Apak The Story Teller @ With a "Bribe"!!!!

Remember Apak? - Allahyarham Apak was a primary school teacher ... Apart from his hobby "menjaring ikan", he had this hobby of narrating folklore stories to us - his children ...

He would normally narrated stories like "Awang Kenit", "Pak Pandir & Mak Andeh", "Lebai Malang", "Sang Kelembai" and the like in the late afternoon - all these were narrated to us at our 'rumah kampung/papan" in Kota Bahru, Gopeng, Perak...

Of course Apak had something up in his sleeve i.e. he would ask us - my 2 elder brothers (Asri & Endi), my elder sister (Kak) & myself to "picit" him. So there we were massaging his body - Kak would "picit kepala" and my brothers & i would "picit" his body ....

My elder brother Endi - yeah, the one whom I narrated in my earlier posting re: "Pelita Panjut @ Malam 27 Likur" - came up with his "brilliant" idea. He always has a "brilliant" idea almost all the time anyway...

What he did was this .... every time when Apak asked us to "picit" him, Endi would created so many excuses e.g. he had homework to be completed or he had to go to his friend's house etc ... Actually, he wanted to skip the errand but at the same time he wanted to hear the stories. Apak was a good story teller indeed!!!

Now Endi did not actually go to his friend's house or doing his homework... Instead, he would just went down "bawah rumah" & sat at the pillar "bawah rumah' - it's a "kampung" house with pillars - exactly at the spot opposite to the spot where Apak & us were at the living room 'di atas rumah" .....Endi would sat there and listened attentively to Apak narrating stories upstairs - of course without having to endure "picit" Apak like what we had to endure!!!!

The funny thing is all of us - Apak, Kak, Asri & myself could see him sitting at the "tiang bawah rumah" through the gaps of the "lantai papan" of our "kampung house"!!! Apak being so understanding purposely narrated the stories in a loud & high volume - just to let Endi heard them I guess....

Almost immediately after Apak finished his story telling - voila - Endi would suddenly appeared out of the blues pretending that he had either completed his homework or had gone to his friend's house!!! Apak just smiled .... I guessed he was satisfied that all his children managed to hear his story telling sessions.

Those were the days & it was so enjoyable with Apak around ....