Buntal was a Punggol District Officer and was walking to work in the early morning. Buntal’s wife was playing golf and used his car. Buntal thought back to his life, and how he rose from an office clerk position to the present. The principal fired Buntal after he got into a dispute with Chua, one of his school classmates. Chua was then a welfare officer with the Singapore Civil Service. He was his greatest foe.
“Good morning Buntal, I have been transferred back to Singapore. Please allocate me a quarter,” Chua requested.
“Sure, “Buntal replied with an icy look.
Chua arrived to sweep Chua’s quarter. The front and back doors were ruined by white ants. The condition of the windows and ceilings was poor. Chua requested a more comfortable quarter.
“Get out of my office or I’ll throw you out,”Buntal, whose lips and hands were reddening after being screamed at in a row.
“Throw now,”Chua looked up at Buntal.
Buntal grabbed Chua’s collar and pulled him up. He then took Chua off his desk. Chua lost his job because of this incident.
Buntal was beginning to be noticed by the public. There were rumours that Buntal was seen kissing a long-haired, young woman in the clubhouse on a cold rainy day. The governor loved to play golf at work.
“I must climb higher,”Buntal said it himself. “That bastard was saying that I became a convert to please the governor. Isn’t it an open secret that all the converts were the ones holding the higher positions?”
Buntal was asked by the governor to stay in Buntal’s house one night following a party because of his dizziness. While the room was gorgeously decorated, there was one missing thing: a woman. The women were all gone with the men. Buntal called one lady, who was on a temporary callout basis. The husband of this woman just got back from the wood camp, and would not leave until a month later. Kimanis, the ship that was carrying this lady, arrived at her home around 12:01 AM. After 12 months of work in the Sabah jungle, he returned home to take a month’s holiday. Nature can sometimes be against us. Buntal finds a solution to this dilemma. Buntal has occupied all the single-night stands on his wish list.
Poor bachelor couldn’t go to bed. His eyes were open as he rolled on the mattress, rubbing his forehead. Finally, he entered Buntal’s room and gently tapped on Buntal’s cheeks. She was awakened. He didn’t say a single word. He followed her to his bedroom.
They both groaned, and they were filled with joy. Helen did not mind if Buntal would wake her up to find her in the bedroom with the governor. She shouldn’t. Buntal would not have spent so much time alone with these girls, or even his office staff girls.
Buntal woke up when he heard a squeaking sound. Buntal thought Helen was on the bathroom floor. He was convinced by the way that the maid girl looked at the couple in the back of the flower bush, and assured her she wouldn’t refuse to marry him again. He ran into the room, kissed her lips and rushed to her bed.
“I thought it was a devil,”The little girl got up, sat down and spoke.
“Devil or man, I can give o you what you want.”
Buntal, after taking off his clothes and climbing on the girl to kiss her, began to kiss her across the body.
“I know you really need it now. I saw you peeping at the Bangladeshi making love to Ah Yun, who lived at the Block 166, Starry Road.”
“Yes I want it badly. But please tell me. The guy from Bangladesh is only 20 years old. Why was he making love to the old hag, Ah Yun, who is 65 years old, with sagging and wrinkled skin full of warts, and has hundreds of wrinkles on her head and neck?”
“You have to ask the guy if you happen to see him tomorrow. My guess is this guy was only a sweeper. He cannot afford to find more attractive girls. Have your ever offered your body to these laborers from Bangladesh? Are they better at sex? “
“One month ago, Ah Yun wanted to sell to me one piece of stone wrapped in black cloth, for1000 U.S. dollars. She said that lust spell was from India and a woman who possesses it just has to rub on the body of the man she want to have sex with and the man would be in love with her forever. She bought the stone from Lin Hu Huat, who was a labourer from the construction site at Tuas. Hu Huat always changed into a white shirt whenever he knocked off from work at Tuas. He told the girls he was a qualified engineer.”
” Who was this Lin Hu Huat?”Buntal was intrigued.
” Oh, this Hu Huat is a local. One day I heard him boasting to a group of old women, about ten of them. He said his name was Hu Huat because his black magic was very powerful.. And in Chinese “Hu Huat” means black magic. That was why all the locals called him Hu Huat. He claimed that after casting a spell on an air hostess, that hostess fell in love with a labourer.”
“Can you tell me which airline that hostess was from?”
” It’s British Airways.”
“We’re Christians. Do you believe all these rubbish? This cocky hag is trying to suck some money out of you. If black magic and occultism can effectuate the desired results, John Kennedy would have died long ago! John is holding the most coveted position on this planet. Millions of politicians are dying for that position. Every day, these politicians pointed their finger at the United States and swore and cursed it. They blamed the US for all the problems on this earth. Even if their son dropped down from top of the coconut tree and died on the spot, they would still blamed US for it. They said if there was no US, the world would be without problems, even the recession during the 1930s was caused by the US.”
“Ah Yun entertains about ten men per day. She can’t take the men to her flat because the owner of the flat doesn’t allow her to do so. Yesterday she took me to see a black magician who ran an office in Chinatown. The office was air-conditioned but was dark and very smelly. You cannot recognize a person from ten feet away. All the visitors were old women.”
“Do you believe all these swindlers?”
“You were assistant district officer before. Why didn’t you tell the police to arrest them? They must have given you a lot of money?”
“Why do you want to arrest uneducated people who cheat few hundred dollars every week? Those old women deserved to be cheated. They are very evil and greedy.
The most notorious one is Lin Hu Huat. He claimed his black magic can make a young man falls in love with an old woman, aged 60 or more. Many women believe him. But the charm never worked. These hags do not know that the more they go to ask Hu Huat, the more their problems increase. Lin Hu Huat loved to put on a white shirt. He puts on one every day. Hu Huat claimed that one airhostess was charmed by him to fall in love with a drain sweeper. Hu Huat means Black magic in Chinese and this made the stupid old Chinese women believe him even more. The managers, engineers and directors in some companies cheat million of dollars per week. Nobody cares. The auditors and the HR personnel are all the same. They help each other to cheat and share the money. If a commodity is worth $1000.00 in the open market. The companies buy it for over $10000.00 each, and for others like metal containers used for transporting goods on board the ship, these swindlers charge over $300000.00 each. The actual price should not be more than $3000.00. Every employee was asking or telling another employee in the same company that if you want to depend solely on your monthly salary, just how long do you still have to work.”
“There was something else I forgot to tell you. One fat woman paid Hu Huat S$5000.00 to cast a spell on the engineer from China. This engineer was earning about S$6000.00 per month. Hu Huat said that engineer would surely marry her and that she would become rich. That spell did not work but this ugly hag continued to hold a piece of dirty cloth in her hand and pretended to wipe the shelves, coffee makers or other dispensers whenever that engineer came in to have his coffee. Once she grabbed that piece of cloth at one end and whipped it on the head of that engineer, as advised by Lin Hu Huat, saying that the perfumed cloth must land on the engineer’s head for the spell to be effective. She told the engineer she was only trying to whip at the coffee maker. In fact that is her way of harassing this engineer. Is is a crime for that engineer to refuse her advances? If an eighteen-year- old sweet thing makes advances to him, the result could be expected. But an ugly hag, 65 years old, what does she have to offer? She must be very repulsive? She asked for the money to be returned but Hu Huat said if she wanted the money, she must report the matter to the police. And on another occasion, in a cafeteria, one black Indian named Baskaran, from India took up Hu Huat’s left hand to read the lines on it, and told him if he change his name to Lin Thiam Huat, he would surely earn one million US dollars within the next twelve months.”
Buntal was able to sleep soundly the night after with the girl. Buntal’s wife was sitting in another room watching the governor. This was her favorite position. Are there any other guys who could be considered lucky in her life?
Years passed quickly. Buntal served as the managing director for a Tuas-based manufacturing company. In secret, Buntal tried to stir up Singaporeans to try to instill patriotism so they would fight for independence. Ahmad Yong (a man without political principles) was chosen as the leader and he organized a secret society. These two clever men tried to get Chua to agree to the plot of Buntal & Yong, but Chua knew all about it. Chua was unable to cooperate with them as he knew that another group of people were also working to gain independence for the country. This group was made up of better qualified individuals. The decisive element was Buntal and Yong’s lack of leadership.
Buntal, Yong and others believed that Chua would be killed if he wasn’t. If Chua is not dead, Chua will definitely reveal the secrets to the British government. That would cause great problems. Yong organized a dinner onboard Sri Gaya that night. Yong, a close friend, was able convince Chua that he should drink to the point of intoxication. Chua started to feel sleepy around 11:15 that evening. He got up and sat at the side of the boat. His back was facing the water. Yong stumbled from the room.
“Aye, brother, another glass, “He filled Chua’s glass with wine.
As the wine was bubbling, Yong reached for Chua and placed his open hand over the Adam’s apple-shaped area of the throat. He then pushed him to the seashore with his right foot.
In spite of the fact that Chua had been onboard the ship for many years, Sara was not among them. What could a widow possibly do? They were friends with the governor. Nearly all Singaporeans treated this Angmo (white male) as a Deva. Her own life would be at risk. At that time, she was three months pregnant.
Buntal’s political party could not be organized. It wasn’t because fate had against him. But it was his inferiority complex which caused him to withdraw. If they want to be successful, cowards will always see a lot of hurdles. He didn’t want to be compared with other young graduates who commanded more respect and trust. Buntal’s strategy wasn’t convincing and credible. How was he supposed to win support? He instead of joining the handful of young graduates, went about destroying the credibility of the graduates by claiming that they eat with knives, spoons, and forks and that chop sticks are not known to them. This is why the Chinese culture will be destroyed if the graduates become elected.
Buntal, Yong and other colonial leaders moved to Singapore to tell people it was best for Singapore to be a British country. Buntal and Yong believe that a person can’t be considered Chinese if they cannot read or write Chinese.
Sara’s 7-year old son David was when Sara told the story.
“Your father was a most smart guy. Buntal was jealous of him. In the department where Buntal worked, only the inefficient and the bootlickers were promoted. “
“Why didn’t you report to the police that Dad was missing?”He wanted to learn.
“At that time Singapore was a very unsafe place. A gangster could simply pull out a gun from his pocket and shoot at anybody. No one would dare to report the matter to the police. If the police requested for help to nail down the killer, no one would come forward to assist. Even if the police knew the thugs were hiding in Kumpong Bugis, they wouldn’t dare go in to search for the thugs.”
Karate was David’s favourite sport growing up. After collecting wood from the forest, David would cut a few wood pieces barehanded every weekend.
Buntal was just about to leave the private sector, when David discovered him at Sembawang. David was first offered a position in the company Global Construction. Selini Buntal was Selini’s gorgeous daughter. David fell in love with Selini at that same company. David discovered that his love was with the murderer’s child.
David, Selini, and Buntal camped at Pulau Ubin one night. Helen didn’t go as she was unable to spend time with the governor. Many young married ladies from this island wondered what attracted the governor to Helen. It was not that the governor had a particular liking for Helen, but the fact she was a married lady and could have children should this happen. Only the father is allowed to register the child’s name and issue a birth certificate in this region of the globe. Buntal and David set out to fish in a speedboat, leaving Selini alone in her tent.
“Mr. Buntal, do you know the murder of Chua had been found out?”
“Who found out?”
“I did.”
“Who are you?”
“His son.”
“You father left a poor seed behind?”
Buntal became pale and nervous, becoming unable to communicate properly. He immediately took action to remove the boy of the bitch, who was now sitting right in front of Buntal.
“Don’t panic,” David comforted him.
“What do you want?”
“To marry Selini.”
Buntal swung an oar over David’s head. David caught Buntal’s oar, and kicked him at the left armpit. Buntal fell into the water merrily.
“You stupid bastard. If you just begged for mercy, I would have considered forgiving you. But you wanted to get rid of me too. If I die, Selini would be hurt the most.”
David sank to his knees, and spoke.
“Father. I have taken the revenge. Please forgive me; I want to marry his daughter.”
David returned from Pulau Ubin around midnight to report to Selini that her dad was being eaten by sharks. Although he tried his best to stop them, it proved futile as there were over ten sharks in the waters. David could also get bitten if he tried to drag David onto the boat.
“Oh, father!”She cried out in pain and fell on her knees. David lifted her up, wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and promised to look after her every need.
David kept his word. They were married together until their natural deaths in their 80s.
“Do you believe all these swindlers?”
“You were assistant district officer before. Why didn’t you tell the police to arrest them? They must have given you a lot of money?”
Why would you arrest people with no education who swindle a few hundred dollars each week? These elderly women deserve to be cheated. These women are evil and greedy.
Lin Hu Huat is the most famous. Lin Hu Huat claimed that his black magic could make an older woman fall in love with a younger man, if he is 60 years old. His black magic is widely believed by women. However, the charm did not work. The problem is that these hags don’t know how to solve their problems. Lin Hu Huat loved wearing white shirts. One was worn every day by Lin Hu Huat. Hu Huat said that one female airhostess fell in love with him after he charmed her. Hu Huat, which means Black magic in Chinese, made dumb Chinese women even more believe him. Managers, engineers, and directors at some companies extort millions of dollars every week. Nobody cares. All auditors are one. They work together to cheat each other and also share their money. A commodity can be worth 1000.00 on the open market.