Fake Stamps for Genuine

After the incident of my brother’s trickery, my mother’s words were soon forgotten.  My brother had gone back to his old ways of taking advantage of others.  This time it had to do with the girl next door.  She was a year younger than me and her name was “Ah Lu”.  Normally, she would be indoors and would hardly come out, not even to the veranda which was connected to ours but separated by a wooden barricade. Both of our houses were built by my father and they formed a single storey semidetached type of house.  We used one unit while the other was sold later on to Ah Lu’s father when my father had financial difficulties.  It was supposedly built for my youngest uncle who was my father’s youngest brother, to live in when he settled down. 

Ah Lu, being the youngest in the family would usually feel very lonely at home when her elder sisters and brothers went out to work or to school.  One afternoon, when I was playing with her at the veranda, she took out her collection of stamps to show to me.  They must have been her elder sisters’ or brothers’ because I did not see how she could have collected so many. They were neatly kept in stamp albums and I had never seen such collections before.  Just then, my brother came out and he saw what we were doing.  Knowing that he was not popular with Ah Lu or any member of her family, he did not come near for fear of being caught by Ah Lu’s mother who did not like him at all.

A few minutes after he had gone into the house, I was summoned to go in.  Wondering what the matter was, I went in to investigate.  Much to my surprise, he requested to have a look at the collections of stamps.  After much persuasion and also after being sweet talked, I went out to ask Ah Lu if my brother could have a look at her very unusual collections.  Feeling happy that my brother commented how special and priceless her collections were, she allowed him to have a look.  But my brother would not come out as he was afraid of Ah Lu’s mother.  In the end Ah Lu allowed the albums to be brought into our house.

My brother was all excited when he got his hands on the albums.  Much to my dismay, he started removing some of them from the albums.  What do you think you are doing, I asked. He hushed me and called me a ‘silly’.  Why, he said, these are rare collections and she would not know if some of them are missing, he whispered.  No, you cannot do this, I snapped at him, but he refused to give back the stamps he had taken. He ran away quickly.  I had to give Ah Lu the stamps back but short of the ones my brother had removed.  Instead, some large and colourful stamps, mostly fake ones were replaced after second thoughts.

That very evening, one of Ah Lu’s sisters came over to our house and complained to my mother about my brother.  She told my mother that my elder brother had stolen her stamps.  My father had just come back from work and he overheard the conversation.  My father was unhappy that my brother had stolen and nagged at my mother.  He complained that my mother had not been keeping a close eye on my brother.  That was like adding salt to wound.  My mother was even angrier then and she had her cane ready, waiting for my brother to walk into the house.

Just then, his whistling could be heard and my heart started to thump so hard that I thought it was going to explode.  I tried to signal to my brother about the cane that my mother was holding but he was too busy whistling the same tune he was whistling the past few weeks.  As quick as lightning, the cane came down sharply on his thighs.  Although he dodged, the cane still managed to bite into the raw flesh of his thighs and soon two red marks, one on each thigh could be seen. I could see that he was wincing.  At first, he was quiet but when my mother’s cane swished down on his thighs again, the pain must have very unbearable and this time, he howled so loudly that I thought my heart had come out through my mouth.  He yelled and howled, and for the first time I saw him shed tears.  I felt so sympathetic towards him that I cried and begged my mother to stop.  Wondering what the commotion was, my grandma came to his rescue.  My utterly heartbroken mother stopped immediately for she did not want the aged lady to fret too much.

That evening, everybody had no appetite to eat dinner except me.  I was left to eat a bigger portion.  I needed replenishment for the energy expended and I did not see any good sense in letting such matters bother me too long. 




 Everything is governed by laws of nature, no matter how humans try to 'unnaturalise' them. Such a simple thing as a mother exercising her human intervention on another human to do moral good.  It is as natural as she breastfeeding him during infancy.  What is not natural is ignoring your hunger pangs!