I was talking to my mum this morning, listening to her waxing lyrical about the good ol’ days when cili boh (yeah… you read it right… I did write cili boh) was smooth and contained only and nothing but cili kering.
Her topic reminded me of a time when we were younger, mum bought her cili boh at Pasar Kelang, depan Pasar Jawa tu. She was very fussy bout it too as it had to come from this one shop. I haven't been to Pasar Jawa in a loooooooooooooooooooooooonggggg time but if I try to remember that place,I remember small stalls and loads of bananas. Don't know why.
Anyway one day after spending a wasted morning (my opinion, not hers… she was ecstatic) trawling about Pasar Jawa, we waited for my dad to fetch us in his car.
And I tell you it was a wasted and boring morning for us kids and we had all the pent up energy from dutiful following her around therefore at the end of the trip while waiting for Bapak, we of course goofed around. Lari-lari, main tolak-tolak till at one point my brother pushed me so hard, I reeled back from the force of it and accidently pushed the huge bag of cili boh from its perch. The bag rolled down with a huge splat on a mototcycle that happened to be parked next to it.
We stopped our mucking about and looked at the chillies covered motorcycle in aghast. Maybe if you looked at us then, crowding one side of the now heated bike, you would see all our mouths in a round O. Chillies were everywhere ! Some splashed on the rearview mirror. Scarlet liquid were trickling from the handlebars to the floor. Red goo stuck to rim of the tyres. It was awful. It was devastating. It was bad.
Anyway, typical of me I ajak my siblings and my mom lari. Because aku takut the owner of the motor mengamuk sakan bila nengok motor dia tetiba tukar kaler. And sure dia tambah ngamuk when 70% of the chillies were pooling on the seat.
HEHHEHEHE…. Gelak lak pulak aku.
I remember my mom pulak yang mengamuk. She pointed out how on earth the poor unsuspecting owner could ride the bike home now ?
Seriously, I didn’t want to care. Or I just can’t fathom that we were at the position to do something to rectify the situation. I was more concerned because although my brother pushed me, ultimately I have to answer for it since it was body what hurled the chillies to the motor. So I know I have to answer for it and I know it won’t be pretty. So … I need to get my arse away from the scene of destruction.
Then my mom did something .. well… like I said earlier, something that I didn’t think about. She went to try and undo my mistake. She cleaned it up. Or tried too.. as it was a monstrous task.
In my head right now, I can see her emptying the plastic bags of our purchases and wrap one on one of her hand and the other she used to collect the cili boh. She did it slowly, first attacking the ones on the seat. That one she did with extra care.
I can see her bending and wiped the the body of the motorbike. I see her inspecting her work and tidying up some more. I just watched her the whole time she did it. When my sibling got tired of watching, the chillies covered motorbike was already old news to them, and started playing again, I remained there watching her.
I was young but I know how to be thankful. I remember looking at her doing what I was supposed to do with so much guilt. I did offer to help but she wouldn’t let me because she was afraid I couldn’t handle the heat from them later on.
She still cared about me even though I made the mess. As soon as she finished, my dad arrived to take us home. Typical, macam polis yang baru nak sampai after the hero penat-penat lawan orang jahat and berlambak-lambak orang mati.
Moms are wonderful kan ?
No comments:
Post a Comment