Sam and Kaya
A Children’s Day story
By Oculus
~
Kaya was feeling a little scared. According to the teacher, today was a special day for the hummeh babbehs, and as such, the children were going on an excursion to the fluffy daycare. Apparently, the name of this bright time was “Hummeh Babbeh Bwite Time” (or Children’s Day in the normal vernacular) Kaya had never seen so many babbehs of the hummeh kind in one place. She had seen these babbehs before, some as chirpies, and some a bit bigger, but usually they were one or two, and would accompany the foal they owned to the daycare. But today, an entire crowd had come to visit the foals in the humble daycare.
“Play nice with the foals! Remember that they’re smaller than you!!”
There were so many different kinds of hummehs in the room. Some were bright skinned, some were dark skinned. A few had a little red spot on their forehead, and at least one or two boys wore a funny clothes-fluff on their head known as a turban. They were a rather excitable bunch, but these children ere picked for this excusion because they didn’t own fluffies. Thus, and as one of the enrichment initiatives at Liu Chan Primary School, a large cohort of these Primary 5 children were to spend a day with the foals at the Geylang Fluffy Daycare. The foals that were also picked for this event qere unique – almost all the foals like Kaya were abandoned or ferals that were caught and were rehabilitated. The more obedient and intelligent of the fluffies were being prepared for adoption, or to serve as community fluffies for specific venues.
Kaya was a little scared. Who was she going to talk to first? The boy with a turban? The girl who was speaking Mandarin? The girl who was serving bandung to some of the foals, something that they had never tried before?
“Hewwo, fwen.”
Kaya could recognize the unmistakeable sound of fluffspeak. But it was coming from a large shadow. She turns around, and sees a smiling young boy with bright eyes and nicely combed hair. His pants were up a bit too high, but he seemed somewhat trustworthy.
“Hewwo,” he said again, as he introduced himself, “Hummeh am Sam.”
Kaya was taken aback. She had seen a few children speaking fluffspeak before, but mostly for fun. However, Sam was a unique case. Sam was suffering from fluffspeak syndrome. He started speaking Fluffspeak in place of normal English when he was in Primary Three, and while he was excellent in Mandarin, Mathematics and Science, his barely could pass his English. Despite the various remedial classes he attended almost weekly, the most that he could manage was addressing himself as “hummeh” instead of “fwuffy”. Itw as a slight bit of progress, but not enough as the adults around him feared.
Kaya, feeling a bit more calm, replied with “Fwuffy am Kaya.”
“Dat am a nice namesie!” said Sam, as he explained, “Hummeh wub kaya for bewkfass.”
“Kaya wub Kaya too!” exclaimed Kaya.
~
Sam and Kaya went to a more secluded place in the daycare to talk. Sam didn’t like being around the other children, especially those in his class, as he was still attending remedial classes for his Fluffspeak.
“Fwuffy hab a mummah ow daddeh?” asked Sam.
Kaya shook her head as she explained, “Fwuffy neva knu mummah ow daddeh. Fwuffy onwy knu skuul an’ skuul-mummah.”
“Wut am wike ta wive in da skuuw?”
“It am funsies! Udda fwuffies wub ta pway baww, an’ bwockies, an’ chapteh!”
“Hummeh wub chapteh! Hummeh can bouncie chapteh on weggie for ova ten secondies!”
Kaya’s eyes were wide open, as she said, “Nu wei!”
Sam smiled, as he took out the chapteh in his pocket. He proceeds to bounce the chapteh on his left hand. Kaya counts up to ten, as some foals can, but she struggles past the eleventh second. Sam keeps going, as he knows that he can go for a full minute.
“Yay! Gu Sam gu!!”
“Hey, retard.”
Sam stopped. As the chapteh fell on to the floor, Kaya turned around, and saw that the insult came from a big boy about Sam’s age. He was chubby, but definitely had some strength to him. On each of his two shoulders was a foal, and one was in the palm of his hand, and there was even one in his front pocket. He was Ah Siong, also known as Louis. Louis was the cool kid off the class, and apparently he was also cool around the foals. But there was a something a bit darker to Louis, especially in his demand to Sam.
“You heard me, retard. I want that fluffy over there.”
“But Wuis awweady hab su many fwuffies.”
“Das wite,” noted Kaya, as she mentioned, ‘Fwuffy habbing nice tawkies wif Sam, and ‘ou awweady hab su many fwens wif ‘ou.”
“Well Sam is the class retard. You’re cute and he’s not,” explained Louis, as he turned his eyes to Sam, demanding, “Let me play with that foal. You’re not smart enough for them.”
“Weave me awone.”
“Yeah, weave Sam awone!”
Sighing, Louis whispered to the other foals to “Hang on tight.” In one quick movement, Louis rushes towards Sam, and throws himself on it. As he pins Sam on the ground, he says, “How many times do I have do this to you.”
Sam started to cry. Whenever Louis did this to him, it was usually when a teacher wasn’t around. He desperately called for help, but there was no one to answer him.
However, Kaya who ahd seen what happened, quickly ran as fast as she could to the foyer. There, she recognized her teacher, Mrs Lee talking to one of the school teacher from the primary school. Panting after a frantic run, an exasperated Kaya tapped on Lee’s legs.
“Kaya, whats wrong?”
“Hummeh babbeh am getting wowstest huwties!”
~
Sam was in the nurse’s office of the daycare. He wasn’t badly hurt, but he was still crying. A nurse had tended to few cuts he had and had already bandaged him up. Not too far from them, Louis had been placed in isolation. While he was known for being a bully, he was getting a much harsher punishment of not being allowed around the fluffies for the rest of the day.
Sam couldn’t stop crying. It wasn’t just the pain that was bothering him, it was the fact that he was always bullied. If it wasn’t Louis, it would be someone else who would make fun of him for his inability to speak proper English.
Kaya was thinking what was the best way to console Sam. She tries a song.
“Put da wite hoof in, take da wite hoof ow,
Put da wite hoof in, and ‘ou shake it aww abow,
Da da Hokey Pokey, and ‘ou turn fwuffy abow, das wut its aww abow!”
Sam recognized the Hokey pokey. The song didn’t make him happy at first, but it was a song his mother sung to him, as well as the therapist. It calmed him a little, as he followed the motions of the Hokey Pokey. As both Sam and Kaya did the song, Sam’s sobs start to ease a little.
After a while, Kaya asked, “Hummeh feew betta?”
Sam said, “A bit.”
The rest of the day went well for Sam and Kaya. After lunch, Sam and Kaya spent the last few hours of the day talking about all kinds of things. Like what each of themw ere learning at their different schools, what they loved to eat, and what was their favourite things. But alas, it was coming to the end of the enrichment lesson.
“Sam hab da biggest saddies,” said Sam. He was feeling tearful again, but it was not the same asadness as he was experiencing from Louis.
“Fwuffy knu,” said Kaya. She was feeling sad too, having bonded with a human who talked a lot like her.
“Sam dunno,” Sam stammered, as he tried to explain, “Sam dunno ib’ Sam wiww eba meet Kaya fwen egen.”
“Sam.”
Kaya sounded a little serious. In an instance like this, Sam wouldn’t know if he was going to get scolded, or insulted yet. He feebly asks, “Yus?”
“Sam, ou’ am speshuw. Fwuffy hab biggest scawedies todae, but Sam am da hummeh who fwuffy hab nicest tawkies wif. Even ib fwuffy wiww neba meet Sam fwen egen, fwuffy wiww awways memba Sam fwen.”
Despite the tears, Sam smiled when he heard that. Kaya stood on her hind legs, and stretched out her fore limbs as she said, “Gib huggies?”
And while Kaya was still ana doelscent foal, and thus not big enough to give a complete hug, Sam too carried Kaya up to his face, and let the foal hug him.
~
Many years passed. A young Seng Kim Hwee, also known as Sam, was visiting the Arts faculty of the National University of Technology in Singapore (or NUTS). He had long overcome his inability to learn proper English, though he would occasionally joke in fluffspeak with his peers. Nonetheless, Sam was able to finish his schooling at the GCE “O” and “A” Levels. After a brief stint serving as a storeman in the Singapore Armed Forced, he was now spending his first semester at the University, pursuing a degree in engineering. But he wanted to visit the Arts Faculty, because he heard the canteen had some really good food.
As he walked along the many meandering paths, he passed by the Philosophy department. One of the professors was given a talk.
“I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat. Yet if I try to imagine this, I am restricted to the resources of my own mind, and those resources are inadequate to the task. I cannot perform it either by imagining additions to my present experience, or by imagining segments gradually subtracted from it, or by imagining some combination of additions, subtractions, and modifications.”
Walking by, Sam noted to himself “That’s a degree I’ll never take.”
Just then, he heard something rather unmistakeable.
“Hewwo Pwofessor Woy! Hewwo Pwofessor Awex!”
It was an unmistakeable sound of fluffspeak, but the voice was familiar. Sam saw two philosophy professors, one a bespectacled Chinese man with a beer belly, and the other an ang moh woman who had shaved her hair. But the fluffy on the ground was of a familiar brown-green colour.
“Hello, Kaya! How are you doing today?”
“Oh, fwuffy feew fine.”
There’s no way, thought Sam. Perhaps its just a coincidence, thought Sam. After all, there were many fluffies like Kaya in Singapore.
“Sam?”
Sam’s eyes were wide open. Kaya was a much older fluffy, as fluffies age a much more rapid pace than humans did. But somehow, and after so many years, and even in her capacity as a community fluffy for the Philosophy Department at NUTS, Kaya could still recognize the friend she made all those years ago.
“Kaya? Is that you?!”
“It am!!”
As both Sam and Kaya reunited, the young man felt he was child over again, spending time with a friend he once knew in that brief moment owe call childhood.
~
Oculus would like to wish everyone at Fluffycommunity a Happy Children’s Day.
this is soo good. 
very cute!
