Shroud: Jinn

14 - Endearment

I rested my hand on one side of Saleha's rosy cheeks and caressed my thumb on her face, "I won't stop you as long as Auntie Ning's happy. She needs all the happiness she can get now."

I laughed heartily as Saleha jumped at me and enveloped me in a suffocating bearhug, "Thank you, Baba! You're not going to ask me what the secret is?"

As much as I wanted to know what it was about, I wanted to raise her as someone who could be trusted.

"A secret's a secret. Guard it with your life."

"Okay, Baba. I like it when you're all smiles. Please don't be angry like last night," her smiled changed to a frown as she squeezed me tighter.

"What was I angry about?" I broke away from the hug gently and looked at her. It was strange that I had no recollection of the memory.

"You- you don't remember?" Saleha looked at me, perplexed and I slowly shook my head. Before I could question her, my stomach growled in hunger and Saleha got up excitedly. "Stay here. Close your eyes, Baba. I have a surprise for you! No peeking, okay?"

I chuckled lightly as I shut my eyes. I appreciated the change in subject. My head was throbbing from straining to remember things today. I heard her ran off and came back a few seconds later. My tummy rumbled louder as she held up something under my nose.

"Open your eyes!"

Saleha was holding a piece of lempeng kelapa, a traditional Malay thin and flat pancake made with grated coconut. She had spread a delicious amount of sambal tumis ikan bilis, anchovies sauteed in chilli paste on top like how one would spread jam on bread. I laughed quietly to myself. Saleha always had a different way of eating things. I was salivating at the sight and dusted my hands off hurriedly before reaching for the food.

"Uh uh uh," she shook her head as she held it further away from me. "Not before saying Bismillah (a simple prayer to express one's gratitude towards God before doing anything)."

I recited the full prayer before eating much to her delight and she passed the food over to me happily. Because she had placed the sauce dip all over the top of the lempeng, I folded the sides over inwards to make it into a neat square before I wolfed down everything in one big bite.

"Eat slowly, Baba!" she laughed as she wiped traces of the sauce from her hands onto her light green baju kurung, a traditional Malay two-piece long-sleeved enclosed dress.

"How many did Mama make?" I asked, rather hungrily as I made my way towards the house.

"Erm. She didn't make them. I did," she whispered.

"Is this your first time making it?"

She nodded, "I always helped Mama prepped and mixed the ingredients before but I never tried cooking it myself." I was surprised at how tasty the food was. She looked back at the master bedroom's window and then back at me before speaking, "Mama was in bed the whole day. She said she's sick."

Just then, Melati emerged from the front door with red blotchy eyes. A similar colour tinted her nose. There was puffiness around her eyes and the sides of her face looked damp under the sunny sky. She nervously took a step back and hunched down her shoulders. An inexplicable amount of anger bubbled in my chest. The more I looked at my wife, the more annoyed I became. I could not explain why.

Melati said meekly, "Sayang? (Dear?)" Even the sound of her voice was vexing. "Have you eaten? I can...cook something."

I needed an excuse to get away from Melati and my mind immediately thought of Ning's baby. "I'm visiting the Chui family. Ning just gave birth to a baby girl."

"Can I follow?" Saleha asked.

"Of course," I smiled at my daughter. It was hard to say no to her.

"I'll change," Melati said, her voice perking up, implying that she wanted to follow us.

"No, you stay here," my voice changed drastically to a stern tone.

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"Why are we giving Auntie Ning green papayas? They're not ripe," Saleha wobbled beside me as she struggled to carry a weave-cane basket full of green papayas.

Initially, I planned to give Ning an assortment of fruits but the market was closed. It was a last-minute visit, I had to admit, but I did not want to come empty-handed so we harvested them ourselves.

"Green papayas are good for new mothers. You can make soup out of them. Babies get more milk from mommies too. But don't ever give unripe papayas to pregnant women."

"Why not?"

I tried to simplify the scientific terms in my head, "Let's just say eating those will harm the baby inside them."

"Oh, wow. Fruits can do that?"

"Some." I stopped walking to let Saleha catch up with me. I held out a hand and pointed to the basket. "Are you sure you don't want me to help you with that?"

"I am sssss-strong!" Saleha trudged awkwardly behind as she heaved the basketful of papayas in her arms.

I hid back my grin, "I know you are. It's okay for strong people to ask for help sometimes."

"I need to be strong. What if you die one day when I'm still young? What if Mama dies? Who's going to take care of me and the new baby?"

"Hush. Enough of this sad talk. I'll be all old, wrinkly and grey but I'll still be chasing you in a game of tag with my walking cane." Saleha giggled gleefully as I scooped her up in my arms along with the basket of papayas in her lap. "This settles it! Since you're not letting me carry the basket, I'll carry you instead!"

"This is cheating!" Saleha squealed, tickling from amusement.

"Is it? You're still carrying the basket." I laughed. "Remember this, Saleha. No matter how old you are, no matter if you're all wrinkly and grey yourself, you will still be my little girl in my eyes. My little princess. As long as I'm still alive, I'm going to take care of you, okay?"

I lifted my head from Saleha's face and paused for a second when I caught a glimpse of a faint outline of a woman walking towards our direction. A mere millisecond later, the woman's shadow walked away from us hurriedly and disappeared into another part of the forest. It almost looked like Mak Bidan. I recognised the clothes that she was in earlier. I craned my neck to have a better look but the figure was gone.

"Hey! It's that old lady that came to our house yesterday!" Saleha pointed out. "Where is she going in a hurry?"

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A/N: In Asian culture, it is common for people to refer to elders as an Uncle or an Auntie regardless if they are related or not.

In this chapter, Saleha referred to Ning as Auntie Ning, Geming as Uncle Geming but she is not related to them in any way. Mustaqim kept referring to them as Auntie Ning and Uncle Geming too when speaking to Saleha so as not to cause any confusion. Same goes for Auntie Lechmi.

Hope it's not confusing! 

P/S: I adore writing father-daughter moments like these. We rarely see Saleha. It's a nice break from seeing too much Kamsaton too. Hahaha! I see that the young midwife has garnered a lot of wrath from some of you. *Giggles*

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CREDITS:

Background Music: Myuu - Cursed Stories

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/LSWlcqRn01E

Channel Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSKnkKCKAQVxMUWpZQobuQ