Teks Story Telling - When They Saw It

 When They Saw It

“When is Dad coming home?” Lee asked his mother for the tenth time that day. “When is Dad coming back?”  “Not long now,” his mother said. “Go and find Kim and then you and kim can go and look for the boats.”

Lee ran out of the small fisherman’s hut and went to Kim’s house. Then they both walked through the village.

It was hot day. The fishing boats went out to sea a week ago. Most of the people were at home, out of the heat they are waiting for the men to come back with a good catch of fish. Lee and Kim didn’t see many people—just few old people taking care of the rice fields.

The village was on a hill above the sea and there was a path down to the beach. Lee and Kim stood on the hill and looked out the sea. But they didn’t see anything. They didn’t see any boats and they felt dissappointed.

They turned back and almost bumped into Quan Yew. “When are the boats coming back, Quan Yew?” they asked, and the laughed. “Come on, speak! Come on, tell us! When are the boats coming back?” they asked, and they both laughed again.

Quan Yew didn’t say anything. He didn’t speak. Poor Quan Yew couldn’t speak. He never spoke and people always laughed at him. He looked at Lee and he looked at Kim, but he didn’t say a word.

Then, suddenly, Quan Yew pointed. He pointed far out to the sea and yes, there they were. Lee and Kim could see their tiny white sails. At last, they were coming. The boats were coming back.

“They’re coming, they’re coming!” the two boys shouted as they ran back through the village. “The boats are coming back. The boats are coming back.”

                So, at last the boats were coming back and everyone was excited by the news. Everyone in the village got ready now for a party down on the beach.

“Listen, you carry the firewood and I’ll take the rice and water.. and be careful how you go.” Lee’s Mother said. For the whole village was on the move. All the woman, children and the old people walked down the path to the beach. Everyone of them.

Except one. “You stay here Quan Yew, you just stay here,” they will said. And so Quan Yew stayed alone on the hill. And he felt sad as he watched all the people down on the beach get ready for the party.

First they made a big fire and then they cooked the food. And what food! There was delicious lobster and huge prawns and fresh tuna and rice. The there were juicy mangoes and bunches of sweet bananas and everybody ate and they ate until they felt full.

Then there was singing. Yong-Lek sang some funny songs and everybody laughed. Mai-Wah sang a beautiful love song which everyone knew it was for Sammy Tan. Then the fisherman sang a loud and happy song about their life at sea.

Next came the dancing. Old-Foo-Yong hit a big drum, his brother picked up his fiddle and they started to play a dance tune. Everybody danced. Young with old and old with young.

Aunthies and uncles and nephews and cousins and sisters and brother. Everybody danced and they danced faster and faster as the music got quicker and quicker.

And then, somebody shouted. They shouted loud, “Look, up there, up there! Look, everybody! Quick, look up there!”

“What? What is it?” an old man shouted, “My eyes aren’t so good.”

“It’s smoke.” Someone said. “Look, there, it’s smoke!”

“And not just smoke,” said another. “It’s fire! Look, fire! There, and there, and there.” He pointed to the top of the hill. “It’s Quan Yew and he’s setting fire to the fields! Quan Yew is burning our rice fields!”

And it was true. Hot and red and sweating, Quan Yew was holding a flaming torch in his hand. And he was running like a mad man from field to field setting fire to the golden brown rice.

“I always knew he was crazy,”

“I always knew he was mad,”

“He’s the devil himself, just look at him. What does he think he’s doing?!”

“Perhaps he’s angry because we didn’t invite him to the party,” Lee said to his mother. “Come on, we can still save some of the rice. Come on, everybody, let’s go!”

And so the whole village started to run back up the path, back up the hill to their fields above. All the women and children and old people and the fisherman started running back up the hill. Everyone of them.

When Quan Yew saw everybody running up the path, he sat down. He put down his torch and sat down on the ground and looked at all burning fields. There was fire and white smoke everywhere now, and all the fields were on fire.

He sat and watched all the people running up the hill and he smiled to himself. First, he smiled.. and then he started to laugh.

                Lee ran with his mother back up the hill. The path was already crowded with all the other villagers.

“Why did he do it?” why did Quan Yew burn our fields, Mom?” Lee asked to his mother.

“I don’t know,” his mother replied. “I really don’t know.”

The people were very angry. Now they had no food and they wanted to punish Quan Yew. When they finally got up to the village, they saw him. He was sitting and smiling and he waved to everybody.

“We’re too late,” they cried. “He’s burned all our fields,” and they ran up to Quan Yew. When they were close to him, they shouted in his face, “Are you mad?! Mad?! That was everything we had. Now we’re going to go hungry! Are you crazy? Look! We have nothing now. Look !”

Then Quan Yew stood up. He walked a few steps forward and pointed down to the beach. “And that’s strange too,” said another fisherman. “Look, there are fish lying on the sand. See, and they’re still alive.”

                And then Quan Yew pointed again. This time he pointed far out to sea. And the villagers all watched in horror as the huge tsunami wave moved towards them. Slowly at first and then faster and faster it came, and then it rose up and smashed down onto the beach. Thousand and thousand of tons of water smashed down on to the beach below, the beach where they were eating, singing, and dancing just a few minutes ago.