White Payung

Chapter 2

Ken got off the bus when it finally arrived at his destination, a historical city that had been colonized by the Dutch, Portuguese and British, in succession. Malacca was not a huge city, but it had character. Old traditional Chinese shop houses lined the narrow streets, their wooden window shutters painted in gay colours of blue, pink and green.

It was Chinese New Year and a lion troop was playing in the street. Loud sounds of beating drums, cymbals, and gongs greeted him, and made him feel excited to be here, to start a new job and maybe a better life.

The company had prepared a room for him in a rented house, but he was to be alone for next three days because all his colleagues had gone home for the holidays. Ken was surprised to see the wall painted red when he entered the house. It made him feel uncomfortable, because only a temple would have such a colour for its wall.

His bedroom was the only one on the ground floor. It was obvious that the room had been partitioned off a part of the large living room. There were three windows on the back wall of the room, with glass louvers, and they looked into the dark kitchen at the back.

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It was too late now to go out, and Ken wanted an early night anyway, after his bus journey. He sat on the bed and looked at his magazine. His legs were long and his feet were on the wooden floor of the bedroom.

Something sharp pricked his toes. Ken bent over and saw it was a golden pin. He recognized it as a kerosang, the type of gold pin that Nyonya girls wear on their kebaya. It was beautiful with intricate design, but looked dull and dusty, so he rubbed it with the end of his tee shirt to try and clean it up.

This pin must be of value, if it was made of real gold. Ken studied the kerosang for a while, deciding what to do with it. "What is this doing on the floor?" he wondered, but then he realized this must be an old house, and most probably it belonged to some girl who occupied this room, long ago.

He was interrupted by some noise that seemed to be coming from the kitchen. Surely the house was empty, and there was no one there besides him. Ken went to the windows and looked through into the dark kitchen. There was no one there, of course. The large kitchen table stood in the center with four chairs around it.

So, he went back to his lonely bed, and after a while he fell asleep.