Princess Play (8 page)

‘
Mak Su
!'

Rubiah came to the door, wiping her hands with a dishrag. ‘Liza? What's happened?' She took in Aliza's red face and the tears starting to stream.

‘My mother,
Mak Su
! Someone hit her on the head! It looks like she might be … dying!'

‘
Astaghfirullah
!' Rubiah cried, ‘I'm on my way.' She hurried down the stairs, followed by a frightened Aliza. As they hurried past Aziz's house, Zaiton called to her from the top of the stairs.

‘Liza! Where are you going?'

‘Something's happened to my mother,' Aliza told her, calling from over her shoulder as she ran home.

‘What?'

‘I think she was hit with something. Over the head.'

‘No!' Zaiton ran down the stairs and clasped Aliza's hand, pulling her towards the house. ‘Tell me what happened!' she demanded.

Aliza pulled her hand away. ‘I don't know yet, I have to go back home!'

‘Wait!' Zaiton tugged at her harder, pulling her off her feet.

‘What are you doing?' Aliza was becoming frightened, this girl no longer seemed like the one she knew.

‘Aliza?'

‘What?'

‘Come with me.'

‘Let me get up,' she said slowly. ‘Wait a minute.' She got up gingerly, feeling her knees, testing them, to see if they had been hurt. It appeared they had not. She limped a few steps toward Zaiton. ‘What do you want?'

‘Nothing.' The two girls stared at each other. ‘Just come with me to my house.'

Aliza shook her head. ‘Why?'

‘Just so we can talk.' Zaiton tried to smile and take Aliza's hand again. Before she could grasp it, Aliza whirled away and ran as fast as she could towards her own house.

‘
Ayah
!' she screamed as she ran, ‘
Ayah
! Help me!' She tripped on a large rock, and was flung headfirst onto the path, hitting her head as she fell.

As she passed, neighbours poked their heads out the windows and started down off their porches. Aliza lay dazed in the dust, her head seeming to pour blood on the ground. Zaiton, in hot pursuit, almost fell on top of her, but was seized in the unyielding grasp of one of their neighbours.

Three women pulled Aliza to her feet and started walking her home; she was barely conscious. They half-walked, half-dragged her into her own yard, where her sister Ashikin was already running towards her. When she reached Aliza, she folded her into her arms.

‘
Adik
!' Aliza pitched forward in a dead faint, bringing both of them to the ground.

Daud, Ashikin's husband, was there immediately, standing in front of them both to protect them, while Ashikin called for help. Zaiton was soon frog-marched in, held in the unsympathetic grasp of two of their burlier neighbours.

‘What's this?' Daud demanded of Zaiton.

She stared up at him, her eyes wide, unable to speak. Aziz now burst into the yard, stopping short before he tripped over his daughter. He looked wildly from Daud to Zaiton, taking in Ashikin and Aliza sheltered behind him. ‘Why?' he finally asked Zaiton. She burst into tears.

‘We saw Aliza fall,' one of the burly men said sternly. ‘Zaiton was chasing her, and she tripped on a rock.' He then turned to Daud and spoke kindly to him.

‘These head wounds bleed a lot,' he explained, ‘but she still needs a doctor.'

Daud and the neighbours were now in animated discussion with Aziz while Zaiton crouched behind her father, wailing. The men ignored her, while the women went inside for cloth and water.

‘I don't know what she's doing or why,' Aziz insisted heatedly to Daud. ‘I only heard someone fall, so I went out to look.'

Daud turned his most threatening face to Zaiton. Had she not been beside herself, she would probably have remained serenely unthreatened. But she was now caught up in her own hysteria and beginning to choke on her sobs. ‘Where's Rahim?' she babbled. ‘Is he inside?'

‘Rahim?' Aziz looked momentarily mystified, and then horrified. ‘Is he here? Did you see him tonight?'

Zaiton continued crying, and in towering frustration, her father slapped her, hard. She fell silent immediately. He looked over at Daud, abashed, but relieved to have quieted her. ‘Now, tell me!' He commanded her. ‘Where is he?'

‘I don't know!' She threatened to break into tears again, but a good look at her father's face convinced her to avoid it. ‘I thought maybe …'

Osman shouldered his way into the crowd, and looked down with evident surprise at the girl squatting in the dirt.

‘She tried to grab Aliza,' Daud explained quickly. ‘She chased her to stop her from coming home, and she tripped on a rock. We need a doctor here too.'

Osman turned and signalled his men; the doctor was now working on Maryam and would next move on to Aliza. Osman hated to see the whole family involved.

‘We're trying to find out why. Which is hard!' Daud added in frustration.

Osman turned to Zaiton, ‘Well?'

‘I was looking for Rahim.'

Osman looked confused. ‘Why Rahim? Why Aliza?'

Zaiton gave a monumental sniff and looked around the faces before her. None seemed particularly sympathetic – or that patient, for that matter. She decided it best to talk quickly, before her father moved to hurry things along again.

‘I thought he might be here. Because, you see …'

Aziz snorted impatiently. ‘Listen to me, daughter, you'd better talk and talk fast, or else …'

‘I thought he might come here to talk to
Mak Cik
Maryam. About my mother's death. If he were here, I wanted … to know,' she finished lamely.

‘Did you think he might hurt her?'

‘No! Of course not! No, I just wanted to find out what happened to
Mak Cik
Maryam.' She turned to her father and spoke rapidly. ‘He wouldn't hurt anyone,
Ayah
. He's a good man. No, I wasn't worried about that, just that I didn't know what happened, so I was … worried.'

‘What did she say?' Osman asked Daud, cursing himself again for not understanding.

‘She only wanted to find out what happened.'

The doctor came down the stairs, looking for his next patient. ‘How is my mother?'Ashikin asked while cradling the still quiet Aliza.

He grunted. ‘I'm putting her in the hospital now; it's just to be on the safe side. Concussion possibly. But we have to be careful. That's going to leave a nasty bruise, I haven't seen an
enam sembilan
attack for … I don't know how long. What's it about?'

Ashikin shrugged.

‘Another concussion? What's going on here?' The doctor then knelt down next to Aliza, looking concerned. He wiped away the blood, still streaming down her forehead. He shook his head sadly.

‘She's also going to the hospital. Her daughter?'Ashikin nodded, tears spilling from her large eyes.

‘They should go quickly,' he said to Osman. ‘I'll go with them.'

Moments later, an ambulance came screaming into the
kampong
, lights flashing. Maryam, Aliza and the doctor, accompanied by several policemen with strict orders not to let the two women out of their sight, were soon rushing back to Kota Bharu.

Chapter XI

Osman thought he would go mad with worry. He had patrolled the hallways of the Kota Bharu General Hospital too often. In fact, Rahman (his sidekick, as he thought of him) had only recently been released after a serious head injury nearly cashiered him. And now Maryam and – worse – her young daughter were here with similar injuries. (Although, he fervently prayed, not as critical as Rahman's.) He ought never to have asked Maryam to help him, but how was he to know her daughter would also get involved? He peeked into their rooms, and continued to pace the corridors.

Maryam was awake, but groggy, constantly running her fingers along the heavy rope pattern on her forehead. Mixed into her anger and fear was humiliation: she had been branded a busybody, carrying a mark every Kelantanese would recognize as a warning to cease interfering. Never mind that she was working at the express request–no,
demand
– of the police. That might not be immediately apparent, but the mark she now bore certainly was.

She had not yet been told about Aliza, and Mamat was dreading the conversation. He wasn't sure why he was feeling so guilty; he had never encouraged Aliza to be involved, and had not known she was. (Even if she was, he didn't feel he had a real grasp of the story). But he felt obscurely that, as her father, he should have somehow known and stopped it. He thought grimly he should put a stop to it now, and also insist that Maryam stop investigating, once and for all, but he also knew that now she would never give it up until she found out who had done such a thing – not only to her, but to her daughter as well. He sat outside Aliza's room, his head in his hands, considering his inability to protect his family, and occasionally, when he heard Osman's footsteps, lifting his head to glare at him.

Aliza had narrowly avoided serious damage, but had a large and ugly scar on the back of her head which had, of necessity, been shaved. It wrung Mamat's heart to see her without her hair, looking so small and vulnerable. Ashikin spent most of the days she had been in the hospital sitting with her, even sleeping there with her.

Ashikin had also called her brother Azmi, serving in the army, who had been granted leave and rushed back to Kota Bharu. Maryam had been amazed and delighted to see him, but it frightened her too. She had begun to suspect, in a confused sort of way, that something else was terribly wrong. Why else would Azmi have left camp to come back?

The family gathered in Maryam's room, and she watched with mounting fear as they all walked solemnly in, even Yi carrying Ashikin's daughter Nuraini. At any other time, this would have set off a torrent of baby talk and delighted smiles all around, but now only Yi paid attention to her. ‘Where's Aliza?' Maryam asked, not as clearly as she would have liked.

Mamat looked uncomfortable, and took her hands. Maryam began to cry. ‘What's happened to her? Is she dead?'

‘Why would you think that?' Mamat cried. He flinched from the very thought.

‘No,
Mak
,' Ashikin swiftly took over. ‘She'll be fine. She's here too. I've been with her the whole time.'

‘Tell me.' Maryam attempted to stop crying, but could not. Mamat sat next to her, his arm around her shoulder, trying to calm her. ‘
Sayang
, she ran to get Rubiah when you were hurt. And on the way back, you see, Zaiton tried to grab her, and …'

‘Why?'

‘It seems Zaiton thought Rahim … is that the right name?'Ashikin nodded. ‘She thought Rahim was there, when you were hurt. That she thought Rahim had hurt you.'

‘Rahim?' Maryam seemed dizzy.

‘Well, that's what she said. And she grabbed Aliza when she was coming back home, and Aliza fought with her to get free, and she fell.' Mamat sat silent.

‘And …' Maryam prompted.

‘And she hit her head on a rock.'

Maryam began crying again. ‘Oh no! It can't be!' She looked around. ‘Where is she? Is she alright?'

‘She's getting better,' Ashikin assured her. ‘She still doesn't remember what happened very well, but the doctor says she'll be fine.'

‘They had to shave her head!' Yi piped up.

Maryam stared at him. ‘Oh no! When can I see her? I want to see her right now!' She climbed out of the bed and stood up, looked around, and fainted. Mamat caught her and placed her back on the bed, with Azmi's help. ‘You didn't have to tell her that!' Azmi told Yi. ‘She didn't need to know that right away!'

‘Stop,' Mamat said tiredly. ‘She'd find out anyway. It doesn't matter.' He turned to Ashikin. ‘Can she walk yet?'

She shook her head. ‘Not yet, but Aliza's young. She'll be better very soon.'

‘I can't take both of them sick.' Mamat sat down suddenly on the bed. ‘I just can't.' Ashikin sat next to him with her arms around him.

‘We can help,
Ayah
.' She gave Azmi a meaningful look.

‘I'm here now,' Azmi said, taking his cue. Azmi was tall and lean, and looked a great deal like his father, with high cheekbones and large eyes. The army had whipped him into excellent shape, and he was strong and confident, a son both Maryam and Mamat were immensely proud of, and certainly, in this dire situation, a welcome source from which the whole family could draw strength.

His father, for the first time that Azmi could remember, looked haggard, and his strong-willed mother had just passed out. He felt as though he had entered an alternate universe, where the parents who had always cared for him, sometimes more than he wanted, now looked to him for guidance. He and Ashikin would have to care for their family.

He'd seen Aliza, so fragile with her head shaved, looking like an injured bird, and Yi, lost with no one to care for him. Daud was taking him home to his own family, ostensibly to help with Nuraini's care, but mostly to have him safe and surrounded by family. It was clear Ashikin was needed by her parents, and he could at least take Yi off her mind.

Osman stuck his head in the room, frowning at the tableau confronting him. Azmi and Ashikin led him into the hallway and sat him down.

‘You can see,' Azmi began, stern in his uniform, ‘my parents are exhausted. My mother has to rest, and I'm afraid my father is worried to death. Look what's happened here! My little sister is hurt, my mother is hurt … don't you think this is too dangerous for them?'Azmi demanded.

Ashikin frowned at Osman, and he actually felt a little frightened. ‘I had no idea your sister would have done anything …'

Ashikin cut him off mercilessly. ‘We're all involved now. Tell us, have you found Rahim?'

‘I'm not sure I really should talk about it.'