Broken Wings: 5

Chapter 5

Dear Diary,

Guess where am I, now? I’m at Tok Wan’s house! Isn’t it great? I’ve been longing to stay with Tok Wan. I’ve been waiting for the end-year school holiday just to stay with Tok Wan and Mak Su and my other cousins.

The rest of my family went to Kuala Lumpur this morning for vacation. As usual, they didn’t bring me along. Mama said that I’ll keep irritating her if she brought me along. Well, I don’t want to go to Kuala Lumpur in the first place. Kak Naz said that we have relative there but I never knew them since the day I can remember.

I woke early this morning and Mak Su’s cook cooked us special meal just for me. They treated me well here even though they are far richer than my family. Tok Wan is a rich man but he’s very humble, not like Mama and Papa. Papa is quite okay, I guess but Mama is not a humble person at all. She always brags that she’s rich and has two brilliant children - of course I’m not included.

Today, Tok Wan brought me to his orchard. He has a lot of orchards – I think more than 3. We plucked rambutans and mangosteens. I love rambutans and I even ate them on the branch. Tok Wan let me climbed the trees with my other male cousins. I was very happy today. We brought those fruits back home. Tonight, we’re going to the orchard again, this time we’re going to wait for the durians to fall from the tree.

Dear Diary,

We got a lot of durians last night. I caught three with my cousin, Mat Jie. He has a very good ears and he could hear the sound of durian falling from the distance. We brought torchlight and wore something hard on our head so that the durians won’t fall on our head – we will die for sure!

Mak Su taught me how to do the tempoyak but I don’t like to eat tempoyak as I like to eat the raw durians. We took a bath at the nearby river because eating too much durians made our body become hot in the inside. I love swimming in the river. The river is so clean and the water refreshes my body.

We went to the field to fly the kites. Tok Wan taught me how to do a kite with the kite-paper. My kite flew high in the sky and that made me very happy. I wish I could fly like a kite in the sky.

Dear Diary,

I have a wonderful dream last night. I dreamt that I was flying in the sky. But it was scary too because I flew so high that I couldn’t see the land. But I finally woke up when Tok Wan shook my shoulder gently.

We went to the mosque for the Subuh prayer. Today is Friday and Tok Wan usually took all of us to the mosque nearby. We went there by walking. Only Mak Su and my younger cousin stayed at home. I was very sleepy and I slept during the Kuliyyah. Papa never brought me to the mosque before but he always go for Jumaat prayer every Friday with Abang Lan. Sometimes Abang Lan skipped the Jumaat prayer - he said that he’s too tired after playing football with his friends.

Pak Su and Tok Wan are very strict when it comes to the daily prayers. They will scold us if we skipped or prayed in the eleventh hour. All of my cousins are very discipline when it comes to prayers. So, I think I must be like them because Tok Wan said that if we always pray every day, we can go to Heaven. In Heaven, we can live the most wonderful life ever! We can ask Allah anything that we want! I want to go to Heaven when I die one day.

Before going to bed, Kalsom always calmly anticipating what will happen on the next day. Staying with her paternal grandfather was a heaven to her. Even though she only had to stay not more than a week, she was feeling grateful because the days she spent with her grandfather were sacred to her. She was happy and the only people who understand her were them.  

But her happiness subsided as her family arrived on the next day. She knew that her mother wanted to pick her up. Her mother never let her stay at her grandfather’s place for too long – because they were rich. She didn’t understand why her mother hated this side of family so much, especially when her aunt was there. Her aunt, her father’s youngest sister, was a nice and pretty person. She just got married and she loved Kalsom so much. She never saw her mother smiled or talked to her except when she opposed her or boasted about her situation.

Kalsom waved to her grandfather as she got on the car. She was feeling a little bit sad but she’ll meet her grandfather again during the next school holiday. She didn’t fall asleep on the way back home and she had the uncomfortable feeling when her mother called her name suddenly.

“Papa and I were discussing lately, about you. I think it’s time for you to learn the truth,” said Rohaya.

Kalsom frowned. The truth? What was her mother trying to say?

“From this day onward, you’ll be staying with my sister. We have no interested in taking care of you. You wasted our money in paying the school fees. We’ve sent you to the best school but you disappointed us. Then, I realized that you’re not even belong to this family in the first place,” Rohaya continued.

“What do you mean?” asked Kalsom. She had a bad feeling about this. She could feel that her mother was smiling satisfyingly.

“You are not my daughter, Kalsom. I adopted you when you’re a baby. We trained you well to be smart like Azlan and Nazatul but we failed. No, you are not born with good brain. That’s why, Papa and I don’t need you to live with us anymore. Isn’t, Papa?” Rohaya turned to the husband who was driving the car.

“I only have two children. Two is enough,” said Mr. Johari coldly.

Azlan was chuckling while glancing at Kalsom. Nazatul, on the other hand, kept her head down. She didn’t want to look at Kalsom’s face. Kalsom was shocked to hear the horrible news but she didn’t say anything. She felt like she was dreaming but she’s not. She felt nothing – zilch.

They arrived at Rohaya’s sister’s house. Both Mr. Johari and Rohaya got out of the car. Kalsom followed them not long after that. Mr. Johari opened the boot and took Kalsom’s belonging out. Rohaya told her sister that she didn’t need Kalsom anymore so Kalsom had to stay with her.

Rohaya’s sister, Karamah, was shocked to hear what Rohaya said to her. She knew her sister was a bit arrogant but this was far too cruel. Karamah’s husband stared at Mr. Johari. He hated this man from the very beginning. And Rohaya too.

“So long, Kalsom. Don’t ever think that we’re going to see you for the rest of our lives!” Her mother snorted and got into the car. They left Kalsom without saying a word. At that moment, a spark of hatred flashed in Kalsom’s heart.