Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong

Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong

Author:Ho Sok Fong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Two Lines Press
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00


Wind through the Pineapple Leaves, through the Frangipani

Note: The name “Aminah” is very common in Malay society; as with Sarah or Mary, there can be many Aminahs.

A LIGHT BULB SWAYS beneath the eaves.

An idea floats up, making my heart pound. I want Aminah to run away. But her mind is somewhere else, hanging upside down, the sand in her brain flowing into the top of her skull. A frog-like person appears; let’s call them Bi. But Aminah will only notice Bi once they have swum up the hourglass and surfaced from the sand. And now Shaimah’s coming over and Aminah’s sipping bitter coffee. Let’s try again: an amphibious person appears. An early morning dream. Aminah does not remember the rest. She opens the door and sees a pair of webbed feet.

Shaimah wants to be Aminah’s friend. She brings over her diary for Aminah to look at. I encourage Shaimah to thrust the book into Aminah’s hands, but Aminah has not yet come to her senses. She flicks through the pages, the words shuffling to the outer corners of her eyes and then onward into the dull light of the torrentially rainy afternoon.

Imah misses her ibu, her ayah, her little brothers. Ibu, when will you come for Imah? A lot of new people have arrived. Ibu, don’t be angry. Don’t be shocked. Imah has something to discuss. Imah wants to get married now. She can’t study anymore anyway, school’s over for her.

A dead frog lies at the foot of the table. By the time Aminah sees it, it’s squashed flat. Smaller than a petal, maybe only recently born, one little foreleg pasted to the black floor. It looks like it snatched ahold of something in its final moments. Its dead webbed foot is flat and dark and disproportionately huge.

Aminah looks at Shaimah. Shaimah is two years younger than her.

“You really want to get married?” she asks.

“No,” says Shaimah, embarrassed. “Imah is just saying. Aidah went home. The day before yesterday, her parents came up to the fence and started shouting, saying she had applied to get married. They brought the certificate to show Kak Roni and so Aidah got to go home. Imah wants that too.”

Aminah looks at “Imah.” She has one hand resting on her belly and the other supporting her waist. She arrived four months ago, looking just a little plump. Her parents brought her in and never came back. In the months since, her body has expanded like cooked rice. Yesterday, the warden took her for a check-up. The nurse said the test was negative and the warden screamed like a madwoman in the clinic. “It’s not possible! It’s got to be wrong, it’s got to be.”

It’s time Shaimah got married, but who will her husband be? Not the policeman who raped her; she hates that son of a bitch. Sometimes she cries hysterically in the evenings. Sometimes she gets so desperate that she pulls out her hair. But she calms down whenever there’s singing.

Aminah’s thoughts turn back to herself.



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