Dada 125

He told me that it was because of the newspapers and pointed to a sea of faces sat at a table below the jury box.

‘There they are’ he said. I asked who? And he replied,’ the journalists.’

‘They are here from England, the Daily Express, the Mirror, the Telegraph besides the Sarawak Weekly the Malay recorder and the Borneo Express.

‘What about the London Times’ I asked. He laughed,

‘The British papers are all saying you are a psychopath’ he added.

‘They say you were high on drugs.’

‘That is not exactly true, I was coming down after being high’ I said.

‘Is that going to be your defence ?’  he asked

‘No,’ I said, ‘the slap of history is my defence. Mine was just a chance reaction. If I had not been carrying the knife for a friend, this would not have happened.’

He looked at me and then away. Suddenly one of the journalists was coming over towards us. The policeman knew him. He was Malay. He was middle aged and grimaced slightly and more when he put his foot down on his right leg as though one leg favoured another. It reminded me of the night of Dada’s wake when all the residents of the home trooped and limped sucking on their lips into the room that held the coffin. The journalist had a kindly face.