+ CHAPTER 8 +
Reminiscence
“Praise the Lord of Mercy,” said Mak Delima, briefly outstretching her arms before wiping the palms of her hands down her face.
“I can still see you and hear you breathing soundly,” said Demang, hugging Megat with a feeling of joy.
Everyone hugged him and was so relieved that he was still alive.
Pak Ujang kissed Megat’s forehead, and then it was Mak Delima’s turn.
Then, the four family members gave a group hug, demonstrating a connotation of inseparable love.
“Thanks to God, Megat continues to live,” prayed Pak Ujang.
“Eleanor, I remember you wanted to tell me something before your family finds out, when we were at the Kedai Makan,” Demang said. “What was it?”
“I also find your gentlemanly manner praiseworthy – for treating me with so much respect, passing your time to converse with me, and you have accepted me for who I am,” said Eleanor. “Therefore, it would have been great if we have been best friends for a long time. It is just that Sir Holloway had been the big obstacle for this.”
“So, was that the reason why you cried, Eleanor – just to pass me these remarks?” asked Demang.
“Yes, that was indeed the reason, Demang,” said Eleanor.
“Oh,” replied Demang, looking a little puzzled.
Soon, Melor and Eleanor explained the situation to Megat and his foster family about Darren and Keith tried rescuing the Malay Town refugees.
Meanwhile, Mayor Holloway and his remaining cronies walked stealthily in order to sneak away. The crooks tried to hit Tok Kencana as best as they can with their imitated kickboxing. Unfortunately, Tok Kencana had finally defeated them with his professional and flexible martial arts skills.
“Sir Holloway, for the sake of our coexistence, why don’t we simply cease this war and leave the Sulong family alone?” asked Tok Kencana.
“Never!” said Sir Holloway, who remained hard-headed like a donkey.
Suddenly, hallucination had taken over him.
“There is no way we would let you go now. Look what you did to us. We condemn you eternally and solemnly swear that your life shall never be in peace!” said a pair of figures resembling Killian and Ashling.
“I knew it was you all along,” said a manly figure resembling Sir Hastings. “You betrayed everyone. I must let you know your state of serious danger now. You shall face your deepest regrets! This is all because of your irresponsible behaviour.”
It was as if he was having hallucinations of yesteryear.
“No! Please forgive me, Arthur! Killian! Ashling! I meant no harm and betrayal to you all! Please let me live! Leave me alone!” Sir Holloway cried out and he ran around like a maniac, as if affected with hysteria.
An index finger and middle finger from the same hand was pointing at Sir Holloway’s back. It was Tok Kencana who used up his special skills to stop Sir Holloway from running around, and he managed to petrify Sir Holloway’s body.
“You have been running as fast as a cheetah, Your Excellency! It is a pity that you were unable to intend your escape. There is no use for you to abscond.”
Tok Kencana softened Sir Holloway’s stiff body by poking his back again with the same two fingers.
Subsequently, Ciaran had come to grab Sir Holloway’s hands to his back and then he handcuffed them.
“Sir Alfred Holloway, I hereby arrest you on the charges of murder and robbery on various individuals, and imprisoning Mister Sulong and his family on false charges,” Superintendent Ciaran said, and his colleagues arrested the remaining outlaws.
“Thank you for taking part in the rescue, Pa,” Niall said.
“Well done, my boy,” said Ciaran. “The reward should not go to me alone but also you and your friends. It is in due reason for the cooperation you all have demonstrated that has eased me in arresting these crooks.”
He hugged and patted his son on his back.
“That is most wise of you to speak of such words, Pa,” Niall replied in happiness.
Megat made a cheerful smile at the happy family. Ciaran did not seem to be surprised to see him around and smiled back at him.
The Malays have imprisoned all the remaining seven new recruits, who worked for Sir Holloway. These recruits begged for forgiveness, saying they were peasants suppressed by Sir Holloway and that they were forced to become his recruits to pay off their debts and to protect their families’ lives as well as theirs. Ciaran pardoned them with the condition that they become witnesses to the court of law. As they were expected to seek peace, the Malays sought no vengeance.
The Malays buried the dead according to their religious ritual, being six feet under, and each tomb was given grave markers of stone pillars – one being on the head, and the other on the feet. Among the corpses, the men were wrapped in white cloth around their bodies, whilst the women were covered all in white except for their faces. Although the livings were in distraught, they showed outward calmness and continued invoking to the Lord of the Universe. The deceased White outlaws were buried in coffins, according to church law, and were dressed in black suits, white shirts and ties.
Darren wrote in the diary as a record keeping on his observations:
“Upon scrutinising their characteristics, the Malays are of a noble kind, preferring to live a humble and laid back life. It is in their nature to show tolerance even for those with different beliefs to theirs. They have shown genuine hospitality towards the Europeans, and are staunch followers in their monotheistic faith of submitting to the will of their singular God, distinguished from that of us Trinitarian Christians. Despite our differences, I admire all those have contributed well to humanity.”
“Oh yes, before we forget – we would like to hand in this to you,” said Ciaran.
Pak Sulong handed a nicely folded piece of paper to Megat, whereas the Niall received another one from Ciaran.
Megat first read the letter after both the twins unfolded the letters dated on 1 September in 1885:”
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Sulong,
It has been a pleasure doing good business with you. Our family could feed ourselves and we repay this gratefulness to you both as well as with Sir and Lady Hastings. Mr. Holloway came up to our property and made threats stating if we do not pay them some money this month, we will face the most tragic consequences and never to see the daylight again. Our family has been threatened and we fear the bushrangers, for their benefit, would raid and burn our property and they constantly harass us to contribute the wealth we earn from our sweat and blood. We’ve finally refuse offering payment, of which otherwise would reap all fruits of our labour, and we sense they will continue to harm us. Beware of the nine White outlaws who called themselves the Skelly Gangs, appearing with black masks covering their mouths and swore their allegiance to Mr. Holloway, the mayor’s secretary. We feel our family life would be endangered and we are concerned about our son, Lachlan. We entrust you with all our hearts to please raise our son as your own. May God bless you for raising an orphan in need of security.
Yours truly,
Killian and Ashling O’Donnell
Then, it was Niall’s turn to read his letter, which was also dated on 1 September, 1885:
Dear Superintendent Ciaran Gallagher,
It has been an honourable pleasure that you have brought total security to the people of Malmesbury from outlaws. We would like to thank you for safeguarding our farm at times. We would like to make a report to you that the bushrangers are after us; we fear that they would want to ransack our property and take all our wealth away to benefit themselves. Sir Holloway came up to our property and made threats saying if we do not pay him and his men some money this month, we face the most tragic consequences and never see the daylight again. They constantly harassed us to hand over the wealth we earn from our sweat and blood. We shall not enjoy the fruits of our labour and so we finally have refused to pay them. We sense and fear that they’ll continue to harm us. Beware of the nine White outlaws who called themselves the Skelly Gangs and swore their allegiance to Sir Holloway. We have not stored sufficient income with us to pay for everything and we are amongst those who abide by the law. Please take good care of our son, Niall. Thank you so much for your kind help on us.
Yours truly,
Killian and Ashling O’Donnell
“Ms. Hastings, you have done well as a liberated lady of the nineteenth century, but law by profession is the work of gentlemen, is it not?” asked Darren teasingly.
“It appears that your perception of an excellent attorney is biased and untrue after all, Mr. Holloway,” Eleanor replied, smiling away. “You must learn to not underestimate a young lady’s ability. I stand for the equal rights of both non-Europeans and females to education and employment as a catalyst to motivate this colony’s great success. Yet, I am dismayed the majority still disregard my statement thereof.”
“Such matters will consume time for society to accept, Ms. Hastings,” said Demang.
“I concur that without good education, we women are not able to broaden our children’s knowledge, and this also helps us to choose from a broad range of careers,” responded Melor.
Mak Delima asked, “Pray, Ms. Kencana! How could a childless lady such as you know so well about educating children?”
“Mak Delima, despite being an unmarried young lady dependant of her father, I have acknowledged your children’s high education is due to the nurturing of sophisticated knowledge from their parents,” replied Melor. 1 “Our Lord, Who has taught us by the pen, commands us to seek knowledge.2 God also said that he never fails to reward any worker for any work you do, male or female, for we are equal to one another.”
“I’m aware what highly educated parents can bring to their children, but the children must also take the initiative to help themselves,” said Mak Delima. Indeed it is crucial to understand our duties as a good wife, mother or daughter, but we must strive to. I’m really dependant on a Malay girl like you for the future of our community.”
“People can deceive you with verbal statements may be spoken different from a written document due to our ignorance of literacy,” said Angus. “It is possible that a person would trick me into purchasing the ownership of my bakery from me instead of making business deals with me.”
“Verily, such recommendations of yours are wise precautions to commercial activities, Angus,” said Eleanor.
A young auburn-haired lady gave out a shrilling scream somewhere near the courthouse entrance when everyone was out of the courtroom. Dense murmurs filled the air. Everyone was crowding around a particular spot as the terrified lady explained to a constable what she just saw.
“I seek God’s forgiveness!” said Demang.
“What is the matter, my dear brother?” asked Megat, puzzled.
As he got closer, he saw a lady with messy jet hair lying next to a smashed inkbottle. Dark blue ink was seen on her lips and it was also smeared all over the floor.
“Melati?” asked Megat, in shock.
With a frozen stare, Eleanor said, “She had poisoned herself since she could barely able to live with her husband’s absence.”
“Won’t she go to hell for that?” asked Awang.
“According to our religion, yes, she’ll go to hell for killing herself, but it’s up to God to judge her,” replied Megat.
Demang placed his hand on Melati’s eyes, and uttered, “To God we belong and to Him is our final return.”
It is a grave sin to take one’s own life in her religion, of which the punishment is hell-fire, but only the Almighty knew best in judging her soul in the afterlife.
After the court case was completed, everyone went back to Malmesbury. Megat got his shamrock imprint on the pendant fixed at a metal smith workshop.
Good news had reached out to all corners of British Australia. The redheaded Liverpool newspaper boy sold his newspapers successful in public to many passer-bys. The news headline on the front page stated Sir Holloway and his cronies were found guilty in court.
In Chinatown, there were goldsmiths, silversmiths, toyshop, a grocery and laundrette with ideograms on signboards. There were noisy babbles filling the air. There were many straight black-haired people with small eyes and yellow skin wearing their curved coolie hats. Chong prostrated himself on the ground with the rest of the Chinese immigrants in front of the laughing golden Buddha statue. They offered a bowl of fruits next to the bronze pot of burning red joss sticks. Chong was holding on to three joss sticks on his hands. He bowed three times with the joss sticks, before putting them on the pot full of ashes to appease the smiling Buddha.
All the Malays gathered together in their temple to pray and give thanks to their invisible One God for His blessings upon them.
Niall got in and took off his black hat. There were stain glasses on every window with saintly human images. There was a church organ with a person sitting at it. He saw a fancy altar and crucifix hanging on the wall in front of him and he made the Sign of the Cross.
Soon, he heard footsteps approaching him. As he turned to his back, he saw two young gentlemen with brown hair, the other dark hair, and finally a young lady with a white a brimmed-around hat. They were Angus, Eleanor, Darren and Keith. Niall took a seat on an empty bench.
A man played the church organ, so as to accompany the people singing Holy, holy, holy!
There was silence when a middle-aged man walked up to the front and stood at the pulpit. He wore a purple muffler with crosses. It was approaching towards at the end of the service. Everyone in the church followed the Father’s prayer:
Our Father, who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thineis the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
“Good morning. Would you like to buy some of my fresh roses?” she asked Niall. She was wearing a bonnet and gown.
“Good morning. We would love to, ma’am. I must say, you have here some of the most beautiful roses in town,” Niall replied.
“Thank you, sir,” said the lady.
“Good day, ma’am,” Megat said, as he turned around to face the lady. “We would like purchase two of your fine roses.”
She was startled to see the twins at first. Noticing this, they cheekily smiled at her.
“Two roses would be a shilling, gentlemen,” said the lady.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Megat said, placing a shilling coin on her hand. “It is a pleasure doing business with you.”
“We wish you a pleasant day and a continuous prosperity,” Niall said to her.
“Thank you, gentlemen, and I do wish you the same,” she replied. “It is an honour to serve you.”
The twins entered a sacred area with grass field and tombstones lined up everywhere.
They finally halted as they approached a pair of crucifixes headstones, on which each engraved the names Killian O’Donnell and Ashling O’Donnell. These names reflected the reminiscence of the good lives they have had as little children with their beloved biological parents. They wiped the tears that ran down their cheeks. Megat placed the bundle of two white roses next to each tombstone.
“Dear matháir and athair, we honour you both for raising us with tremendous love and joy as your little children,” said Niall. “You have sacrificed tremendously to protect us. We hope you still live to view our brotherly unity now.”
Megat said, “Should you live to this day, you will see harmony withus, our foster families and friends. Malmesbury is now in safe hands. You may now rest in peace.”
Pak Sulong, Mak Delima, Ciaran and Lady Hastings first sent their respects to the farming O’Donnells. Then, they visited Sir Arthur Hastings’s grave, paying respects to his diligence as a mayor and his generosity to his people.
Sir Hastings and his wife did much welfare for Malmesbury, ensuring locals have adequate food and the homeless were given a shelter. During his lifetime, children were strongly encouraged to attend schools, given that the primary schoolers have free education. Being a highly educated lady herself, Lady Elizabeth had helped him organise reading classes for illiterate children, teenagers and adults. Darren realised that Holloways have a bad name in town and that it may not be easy for fellow Malmesburysiders to accept him as their mayor.
At night, Pak Sulong gave a touching speech on encouraging a coexisting future between different races, despite the recent traumatic events that have caused the Malays to detest the White settlers. Many supported his speech and agreed to live prosperously, where everyone could conduct their daily and social activities freely. Pak Sulong was rather grateful that the chaotic life had ended. He couldn’t bear seeing more deaths before him, hoping it would never happen again. He wanted reconciliation.
Darren Holloway made a heart-felt speech to the local townspeople. “As the new honourable mayor of Dorchester, I, Darren Holloway, I solemnly promise that:
Henceforth, as of today, the act of slavery shall again be abolished for all citizens, and thus, all slaves shall be replaced with paid labourers.
All children from the age of seven are to receive compulsory education. With higher education, we will have a better future.
Primary school enrolment will be subsidised by the colonial government for all students.
With these principles in place, he miraculously became the new mayor.
After his charismatic speech and the audience’s applause, Mayor Darren Holloway, one of the most honourable guests, presented an archway that was built at Malay Town, and the neighbourhood itself was newly rebuilt. The archway was presented with the bilingual sign: Pekan Melayu, or Malay Town, as the English translation shown beneath it.
“In due respect to the local Malay community, from today onwards, I declare Malay Town to be officially established,” said Darren. “I believe we must take pride of our own heritage whilst enjoying the privilege living in this colony, where people from various walks of life contribute to our economy’s welfare. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I thank your presence here today in this unforgettable occasion.”
That night, Chinese lion dance as well as Japanese and Pacific Islander dances were all performed. Then, an Irish jig song was played.
It was New Year’s Eve. Ned, Megat and their friends joined in the dance. The audience were amazed how acquainted Megat and his foster family were with European table manners when they were eating their tuna steaks.
After dinner, Megat and Demang were requested to partake in a short demonstration on playing a classical piece. They both played Tinkerbelle’s Cannon and the audience found them impressive. They gave their applause to the two fine young gentlemen. The Sulongs were willing to learn new things from the Industrialised world, yet they did not forget their roots.
On the same night, Chinese lion dance as well as Japanese and Pacific Islander dances were all performed. Then, an Irish jig song was played.
After dinner, everyone was free to dance, sit back and relax or take a walk around the Hastings property. It was a banquet style function. Darren and Keith walked and stood to a position where they can meet their friends at a non-peculiar meeting place, away from boisterous public interference. They went to somewhere more serene.
“Mr Demang and Megat Sulong, Mr. Gallagher and Mr. McGregor,” said Darren. “Forgive us for all our wicked deeds unto you.”
“Of course we forgive you!” they all replied at once.
“May I take the compassion to hug you boys?” asked Darren.
“You may certainly come to that compromise,” Demang replied.
“Apparently, we English are not accustomed to hugging, but I shall make this day an exception, for we are best friends,” said Darren.
“It’s brotherly love, Darren,” responded Niall.
Darren hugged Demang and Megat and the two foster brothers were startled. Keith came in to join the hug.
“Despite two different customs we uphold, it is encouraged we forgive those who need forgiveness while we can,” Megat said. “There is one similarity we all possess, and that is, striving to live in coexistence.
The grandfather clock stroke at 12 midnight on 1 January, 1896. A sparkle of fireworks burst like the blooming of gigantic flower in the air.
“Happy new year!” said everyone at Darren’s party in amazement.
Then, the Auld Lang Syne became a sing-along theme:
Should auld acquaintance we forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance we forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear.
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
Killian and Ashling O’Donnells’ souls smiled happily, when they looked at their identical twin sons. At the same time, Sir Hastings’s spirit smiled upon his wife and daughter’s happy lives for the last time. At last, they all could rest in peace, being as each seeing all their children lived safely and happily.
“Can you guess who our interracial ancestors were?” asked Christopher’s father.
“Well, I think your interracial ancestors were Megat and Melor,” replied Demak. “I noticed there was something special going on between Megat and Melor.”
“Well, you’ve got the right answer,” responded Christopher. “Lachlan O’Doherty, also known as Megat Sulong, got married to Melor Kencana.”
“Demang got married to Eleanor,” said Demak. “What happened to them? I can’t find any record of their descendants on the family tree.”
The year was 1900. There was a feeling of disgust towards the interracial marriage between a young White woman and a non-White young man, in this case mixed breed. On their wedding day, Demang and Eleanor were killed by a group of White supremacists in Malmesbury. However, these White supremacists were arrested and they were sent to the gallows.
“Eleanor was related to Malmesbury’s mayor at the time, Darren Holloway,” I said. “It was understood that the murder was politically motivated. They feared having a non-White, or mixed race person, having political influence in Malmesbury through their interracial marriage.”
“That’s simply paranoia,” said Demak. “We could see that racism and injustice are interconnected. What happened to Pak Ujang and Mak Delima.”
Shortly after that, Pak Ujang got a heart stroke and he died out of shock.
Mak Delima died soon after being depressed at the lost of her only birth son.
Liam aka Megat had lost his foster brother and his best friend. Megat was also strongly affected by the tragic incident.
“What happened to Niall?” asked Demak.
“Niall continued to live in Malmesbury,” I replied. “However, Niall’s children migrated to the United States where they found their American dream.
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Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved. Omar Onn
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