Dada 102

The next morning came hazy with sun and rain, pewter coloured clouds and a yellow light that streamed through the cell. A while later I was once again taken down to be questioned by the police.it was two o’clock in the afternoon before I was issued into the interview room and this time the prosecutor’s office was flushed with a different light before the afternoon rains of the summer monsoon came again.

‘The light is like our history the way it switches across this island’ he said.

It was very hot, the detective wiped away at his forehead and his face had lost some of its almond calm. He very politely told me to sit down and said that my lawyer could not be there due to unforeseen reasons’ but that I had a right not to answer any of his questions. I said that did not bother me and that I could answer anything he wanted of me on my own.

He pressed a buzzer on his desk and a young clerk came in, a Malay, and sat down very close behind me. I could picture him shopping on Sunday with his wife, maybe they would come down to the fish dock to purchase their weekend merodowsal or special dish anniversary. Maybe they would have children with them, laughing amongst the river crowds. I could not see him as a pirate, with his mortgage and little car and happiness spread all around him.

We both, the policeman and I sat back in our chairs and the interrogation began. I could feel the Malays breath against my neck but then I ignored it, just like I did my lawyer’s collar of fat. It must be easy and yet very hard to be suburban knowing everyone is watching you for a slip, like my father thought everyone watched him and so he watched me. It was only my way of thinking but that doesn’t mean it didn’t count. I had the Dada to thank for getting me out of that mess.

The first thing the police told me was that I was being depicted as a taciturn and uncommunicative young man and he wanted to know my reaction to that. I replied that I didn’t have much to say, that was all and so I generally kept quiet. He smiled as he had that first time and I saw some calm return to his eyes.

‘Sometimes that’s best’ he said, then he added, ‘in any case it's of little importance’ he fell silent, then he looked up at me, and then said very quickly.

‘What interests me is you! There are certain things about you that I cannot comprehend.’