Mr Big Bully is now suddenly very nice to the farmer on the hill – The Way of the Farmer

The price of oil palm has begun to plummet. By the looks of it, it will probably be plunging down a bottomless pit. Despite the depressed prices. I was most pleasently surprised when I was still able to get a decent price from the oil mills. It seems Mr Big Bully might have spoken to the mill manager. The latter wasn’t too happy when he handed me a cheque as he could hardly hide that all too familiar expression, “what makes you so special that you get a higher price when others have to bear the full brunt of market forces.”

Neither did my lorries encounter any difficulties either during the harvest earlier in the day. As usually the adjoining estate which Mr Big Bully owned would make it a point to block the estate routes forcing me to take the longer route to the oil mills. Today for the very first time since I came over to these parts, Mr Big Bully’s estate manager seemed most accomodating to the point of embarrasing himself. He even suggested that if I didn’t have enough lorries to transport my oil bunches. He could loan me his fleet, free of charge. It seems Mr Big Bully might have spoken to him as well. As when he made that offer like the oil mill manager, he too found it impossibly hard to mask that questioning look, “what makes you so special that you get to access to our estate roads when others have to take the long road?”

Even the palm oil trader that I regularly deal with based in some cubicle in some skyscraper in Singapore seemed most accomodating. When he suddenly suggested that I should upgrade my trading account to “private,” which came with the obligatory waive all miscellaneous charges. When I asked why, the man on the otherside who usually spoke as if he was rattling off a reply from a laminated cue card even asked me to drop by over to the trading office for a spot of lunch when I next visited Singapore. Again it seems Mr Big Bully might have spoken to the palm oil commodities trader as well.

I didn’t take very long to figure out what might possibly account for my most unexpected change in fortune – the answer came in the form of Chan Sim (Mr Big Bully’s one and only love. His only daughter) who had decided to pay me a surprise visit. There I was working with the rest of the farm hands digging a giant hole in the ground. I had stripped right down to my underwear except for my belt which my revolver and parang slung from. It was after all hot as a furnace. And I was hell bent on finishing it off before sun down.

And there she was standing some distance away – Chan Sim – it’s hard to say how long she had stood there with her laced linen parasol, decked in a matching white dress and gloves. As its not unusual for me to lose myself whenever I am at work with my farmhands.

But as soon as our eyes met, I reckoned, Chan Sim must have been for a terribly long time. Long enough for her to realize that she had suddenly stumbled across a scene that she had probably never ever seen before in her life – a scene where a man works with his bare hands and revels in the honesty of sweat along with putting up as best he can with the aching pain that comes from muscles pushed to its limits. A scene that’s even hypnotic as it’s played out in a series of calming repetitions that involves a man shovelling dirt out of a hole – like one prayer bead slipping past another smoothly, till it reaches the very bead where it all began from – only to start all over again. A happy litany.

It would not be wrong for me to say that Chan Sim was embarrassed when I walked towards her in my naked sweaty state – as I approached her, she looked down abruptly to the left then to the right. And when she had runned out of places to hide her eyes from mine – her eyes locked on to mine. I realized in that one moment – she was at a lost. And as I looked on deeper beyond flesh, bone and into her mind. I could make out that I had somehow inadvertently invaded her hermetically sealed bubble – stepped right into that place even – overwhelmed her to the point where she was shaking like a leaf. Something had stirred in her. And now it had to simply work itself through her. Maybe it was the way the light had glinted off my sweaty body as I walked towards her that afternoon. Maybe I am just reading too much into it. It’s hard to say. But one thing is certain the daughter of Mr Big Bully had sensed my most primal thoughts when I first caught sight of her. In the briefest of moments. She had sensed that I wanted her. To be in her. She had seen that momentary weakness that afflicts 9 out of 10 men (and the one who denies it is a liar). She could see my desire. She knew I wanted to fuck her. To fuck her and split her in two halves if possible. It lasted only for one moment. A glint. a distant thunderclap. But she saw it. And that was all that mattered (as I shall explain later why).

When I came close. I was abrupt, slightly rude and even scolding in my tone, “this is no place for a woman…” Before I could complete my sentence – the only daughter of the one million hectare landowner stepped forward and ran her fingers through my hair with what I can only describe as a surreal air of complete detachment. It was as if she was in another world. Perhaps even saying good bye to all the memories of her past. One that was so very faraway. And in a whispering rush as if ushering a new dawn in her 41 years of age – the daughter of the million hectare landowner murmured ever so gently,

“You have dirt all over your hair.”

At that very moment from the corner of my eye – I caught sight of an ivory white landcruiser. Seated behind was Mr Big Bully and his one metric ton wife. They were both smiling ear to ear.

I realized then – I have to be more careful with my thoughts in future. I am after all playing a very dangerous game. A very dangerous game indeed.