The Sequel (KPP : 1986 # 2)

Alahai...naik segan lah pulak nak sambung cerita... But, there might be somebody out there who'll hire a hit-man to kill me if I didn't finish this. So, here we go again.

The first message from Ayah was more or less a "Hello, how are you" kind of message, and him congratulating me for being in the Oxbridge Programme, etc. And I remember replying telling him how surprised (or rather - shocked!) I was that he was neither in the Oxbridge nor the Ivy League Programme. The thing was - there were a few of bebudak Sekolah Melayu KK in the same group as I was, and I overheard them talking amongst each other as to how surprised they were that Ayah, and a few other budak terrer Sekolah Melayu KK were not in either Programme. (They didn't know about the going ons between Ayah and I then, so, memang no filters whatsoever lah when they were talking about him in front of me! Nasib baik it was all good things about Ayah which came out of them. If not, I would have formed a different picture of him then!)

I remember Ayah's reply to that message, stating that : YES, he was upset and frustrated, but he was okay, as he believed there was a reason for everything. He said he was settling down well in his Group and getting along well with his classmates. I remember him writing about his classmates in one of his earlier messages - a melting pot of guys and girls from different schools, and I think Ayah clicked within no time with Sh*dy (Mr. Engineer), B*gg, Az*in and Az**in who later ALSO became our loyal part time Postmen, together with Ibu, Ab*d and also J*ra (another STF friend who was in his group).

Anyway, for about 10 days or so, the messages were coming and going like nobody's business, and I always looked forward to lunch, tea and dinner time as Ibu would always be bringing messages from Ayah every time after each class/session, and I have to admit, I remember feeling VERY disappointed on a few occasions when Ibu did not have Ayah's messages with her. And all those while, Ayah and I STILL had not met each other...

Of course, there were a few nervous glances between us every now and then, be it when he skodeng me or I skodeng him when we were in our own classrooms in between lessons (Ayah's classroom was on the 2nd Floor of the building, situated diagonally from my classroom on the 1st Floor, by the way. Strategic la jugak. After dua tiga kali skodeng - "Handsome jugak mamat ni!" - a far cry from that mamat posing maut hari tu! Hahaha!)

It was rather difficult for us to meet as our schedules were really packed, and of course, we didn't want other people to know about us! And because nobody knew about us, there were a few guys who were "interested" to know me! I remember one mamat Ivy League by the name of Awang Ikang, and another mamat Oxbridge by the name of Mat Spen (kedua-duanya bukan nama sebenar) who started sending salams to me through my classmates. And the thing about Awang Ikang was - he was pretty persistent! There would be about a dozen of his friends who would wait for me every time I went to class, calling my name continuously, that so much so, I felt quite harassed most of the times!

But I remember that one evening quite clearly. I was walking towards my class with Ab*d after solat Maghrib when Awang Ikang's friends came towards us (about 7-8 of them!) conveying his salam to me, and I was PRETTY scared. Suddenly, out of nowhere, B*gg and Az*in came and called out to Ab*d and me, and in front of Awang Ikang's friends, B*gg gave me a message from Ayah, and very loudly said, "Ni message from Haizal - dia kirim salam kat you!" I think Awang Ikang's friends got the message, and after that, they never bothered me again!

And all those while, Ayah and I STILL had not met each other - eye to eye...

The thing about KPP was, our classes were all held in Section 17, while all the students stayed all over Shah Alam. I was staying in Section 8, while Ayah was staying in Section 6, and every morning we would board the buses before the sun rose to go to our classes, and we would straight away board the buses and go back to our apartments right after our classes ended every night. So, it was quite impossible to have a proper "meeting" with him. And our routine was - Ab*d and I would catch the earliest bus to avoid the crowd, and we would be the first to reach our classroom, and we would just sweep the floor and tidy the place up before everybody else came.

And we were doing just that one morning - sweeping, dusting, re-arranging the tables and chairs, when suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I could see somebody standing in front of our classroom's door. Mind you - it was still dark, and there were not many people around then, and when you see a white thing like that - standing there, not moving, you would think twice before you turn to look, right?! But, somehow, I didn't know how or why, I knew it was Ayah, and I turned to look at the door...

And there he was - looking VERY nervous, not knowing whether to smile or not, or whether to enter the classroom. Ab*d looked at him, and then looked at me, and started walking to the back of the classroom, pretending to do some dusting there - tersengih-sengih! Sporting punyer member...

I was VERY nervous, too, but I smiled at him, and said, "Haizal, kan?" (Duuuhhhhhh???!!!! Hahaha!), and he said, "Yes - Shana, kan?" (Double Duuuuuhhh???!!! And this was after nearly 2 weeks of exchanging messages! Hahaha!) and he offered his hand and we salamed (I know, I know....Haram...but, what to do? Darah muda...and I didn't want to embarrass him by not returning the gesture. Hehehe!) We started talking along the corridor, and I have to say I can't really remember what was said that morning, as I was in Cloud 9...)

The messages between us became more frequent after that. And we were more or less resigned to the fact that come September that year, I would be flying off to the UK, while Ayah would continue his studies under the AAD Programme in Malaysia for two years before flying off to the U.S of A. But, we just didn't want to linger too much on that. We were just seizing the day, and enjoying what was developing between us on a daily basis.

Oh ya...by the end of the first month in KPP, my friends and I, naturally had been skodenging some hunks around us in KPP, and each of us had given nicknames to the Mamats whom we fancied/admired from afar. And we used the names of gemstones to identify those hunks in our conversations so that people would not know who we were talking about. I remember all these Mamats until now, but if ever I were to meet them again, I wouldn't know their real names as I only knew them either as Jade, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire or Amethyst. As for me, as there was some sort of an understanding that I wasn't supposed to skodeng anybody else, as I already had Ayah (Chewah!!!), Ayah became my "hunk", and we called him "Topaz"...

And you guys know what? I can't really remember when exactly that I told him that we nicknamed him "Topaz", but from that day onwards, whenever he signed cards or letters for me, he would write "Topaz" underneath his signature...And he STILL does it until now...

And I think it was in early February 1986 when we had to move to a new place. Some of the students had to move to Kelana Jaya, and various parts of Shah Alam, but, as fate had it, both Ayah's group and mine were moved to KPP Subang Jaya. I remember feeling very relieved and happy when I found out that he would still be near me...

And it was sometime in February (I think) about a month before SPM results came out when there were rumours that some students from the AAD and A Levels Programmes would be "promoted" to either the Oxbridge or Ivy League Programme, and I was really praying that Ayah would be one of them! And true enough, during lunch one day, Ibu came to me and told me, "Shana, good news! Haizal has been promoted to Ivy League!"

I was SO happy for him, and immediately wrote a message congratulating him. His reply came that afternoon, thanking me for the doa's, and all, and how happy he was and he wrote, "I MIGHT be asked to change and move to one of the Ivy League groups after this for the rest of this English Course, BUT, I'm going to appeal if they would just let me stay in Group 13 until the end of the course". I think he was already feeling very attached and close to his Group 13 friends, and he just didn't want to leave that group. And in Group 13 he stayed until the end of the English Course...

And I guess, THAT was the hikmah and the reason why he was put under the AAD Programme initially, as some of the close friends he made in Group 13 then are still his close friends until now. And of course - had Ayah not been in Group 13, process of sending messages to and fro between us during our KPP English Course time would have been very difficult indeed...

And so, from that moment on, we were resigned to the fact that by September that year, I would be flying off to the UK under the Oxbridge Programme, and Ayah would be flying off to the U.S. of A under the Ivy League Programme instead of staying in Malaysia for two years under the AAD Programme.

Or would we really?

...To be continued...