10 sen

Today Kamil's sister ada buat kenduri doa selamat sikit. I promised her tarts so after sending my kids to their teacher, I walked across to get strawberries.

Dodged a few cars, walked on the row of shop's pavement and saw a shiny 10 sen lying on the floor.

I smiled as I walked past it as if I were younger, I would have picked it up and thought how lucky that day was for me.

And aku terus teringat dulu-dulu when the pasar malam at our area was just down the hill from our house. One night mom sent my big brother and I to the pasar malam quite late for something.

Anyway, it was really late as the vendors had started packing and some had already left. As we walked I suddenly stumbled upon a RM 5 note on the floor ! What luck !!! My brother and I were so happy and that started our little escapade to look for money (surely accidentally dropped from somebody's pocket). By 9 pm we would sneak out of the house and begin our mission.

Both of us would walk slowly, heads down carefully scanning the road, pushing the garbage with our feet in hope of exposing any treasures hidden.

We got lucky sometimes, the rest of the times we came back empty handed but it was fun. Sometimes we didn't even find money but stuffs that took our fancy... you know silly stuffs that were valuable to scavenging kids. Sometimes CT would follow us, drinking from her bottle all the while.

When I think about it now... My God how dangerous that was !!!! We were exposed to so much danger, all kinds of it. I am sure up until now Mom doesn't have an inkling of our nightscapades. I am sure she would have had the heebeejeebees if she had known.

Well... it is better if she didn't.

So... that was what the sight of a 10 sen coin reminded me of. It reminded me that I had quite a nice childhood.