Chapter 8 THe Python

At the break of dawn while the holiday makers were still in bed the native guard had shot down a monkey with his blow-pipe.He brought it back to his shed to slaughter.Initially he built a small fire by the side of his hut and tying the dead monkey to a long stick he began roasting the monkey over the fire,was he roasting the monkey?.No,he was just burning away all its hair from its hairy body.

The burning emitted some foul smelling spoiling the cool clean air of a very lovely morning,wakening Teddy who looked out to find out what was burning.That beautiful morning with the sun about to rise up from the distance horizon,at that very moment many of the workers were already set out to work in the fields.He saw from a distance the native guard burning the monkey's hair.A common affair for the native for that was the way they removed the hair on the body of the monkey.It took a lot of patient to burn off all the hair without burning the body of the monkey.

The bad odor flew all over the place,that too,also woke up the visitors in the bungalow, as all wandered and were curios what was on fire.Teddy quickly woke up to clean himself then went towards the bungalow to explain to the Boss what was happening."Oh.I see the guard is slaughtering a monkey",said the Boss Rosie.Some of the visitor in fact went out to see how the monkey was burnt.

By then all the hair on the body was burnt off and the bulging body of the dead monkey was cut opened with all the organs and intestines ripped off,remaining were a smelly red bloody liquid.The guard poured those liquid into a small container,saying to all,"Ini tonic banyak bagus untok badan",said the guard. (Meaning" This liquid is very good tonic for the body").Anyway he was the one to consume those liquid and no one else dared request for a taste of it,not even Teddy.

Thereafter he set up the body of the monkey with sticks support and then smoked it.Apparently that will be food reserved for any eventually rainy days ahead.Smoked dry and stored by hanging near the roof of the hut - no need refrigerator."What a funny way to store food",said Rosie.

Then they went back to the bungalow to wash their faces and for a change of clothing before breakfast.By this time some workers brought in some durians they have collected."Anyone want durain for breakfast",asked Teddy."Aaya,just open some lah,and don't make so much noise",said Rosie.So some durains were opened as the smelly smell of durain spewed all over.

"What alovely smell of durian so early in the morning.I love it Durian for breakfast",said Susan as she was coming out of her room."Yeah.we are very lucky to come here at the right time to enjoy the first durians of this farm",replied Rosie."Come,come every one pick your choosing breakfast or durians or have both at the same time".

Apparently everyone had a heavy breakfast and were quite reluctant to move."I think today we allow the workers to harvest the fruits for us and we just moved around freely",said a quiet Lucy.All agreed including the kids.With that Teddy instructed two female workers to go round plucking ripe fruits,harvesting as many as possible fo the visitors will be leaving the next day.

When they had rested sufficiently Rosie signaled all to get ready to go into the field and she sent a worker to request the presence of Teddy when they go round the orchard.When Teddy was finally there she instructed Teddy to lead them to those parts they had not covered."Are we going to walk or go by jeep?",he asked them."Aaya ,we have put on a lot of weight these three days,let us walk,lah,is it okay with all of you?",she asked.All agreed with a nob."In that case,please carry more drinking water with you before we begin',said Teddy.

With everyone ready they off on foot.In the beginning the stroll was fun,plucking fruits and eating them along the way and drinking their water,but it was no long when the water they carrying were finished either drank off or used to wash their hands and left with no water in hand.Poor things as they were some distance from home,with all yawning for water as thirst began to set in,some wanted to go back to quench their thirst.Fortunately had the present of mind in ordering two workers to follow them some distance away with water clapped hard to them to bring in the water.With that they had the necessary water to quench their thirst.

"Smart move,huh?Teddy?".said Susan."Well I know this was going to happen,so I told them to follow with the extra water.Rosie nob with approval as they rested under some trees.Fortunately there was a light breeze blowing to keep them real cool.Following Teddy took them to the pineapple patch where some ripe fruits were collected."Wah!!! so big pineapples,why huh?",said one of Rosie's son."Oh that is the Sarawak pineapples and over there smaller pineapples some Thai varieties",explained Teddy.

The workers collected some of the ripe pineapples.Teddy ordered the workers to sliced up two of the pineapples for the guest to taste on the spot.The pineapples were tasty just simply tasted real nice and wonderful, as well as a thirst quench,coming in at the most well come time.All the guests apparently enjoyed those fruits.In actual fact two were insufficient but Rosie stopped further cutting of more because lunch was ready at the bungalow.

"I have planted some dragon fruits over the other side but not matured as yet so no fruiting"."I see got Cikgu tree also.let us go over to see got ripe fruits or not?".said Rosie.On seeing some big ones she tried to pluck them by jumping up but to no avail as she could not reach them.Seeing Teddy at hand she ordered Teddy to carry her up hoping the extra height will be able to pluck those Cigku.In haste Teddy grabbed her from the front and lifted her up.

As she tried to reach those fruits she felt tickled by Teddy's lifting her with both arms.When she she was upward bound she could feel Teddy's face on her private parts and she giggled with the tickle .Her intense wriggling caused Teddy to slip and she crushed on him.She fell on top of Teddy pinning Teddy on the ground and everyone seeing that laughed hilariously.The blushed Teddy dared not shoved his Boss awy and allowed to lay on him for a while.The embarrassed Boss finally crawled up and all around assisted them up as well.

"Never mind about those fruits I will instruct the workers to pluck them later",said Teddy looking shyly away."Alright,do what you can",said Rosie smiling a little.With that they came to some mangoes tress but there were no ripe fruits but Lily insisted on plucking some raw ones to eat with "chilli sambai" sauce."No need to pluck them ourselves,i will get the workers to harvest them for you",said Teddy."No lah,why don't you and Rosie plucked them for us",said Lucy and every one began to laugh."Very funny,come Teddy we plucked for them",said Rosie angrily."No need I have instructed the workers to do it",said Teddy smiling at her and she winked back at him without anyone noticing but Susan saw the whole thing with an annoying jealous heart.

She did not even talked to Teddy during lunch.As usual a very nice lunch was served with local dishes.After that the ladies played mahjong while the children watched television."This evening all will go fishing,agreed?",said Rosie.Teddy said that he will have to prepare the wild boar for roasting and had to set up every thing as the workers were not well versed with it.Then Rosie agreed to fish on their own.Susan also agreed to go along.She was definitely upset with Teddy with his wrestling with Rosie earlier.

The roasting began quite early and two workers were asked to rotate the wild boar at stake with a fire below.Applying magerine as they rotate the wild boar round and round.When dinner was served they were still at it,for that was for supper,much later in the evening.It was surely smelling good all the way.By night fall the boar was ready to be served and Teddy curved the wild boar slicing it in thin layers for each of the guests and with the sauce prepared it surely tasted excellent.Everyone ate to their heart's content.

It was all over by 11.00 p.m. with the night breeze blowing wildly signifying of impending rain.Truly the rain slowly set in,initially in tiny drops then increased in velocities.The heavy shower soon came to past.

Deep in the cold,cold silence of the night which was broken by some cries of chicken among the short fruit tresses.Awaken by them Teddy set out to investigate with a very bright torch light.At the same time the native guard was also around to investigate where those sound came from.

The torch light of Teddy caught the eyes of a huge slimy creature among the bushes near to a durian tree.It was a huge python roughly about five metres long.The snake was big in its mid section having apparently swallow a chicken and was swallowing another.The guard immediately armed himself and Teddy with two long poles which had had Y-shaped branching at one end.

The snake could not escape as its was swallowing a chicken.The chicken appeared to be stuck in its throat.So Teddy administered the fork like end at the head of the python stopping it from moving its head.With its head lodged in the fork of the pole the snake was wriggling slowly about but its big belly apparently slowing it down.The guard quickly got hold a gunny sack to shove the tail end of the snake into that gunny bag.

There was a strong struggle by the snake but Teddy and the guard finally overpowered it and had it in the gunny bag.The open end of the sack was well secured thereafter.They brought back the sack and locked it in a cage specially built for pythons.Suspecting there could be other snakes around he and the guard went round trying to trace them if any still around.Well,they lost a few chicken judging by some feathers on the ground.They went round but found nothing.

Rosie was awakened by those noises and when Teddy was near the bungalow asked him what they problem was."Well we just caught a huge python which was stealing our chickens",said Teddy."What are you going to do with it?',she asked."Well.well,maybe we make snake soup with it?,is it okay?",asked Teddy."He Yah,not for me you can take all our shares",said Rosie."No.lah,just joking,we will sell it away for a few ringgit",said Teddy.

When all was over it was past 2.00 a.m. in the morning and the cockrel about to crow.Everyone were yawning and extremely tired and retired to bed.Teddy had difficulties in sleeping at first and rowed about in bed,but tiredness soon overcame him and he dozed off.

That night passed without further disturbances.