my foreskin back and forth until it grew fully between his fingers. I pulled my shorts up and Abang Azim decided that we should head back when we started shivering and the thunder stopped.
Later I found out that the ikan that Abang Azim and I had caught were actually tadpoles.
Part 2 : AAXLC (Awakening)
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