An Incident I Will Never Forget
Last week, my pen-pal arrived from Canada. I have told him so much about the lovely beaches and interesting places as well as the courteous people of Malaysia. Hence, it was not surprising that he decided to visit Malaysia.
I was overjoyed when I received the news. I was in a flurry organizing activities as I wanted to impress him with my beautiful country. A day after his arrival, I decided to take him to the famous Teluk Chempedak beach. I was so excited as I wanted to show him my beautiful and courteous people.
We arrived early at Teluk Chempedak. Luckily, the beach was not crowded. We found a nice spot under a casuarina tree and laid our mats and the food basket on the ground. After changing into our swimming trunks, we made a beeline to the beach to enjoy a luxurious swim in the crystal clear, blue sea.
After two hours of swimming at sea, we were hungry. So, we scrambled back to our spot under the tree. We were shocked to find sand strewn on the mats and the food containers. We looked around and noticed three children carrying spades and pails of sand to another mat that was a stone's throw away from us. It was obvious that these three children were responsible for the irresponsible act.
I was fuming but I controlled myself as I did not want a confrontation with this unruly children and spoil our outing. My friend and I quickly cleared the mess and sat down on the clean mats to enjoy our meal.
However, we could not enjoy a pleasurable meal as the annoying children carried on with their annoying antics. They were running and yelling around us on top of their voices. To make things worse, they were throwing sand at one another. As expected, some sand landed on our container of sandwiches. There goes our delicious sandwiches. Still controlling my temper from flaring up, I reprimanded the children. I sternly told them to behave themselves and go somewhere else to play.
What happened next was beyond my comprehension1 The annoying children stared blankly at us and bursted out laughing. One of them was rolling on the sand with laughter. That was the last straw. I got up and went up to their parents who were sitting cosily under a shady casuarina tree.
I told the parents about the whole incident. Instead of sympathizing and reprimanding their children,the father coolly told me to leave the children alone. he also gave a grunted sound and told me to find another place to sit. I was appalled. This could not be happening. I have proudly told my friends that Malaysians are very courteous but this incident has proven me wrong.
I patiently told the mother to ask her children to leave my friend and I alone. I was shocked with what curtailed. She stood me abruptly, clutching her hips and with a scowl on her face, she started hurling abusive words at me.I was taken aback. I looked at her husband. He sat calmly under the tree reading his crumpled newspaper. By this time,a large crowd gathered around us. The woman kept on rattling unkind and abusive words. Tears rolled down my eyes. I was too shocked to retaliate.
Suddenly, I felt someone nudging my arm. I turned around and there stood my Canadian friend. He was as pale as a ghost and from his facial expression, i knew that this racket was too much for him
We walked away from away the scene. However, the woman did not stop her yelling and screaming. Without a word, we packed our things and left the beach.
We did not say a word to each other. Obviously, the commotion was too much for us.Once we were far from the beach i pulled the car to the side. I turned to face my friend.He did the same. I collected my nerves and tried to move my lips to apologize. However, no words came out from my mouth. Instead, a steady stream of tears flowed down my cheeks.
He hugged me and said that he was as sorry as i was about the whole accident. He even reminded me that one bad apple does not spoil the whole crate. I hugged him tightly for being so understanding.
Luckily for me, there was no repeat of this episode throughout Johnny's visit to Malaysia. It's been two days now that he has left for Canada. He has assured me that that he is only taking the sweet memories. After giving me a hug, he reassured me that my country and people are simply amazing. I felt proud being a Malaysian.
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