On the next day, everyone fell asleep soon after we got back from the river, except for me. I was pretty tired too and I tried to shut my eyes but I could not. A moment later I got off my bed and and went down to the second floor and slowly headed to the room where Eddie was playing the piano before this. I got into the room slowly and peeked around. Nobody was in there except for the piano and the brown guitar I played. I took the guitar and sat next to the piano facing the window. I picked the string and played the 'Don't Let Me Be The Last to Know' again.

I could feel it at that time that I had more confidence and I played it much better than before. Deeper feeling and enthusiasm. Maybe because I was all alone in there without a single crowd to judge me.

"Uhum!" a man's voice resonated the room soon as I finished my little 'unplugged concert' in there. I looked around to the door and there was Eddie standing there giving me a big round of applause.

"Amazing Marina! Amazing!"

"Oh my god Eddie! How long have you been there!?"

"Since you were stepping in here just now. I saw you peeking in and getting into this room and I remained silent, just to see what you were up to. Turned out, you were holding an unplugged concert in here." Eddie laughed.

"Oh gosh...this is embarrassing!"

"Oh no...Nothing to be ashamed of! You did very well just now. The other day was just a rehearsal it seems. And your voice is not bad too.."

"Oh yeah?" Well I've heard  that from some other people too but I just wanted to hear it from Eddie this time.

"I swear!" said Eddie.

"Where are all your friends, Marina?"

"They are all sleeping. Tired from enjoying the river."

"For real? Were they kayaking or doing a white water rafting or what?" he thought it's funny, as did I, because what we really did there was just dipping our bottoms in the shallow but cold water.

"You tell me!" I laughed.

"Well since you are here, I have something to share with you.."

"What is it?"

"Come let's go to the kitchen!"

"Kitchen, again? What are we going to bake this time?"

"Just follow me!"

"All right, all right!" I followed him down to the kitchen. He then took out various kinds of fruits from a basket. Papaya, banana, pineapple, Chinese cucumber, as well as seeded, cold rambutans from the fridge.

"What are you going to do with all these, Eddie?"

He responded to me only with a smile as I was looking at him cluelessly.

He peeled all the fruits one by one. I did offer him a hand or two but he refused. He did not allow me to touch anything on the table. He said it has to be exclusively made by him.

'Well...as you pleased! I am not a fan of peeling the pineapple anyway. Who is?' So I just stared at him doing what he needed to. When it's all done, he chopped all the fruits roughly and put them in the blender. After they were all blended to a fine mixture, he added in some cola and soda into it and blended some more. Finally, he poured everything into a big jug.

"Now would you please try it, madam," he poured some in a glass and handed it to me.

"Is it good, Eddie? Don't you think these fruits are quite harsh for our stomach as a mix?" I was quite sceptical. Pineapples alone didn't really have quite a good reputation in my mind. The last thing I needed in this short vacation was an upset stomach.

"Try it, it's good! I have had it million times and nothing happened to me. Except for being 'Happy'".

'Happy'? What did he mean by that? Now I got more sceptical. He made it sound like it's gonna make you high or something. I knew they were all just fruits. But who knew the mixture, added with some colas in it would make you high as a kite.

But I manned up, anyhow.

"Alright, I'll do it." I scooped some in a spoon and slurped it slowly.

"How it tastes like?"

"Sweet...a little bit bitter. Oh wait...no...it's sweet and sour...Hmmm...not bad! Not bad at all..."

"It's fruity and delicious, right? Now this is what I call 'The Happy Juice!'"

"Some more, please!"

"See! Who got addicted now?" said Eddie. He seemed very entertained seeing me chickened out just now.

I did not expect it at all that it's going to taste so good! According to him, all of the ingredients must be measured correctly to get the desirable taste.

"Marina. Come with me! We'll get some more rambutans!"

"Where?"

"Over there!" he pointed out to a farm that could be seen through the kitchen window. From afar I could see so many trees, full with red and ripe rambutans.

"Oh that's quite far from here. Is it just two of us? Why don't we ask them to go too?"

"Yup, just two of us. You told me they are sleeping? Are you going to wake them up just for plucking rambutans? I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Hmm..first he complimented your guitar skill...Then he served you his 'special' juice that made you 'happy'. And now he asked you to go with him to a rambutan farm alone... And then what? There's something fishy about him. You must be careful, Marina! Get your pepper spray ready! He could be a wolf in a sheep skin!" Ally suddenly appeared in my head with warnings.

"Don't worry, there are about two or three caretakers in that farm," said Eddie as if he could read my mind.

I eventually agreed to come with him. But before that I went up to my room to get my phone and ID. I also left a note for Miss R who was still sleeping.

Eddie and I walked side by side heading to Uncle Lan's massive rambutan farm. We walked passed some young trees planted about fifteen feet between each other, before we reached to a deeper area with the most dense Rambutan fruit.

With big plastic bags in our hands, we plucked every single rambutan we could reach.

"Eddie, when the season is on, what would normally Uncle Lan do with these fruits?" I asked.

"He sells them in the farmer's market."

"He does that all by himself? From harvesting to selling?"

"If he could manage. But normally he would hire around three people to help him taking care of this farm."

"Are they an immigrant worker?"

"No...they are locals from this village. A thirty something years old lady with her daughter and son.

"A single mother?"

No, she's not. She's just looking for a pocket money here. They come here only on fruits season. They will harvest them and sell everything at the market." explained Eddie.

"Ahh I see..."

I looked down on the plastic bag in my hand and it was full with yellow rambutans already.

"I think this is enough for us today Eddie..."

"Yeah I think so." added him while looking at his bag full with the red variety. "Let's have a rambutan feast!"

"Can we eat them over there?" I pointed to a small barn in the middle of the farm.

"Uhmm why not we just sit there under that tree?"

"The one not far from the barn?" I asked to reconfirm.

"Yeah" he nodded.

Without anymore question I followed him to the big shaded tree and we made sure it's clear of any red ants' path before we had our rambutan party. I looked around the farm as we were enjoying the juicy, sweet fruit. The farm looked spectacularly vibrant and beautiful due to these ripe yellow and red rambutans. The grass underneath the trees were so green and the sun rays that fell through the trees made them even more shining and alive. At that very moment I got and idea- I wanted to pitch it to Daniel that we do our next shooting here. It would fit well with the upcoming 'Malaysian Icon' issue we were working on! 'Yes! I can't wait to tell Daniel about this place. That's the first thing I'm going to do when we get back to KL.' I thought to myself. I believed Daniel would agree with the proposal. I was imagining to use a cute girl and a couple of chickens for the props.

"Chicken? Why not a monkey?" Eddie questioned me back when I told him the idea.

"Why a monkey?"

"I don't think chickens fit this surrounding."

"Then what do you think works?"

"A monkey. Or a small deer. A Bambi. That seems more realistic and picturesque."

"A deer? Hmmm...that's a great idea. Maybe we should add in Deer into our Malaysian Icons list later."

"But make sure you put the 'Sang Kancil' up high in the list alright? Higher than Sheikh Muzaffar or Rafidah Aziz!" Eddie laughed out loud.

"How do you know they both are really going to be in the list?!"

"Oh come on...I know you Marina..." said Eddie with a meaningful smile.

"You know Eddie, you are actually a very creative person"

"I am?"

"Yes"

"Why did you say so?"

"Because..." I paused, trying to put a perfect sentence.

"Because I invented the 'Happy Juice' recipe?" Eddie made a guest.

"Well that's one of them..." I laughed at it.

"And then?"

"Then, you...Umm...Ugh never mind! I don't want to flatter you up!"

"Oh come on...I'm not that kind of person all right..."

"Eddie. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Just do it"

"Why did you decide to be a teacher?"

"Why...Hmm..." Eddie took a few moments to answer. "Because I love it. It fits my soul."

"It was not something you took in Uni was it?"

"No it was not. But aren't you on the same page with me? I think you studied something else back then right? What brought you to working in a publishing industry? With a magazine now?"

"I don't know...it's all fate."

"But are you comfortable with this job now?"

"Yeah" answered me with a slow nod.

"Maybe it fits you. Different with fate, but it fits your nature. And that's where you found comfort." added Eddie.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, often we choose to do something because there is something we want to achieve. And that something we want to achieve depends on what we want. But have it ever crossed to your mind that, what is it actually that make us WANT something? For example, if someone loves teaching, are they doing it just for the sake of educating? Or is there something that drive them into doing it. Something they have to fulfill. To me it has got to do with our nature..."

"Like you and Tia, for instance?"

"Yeah. Possibly." answered Eddie laughing. "Maybe there is something that makes me really love what I'm doing up to this day. Maybe because it fulfils my soul."

"To be quite honest Eddie, I..."

All of the sudden a very loud thunder stroke, stopping me from finishing my sentence.

We both looked up in the same time and saw some dark clouds started to fill in the atmosphere, slowly hiding the sun from our sights and turning the ground into a dark place.

"I think it's going to be a heavy one, Eddie."

"Yeah I think so. Let's go home!"

Just as we cleared up the spot and about to leave, the rain poured down so heavily. The thunders were continuously stroke down everything looked so scary at the moment.

"Thank God for this umbrella!" I said to Eddie. Unfortunately as soon as I opened it, the strongest wind I ever felt came and broke it useless.

"Oh no! What now Eddie?"

"It's okay. Just use my jacket. Let's go!"

Eddie took off his jacket and covered both of our heads with it. I was ready to run back to the house when Eddie suddenly took a different direction.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, confused.

I don't think we should go home. It's dangerous. Look at those big old trees. They might fall on us."

"So where are we going?"

"Let's go to the barn there!" Eddie pointed his mouth to the barn about two hundred metres away from us.

We ran as fast as we could to the small barn. Thanks for his jacket, we managed to stay dry. Well at least from the neck above. From the neck below was a different story though.

"Pheww! I did not see that coming at all! It was all hot and sunny!" said Eddie.

"It was! Thank God for this barn." I told him. We were just five feet apart in there, cause it was really a small barn. That proximity made Ally and Gina's faces flashed to my eyes gain.

"Eddie knew it was going to rain! I believed he's checked the weather before he took you here!" Ally's voice resonated in my ears trying to scare me.

"I'm so sorry for not stopping you to go to Kuala Pilah, Marina." Gina's image was crying in my mind.

"This thin shirt is all wet!" Eddie took of his shirt and hung it up on a string across the barn.

Eddie looked at me and smiled. Ally and Gina in my head popped away disappeared. I wish I could make them both pop up in front of me right away to accompany me there in the dark, cold space.

'Okay...what am I suppose to do now?! I spoke to myself. I must admit, that situation made me a little uncomfortable. I just could return it when Eddie smiled at me. But in my head I could not stop thinking about all of the possibilities that might happen. Right at that moment also one scene from the classic film 'Semerah Padi' flashed to my mind. The scene where Aduka and Dara were trapped in the rain. They took protection in a small barn just like this and then one thing led to another until...'Stop it Marina! Stop it! Get out of my head!' I quickly reminded myself to keep calm and not to think of all the negative possibilities.

"Don't worry Marina. When the rain slows down, we'll run straight home alright?" said Eddie.

"Alright" I answered, more calm than I was five minutes ago. I turned my gaze away to the rain outside. We might have talked a lot before before this, but this situation has locked our lips so closed from saying anything.

We were trapped in the barn for almost one hour before the rain stopped and we could finally go home. However little did I know that I would just get into another kind of rain- question after question from everyone in the house. We did our best to explain what has happened. But as usual, Miss B, Miss R and Miss D didn't seem to buy it and they started speculating. "I don't believe it there's nothing happened between you guys in there..."said Miss R.

"Nothing happened."

"Come on Marina I know you're hiding something from us. Tell us what happened?" urged Miss B.

"I already did! What more do you want to hear? Trust me that's all about it." I was being firm this time, hoping that they would be convinced. But alas, that did not stop them from teasing me at all, up until we reached Kuala Lumpur.

"Hi Marina, how are you doing?" It's Eddie's voice from the other side. That was the first time he called me since the Kuala Pilah trip.

"I'm all good! What about you?"

"Never better! Where are you right now?"

"At work..."

"Oh I'm sorry am I interrupting anything?

"Nah you're good! Don't worry."

"Oh yeah Marina, do The Urban Fruits still pulling out your legs about the other day's incident?"

"You meant the rambutan farm natural disaster?" I burst into laughter.

"Yeah..."

"They are still at it, man...I just don't know how to stop them."

"Oh poor you..."

"They even threatened me about telling it to Daniel you know?

"Huh!? What did Daniel say?"

"No they just kidding me around. Daniel has no clue, nothing."

"Ahh I thought they really told him anything. Well Marina, shall we go out whenever you're available later?"

"Erm...Okay Eddie!" I replied with a little bit of hesitance. In my head Gina and Ally's face suddenly popped up after that invitation.

I would surely go to the Dr. Love that very night to talk to them about everything that has happened over last weekend!

__________________________________________________________

© Kid Haider

© KID HAIDÉR

© KidHaider

© KIDHAIDÉR

© Mohamad Khidir Bin Mohamed Yazir

© Mohamad Khidir Mohamed Yazir

© Khidir Bin Mohamed Yazir 

© Khidir Mohamed Yazir 

© Khidir M. Yazir