While I was out shopping for some groceries this morning, a text message came in from an unfamiliar number. It was from Rozi, Sofie’s older sister who is now taking care of Sofie’s children. According to her, Ika, Sofie’s yougest child, was hospitalised for dengue.
So this afternoon I decided to pay them a visit at the hospital. As usual, I went up the stairs instead of using the lift, furthermore Ika is warded at the paediatric ward which is on the 6th floor, 2 less than the usual 8th floor when any of my clients were warded.
When I got to the entrance of the ward, I looked at the list of patients to find out where Ika’s bed was. I got in and immediately went to the bed where Ika was supposed to be, but I saw a baby instead. That definitely wasn’t Ika. So I had to do a bed to bed search, and finally I heard somebody calling, “Kak Fizah!” It was Rozi. Ika just smiled. Also there was Rozi’s eldest son.
Ika was on drips, and she was complaining of pain. Rozi had already bought 100 plus for Ika, but from what I saw, the girl didn’t drink much. I told her she’d need to drink more if she wanted to get well soon.
Since I hadn’t been visiting them for quite a while, I took the opportunity to ask Rozi of the children’s latest updates. The eldest boy, Azlan, seemed to be doing quite well in IKM. He comes home to Rozi’s house every weekend. The 3rd boy, Saiful (the boy with the thick glasses, remember?) is in form 3 and will be sitting for his PMR this year. I asked Rozi if he needed any tuition for any particular subjects, but Rozi said it’s very difficult to get feedback from Saiful. It’s always, “Entah”, “tak tau lagi” or “belum dapat keputusan”. And apparently he had also skipped school a few times without Rozi’s knowledge, but in the end Rozi found out about it. One time he came home without wearing his glasses, and when Rozi asked, he said he “saja simpan dalam beg”. Rozi knew immediately he must have broken his glasses or something, and finally after being pressured by Rozi, Saiful admitted, 2 boys in his class bullied him and ended up breaking the frame of his glasses.
Rozi’s 2nd son ended up going to the school to meet the counselling teacher, and when the 2 boys were called and admitted what they did, Rozi’s son insisted that they pay for new frames for Saiful’s glasses.
I am not quite sure if it is the bullying that’s making Saiful skip school a few times. I do know for a fact that he too isn’t into academics, just like his brothers. He did seem interested when I asked him some time back if he’d be interested to join a vocational school in form 4. Let’s see how it goes after his PMR…
Remember Sofie’s second son, Azman, the boy who went to the culinary school? I told Rozi that the boy did indeed complete his level 2 certificate of his kitchen practice course. Rozi had all the while thought Azman didn’t complete the course because he was always at his other aunt’s house in another town.
Rozi had news for me too. Azman is no longer staying with that aunt. For whatever reason, he was chased out of the house. Before this it was that aunt who asked Azman to stay with her. Rozi had all along suspected that her sister had “financial reasons” for wanting Azman to stay with him. Based on what happened earlier on when Sofie was still alive, I tend to believe so too. At that time Azman was still getting the monthly Tabung Kemahiran loan into his bank account. Now that he has completed his course, no more fixed monthly amount is going into his account.
Azman could have gone back to his aunt Rozi and apologize. But did he? No he didn’t. Knowing the boy, his ego wouldn’t let him do so.
For the moment I can only hope that the boy will change for the better. Soon.
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