A Short Story Menara Impian

---

 .
"Hamdan, you are already in standard four and you can’t even read. Don’t you ever practise reading at home?”

Hamdan answered with a hoarse voice and his red angry eyes glued to the floor. “ I have no time to read, I have to take care of buffaloes all afternoon or my father will beat me. "

"You could read at night” Said the teacher.

"The night is dark, how do you read?" Hamdan replied harshly.

"Don’t you have a lamp in the house?”

"Yes. My father brought one to inspect his tobacco leaves to make sure they are not eaten up by  moth or else we  have no leaves  to sell.  How do we get money to buy rice and milk for my little sister ?. Mother use another lamp to work in the kitchen and look after my siblings"

"You only have two lamps?” The teacher asked again

"Three, but father do not allow us to light up the other one. He said there is not enough money to buy kerosene. We are poor. We must save ". Hamdan replied full of anger and bitterness.

Faridah told the story repeatedly to her children  advising them again and again, although she realized that they were sometimes  annoyed. But as a mother she had to do what she could for her children’s future.

Excerpt from my short story,  "Menara Impian", published in a compilation of short stories Murka Lautan, ITBM,2015. 
A SHORT STORY DEPICTING MY COUNTRY AND MY PEOPLE IN 1960. 


"A JOURNEY THROUGH PROSE AND POETRY", Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka: 44,45).

---