Ideas Ideas

Wani gave me an excellent idea for a short story recently and it has since been written (with sincere apologies to Mat - and in case you're wondering it was Boy who supplied me with the names for creative use) in one afternoon. Here's a sneak peek - do e-mail me if you're interested and I'll give you the rest of it. Enjoy...

Matt has to die

It was no question that Matt had to die.

The two girls had decided upon this grave solution after much careful deliberation. For a few years now, Madihah and Kamilah had quietly tolerated the influence, nay, the immortal power that Matt held over their respective boyfriends, Lothfi and Kamarul. It was unclear as to exactly why the boys favoured Matt’s decisions and chose to follow him the way cart-pulling donkeys followed carrots but the fact of the matter was they did – often leaving the two girls high and dry. And they had had enough.

“Can you believe Kamarul ditched me again?”

“For Matt? Where did they go this time?”

“They went for cendol pulut again, of course! Have you seen the boys eating anything else lately? As if they need more sugar in them, chubby as they are!”

At the moment, Madihah was ironing her baju kurung for the next day, furiously pounding the appliance on the wooden table with each punch of her words.

“Those boys! (thump) They need to be taught a lesson! (thump) I think we should just refuse (thump) to have dinner with them tonight! And to think (thump) that I was actually going to be-lan-ja! (thump thump thump)

“Sabar, Madihah. We can’t let them get the better of us just like that.” Kamilah was sitting on her bed, calmly folding her laundry. “But we should do something about it, I agree. They can’t keep taking us for granted. Ingat kita ni apa?”

“Exactly!” Madihah sat the iron hard on its bottom and flipped off the switch. “At this rate, they might as well just marry Matt instead of us! Let’s see how that works!”

Kamilah smiled and said nothing.

Madihah sighed and began hanging up her baju kurung. “The problem is, Matt has this way of convincing people to do just as he says. Think about it: the shops that he recommends are not that great, the food is not that good, the games... He just... He’s a sweet talker, that’s what he is. A born salesman, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Kamilah paused in the midst of folding a sarong and looked up. “Or maybe...”

“What?” Madihah busied herself pulling out the plug and coiling the wire of the iron.

“There is something we could try.”

“Such as?”

Kamilah looked her dead in the eye. “We could kill Matt. Problem solved.”

Madihah stole a glance at her. For a moment, her face searched that of her friend’s for an indication of something – but she did not know what. Rationality? Sanity? But then, something flicked in her own eyes and her face changed into a similar expression.

“You are joking,” she exhaled.

“Of course I am.” Kamilah went back to folding her clothes.

“We could never do such a thing like that.” Madihah continued, watching her.

“Of course not.” Kamilah finished the last of her chore and got up to carry a neatly folded pile towards her open closet. She put away the clean clothes and shut the door.

*You have my address?