Rainchild & the River of Kings

By Janeiro Star

Strewn underneath the photos are eight pieces of torn crumpled paper of a light green color with black marker scribbles in a clear zip bag. "This is really weird", Suray says to herself. She needs to piece up the papers together in order to read the torn scribbles. Those crumpled pieces need to be unraveled and smoothed out by one. The patching up of the pieces is time consuming. She has to get up to her room to find cellophane tape. Eventually the patched up pieces bear these wordings:

Meet me near the bridge. If we were really destined to meet. I'll be by the river.

Well, well, well....what is that supposed to mean? It feels frustratingly crappy. Where on earth could the bridge be? On top of all that, there are so many rivers in the world. Who wrote this in the first place? It didn't seem like a recognizable handwriting to Suray. Why did the mysterious writer tear the paper into pieces yet keep it in a trunk like a cherished possession. Everything just doesn't make sense. The writer tore the paper to some pieces as if to diminish a secret yet decide not to eliminate it? To whom actually the message on the torn paper is intended?

If the writer is her father, it is too late to pursue any possible meet up because he's dead. Perished in the fire by the river of Siam was as told by his uncle Razief, who happens to be her father's twin brother. In silence, she couldn't help feeling and thinking that there is a tiny weeny ounce of possibility that her father is somehow still roaming the Earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781482897906

Janeiro Star

Janeiro Star, a January born child, was born and raised in the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. This book draws inspiration from her real-life experiences of being the grandchild of a police station chief in Kuala Lumpur, and encounter with people in her life who has episodes of having intuition guide them throughout their life. Graduated with a Bachelor of Legal Studies from MARA University of Technology (UiTM) in 2009, she lives with her three children and her other half in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Since 2012, Janeiro Star has been writing professionally as a ghost writer for certain organisations and concept script writer for children shows. She is a freelance translator as well, and once used to be a teacher. She continues to be passionate about traveling, reading, music and pets.

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Copyright © 2014 by Janeiro Star.

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4828-9789-0

ISBN: Softcover  978-1-4828-9788-3

ISBN: eBook       978-1-4828-9790-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

To order additional copies of this book, contact

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

It isn’t often that one comes across a book written in an original style that is heartfelt and earnest. Most authors prefer to emulate their published forebears. Not Janeiro Star. And that alone is enough reason to make her book a gem. Easy to pick up and read but amusingly difficult to put down.

—Ahmad Faiz Abdul Rahman,

former News Editor of New Straits Times and Writing Coach

for PETRONAS’ Corporate Affairs Skill Group.

Storytelling at its best, . . . the book incorporates traditional & historical folktales from South East Asia and other countries as a cultural context for a search of reality based on intuition. The author cleverly shared the mysterious journey in suspense, and peppered her thoughts with contemporary references such as EverNote, iPhone5, Anthony Bourdain, Psy’s Gangnam Style, Sandy Hook tragedy, FourSquare sites, Chris Louboutin’s stilettos, etc. to stimulate readers’ curiosity with her rich GloCal (GLObal perspectives/universal interests, and LoCAL wisdom) tacit knowledge.

Dr. Ronny Adhikarya

ex-FAO/United Nations Representative & Retiree,

The World Bank

In fond memory of Niniey, Bruno, Che’ Tart, Bernie,

Latt, Manggis, Fluffy, Catbert, Pushkin,

River Guy and Quincy.

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear,

too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice,

but for those who love, time is eternity."

—Henry van Dyke

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A zillion thanks to Zeeman, you’re my rock that rocks! A friend like you is truly a treasure. Special thanks to Ahmad Faiz Abdul Rahman, a coach writer with a great voice. Special thanks to Dr. Ronny Adhikarya, with my warmest thoughts to you at San Francisco. My gratitude to Dato’ Sulaiman Md. Yassin and Datin NoorRohani. Thanks to Mr. Scott Eddy for some inspirational tweets and insights on Bangkok. My love to Mama Miah. Last but not the least, much love to my three and a half precious human pets. To those who support me where ever you are, my warm thanks to you too.

CHAPTER 1

THE UNVEILING DREAM AT THE ATTIC

Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. If you put the wrong pieces where they’re not meant to be fitted, it will not be completed. A jigsaw puzzle is based on a given image or a picture. What about trying to complete a highly complicated jigsaw puzzle that does not have any specific image as a guide?

Imagine putting together a jigsaw puzzle without even having the full picture on the box. Sounds like a perfectly crazy idea. Obviously there is an image which forms the basis but conventionally there’s no way to say for sure what it is.

There’s always a loophole in the conventional way of things when it comes to viewing something in a different light. The unnamed image is implanted into your subconscious mind, time after time, lingering to be deciphered. A solo excursion into uncharted waters. A ridiculous quest, yet it is not a jest. At times, greatness will come in ridiculous forms.

The highly complicated jigsaw puzzle is based on a series of blurry sketches, yet beneath the sketches are hidden clues. The sketches are in shreds and you have got to painstakingly compile the shredded sketches, configure the connections, keep refitting them till the right pieces join together. Pretty much a daunting task.

The pieces of the puzzle are all around you, orbiting your subconscious realm, urging a special someone with an uncanny ability to see things beyond the ordinary, to be the mastermind capable of putting the pieces together. The image is blurry but as time unfolds with the patching up of the signs and incidents; it will all point into a destined direction.

Pursuing the lingering unknown. The unknown that wants to be known.

Eventually, it isn’t just a finished product of an image, it serves as a series of codes, a modus operandi of a rare ability. When you have completed it, you’re truly set to be the master of the game. That will be the quest of Thurayya ‘Suray’ Gibran; the quest to complete a baffling puzzle that has been plaguing her ever since she was a child. The constant duel between logic and intuition… .

To see things in the seed, that is genius. ~ Lao Tzu.

It is a cloudy and windy morning of September 19th 2012. The surrounding clouds seem like soggy floating marshmallow puffs with varying shades of gray and blue, fused with scattered streaks of sunlight across the yonder. The sun shines reluctantly that very morning.

Thunderclaps booming occasionally in the background. With Dr. Dre Beats earphones plugged into her ears, a blue Deuter backpack strapped on while clutching her pet cat cage in her right hand, Thurayya takes one last look at her apartment unit. Inhaling a deep breath, she steps out to the open.

Feeling jaded, she is all set to go on a solo excursion to her favorite private sanctuary: the attic of her late grandfather’s bungalow house. It’s been awhile since the last time she was there. Right about now, her inner turmoil is brewing up a storm within her, intoxicating her with grim thoughts. Her battle with the enigmatic puzzle that has been plaguing her is too much for her to handle.

She has gone great lengths to understand her strange abilities, her uncanny intuition. For many years, she tried very hard to kill off her intuition pertaining to some unsolved matters about her late father. She coaxes her heart not to harbor suspicion, learn to live with the embitterment. It would have been easy to quieten the suspicion if it is not due to the persistent intuition intervention.

A short and crude letter of confession she received just recently from a dying relative confirms that her long harbored suspicion is indeed valid. A case closed on one hand, at a cost of her sanity. It is not however a simple situation of a case being closed; it opens up an entire floodgate of possibilities. It goes to show her time and again, she shouldn’t underestimate her intuition. Too bad there’s no manual on how to train one’s intuition. Is it a gift or a curse?

It’s timely for her to retreat from the world for an undisclosed time. She really could use some time off to set things right after her world these days started to turn upside down. What she craves most is the quest for truth. But the truth that she seeks is hard to come by. She really needs to be on a getaway.

The attic is a perfect solitary confinement for her in time of crisis. The attic serves as her mini art studio as well. Suray adds her personal touch to the attic with the wooden spiral staircase from time to time, turning it from a plain dusty space into a cozy cabin with a contemporary touch.

The attic-cum-mini-art studio is a fixture of the single story half-wooden bungalow house, raised from the ground with light yellow colored concrete pillars. The bungalow house has a dark blue colored roof, bluish gray coat and an embellished yellow stone staircase decorated with glazed tiles that her paternal grandfather bought from a Bugis merchant from Makassar city known as Pak Haji.

The house is located in a neighborhood that is smack right in the middle of the heart of Kuala Lumpur, or commonly known as KL. It is a village amidst the city known as ‘Kampung Baru’, which literally means ‘New Village’. The iconic Twin Towers of Petronas, the tallest twin structures in the world and KL Tower, one of the tallest communication towers, seem like just a stone’s throw away. Always looming in the background, vamp up the skyline amidst a number of wooden houses in stilts. Her late father who was an avid photographer, must have liked to snap such contrasting backdrops.

Her late grandfather, Naufal Ghiffari, was not one of the settlers nor a resident of the famed neighborhood in KL. He just fell in love with the oldest Malay residential area in KL which happens to be a foodie heaven as well. Kampung Baru had been featured in Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations during his culinary visit to KL.

The New York born Chef cum travel channel host and author sampled some Malay traditional food like Cencaluk (fermented shrimp) and Gulai Nangka (Jackfruit curry) with rice serving in this Malay enclave. A famous signature dish of a special porridge known as Bubur Lambuk Agong, was declared by Malaysian Tourism Minister, Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen as a tourism icon recently.

The bungalow house that was named Villa Ilham by Suray’s paternal grandfather, at first glance, doesn’t strike like an expensive piece of property. However, there is a certain undeniable charm to the bungalow house. It is hard to pass by along Jalan Hamzah of Kampung Baru without noticing the house. It is modest, yet commands attention. Villa Ilham has the aura of a home that was built with love and dreams resulting in a much cherished legacy. It is definitely not just a house made of walls and beams. It is aptly named too. Villa Ilham bears the meaning of the ‘Inspiration Villa’.

There’s one outstanding feature about the bungalow house that makes it unique compared to the others in the neighborhood; it has a steel sided garage with shutters. Suray adorned the inner walls of the garage with graffiti artwork of her own rendition of ‘SimCity’. A mass graffiti of a massive lake snaking through urban suburbs and its skyline marred with unique looking skyscrapers. People travel around in a transparent domed spaceships, like in The Jetsons. Her grandfather’s red Jaguar car and a white Volkswagen van are kept in the garage with shutters.

While checking her mailbox underneath her apartment stairs, a purring furry thing rubbed against her jeans. Looking downwards, Suray sees the gorgeous Siamese cat that used to belong to her neighbor, left behind when the owners bailed on the poor creature. Suray adopted the cat with the dark brown ears and blue eyes and named the cat Pancheko, after the Pachinko pinball craze in Japan.

Pancheko loves playing with small bouncing balls so much. She displays an infectious tide of zest in chasing the balls. Eagerly awaits for another throw, another chase. Bruno, her beloved pet cat will join Pancheko and her kids love the sight of entertaining felines very much. The playtime with cats that her kids enjoy is one of those little things in life that she loves. Those little things that you can’t put price on; happy moments which are priceless.

Hi Pancheko! I won’t be around for some time. I didn’t forget your treats. Here, as promised.

Suray pours a hill of dried cat food in front of the spunky feline. Bonding with cats is something that is so natural to her. Maybe it runs in her family. Her late mom Delima was like the ‘Mother Theresa’ of cats. Her mom took the trouble to nurse sick cats and fed the strays. Her late father used to keep many pedigree cats at one time and so did her maternal grandparents.

Suray opens the back door of ‘Sarge’, a dark blue Isuzu Trooper to get the rain repellent spray stashed in a small red rectangular plastic container. ‘Sarge’ was so named by Suray’s toddler son, Jay.

Thanks to Cars by Pixar and Disney, many cars, tow trucks and trailers have names. Bruno, her pet cat that she loves to death is tucked in the passenger seat. The back of the trooper is decorated with a checkered green and red mat with two red Ashley Miles pillows and a bright blue fold-able table. The idea of having to drive the manual four wheel drive vehicle to get to her private sanctuary is not her cup of tea but that’s the viable choice of transportation that is available to her right now.

Her Citroen car broke down when she was breaking down; and now at the mercy of the mechanics. She doesn’t want to waste money renting a car nor does she feel like hopping on a light railway transit (LRT) train like she frequently does. The Trooper is actually the prized possession of Alif Rao, her companion of twelve years. She is grateful that Alif allows her to drive around ‘Sarge’. It was a jerky and bumpy ride, with expletives during the first time Suray tried to maneuver the four wheeler around their neighborhood.

It took a while to get used to gear shifting. If she really had it her way right now, she would love to be speed driving in a Batmobile; that would be her dream car.

She sprays the rain repellent on the Trooper’s windshield while humming to the tune of Wonderland by the Croatian pianist, Maksim. It’s a lovely and lively tune that she loves to listen in the morning other than ‘The Flight Of The Bumblebee’ to kick-start her day.

To her there’s always something mystical about the piano and organ sounds. While busy spraying and wiping the windshield, she sees a swallow fly by. The rare sight of a gorgeous bluish gray swallow brings some joy to her heart.

A fair little boy in a beige and blue uniform bolts out from a red Honda Civic and runs toward Suray not long after the sighting of the swallow. Suray recognizes the boy well enough. She turns off her iPod and embraces the boy. It is Abilassh, who is always her favorite pupil while she was teaching at a kindergarten in Petaling Jaya or commonly known as PJ. Suray quit her teaching job in an English medium kindergarten in February.

Hi teacher! It’s me!

The quiet Abilassh is always animated when he is around his favourite teacher.