章 33: Tiding through a Figurative Storm (Part 2)
An alert sounded on Arash's phone in his palm.
Lo and behold. He finally got to see the messages delivered by her cheeky sister real-time!
Mama:
Ayang, are you alright? Did they bully you? Please don't be sad. You know, my family has always been the super 'passionate' kind. Bear with it with a nod. Just make sure don't flame their anger. If they didn't believe you, travel to my mom's house personally and show your phone. She will overwrite everyone else's accusation. After all she's the queen dowager of the Ribena clan right? *wink! wink!*
By the way, make sure not to confront Bro Hadi first before talking to Mak okay. He's super paranoid. Even if he believes our story, he might blame you for not taking care of your lovely wife well hehe
Also, thank you for the tutorials, especially on the shelf! I just drag some bamboos from the stream. After finishing lunch, I'll be starting on the shelf. Your suggestion on the elaborated filter rack cum shelf is very useful! Love you so much honey *blowing kisses* How did you know I was going to make a small garden after this? Are you not planning to come and save meeeeeeee...these are all long term arrangementsssssssss....
Also, I can't believe I got sting by a catfish just now! Thank goodness Kuro help me. Also, the ones we bought from the market didn't have stings! So preposterous!
Droves after droves of messages entered the chatting app in one go. As Hadi read through the messages, a myriad of emotions gone by. At first, Arash could see green veins beeping at the side of his brother-in-law's temples, signifying his increasing anger. He braced for the inevitable! Then suddenly it turned to wonderment, and lastly everlasting worry.
Hadi passed back Arash's smartphone, "Hana just replied."
Before Arash could read the message, Hadi got up from the chair. "Thanks for the coffee. I gotta get going Bro."
"Eh? You're going so soon?" Arash couldn't believe that his brother-in-law was going back just like that without questioning Hana on the phone. It was even the perfect time since Hana rarely stayed engaged to her phone since she was trapped over there. He was expecting to be interrogated harshly.
"Today I got night shift. Send my greeting to that girl. Tell her to message her mom. She's worried sick." Hadi suavely took dignified steps towards the front door. He still felt unwell but amused remembering how his sister trash-talked him in his face. He wondered how much Hana 'praised' him to Arash before this.
"Wait Bro Hadi!"
"What? Do I need to spell out that I won't be charging you for slander or anything? I know the law from the back of my hands. I'll find her using my own means too. Nobody blames you." Hadi spoke magnanimously. He felt a bit guilty for barging into Hana and Arash's little apartment and making a scene just now. He could only say these words to save the last bit of dignity as the eldest in the family.
"Er..no. If Mak wants to message Hana, she needs to download the app we're currently using." Arash replied bashfully.
Hadi nearly fall down. He cleared his throat and asked Arash to share the app to the main Ribena Chatgroup so that everyone could download it and talked to Hana themselves.
"Another thing bro.." Arash stopped him for the second time.
"What else?" Hadi was getting impatient. He was holding on his shame with an utmost difficulty, making a stern expression.
"Hana is busy all the time because she needs to do everything herself from scratch. I will appreciate it if everyone tried not to bombard her with too many things. She only checked her phone at night. This time is a rare case. Please understand and show your support. She's scared, alone and being harshly scolded won't solve anything but hurt her already fragile constitution." Arash said with a pleading look.
Hadi was silent for a moment and later sighed deeply. "Duly noted."
He turned away and leave.
....
Arash heaved a sigh of relief. Hana's eldest brother was not that flexible; it was either white or black, it will never be gray. He was glad that Hadi didn't make a scene. Handling Hadi took a lot of his energy. He knew this kind of person needed a soft approach. If he fought back, they will surely fight it out with harsh words.
Hana is right. A cup of the right coffee will surely tame the uptight brother. If add peanuts, the probability of success will increase another 30%.
Arash was glad he stocked up on 3-in-1s and peanuts to calm a raging storm. It was really cost effective as he chuckled to himself.
....
While walking towards his old dark blue Proton Saga (1), Hadi swiped open his phone and noticed several internet calls by his little sister from oversea. This one was cheekier than Hana. He had a headache pulling the reins on his unruly siblings. It was hard to fill in a brother cum father-figure role when the shoes he needed to fill were so large. To him, his sisters will always be little girls even how old they have become.
What else this time? He wondered with exasperation.
A call at this time meant his sister's mess might be too big for her to handle herself.
He sat inside his car and return his sister voice-call before he started on his journey back home. If he had waited, only after two hours he would be able to entertain his sister.
Listening to the not-so-good static-filled call being connected, he immediately spoke, "Yes Humaira, what is it? So eager to contact your bro. There must be something?"
He could hear faint sniffing noises from the other side. Feeling alarmed, he immediately requested for a face-to-face call to check on his little sister.
After a while, the familiar cheeky face of his little sister was shown on his smartphone. Though the internet signal was not so good, he could see the slightly puffy eyes and tear-stained chubby cheeks.
"What happen to you?"
"Bro, I've been trying to contact you for the longest of time!" Humaira felt relieved since her bro had finally answered her calls. She was beginning to panic; if the unlikely pic of her elder sister was viralled until it reached their mom, she's doomed!
"Bro..bro.. you must help me.." Tears filling her eyes, she made sure Hadi noticed all of it before she switched back to voice-call and continued with a watered down tale of how she 'inadvertently' turned her big sis into a notorious internet celebrity in just 2 short hours.
"People keep adding ridiculous captions on the pic I posted. I'll forward you the latest one." She forwarded the most recent one she had. It was given to her by her roomie, not knowing she was the culprit who disseminate the picture first. Her roomie even said that the girl in the pic look a bit like Humaira which made she sweated a bucket.
Hadi ended the call after Humaira managed to make him promise to help. He downloaded the picture, knowing that he would see the same picture of Hana with the notorious snake beside her, for the n-th time of the day.
It was truly the same picture, but with an added caption;
#Shocking news!
Cruelty towards Animals!
A Malaysian had been killed by her own exotic breed pet snake! The woman was allegedly abusing her pet by embeddening foreign objects via surgery. It has sparked the rage of the netizens worldwide. Naturalists and environmentalists were fighting to gain the freedom of the poor snake from its abusive breeder. If you have more information, contact the hotline below.
#ReleaseThatSnake
#AbusiveOwner
#NeedDivineRetribution
"Oh, shit."
How was he going to tide the storm brewing inside their mom when she saw this?
Hadi felt being duped by Humaira. She was effectively pushing her shits on him to face Ma'am Shaza!
He PM-ed his naughty little sister and berate her inside the message with the additional note of 'come clean with our ma', 'beg for her forgiveness', 'you won't smell the scent of heaven if she won't forgive you' (2), etcs. However, he did also explain how to remedy the situation to his sister.
Hadi massaged his temples after he placed the phone on the phone-holder and connected the wire to the charging station. After a short ten minute of readjusting himself, he dis-attached the phone from the charger and made a call.
"Hello, maccha (3). Yes. Remember when I save your ass last year. I need you to return that favor now bro..." He explained his situation to the speaker on the other side.
When he ended his call, he breathed in relieve.
That should settle it. Next, I'll try to tide through the other storm.
He shook his head. It was really tiring being the eldest.
....
Author's Note:
(1) Proton Saga = a national branded car, well, early this year, it was sold to china eventually. sigh.
(2) 'you won't smell the scent of heaven if she won't forgive you' = this stems from the saying 'heaven is under the foot of a mother', which means, we have to respect our mother in order to go to heaven. So, if you make your mom so angry, you can't even smell heaven, let alone to be eligible to enter it. (laugh)
(3) maccha = no, its not the green tea flavor, my dear friends. In Tamil (indian language prevalent in Malaysia), it means "brother-in-law" (I've clarified this with a dear close friend of mine). It was meant to be a call between best bros. Not suitable to be use in a female-male friendship. It means the brotherhood was so tight until he's at the level of family (brother-in-law) to you.
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