Chapter 26
Mrs Mooncat had made an Instagram account huhu (laughing bashfully)..Do follow me if you have one too ;D (mrs.mooncat)
Short advertis.e.m.e.nt... (close face with both hands while blus.h.i.+ng)
Mr Mooncat: Don't act cute, you're so old already =_=;;
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Arash was looking for his smartphone while he spoon-fed his little one with some porridge. She was cooing happily while spraying some of the porridge to her papa's face. That's what happens when one blew raspberries in tandem with eating mushy things.
Arash just chuckled it over while wiping his face with a tissue. At least she ate half of it. He was already satisfied with that. These few days, the little one had not eaten properly.
[I haven't charged my phone since yesterday. Last night the battery was already low.] His absentmindedness was quite severe especially on little things such as these.
Last year, he had already hurt Hana's feelings by making a blunder for not wis.h.i.+ng her on their ten-th year anniversary. After numbers of years being married, he still didn't understand how a woman's mind worked. As they had discussed where to celebrate the day before, he thought it was clear as day that he had remembered and only waiting to bring her to a nice restaurant that night.
However, Hana was crying by evening, and they nearly cancelled their date night just because of an unspoken greeting. A long and pa.s.sionate kiss (with a diamond-studded golden bracelet) had remedied the situation at the end of the day.
Even after so many years, Arash was still amazed by his wife's sensitivity. He was going to give the bracelet as a surprise after the date night concluded. It was a very rare moment for them to be together as they shamelessly asked Hana's sibling who lived two-hours away from their house to take care of their children for five hours.
So, when it came to little things, Arash had always took for granted and asked Hana where 'this is' or where 'that is'. Hana will always have an answer for that.
He habitually turned to ask his elder daughter this time. "Sweetie, did you see papa's phone?"
While spooning the porridge and scrunching her brows together, the cheeky little girl made a contemplating look. "Forget again? You put on the coffee table in the living room. Isk, isk, so forgetful one." Clicking her tongue, she made a sagely gesture and sighed.
Arash blinked. [This girl, she really knows how to act like the elder.] He decided not to be petty and pretended not to notice the little girl's sighing.
He stopped feeding the little one and went over to the living room.
[Ah, it's already empty!] He shook his head bitterly. He had not read Hana's messages properly, only seeing the picture at a glance before. He was planning to reply to Hana once he had settled the kids and let them watch some TV.
He immediately charged his phone. [Well, it only needed one to two hours anyway. I'll find something to do first after this.]
When he entered the kitchen again, he had seen the little one dropped all the porridge on the floor after smearing some on her own face. There were bits of carrots on her hair and her nose while the newly changed pink frilly s.h.i.+rt had turned to white with speckled of orange hue.
His eldest was crying while her hair was being yanked by her baby sister's porridgey hands.
He could already infer what happen. The big sister wanted to help with feeding her baby sister when their papa was gone. However, her benevolence had backfired. The naughty little one must've yanked the porridge bowl and threw it to the floor before playing with her sister's hair.
He was very proud of his eldest for not retaliating.
Heaving a heavy sigh, he said, "Stop it now! Let's take a bath again!" He made an imposing look to both of his kids.
He wondered how Hana did this every single day.
He now understood why his wife's mood was so stormy when he came back from work every day. [I miss you dear wife, I must double up so that you can come home sooner.] He shed tragic tears internally while maintaining a strict facade outwardly in front of their kids.
Now he knew he didn't have to worry. There's plenty of things to do to fill out the two-hour charging time.
....
It was around noon when Arash finally had the time to switch on his smartphone to read his wife's messages. The hired helper was doing her job cleaning up the four-day old mess created by them dutifully.
He can only sigh when he recalled what had happened a few hours ago. After the kids bathed again, he had dressed them with new sets of clothes. Then he let them watch some suitable kiddie TV programs.
However, both of them fought over the remote because the elder one wanted to change the channel, while the little one just wanted to nibble on it. They had messed up the cramped living room and finally broke the TV remote.
While he tried to repair the remote, the kids went for the colorful permanent markers they found from who-knows-where and scribbled on
As Arash haphazardly stopped them and gave them a set of crayons and drawing blocks before continuing, he saw the little one nibbled on the crayons. When he stopped her, the crayon had already been quarter-eaten.
Thank goodness he managed to forcefully fish out the residues from her mouth.
The little one was actually hungry again.
So Arash cut some watermelon cubes for both of them after he successfully repaired the TV remote. He threw in some milk cookies and a bowl of chopped dried fruit yogurt to stealthily filled them up. This time he spooned the yogurt to both of them intermittently. He knew Hana would be angry if she knew how cincai he did for their kids' supposedly 'lunch'. He had no choice; the helper was still in the middle of cleaning. They would mess things up again.
After finish eating, Arash helped to wash their hands and let them continue to watch the TV programs harmoniously for a short while until they fall asleep hugging each other.
Arash carried them one by one and let them continue their afternoon nap in the bedroom. In his heart, he really hoped they will sleep a bit longer. He was extremely exhausted. He wondered how Hana did this every single day.
The bitter but also sweet memories were broken by the nonstop vibrations that were generated on his palm as notifications after notifications entered.
Arash sweated. What could possibly happen in the span of four hours of disconnectivity?
Arash quickly swiped opened the call history to check. There were tens of miscalls from Hana's family. Seeing the miscalls, he knew something must've gone wrong.
He checked the Family Ribena's Chatgroup to find out what had happened. Seeing over 200+ of unseen messages, he scrolled back to the first unread message to go through.
Lo and behold, he saw the 'controversial' picture of his wife with her new pet snake being uploaded by his account.
Arash sweated profusely as he was thinking what excuse he would need to tell Hana's family. At this moment, he really wanted to spank his eldest daughter's b.u.t.t to kingdom come.
After he finished reading the last bombardments, he decided that he cannot escape the storm and answered briefly with a 'It's complicated, will brief you all after this. Hana is fine and cherry. That's our newest pet. Tonight, she'll reply.'
He had no choice but to push the storm to his beloved wife and hope she will have a better idea to answer.
[Hope Hana can come out with something.] He tried to justify his actions to no avail. After all, she was the one who's the culprit. Who asked her to take that kind of easily misunderstood wefie. If it's a normal selfie, they could brush it off as a prank.
Afterwards, he didn't forget to review the bamboo shelf his wife was going to make later. He also added a step-by-step method to establish a herb garden for his beloved wife.
As he was typing profusely on his smartphone, he could hear the inaudible grumbling of the helper while she was scrubbing the scribbled floor with toothpaste. The soda bicarbonate paste she made didn't work too well. The stains were still there.
Arash could only cleared his throat apologetically. He will add a few more ringgit (1) to recompense the helper later.
With an obvious tremble, he dialed his strict mother-in-law's number to give a full account to her after ama.s.sing enough courage. It happened after two cups of coffee and twenty push-ups.
....
Ma'am Shaza was distraught with worry.
She couldn't swallow the spicy herb-grilled catfish with rice and a little sambal belacan (2) that she liked so much. She didn't even touch the quartered boiled banana heart (3) she took. She called for the waiter to transfer her food into a plastic container as she planned to continue slowly at home. She disliked spending so much time in this restaurant. It was very crowded although it was slightly after lunch hour. A lot of people was eyeing disapprovingly for her seat as she was eating so slowly.
It has been five hours since. The couple still didn't respond to their query in the chatgroup.
After settling the bill at the counter, she drove home. It was a small bungalow with a traditional Malay style architecture veranda made from wood. The traditional parts were made from the prized Chengal wood (4).
She had spent quite a hefty sum to decorate the traditional architecture with traditional flora carvings. It has a low triangle shaped roof with carved wooden beams supporting it. A colorful mosaic stone four-step stairs were connected to the traditional wooden veranda. Beside the stone stairs was a big covered urn filled with water and a wooden scoop made from polished coconut sh.e.l.l attached to a three foot long polished bamboo stick. The ornate scoop was a souvenir from Hana when they went for a short vacation in Sarawak a few years back.
As the car entered the parking lot, her phone rang out with a song implying an incoming call.
She immediately turned off the engine and walked in while answering the phone.
She left her sandals at the very bottom of the stairs, washed her feet with the water from the urn, and wiped her feet on a fluffy cotton rug before climbing the short stairs into the veranda.
She sat on the patio chair at the veranda while placing the leftover lunch before concentrating on the phone call.
"a.s.salamualaik.u.m mak (5). Arash here."
"Waalaik.u.mussalam! Haa Aras.h.!.+ I've called you so many times! Why did you let that girl buy a dangerous pet?! Don't you guys already have four cats, two goldfish and a tortoise? Seriously? Don't pamper her so much!" Ma'am Shaza immediately reprimanded her favorite son-in-law.
She was fond of this son-in-law of hers for the longest time. If not, she wouldn't have easily agreed to hand her daughter to the boy. He took care of her daughter well. Sometimes, a bit too well, until she became so pampered.
She was dizzy with her daughter's att.i.tude of not wanting to work. She had studied so hard until obtaining a doctorate, but after that she just stopped everything and became a housewife. Her supposed academically centered carrier flown out of the window once she declined the generous work offers from the local universities.
She could only sigh with the couples' decision and didn't interfere, though her heart was uneasy with their arrangements.
She was a single mother and had singlehandedly educated her six sons and daughters in a Spartan manner to ensure their success.
Her husband was a Marine. He died abruptly from an unknown incident. It was top secret military thing and she didn't even get to see his corpse. It had left her with a broken heart.
Thank goodness she was working. With the compensation from the military, her husband's lifesaving and her earnings, she was able to successfully schooled all her kids to universities without much problems. Some of them were bright enough to be sponsored overseas with fully covered scholars.h.i.+ps which soothed her heart immensely.
Although Arash was a good man, she didn't want her daughter to feel too secure. Anything could happen in the future. Even if divorce didn't happen, accidents or death of the breadwinner of the family will significantly impact her daughter's little family, just like her late husband. They needed to be ready for any of the inevitable.
"Explain in detail! Do not leave a single word." Ma'am Shaza commanded imposingly.
The silence on the other side worried her a lot. She felt that there was a lot to be explained by her son-in-law. She knew he was a grounded person. He would never let Hana do anything dangerous.
Arash took a deep breath and prepared to tell the truth after a moment of consideration.
He needed to adjust his wording accordingly. If not, his mother-in-law might get a heart attack.
Author's note:
(1) Ringgit = it's the malaysian currency, RM (Ringgit Malaysia)
(2) "...spicy herb-grilled catfish with rice and a little sambal belacan.." = this is a standard menu that the Malay ethnic likes to partake.
(3) boiled banana heart = (Malaysian language, jantung pisang) it's the heart of a banana tree, dark purplish in color and use to be eaten as salad with sambal belacan. It's nothing special, everyone eats it haha. Must be boiled first okay, never eat it raw. Go for the soft inner part.
(4) Cengal wood = an expensive hardwood localized in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. It got similarities to 'Teak', often dubbed as 'Malaysian Teak'.
(4) "a.s.salamualaik.u.m mak" = [a.s.salamualaik.u.m: sound:Us-slmu-are-lie-comb] It's a standard greeting which means "peace be upon you" which is a standard greeting which means h.e.l.lo, 'mak' means 'mother', the short form of 'emak'. The standard answer is Waalaik.u.mussalam, which means "and unto you be peace".