Corporal... the best is take one day at a time... Don't think too much... just live slowly... women come and go, Corporal...
It was Meng Ann's voice. I looked at him for a while and studied his face. Meng Ann's mother died when he was five, and his father used to beat hum. That was how he became the leader of his gang. His back was covered with a large dragon that covered his body. There was a snake on his chest, and he wore a Buddha on his neck. He had a scar on his left cheek, and wrinkles round his eyes. He looked 10 years older than his 18 years. His eyes were stone, which saw through everything and sliced them like a razor. He had a sharp perception and kept quiet at all times.
Meng Ann treated me with respect because I respected him. He was the most outstanding soldier in the platoon. His section-mates looked at him in awe. He was fit, a marksman and very hardworking... he knew the jungle like the back of his hands, and once led the whole platoon to company line during training in Thailand. He was also a good runner and performed brilliantly in infantry skills.
In short, he was a better soldier than I was.
Meng Ann never had a family and spent his life in total darkness. The gang were his only friends, yet they fought amongst themselves. The cuts and bruises of his body said it all. It was a body that had seen real gore. Real suffering.
He was far more educated because he knew what it was to be stripped of nothing and to be nothing.
Meng Ann... tell me the truth... why do you respect me?...
We were still on the bus. He threw his cigarette out of the window... and took some time to answer.
Because you're good hearted. Very hard to find...
He answered in dialect and didn't speak anymore...
I was moved. I felt I didn't deserve it. But I knew better than to resist it.
-Excerpt of All Broken Up and Dancing by Kelvin Tan (1992)
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