Lost world

Meeting Pak Pandir

    "I'm dead! I'm dead!" cried Rafique.

"Woi! You're sitting on me! Mak Andih! Help me!" cried a voice.

My vision was coming back to me. We were in a kitchen, an old fashion kitchen, where firewood was used for cooking and the stove was made of rocks. Rafique was definitely sitting on a short, old man, wearing a songkok and a weathered baju melayu. He was flaying his hand and shouting for his wife. Raju and I quickly pulled Rafique off of him. I helped him to get up but he was muttering and calling out for his wife, Mak Andih.

"Mak Andih is not here Pak Pandir," said Melor. When he saw Melor, he stopped screaming for Mak Andih and smiled.

"Ah yes, she is in town."

"Then why are you calling for her?" asked Raju.

"She might hear me."

The three of us looked at each other and shrugged. It was THE Pak Pandir; gullible, clumsy, naïve and lovable at the same time. He was holding on to a bunch of unripe bananas and there were a few bananas colored black.

"What are you doing Pak Pandir?" asked Melor. Pak Pandir was rubbing the bananas with ashes underneath the stove.

"I'm grilling the bananas, Mak Andih is not around and I'm hungry," said the little man. Rafique wanted to say something but was stopped by Melor.

"Even though Pak Pandir is in a different realm, any changes now will change the stories that everyone knows so well," hissed Melor. Pak Pandir held out one ash-colored banana to Rafique.

"Do you want one?" Rafique vigorously shook his head. Pak Pandir shrugged and popped one small banana into his mouth. I felt like I wanted throw up. Pak Pandir munched slowly trying to figure out the flavor.

"Hmmmm.....Funny. It doesn't taste how Mak Andih used to cook it." He took another banana and start rubbing underneath the man-made stove.

"What can I do for you, Puteri Melor?" All of us were fixated at Pak Pandir's actions.

"I was wondering whether you have seen my husband."

"Ahhhh, the wanderer. Yes.......Yes," said Pak Pandir gobbling up another banana. All of us moved closer to him. Had Pak Pandir really seen Malek?

Big question was even if he had can we trust Pak Pandir. 

 "Where have you seen him?" asked Melor impatiently. Pak Pandir didn't answer immediately, he kept eating.

"Oh my, my stomach hurts really bad, "moaned Pak Pandir. He wanted to rush out of the house but Raju stopped him. If the fable was correct if we let him out we will never see him again. Pak Pandir was restless and his face was getting red.

"Please, let me out."

"Where did you see my husband?!" asked Melor sternly.

"I wandered out of the human world, I was going to bury my child you see, and on the way back I saw this doll. Then I heard shouting's, I was scared and I hid in the bushes. I saw this man being dragged away by three big men, shouting and screaming. I wouldn't have known who he was, if he had not screamed your name Puteri. He said that you are giving birth soon and he has to get back to you. I would have thought it was some crazy person."

"Do you know where they took him?" I asked. Pak Pandir shook his head, he was holding his stomach, and stamping his feet impatiently like a little child. Without warning he ran to the window and jumped out. All of us couldn't do anything.

He was pretty agile for an old man.

"Should we chase after him?" asked Raju. Melor shook her head.

"How is it possible that Pak Pandir is in the Bunian realm, he's just a myth, a folktale?" asked Rafique .

"But any tale has to begin from somewhere and it has to be told from someone at the very beginning. Pak Pandir and Mak Andih love children and what they love most is telling stories, so they will tell their stories either through dreams or to little children."

We left the realm and got back to our world. We didn't get out at the railway track. We landed at a small muddy stream across the cornfield not far from my house. It was dark and none of us had brought torchlight with us. It seemed that time had moved fast in our world while we were in Pak Pandir's house. 

We asked Melor why time didn't move this fast when she first brought us into the Bunian world the other night. But Melor smiled and said that none of us noticed that we were moving far faster than normal when she took them to her old hut in the forest. 

Her people can manipulate time if they want but they find it too tasking and it drained their energy. They would rather live a simple life without any speed and any care in the world. She pointed out that; Bunian time and Human time are polar opposite. A day in her slow peaceful world would mean a month in our world. Raju was walking in front of us making sure there was no danger in the dark. He stopped suddenly. Rafique nearly collided into him.

"What's wrong Raju? Is there any snake?" asked Rafique looking at the dark bushes fearfully.

"How long did you know Malek?" asked Raju looking at Melor.

"About a year, in my world."

"So we are trying to find a man that has been missing for 10 years now. Didn't Pak Pandir say he was roaming into the human world? Do you think they might have gone through this way?" We were all looking at Melor. Was I imagining things or her stomach was growing bigger within a day?

"It's possible, the portal normally shifts within the area." We were looking around us. We know this stream; it runs down the hills behind us, passed through Tanjung Kling and bends around Rafique's house. So that narrows our search to a few places, my village, Rafique's house, the police station, the hospital or the grave yard. Melor told us that Malik had disappeared a week ago. Seven month in our world, anything could happen within seven month. Judging from the size of Melor's stomach, which was growing every minute, we didn't have much time!

I dreamt again that night. It wasn't the same dream that I had the night before. This time I saw a big Sena tree, not like the one that Melor had taken us into. This was big, ancient, but strong. I walked to it and it loomed above me. The leaves were big, shading and protecting anything underneath it. There was a gentle stream that passed by one of its gigantic roots, nourishing it. Behind the tree lay fresh paddy fields, stretching across the horizon. I saw children running around the tree, laughing loudly. Little girls in baju kurung, while the boys wore baju melayu with pelikat clothe slinging on one side of their shoulder. I had seen this tree before except that it didn't look as majestically as in my dream. The bark was drier and it was rapidly peeling off the tree. There were lesser leaves now ....And the tree lay in front of my house.......

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Another famous story Pak Pandir is Pak Pandir and the giants, where he accidently killed his son in boiling water. He wanted to give the boy a warm bath and thought that he was happy playing in water until Pa Pandir realize the boy was dead. Mak Andih had asked him to bury the boy. He wrapped the boy with a mat and the body had slipped out. Pak Pandir buried an empty mat and on the way back saw the body thinking it was a doll.