THE ADVENTURES OF NA WILLAAUTHOR’S NOTEWhen Na Willa was published for the rst time, in 2012, I was happy just knowing that some friendshad read it. anks to Maesy Ang and Teddy W. Kusuma from POST Press, who re-published it in 2017, NaWilla made many more new friends. And one of these is the Emma Press.I never imagined that children on the other side of the world would read about Na Willa! ank youto Emma Wright for picking up Na Willa at London Book Fair 2018 and deciding to publish theEnglish version. I think it was brave of you to do it. ank you to Ikhda and Kate, for the translation that I know for sure was not an easy undertaking; toMaesy and Teddy, for believing in this book; and to all of the others, here and there, who made thisproject possible.And thank you to you, the reader – the newest friend of Na Willa!
For Mak and PakQuand je me tourne vers mes souvenirs,je revois la maison où j’ai grandi.Il me revient des tas des choses.Françoise Hardy,‘La Maison Où J’ai Grandi’THE EMMA PRESSFirst published in the UK in 2019 by the Emma Press LtdOriginally published in 2012 as Na Willa by Aikon in Indonesia. is translation is based on the second edition, published by POST Press in 2017.All rights reserved.Text © Reda Gaudiamo 2012Illustrations © Cecillia Hidayat 2012English-language translation © Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi Degoul and Kate Wakeling 2019All rights reserved.ISBN 978-1-910139-59-2A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.Printed and bound in the UK by TJ International, [email protected] Quarter, Birmingham, UKPublication of this book was made possible, in part, with assistance from the LitRI TranslationFunding Program of the National Book Committee and Ministry of Education and Culture of theRepublic of Indonesia.
ContentsJust like MakHomeFaridaGus SalimDulBudWarnoFishPakPresentsA E I O UChineseGoing to the marketPassing trainsDul’s legWaitingA new friendVisiting DulRadio #1Radio #2Sunday is evening
Party e bride e night of the partyGoing to schoolSchoolIbu TiniIn the classroomQuitting school e searchJuwita e rst morning (1) e rst morning (2)About the authorAbout the illustratorAbout the translatorsWrite your own stories
Just like MakWhen I grow up, I want to be as tall as Pak.1 So I don’t have to get on achair if I want to reach a toy on the highest shelf. So I don’t need astepladder if I want to hang a picture. I want to be as tall as Pak but I wantmy hair to grow like Mak’s.2 Wavy and twisty. Not like Pak’s straight, stiffhair. When I try to say this to Mbok,3 she laughs out loud. She tells me thatwhen I grow up I’ll have light skin and narrow eyes, and my hair will growstraight and stiff.I don’t like that.I say, ‘I’m Mak’s daughter and I’m going to look just like Mak when I growup. I’ll have brown skin and wavy, twisty hair.’ en Mbok tells me that since the days of ‘Pebruari’ (she always says ‘thedays of Pebruari’ for anything related to the OLDEN DAYS) all girls havegrown up like their fathers and all boys have grown up like their mothers.‘If I were a boy, could I be like Mak?’‘Yes, you could,’ says Mbok.‘ en I want to be a boy,’ I say.‘How? You’re a girl. You’ll always be a girl!’‘I’ll keep my trousers on.’‘ at’s impossible, Noni.4 You’re a girl. A girl!’‘But I want to be like Mak!’ I say. And I start getting annoyed.‘Ora iso! Ora iso! Wedhok, yo wedhok!’ says Mbok (which means No! Youcan’t! You are a girl and will forever be a girl!). en she goes off to the kitchen. And I start shouting and crying. Mbokcomes back right away and tells me to SHUSH. But I don’t want to bequiet. Not a little bit. I am annoyed. Actually, I am properly furious.I cry for a long time. When Mak comes home from the market, I’m stillcrying. Very hard. Legs, hands, clothes, face: all dirty. I’m crying and I’mrolling around.
Mak immediately puts her groceries down. She comes and kneels in frontof me: ‘What is it, Willa?’‘Mboooooooooook!’ I scream.Mak gets up and calls Mbok, who’s been standing nearby.‘What’s going on?’ Mak asks Mbok, pointing at me.Mbok sits down and tells her what has happened.Mak asks some questions.Mbok gives some answers. en Mak stops asking questions. And Mbok stops giving answers.(And I carry on crying.)Mak approaches me. She touches my shoulder.‘Willa, please stop crying. Now listen: you are the daughter of Mak andPak. You’ll be as tall as Pak and your hair will grow as wavy as mine.’‘But Mbok said…’‘Forget all that. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Calm downand be quiet now,’ Mak says.Mbok is there standing at the door, waiting for Mak and me.‘I’m so sorry, Non,’ she says.I nod.And I stop crying.And I start singing.Mak sighs. A long, deep breath. I go with Mak to the kitchen. Inside aplastic shopping bag, some sawo5fruits are poking out. And I know they arejust for me.Notes1 Pak – dad2 Mak – mum3 Mbok – a household assistant4 Noni/Non – an affectionate way of addressing a young girl5sawo – a kind of yellow-brown berry fruit, about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit, that has thetexture of a pear and is deliciously sweet
HomeI like my house.My house is the one that’s bang in the middle of the alley. So if you comefrom one end of the alley or the other, you’ll pass eight houses. My house isthe one with white walls and a dark green door. Out front there’s a cypresstree, and when Christmas comes Mak snips off the littlest stem from thetop of the tree.Yes, so this is my house.Ages ago, when I was a baby (I don’t remember when it was exactly), Maksaid our house was super-tiny. ere was just one big room for Mak andPak, and then a super-tiny room for me. But then Pak saved up and boughtus the house next door (the one that was Pak Manan’s house).Since then, our house has grown a whole lot bigger. My room is properlyspacious now and also I have a playroom next to the living room. ewindows to the playroom don’t have shutters, just these pieces of looselycrisscrossed wood. On the inside, these pieces of wood are covered in wirefull of big holes – Mak says it’s called chicken wire. ese big holes are thencovered with some cloth that Mak dyed bright red. When the wind blows,this red cloth waves about.My doll lives in the playroom. She’s made out of plastic and her hands won’tmove. Once I spun her round-and-around and her arms came off. If I tryand move her feet, they feel like they’re about to come off too. Only Makcan x her. But even though my doll’s hands and feet won’t move, I dressher in fresh new clothes every day. Mak has made her (my lovely doll) lotsof clothes from leftover curtains.
My doll’s name is Melly and she came with a toy gorilla. Mak says thisgorilla was a present from Tante Lan, Pak’s sister who lives in Jakarta.While Melly can’t open her mouth, this gorilla simply cannot shut his. Heyawns on and on from dawn to dusk. Mak says that even if the gorilla’smouth is open the whole time and he looks like he’s asking for some food, Ishouldn’t feed him or even give him a glass of water. If I do that, he’ll beruined. ere are lots of cooking things in my playroom, all mostly made of clay. ere are pots and pans, and a pestle and mortar too – each one inminiature. I keep them in a wooden box that won’t quite shut. Farida and Iplay all sorts of cooking games with these pots and pans. For instance, wemight cut up hibiscus leaves, mash them and then add some water and oil.Or we cut up some hibiscus petals and squish them into sambal. 1 Or wemight take pine needles and cut them into little pieces so they’re like smallgreen beans. Sometimes we make pecel2 with these ne ingredients. Wemake the spices for the pecel by grinding up bits of red brick into a dusty
powder. And for the crackers, we use those little white seashells that youcan nd down by the sand dunes. en there’s the books. Mak is always buying me books, so I have new oneseach week. Mak usually gets them from bookshops or from the little kiosknext to the church. Some of my books are presents from Pak when he getsback from being on the ship.When I hadn’t yet learnt to read, every night before I went to bed Makwould read me stories. We would sit in the dining room. e tables andchairs would be pushed up against the wall and there was a mat on the oor.I loved hearing Mak reading stories. Sometimes she whispered. Sometimesshe roared. She would even sing. I never ever got bored. Now I often readstories to Mak. We have a lot of fun with books.Behind my playroom is an empty space. It’s huge and has absolutelynothing in it. Mak says we’ll use it as a room for Pak to work in one day ifwe get a bit more money. But at the moment, the room has a swing in it. at’s right: a swing! Pak made it especially for me. He brought the rope forit from the ship he works on. e seat is made from thick slabs of wood thatalso came from this ship. e ends of the rope are then tied to the slats ofwood that run across the ceiling.When Farida (I call her Ida) is at school and I’m tired of playing, andwhen Mak isn’t around to read to me, I play on this swing. I just love to sitin this empty room. And when we’re playing hide and seek, it’s also myabsolutely favourite place to hide. I always win when I hide there. Why?Because Ida never wants to go into this room. She’s afraid. It’s the darkness,she says. e darkness? Now, you might wonder: is this room even reallyvery dark? Well, it’s true! ere’s absolutely no light in there. e only lightin that room comes in from the door leading to the kitchen. And if thedoor’s closed, it’s black in there. Totally, totally dark.Now, Mak also has an indoor kitchen at the end of the garden. It’ssurrounded by banana trees and cassava plants. ere’s a bathroom behindthis kitchen. And the thing I like best of all is having a shower under thekitchen roof. Because when it rains, the water splashes down from this roof.Sometimes when it’s raining Mak will appear and we’ll play together in the
water. She makes amazing sounds using the palms of her hands on thepuddles. And she likes icking water into my face. She also loves singingvery loudly in the rain. She has such a funny voice. It wobbles and rings.Mbok is not like Mak. She never wants to play in the rain. If the rain startspouring down, she just sits at the edge of the kitchen on a stool and watchesus. But when we’ve nished playing, she’ll get some hot water ready so wecan have a bath (so I won’t catch a cold). After our baths, Mak and I have acup of tea. ick. Sweet. And after drinking this tea, I feel deliciously wornout.And after that? Sleep.Notes1sambal – a delicious spicy relish served alongside savoury foods2pecel – a Javanese vegetable stew served with a spicy peanut sauce
FaridaFor as long as I can remember, Farida has always lived in the house oppositeto mine. Her house is absolutely enormous: it’s about the same size as fourof my houses all lined up together.Farida has lots and lots of older sisters and brothers. Here are their names:Ahmadi, Salim, Martini, Maryati, Suryani, Fadli and Rahman. Faridadoesn’t have a single younger brother or sister.Farida’s mum always wears kain1 and selendang2 draped over her head.While Farida’s dad always wears a sarung3(instead of trousers) held up witha big belt. He also never forgets to put kopiah4 on his head. He wears ablack or stripey shirt every day. Farida’s dad has never once (really, not ever)laughed. His eyebrows are merged into one big furrow. His face is alwaysthe face of an angry person. Farida tells me that her dad is so erce. He’salways, always angry. Farida says he likes shouting and walloping naughtychildren.And this is why, even though Farida’s house is much bigger than mine andhas a huge yard, I’d always rather play at my own house. And Farida prefersto play at my house too. Farida already goes to school. Every day, she goesto school with Fadli and Rahman. ey go there by bike. Farida is always
balanced on the back of Fadli’s bike. Rahman has his own bike, but itdoesn’t have an extra perch on the back. e three of them go to a publicschool next to the women’s health hospital that’s actually pretty far fromtheir house.Every day after school, Farida stops by at my house. Mak gives her a glassof water along with some watermelon, cupcakes, or gethuk.5 We have snacktime together before Farida heads home. Farida is free to go anywhere at all.She can play at any time with any of her friends. Her mum never wonderswhere she is, or comes and looks for her. It must be fun to be Farida.Farida can’t say the letter ‘R’ very well.When her brother Dul calls her ‘Falidaaaaa... Falidaaaaa!’, Farida goesberserk and chases after him. She tries and tries to hit him, but she nevermanages it.Farida prefers just to be called just ‘Ida’.So that’s what I call her.Notes1 kain – the word kain simply means ‘cloth’, but here it is used to describe a length of cloth wrappedround the waist like a sort of skirt2selendang – a long scarf worn around the waist or over the head3sarung – another piece of clothing worn in Indonesia that is a long length of cloth wrapped aroundthe body and tied either at the waist or below the armpits4 kopiah – a cap mostly worn by Muslim men and found all over Southeast Asia5gethuk – a simple but tasty Javanese dish made from cassava (a starchy sort of root vegetable)
Gus SalimIn Farida’s house is a huge room. is room is on the left side of the house(if I’m facing the house).Every morning, this room is lled with people sitting and waiting to meetSalim. Farida told me that every morning, Salim (her brother, who’s alsooften called Gus Salim) is kept busy meeting all these people who arewaiting in the queue to see him. ese people have all sorts of differentproblems and diseases. ey need to be helped and healed.‘Why don’t they see the doctor?’ I asked Farida once.Farida told me that these people don’t have enough money to pay thedoctor or the hospital. But sometimes they bring some food or a little bit ofmoney to put in a wooden box that’s in front of the big room. Farida toldme that every Friday this wooden box is opened up and its contents areplaced in a cloth bag that is then taken to the mosque.Mbok says that Gus Salim has supernatural powers. She says that if I meetGus Salim, I’d better not look directly into his eyes unless I want my owneyeballs to hurt later. When I asked Farida about this, she laughed out loud.She told me that Mbok was bbing.I believe Ida.I’ve met Gus Salim. I looked deep into his eyes and my eyes were absolutely ne.
DulMbok said that Dul and Ida’s fathers are brothers.Mbok also said that when Dul was born, his mother died immediatelyafter giving birth.‘Before this, Pak Karno lived in Sidoarjo. But after his wife died, hedecided to move near to Ida’s house. is was so that Ida’s mother couldtake care of Dul and Ahmad, Dul’s big brother.’ at’s how Mak tells the story.Dul knows how to play all sorts of games. But he hates playing hide andseek. He says hide and seek is not a real game.Here are the games Dul likes playing:1. MarblesDul wins Every Single Time we play marbles. If Ida, Bud and me areplaying marbles and then Dul comes along, we’d better stop playing if wedon’t want all our marbles to zoom immediately into Dul’s pockets. Whenhe joins the game, Dul brings just one marble and then, without fail, he’llreturn home with his pockets full of the things. He has to tie up his trousersso they don’t fall down. Trousers just aren’t strong enough for all thosemarbles.
I’m happiest when we play together as team: Dul and me. We often playagainst Yono and Tri. At the start of a game, Yono always says totally stupidthings. He’ll say he’s going to win and that all the marbles on the groundare going to end up in his pockets. But halfway through, his marble supplieswill already be running low, and then when they’re about to run out he’llsuddenly start screaming and accuse us of being cheaters.Once, Yono got totally out of control. We’d won just about all of hismarbles and he went berserk. He was really raging. He started kicking ateverything around us. at made Dul mad so he grabbed Yono’s neck andpunched him on the nose. OUCH. Yono was crying and crying and yellinghis father’s name. It was pretty noisy.A moment later, Yono’s father came out of the house. At rst I thought hewas going to hit Dul. He stepped a little bit closer… and then he justwalked right past us. He didn’t even turn his head to look at Yono. Seeingthat his own father wasn’t going to help him, Yono fell silent. Dul let go ofhim and Yono fell down. Dul told him to tidy up the marbles on the sand.Yono did what he was told.2. Kite- yingWhen the season for ying kites arrives, we know where to nd Dul. He’llbe beside the railway tracks. Flying his kite. Dul has lots of different sortsof kites. Some of them are big and colourful with big long tails. And Dul’skites come in all shapes and sizes. Butter ies, sh, dragons, snakes. eshape I like the best of all is the kite with a woman drawn on it. She has her
hands on her hips, wears a red skirt, her hair is owing, she’s got red lipstickon and her eyes are huge. Dul tells me that this kite, the one I like most, ishis heaviest kite of all and almost impossible to y. e kite that Dul likesbest is a dragon snake. Mak likes the same one as Dul. When Dul ies hisdragon snake kite, Mak comes out to watch. Mak loves watching its tailtwist and turn, here and there. I think she’d quite like to y kites with Dul.When Mak was a child, she was brilliant at ying kites. And she playedmarbles too. But anyway, back to Dul’s kites. He might have loads of kitesbut he mostly likes to y the small and simple ones.Flying these small kites, Dul wins every time there’s a kite battle. Makexplained to me that it’s all about the type of the string used on the kite.Dul told me that his father helps him make the string extremely strong. Hisfather takes broken bottles and other bits of glass and grinds them all up.Mak says his father then adds some potion to make the string even stronger.Me and Ida take turns holding the kite in the air, before it’s pulled up and ies off into the air. Once the kite’s in the air, my job is sometimes to hold acan with the kite’s thread in it. en I stand beside Dul and wait forinstructions, like:‘Back off… Roll it… Pull it!’Dul’s kite ies so high. It swings back and forth, chasing the other kites.And if these other kites come too close, Dul’s kite gets in their way andthen… SNAPPP!… his kite string (with all that glass) cuts the string of hisopponents. When this happens, Dul and I jump up and down extremelyhappily.Dul always leaves the kites he’s conquered.He says, ‘I don’t get it. Why would I take some ugly kite, when I can makea far better kite?’ at’s right, Dul never buys kites. He makes them all himself. He usesbroomsticks and thin paper. When he’s nished assembling the pieces, hepastes them together with sticky white rice. en for the next step, Duldecorates the kite with paint. SWOOOSH! Usually he’ll draw a skull. Or aseries of circles so the kite looks like a shooting target.3. Catching trains
Dul loves catching the train. Every afternoon he catches one. If he’s yinghis kite when a train rolls up, he’ll de nitely ask someone to hold onto hiskite for a while. en he’ll run to the end of the alley, wait for the passingtrain and, as soon as it starts to slow down, he’ll start running and racingand chasing until he catches it and… HOP! He jumps onto the train.Normally, Dul keeps an eagle eye out for connecting carriages, as theyhave a handle to grab onto. I’m never the one to hold Dul’s kite when heruns for the train. I always run with him and, though it’s not impossible tocatch, somehow I’m always left behind. When Dul reaches the train andgets on, he’s so proud and will laugh so loudly at me. He does his victorydance and waves at me. And then he’ll yell, calling out at all the people thathe passes.Oi oi, mate! Heeeeey! I envy Dul.One day I was on the top of the roof helping hold the kite’s string, and Itold Dul I’d like to run with him to catch the train.He replied saying ‘Hmmm…’So I repeated my question: ‘Can I come with you, Dul?’And he said ‘Hmmm…’ Again.He meant that it was OK for me to come. De nitely. But then when we nished ying the kite and had rolled up the string and tidied everythingup, Dul suddenly took my arm and said, ‘You’d better not come with me tocatch the train. Mak will be so angry with me. And I’ve never seen a girljump onto a train like me.’I almost cried at that moment. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t let mecome with him.I stayed up all night, thinking and thinking about what he’d said.Suddenly I’d lost my appetite. I didn’t even want to eat my favourite fried sh. Mak asked me what was wrong. I told her I was upset with Dulbecause he wouldn’t let me come and catch the train with him.Mak gripped my arm.‘Willa, listen to me now! Dul is right. Don’t you EVER try and get on atrain with Dul! It’s incredibly dangerous.’Heck.Mak kept going: ‘Dul was right. I am angry about this. And I will beFURIOUS if you ever try and do it. Got it?’
I nodded. Fast.Drat.I shouldn’t have told Mak.
BudWhen you arrive in the alley, just turn your head to the left. ere’s a smallhouse with a small door and small window. Bud lives in this house, alongwith his father and mother and his little sister, Murni.Bud is the smallest kid of all of us. If me, Ida and Dul run to the end of thealley, by the time we’ve arrived and are just sitting about, Bud will just havereached us, totally out of breath. His entire face will be covered in sweat, hiseyes bulging, everything a grimace.Dul says, ‘Bud looks like he’s being chased by a dog.’We laugh out loud when Dul imitates Bud running. He keeps his bodytotally stiff. His legs trot along, his hands thrash about next to his chest andhis bum is tucked in.And when he looks up, we can see that snot is pouring out of his nose.While we joke about him, Bud grins, sucks the snot back into his nose andrubs his hands along his smooth head of hair.So yes, Bud always has masses of snot coming out of his nose. I can’tremember the last time he had a dry nose. He always has snot pouring outof his nostrils. Any place. Any time. Whatever he’s doing.When he’s concentrating on marbles, snot drips out… It might even touchhis lips. When he runs, he has to lift his head up so that the snot won’t dripout the whole time.Sometimes, when it’s a sunny day and really hot outside, we’ll be yingkites with Dul and I’ll notice that Bud’s nose is dry. But then the drips willappear underneath his nose, and they’ll ow right across his cheeks.One day, Mak invited Bud to my house and gave him a hankie. But Budjust used it to wrap up all his marbles. He put the marbles in the middle ofthe hankie and then knotted up the four corners. He never once used it toblow his nose. is made Mak seriously cross. She raised her eyebrows SOHIGH when she saw Bud do that. en later she asked him about the
hankie. Bud was scared. His face looked completely terri ed. And he wasafraid to look her in the eye. I told you – when Mak is angry, she really hasa scary face. Her eyes become huge.So Bud gave back the hankie. Straightaway, Mak seized his shoulder andpulled him near her. She held Bud’s chin so he couldn’t move.‘Come on now, let’s get this snot out,’ she said.Bud’s eyes got wider and wider and rounder and rounder. But he couldn’tmove. Mak’s hands were too strong. And then I heard the sound:SROOOOOT! SROOOOT!‘You might want to take the hankie with you. And yes, you can use it towrap up your marbles if you want,’ said Mak, while pushing the wet stickyhankie back into Bud’s hands.Bud didn’t move his hands. He didn’t want to touch that hankie. Not a bit.But by refusing, he was making Mak’s eyes get EVEN BIGGER. Heck. SoI went and lifted Bud’s hand up and Mak then put the hankie into his palm. en she told him to go home.From that day on, every time I ask Bud to come to my house, he alwaysasks me: ‘Ummm, is Mak going to be there?’And if I say ‘Yeah, she’s at home today,’ Bud will just wait for me outside.He won’t want to come in. He doesn’t want Mak to help him ever again.And the hankie?I’ve never seen it since.
WarnoLast week, Pak Wardiman (who lives at number eight) moved away. Maksaid he moved to Gresik.‘What about Bu Wardiman?’ I asked. (Bu Wardiman is Pak Wardiman’swife.)‘She’s going with him,’ said Mak.‘And what about their kids? What about Marni, Yono, Tri and Warno?’ Iasked again.Mak said they moved with their parents. I am happy about this. I reallyfeel relieved! So. Glad. I never enjoyed playing with Marni. If we ran a raceand she lost, she’d push me over afterwards. And she would often lose therace, because she was kind of chunky.Meanwhile, Yono always cheated when we played marbles.And Tri would force me to lend her my doll. If I had ever once said no,she’d have fought me. I never took up her challenge to ght. Not once. I’dhave lost. Tri is even bigger than Marni. She liked to squeeze me betweenher elbows.Warno didn’t really like to play. He always sat down in front of the doorbecause one of his legs wasn’t quite straight. Sometimes he peed in hispants. So he didn’t smell all that good. If he wanted to go anywhere, hewould push himself along. I didn’t like playing with Warno becausewhenever I passed by the front of his house, when I was alone without Mak,he’d scream: Asu Cino!Asu Cino means Chinese dog.One day, after he yelled at me like that, I walked up to him and I pulled athis legs until he fell over. His head hit the wall. He was on the ground. Hetried to punch me but I stepped on his hand. He started yelling and criedfor his mother to help. I ran home. My heart was pounding.I didn’t say anything to Mak. I didn’t want Mak to know anything aboutthis. But it was useless. Later that afternoon, when I was looking for some
of Mak’s new books, suddenly Bu Wardiman appeared in front of our door.I started to run to my room. Bu Wardiman tried to catch me and shestarted chasing me round the house. Mak came out of the kitchen and shealmost crashed into Bu Wardiman. Mak, with her hands on her hips, askedBu Wardiman to leave. Mak told her she was rude, coming into the housewithout asking and then trying to hit me. Bu Wardiman started walkingaway backwards, but she was still screaming. She pointed at me (now hidingbehind Mak’s dress). She told Mak that her sweet and nice child, Warno,had been tortured by me!WHAT?Her gentle boy, she said.At that moment, I jumped in front of Mak. I stomped my feet and Iscreamed. I tried to tell Mak about how Warno had treated me, that he’dcalled me a ‘Chinese dog’.Mak stared at me. So did Bu Wardiman. And then they looked at eachother. Mak tried to start talking it through.Mak said, ‘Perhaps you should talk to Warno rst and nd out if he didthis to Willa?’Bu Wardiman tried to open her mouth. She wanted to say something. Butno words would come out. She stamped her feet, turned her body andstomped off home.I jumped up and down, feeling pretty great. I’d won! But suddenlyeverything went topsy-turvy. Mak had slapped me. She’d slapped me hard. Ifell down onto the ground. Why had she done that? Mak lifted me up,pulling me by my shirt. Maybe she was going to throw me into the street.But why?Nope, of course she just sent me to my room. Mak locked the door fromthe inside. And then she picked up a broomstick and swung it towards me.I screamed and tried to avoid her swing. I jumped on the bed. I ran awayfrom the broom. I didn’t want to be hit. I hadn’t done anything wrong! iswas all Warno’s fault. But Mak’s hand managed to grab my collar. Shepulled me onto the bed. And then she sat on me.‘Willa, I don’t know where you could have learned to behave like that. Ishould hit you so you understand.’I screamed again. I told her it was Warno’s fault.
Mak pressed my shoulders. She said, ‘Willa, hitting a disabled person isNOT acceptable. It’s completely wrong! Whatever might have happened,you can’t just go round hitting people.’‘But he called me Cino!’Mak yelled, ‘Well, you are Chinese! Your father is Chinese!’Mak threw down the broomstick. She pinched my thigh. She pinched mereally hard. Ouch. It hurt. A lot.I yelled back at Mak, ‘He told me I was a dog!’‘Yes, that was wrong, But hitting a child who can’t defend themselves iseven worse.’Mak pinched me twice. Ouch. OUCH. It was really starting to hurt.‘Next time, when he says something stupid like that, just ignore him.Pretend you didn’t hear anything. You don’t have to take revenge. Peopleknow he is wrong. But if you respond like that, everyone will agree thatyou’re the one to blame. Even if he ought to stop it. Do you understand,Noni?’ said Mak.She pinched me again.Nope. I didn’t get it. But I remembered exactly what she said that day. Allof her words. And I didn’t cry.
FishI just love eating fried milk sh. e instant the sh touches the frying pan, you can smell that totallydelicious smell.It makes me so hungry!Served with hot rice…I could nish my plateful a hundred times over.But do you know the best part of a milk sh? e bit I like to save till the very end? e eyes. e eyes are SO TASTY.Once, I even asked Mak to buy me a milk sh with many eyes.Mak told me that this sort of sh doesn’t exist.Just like me and Mak, sh only have two eyes.It would be super weird to have more eyes than that.Imagine what it would be like?You’d want to go here. And there. And EVERYWHERE.It would be a real nuisance.Yes, yes, so, I don’t want to have lots of eyes.But I’d quite like a milk sh with lots of eyes.Delicious.
PakWhen I woke up this morning, Pak had already left the house. Mak saidhe’d left for work. I’ll see him again in ve days, ten days… I’m not exactlysure.Mak is the one who knows exactly when he’ll be back.I once asked Mak why Pak doesn’t just work from morning to afternoonlike Pak Umar, the leader of our Rukun Kampung1 who lives in the house atthe end of our alley, by the railroad tracks.Mak said that this would be impossible, because Pak is a sailor.After he sets sail, Pak will be in the middle of the ocean until the shipstops at a port. He helps unload the cargo and then load up the new cargo.When this is all done, he can come home. Pak says he feels excited everytime he sails. Because he’s always curious about what will happen during thevoyage, or at the port he’s going to. He’s particularly curious when he’snever been anchored at a particular port. But then, if he’s at a new port formore than a day, he still just wants to come home. He misses Mak and melike mad.Once, Pak was away for a really, really looooooooooooong time.When he got home, it was me who opened the door.I said, ‘Who are you looking for, sir?’Pak was standing on the doorstep and he started to cry. Luckily Makquickly appeared or there’d have been a rainstorm of tears.Since then, Pak has never been away for such a long time.Maximum a week or a fortnight. Never longer than that.
Notes1 Rukun Kampung – local community
PresentsBud’s father (who, like Pak, works on ships) came home yesterday.I know this because, whenever Bud’s father comes home, he always bringsBud new toys. One day, he came into my house with a green frog made outof a tin can. On the side of the frog’s body there was a at key and, whenyou turned it, the frog would start nodding and jumping and making afunny noise that sounded like this: reketek-ketek-ketek.So, yesterday Bud’s father brought him a bunch of little green army menmade of plastic. ere are so many of them. I keep on counting. I countthirty but then Bud just carries on taking them out of a bag – more andmore and more and more and more and more. e whole army is green. eir faces, feet, hands, uniforms, hats… Every bit of them is green.‘Let’s make a front line,’ says Bud. All these gazillion green army men arelined up in front of the door. Bud says they look like they’re ready to go intobattle.Suddenly the door opens and Mbok steps through without noticing thelittle green army men on the oor. She treads on them. ey are attened.Some of them have their legs broken.Bud starts crying. Mbok asks Bud to be quiet.I get really angry at Mbok. I tell her she has to say sorry to Bud because sheruined his toys. But Mbok argues that it’s Bud’s fault.She says, ‘Who told him to put the toys just by a door? Just where peopleare coming and going. So that anyone could step on these toys.’Luckily, Mak comes in at just this moment. Quick as a ash, shestraightens out all the crooked soldiers. And she squeezes the sides of the at soldiers with her hands so they aren’t squashed anymore.When Bud got a little brother, his father’s presents doubled. ere’s a colourful ball made of soft bits of cloth.
ere’s a rubbery duck that quacks when we squash its tummy.For me, Pak always brings books. ere’s a book with an elephant withenormous ears. ere’s a book with three little kittens drawn on it. enthere’s a huge book with pictures of crabs and giraffes and owers and sh. Ican’t understand the writing yet. Mak says I can start just by looking at thepictures. One day, when I’m bigger, I’ll be able to read it. e whole of it.But what I really want is for Pak to bring me toys.Toys. Toys. TOOOOOOOOOYS!
A E I O UOf the four of us, I’m the only one who hasn’t started school yet.Ida just started this year. Bud too. Dul’s been going to school since we’vebeen playing together. But of the four of us, I’m the only one who can readthe newspaper.Mak taught me how to read. One day, I remember, Mak cut out a pagefrom the calendar. She stuck the bit with writing on onto the wall. en shedrew lines to make squares on the blank part. And then she wrotesomething on them. When she’d nished, she said, ‘Starting from today, wecan learn to read. If you work hard, you’ll be able to read all the books youwant. Would you like to try?’I couldn’t refuse. I really wanted to be able to read the story books thatMak bought every Sunday in the small library next to the church. If Makhad time, she read these books out to me the instant we got home. But ifshe’d got too many other things to do, I had to wait. While I waited for her,I’d just look very carefully at the book’s pages, trying to guess the story fromthe pictures. But then Mak said she was going to teach me to read. I washappy. So so happy. at day I started by reading the rst three lines: a e i o u, ba be bi bo bu, dade di do du. Mak pointed at the letters one-by-one while she read themaloud. I repeated what she said, until she said to stop.From that day on, from the morning till late in the afternoon, all throughmy playtime with Ida, I said (non-stop) a e i o u… ba be bi bo bu… da dedi do du.Ida shouted at me. She told me to STOP IT. But I couldn’t. I liked sayingba be bi bo bu. at evening, I went to a party. Clowns, circus performers, princesses,princes… everyone was asking me to play with them and say: ba be bi bobu… da de di do du… a e i o u…
e next day, when Pak went to work, Mak told me to have my shower andthen get ready to learn to read. I jumped into the shower in a ash.Mbok was shocked.She said, ‘Don’t you want to use hot water?’After combing my hair, Mak asked me to point at the words written onthe calendar sheets. I started to read again. Mak then took the handle off abroom to point at the writing. Mak asked me to read out the words she waspointing at. A ba, i ba, i bu, u bi, e di, a da…We started slowly. And then we got faster and faster. Suddenly Makhugged me.She said, ‘You can read!’Mak carried on pointing out the words, one after another. I read them outloudly and clearly: i bu, u bi, ba bu, da du, i da…I was reading!I was so happy. at day, Mak taught me ve lines: fa fe fo fu, ga ge gi go gu, ha he hi hohu, ja je ji jo ju, ka ke ki ko ku. We also repeated the lessons from the daybefore. e next day we learnt ten lines… and the day after that, the rest ofthe lines. We did them again and again, checking over them. Until theywere done.From then on, I knew I could read a story book by myself. I could readbillboards and road names and newspapers.But newspapers are still a bit too much. I can’t understand absolutely all ofthem. So sometimes, I’d rather read a comic book. But I read something
every single day. Dul often asks me to read his textbook for him. Out loud.He listens to me read it out while he ies his kite.To be honest, I don’t always understand Dul’s textbook. When I ask himwhat it’s about, he just says, ‘It’s for schoolkids. Someone who’s not even atschool yet doesn’t need to understand it.’A R R O G A N T.
ChineseMbok is washing clothes in the backyard. Mak has gone to the market. Shedidn’t ask me to go with her. So here I am, playing at home on my own. Orrather, I’d like to be playing but have no idea what to do. Playing shop is nofun when you’re playing on your own. ere’s no new book for me to read.Playing on the swing is boring.Suddenly I hear Ida’s voice. I jump up and open the door,‘Holiday!’ Ida already answers my question about why she’s not at school.She brings her doll with the eyes that can blink.‘Let’s play being mums,’ says Ida. She comes into my play room, where mytoys are arranged. (I say they are arranged. Mak would say they are in amassive mess.)Ida brings Nining, her doll. I’m looking for Melly. I call out her name,hoping she’ll pop her head out from somewhere among all the furry animalsand trains and cars and toy cows and giraffes and hens and ducks…‘Why did you call her Melly?’ Ida asks me, out of the blue.‘Why not?’ I say. ‘I think Melly sounds nice.’‘It sounds Chinese to me,’ says Ida. She pulls her eyes up at the sides. Andthen she laughs. I start laughing too: Ida’s face looks funny. She looks justlike Cik Kim, a boy who lives behind her house.‘You’re not Chinese, are you?’ says Ida as she helps me look for Melly.Not Chinese?
‘Mak says I’m Chinese,’ I say.Ida stops looking for Melly.She stares at me and points at my face.She says, ‘You’re not Chinese. You’ve got dark skin. And your eyes aren’tslanted, like this…’ en she pulls her eyes again. And laughs. I laugh too.‘But my dad’s Chinese,’ I say again.‘Your mum’s not Chinese,’ says Ida. ‘So you’re not Chinese.’We nd Melly in the arms of the gorilla. en we go out into the garden. We are playing cooking. Ida says she isgoing to cook bubur merah putih,1to celebrate a change of name.Today, Melly becomes Atik.Because I am not Chinese, so neither is my daughter.Notes1 bubur merah putih – ‘red and white rice porridge’. e words ‘merah putih’ (‘red white’) are alsoused to describe Indonesia’s national ag, which is red and white.
Going to the marketJust by the kitchen door, on the doorframe, there is a nail.And on this nail hangs a cloth bag with an iron ring attached to it. is isMak’s shopping bag. If Mak is wearing her sandals, has a headband on andis holding that bag, it means she’s going to the market. And if I’ve alreadyeaten my breakfast and had a shower, she’ll ask me to come too. e market is not so far from our house. You just go straight over therailway track, then carry on for a little bit, turn left, turn right, go straightand hey presto, you’ve arrived. We always walk to the market. We nevertake the becak1 or go by bike.Before we set out, Mak always tells me that while she’s doing her shoppingI’ll need to wait in Cik Mien’s shop. And then when she’s nished, she’llpick me up from there. She says: ‘Don’t be naughty. And don’t ask foranything. Deal, Willa?’‘Deal, Mak.’And so we set off.It’s always crowded at the market. Mak walks in front of me, holding myhand tightly. And she never stops walking. She keeps on moving, threadingher way through the crowds.
First of all we go to Cik Mien’s shop, right in the middle of the market. Assoon as we get there, Mak pushes me into the shop. Cik Mien takes myhand and takes me inside. So we walk past wooden boxes that hold rice andmung beans and piles of un-fried crackers. Behind all of that, there’s a littlewooden stool. I sit on it.Cik Mien sells all sorts of groceries. ere’s rice, kecap,2 and butter in a canwith pictures of coconut trees on it. ere’s soap wrapped with brown paperwith bees drawn on it. ere’s also a soap in the shape of a brick with twoshaking hands drawn on it. I really really really do not like the way that thissoap smells.Mak says I mustn’t ask for anything. If Cik Mien is eating tiwul,3 she’ll giveme a bit of tiwul on a little plate. But I prefer grontol – boiled cornsprinkled with coconut – with a little bit of salt and sugar. But of all thefood and drink she gives me, my absolute favourite is a special drink in abottle which is labelled as ‘Orange Cruz’, which Cik Mien says like this:‘oranyekrus’. It tastes sweet and sour and then there’s also another sensationthat zzes on my tongue. When I drink oranyekrus, I can’t even open myeyes because of that strange zzing taste. I know I should drink it slowlyand not bolt it down… When Mak comes back to Cik Mien’s grocery store,I’ve always already nished the drink. e empty bottle will be sat in awooden box under the table. But Mak always knows when I’ve drunkoranyekrus. How, you might ask?
‘Huh… So Willa asked Cik Mien for some oranyekrus, did she?’‘Willa didn’t ask me, I just gave it to her, the poor little thing,’ says CikMien. And she never lets Mak pay for my drink.Usually, after that, Mak and Cik Mien will have a chat. ey laughtogether. A lot. Mak buys all sorts of things from Cik Mien’s shop. All ofMak’s groceries go inside a big brown paper bag, tied up with string and allready to be brought home. I say goodbye to Cik Mien. Her eyes disappearand her body shakes when she laughs.To leave, we don’t go through the same door as when we arrived. ere’sanother door which is used for leaving. Just outside this door, there’s a sellerof chicks and little ducks. ese chicks and little ducks are completely andtotally adorable. ey are so small, and all of them are yellow and all ofthem are noisy. Every time we pass these little animals, I ask Mak to buyme a chick. And Mak always says, ‘Next time.’ Today we pass them and so Iask Mak again. And guess what, Mak says, ‘Next time.’Ugh, when will the time come?What if they’re all bought by other people?So… how about we go to the market and buy that funny little chicktomorrow, Mak?Notes1 becak – (pronounced be-chak) a little vehicle (sometimes with a motor, sometimes pedalled like abike) for two or three passengers, which you can hail like a taxi2 kecap – sweet soy sauce3tiwul – mashed cassava. Sometimes it’s served as a substitute for rice and sometimes cooked withsugar and coconut as a sweet snack.
Passing trainsSomeone is calling my name. I peer out from behind the owery curtainwhich hangs over the mosquito net across the window. Dul is standingbehind the fence. Bud is standing next to him. Dul says my name. Loudly.So loud that Mak wakes up from where she’s sat at the sewing machine.‘What does he want?’ Mak asks me. She peers out of the window too.‘He asked me to come and look at the train going past, Mak,’ I say.Mak raises her eyebrows. ‘To see the trains going by? We see themeveryday. Nothing changes. You’d better stay at home.’I move the curtain aside and Dul starts waving.‘Hurry up, Willa! e train will pass really soon!’ he says, stamping hisfeet. He starts to come through the fence, but when he sees Mak peeringout at him he falters. en I hear Mak’s voice calling out, over my head.‘Today Na Willa is going to stay at home. Her father’s coming soon. Youboys had better just go without her.’With one sweep, the owery curtain closes. I start yelling, really andproperly furiously. What’s the difference between today and yesterday? Iwas allowed to see the trains going by yesterday and the day beforeyesterday and last week too. Ever since I discovered that there were trainspassing at the end of our alley. So why not today? I’m fully crying now.Howling and wailing.Mak grunts, ‘Please don’t get me started, Willa.’She’s already sitting back on her Singer sewing machine chair. I can’t keepa lid on my feelings anymore. I am sitting down on the oor, kicking everyobject around me.‘Willa… ONE.’Mak starts counting.I carry on crying.Loudly.I feel so upset.‘Willa, TWO.’
I am crying even more loudly. I imagine Dul and Bud running after theslow freight train that runs between the small alleys.I yell, ‘I want to see the train, Mak.’‘Willa, THREE. Enough.’ Mak is standing in front of me now. All of asudden, her hands touch my leg. She’s pinching me. She’s rolling the skin inher ngers and then pulling it. Very hard. Very very hard. OW!‘ e more you cry, the longer I will pinch you.’But I just carry on crying. I’m screaming and screaming. OW OW OW.I’m crying louder and louder, until suddenly I hear what sounds like a crowdof people moving outside the house. It’s rumbling past. ere are more andmore people there. Mak lets go of me. She stands up and runs to thewindow. She looks out and then races to open the door. I suddenly forgetabout my crying. I stand behind her.‘What’s wrong?’ Mak asks Lik Watno, who was there, just closing thedoor out of his fence, ready to run to the end of the alley.‘Someone’s been been hit by the train,’ he says quickly.‘Who?’But he doesn’t answer Mak’s question. Lik Watno has already run off. Makturns to me. She stares at me. Her forehead is all wrinkled up and she has
shut her mouth tight. I go up to her and press my cheek up against herskirt.Mak takes my hand. She guides me outside. We stand in front of the fence.Waiting to nd out what’s happened. Before long, the crowd of people whowere running to the end of the alley are now running the other way, backtowards us.Lik Watno and Cak Kardi are at the front and they are screaming. ‘Getout the way! Get out the way! Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!’I wait, watching to see who will come by next. I feel Mak’s hand tightlygrab mine, her other hand touching my head, forcing me to hide behind thefolds of her skirt. I refuse. I want to see what’s happened. Mak is pushingme to go back inside the house.‘Willa, go in. Go into the house.’ But I’m still standing there, my handsnow holding onto the fence. en I see Pak Marno going by and he’sholding something in his arms. It’s wrapped in banana leaves all coveredwith red blotches. Pak Marno is carrying… a leg. Mak screams a little. Shetries to cover my eyes but I push her hands away. Pak Marno is beingfollowed by two people carrying someone who is shouting ‘My leg! My leg!My leg!’It is Dul screaming. Mak is hugging me. Tight. at night we both sitholding one another in the wicker chair in the living room. We don’t say aword. We don’t eat that night.
Dul’s legI can’t sleep all night long. I keep thinking about Dul’s leg. Sometimearound dawn, I dream that Dul is desperately hopping around and trying tocatch his leg.‘Oi! Oi!’ he screams, asking his left leg to wait for him. It’s hopeless. eleg runs so fast. Ida and I are soon completely worn out. We stand by theelectricity pole on the edge of the railway tracks. But Dul won’t give up. Hecarries on running. Jumping over the tracks. Suddenly, his leg stops in themiddle of the tracks. Dul yells at Ida and me to catch his leg.Ida and me get up quickly. We agree to catch his leg. All three of us startrunning, ready to catch the leg. And just as we’re getting close, with ourhands stretched out, suddenly the leg starts laughing. And then itdisappears. Dul screams. He is so angry. Ida is screaming too. I am crying.My chest is tight.‘Willa, Willa!’I turn to where the voice has come from and see that Mak is sitting besideme. She shakes my shoulder.‘Did you have a nightmare? What were dreaming about?’‘Dul’s leg,’ I say. I wipe the tears off my cheeks. Mak takes a deep breathand sits back down next to me.‘Stop crying. Dul’s leg is not going to grow again. Even if you cry everynight.’And then she asks me to pray for Dul, so that he will still be healthy eventhough he has just one leg. I also ask God if he can help x the broken legback onto his body. Mak says we should really be praying for the other leg,the one he still has. So that he can use this leg to walk.‘ e other leg?’‘It’s broken, Willa. And Dul may also need a false leg,’ says Mak.‘A false leg? What’s that? What will it look like?’‘It might be made out of wood or iron or plastic… I’ve no idea. ere arelots of doctors who know all about false legs. ey’ll help him with it.’
After praying, Mak asks me to move up nearer to the wall. She sleepsright next to me.I have some more dreams.But they aren’t about Dul.Or false legs.I forget what these dreams are about.
WaitingHow long has been Dul been in hospital? A long time. Aloooooooonnnnngggg time.It’s been a long time since I’ve played marbles or kites, or even coiled up thekite thread. Bud once invited me to play kites. But we couldn’t really makethe kite y. And when it did y, it was only for a tiny amount of time. enit just fell on the ground. And the thread had got all caught up. It made asound like this: trok-tok-tok…When the kite’s stick hit the ground, Bud ran straight up to the kite. Andthen he got all tangled up in the threads. en he started screaming andasked me to loosen him from all the thread. Ouch.Bud has also invited me to play marbles. But he loses every time he plays.His marbles are soon my marbles. He is totally defeated. When he loses,Bud doesn’t ever act like Yono, who does all the shouting. Bud just runs upbehind me, following me everywhere I go. Because he never wants to be leftbehind, sometimes he runs and then trips over his own feet. He falls down.Bud wants to see and hold all the marbles in my pocket.‘Just for a minute!’ he says. Once, I opened up my pocket and straightawayBud grabbed all my marbles. He looked at them closely and then put themin his bag. When I asked him to give them back to me, he just said ‘lateron’. Later on. Later, later, later on. And then, nope, he never gave themback. is, let me tell you, was not something I appreciated.With Farida, I only play cooking and dolls and singing. We play the samegames every day. Once I asked Farida to play marbles. She refused. She saidthat playing marbles is kind of a boy’s game. She doesn’t like playing it. ButI get so bored playing cooking and making pecel with uleg,1frying tiles withhibiscus oil, sand porridge.
I haven’t been to the edge of the railway tracks again. No one runs to catchthe train anymore and Mak has forbidden me from going there.‘When will Dul come home?’Mak says it will be a long time.I wish I could play with Dul.I wish.Notes1uleg – a heavy cooking tool with a rounded end that can crush herbs and spices into ne pastes orpowders
A new friendMak!Maaaaaaaak!Where are you, Mak?I’ve been looking for her in the kitchen and in front of the house and inthe living room:Mak isn’t anywhere.‘Mak went to the market,’ says Mbok.She went to the market?‘Why didn’t she ask me to come too? I want to go with Maaaaaaak!’‘Calm down! You’re just going to stay with me at home. You stay with mewhile I sweep the oor and do the washing.’I wanted to go with Mak to the market. I didn’t want any of this oorsweeping and clothes washing.How long’s she been gone? Which market has she gone to?If it’s the one in Pabean, it will take her longer.But Mak de nitely won’t have gone there, because Pak isn’t at home.Mak only goes to Pabean market with Pak.I am in the middle of some solid crying when suddenly the door opens.Mak is home!‘I have something for you, Willa,’ says Mak.Salak1? Srikaya2? A toy?‘Look, here!’Mak shows me a little basket made of bamboo.‘Cheep!’ e bamboo basket has a voice.Ah, Mak has bought me a chick! I am VERY happy.I open up the basket and there inside is a little chick.It has uffy yellow feathers.
‘I bought this chick just for you. He can be your new friend. But youmustn’t forget to feed him. I’ve bought some food for him,’ says Mak.‘Can he eat sh eyes, Mak?’‘Nope. Fish eyes aren’t the sort of thing he eats, Willa.’‘Can I give him a bath?’‘Nope. If he needs one, he can just clean himself. Come on, let’s play withhim outside.’‘What shall I call him, Mak?’‘Hmmm, yes, what…’‘Tiny?’‘Yes.’‘Tiny Yellow?’‘Yes, you can call him that.’‘Tiny Yellow Chick?’‘Sure.’‘Very Tiny Yellow Chick?’Mak laughs. ‘Hee hee! Yes, why not?’I take Very Tiny Yellow Chick outside to the garden.I hear Mak speaking to me from the house: ‘Please don’t cuddle him fortoo long, Willa. You’ll hurt him. Let him walk about.’I put Very Tiny Yellow Chick on the ground.I want to take him to have a look at the red and white hibiscus owers bythe house. Or… perhaps I’ll bring him to climb up the pine tree. What doyou think? He would love that. But the instant his feet touch the ground,he starts running everywhere. Here and there and everywhere.Aaaaaaagh!
Wait for me!Don’t run away, Very Tiny Yellow Chick!I chase him but he just runs away.I scream for Mbok. I ask her to help catch my chick.Mbok doesn’t appear. I call Mak.But I can’t hear her coming any closer either.I carry on running to the left and to the right, banging into the heap ofsand, crashing into the fence, bashing against the wall of the house. FinallyI catch him. My legs, my dress, my hands are all pretty dirty.I bring Very Tiny Yellow Chick inside.‘Very Tiny Yellow Chick keeps running away, Mak.’‘ at’s normal. He’s just a little chick. You have to let him be free to moveabout.’‘Can’t we tie him up, so he can’t go so far?’‘ ere’s no need. We can just put him inside a basket. I’ll get a bamboocage.’‘Can I take him to Farida’s house, Mak?’‘Yes, you may.’Right through to the evening, me and Farida and the chick play together.At night-time, after I’ve washed my feet and hands and changed into mypyjamas, I get into bed. Very Tiny Yellow Chick looks so sleepy. I put himvery carefully on my pillow. I pull back the blanket.‘Very Tiny Yellow Chick, do you want me to tell you a story?’Very Tiny Little Yellow Chick doesn’t answer me. Maybe he’s really sleepy.But in the living room, Mak is saying something to me.‘Willa, please don’t put Very Tiny Yellow Chick in your bed!’How did she know?Notes
1salak – sometimes called ‘snake fruit’, salak is a tasty fruit with soft white esh inside but a brownscaly skin that (you guessed it) looks and feels like snake skin2srikaya – another fruit, sometimes called ‘custard apple’