Catfight

Unexpected the holding off of rain the entire afternoon. Perhaps it had been carried over to the East, toward Pulau Ubin and Mersing. Every likelihood again of a downpour within the half hour, but that had been the expectation at least two or three times earlier in the day. Before going out for lunch, while there had still been clear skies overhead, some kind of disturbance on the street below perhaps twenty or thirty metres away had carried up to the room. From the vantage on the third floor the narrow street was only visible directly in front; the option of opening the window and leaning out had not occurred at the time. What was transpiring down along Meldrum over toward the mall was judged by the reactions of the woman from the corner store come out to observe the event. The lady had taken a few steps forward in the direction of the disturbance, planting herself firmly with arms crossed on her chest and craning a little as the action shifted before her. There was clearly much to see. Initially there had been loud, bitten-off shouts and a couple of short percussive claps of stricken flesh. That was soon over; for the remainder it was the woman’s movements and eager attention that hinted at what might be transpiring. At one point the woman’s husband, or employee he may have been, came out to look too. The pair of them away from their shop, however, was unwise and the man was soon sent back indoors with a little chin wag from the lady. It was precisely disturbances such as these that thieves found advantageous. The man behind, the woman’s husband or employee, initially only stepped back a couple of paces in order to check on the indoors; before a few moments later withdrawing entirely. The fellow knew better than to completely disregard a directive from this lady. No police sirens or other interventions forthcoming. There was a large police centre just a hundred metres away down in the opposite direction toward the water. Hooligans and street brawlers here might expect a cuff behind the ears, or boot up the bottom at least, notwithstanding the Malaysia Bahru — the New Malaysia. (It made policing and keeping the peace easier, it was generally agreed.) Reform in the new political set-up would take some time. On one of the earlier stays here at Meldrum Hotel a memorable catfight had taken place on the street involving a couple of the Viet ladies who patronized the double-fronted Chinese eatery on the other side of the street. At that eatery the old local crocs were pampered by the painted ladies who drank with them, massaged their tired limbs while the men sat in the red plastic chairs and milked them for all they were worth. The ructions on that particular occasion had been sighted just at the point when the pair of women had reached a temporary stasis with a clump of each other’s hair making any further movement excruciating. The picture had reminded of footage from the wild where beasts took a grip of each other and the kill that followed remained at that point still suspended and uncertain. Usually Jalan Meldrum was a quiet, sleepy strip. What the quarter had been in the earlier era could only be guessed.