Dear Malay Girl..

How was your day at the beach today? Did you meet anyone interesting?

I hope you haven’t been bothering your old mother too much with your child-like pranks. I could see that she was very upset about the fake snake you’d keep throwing at her in the ferry the other day. Sometimes, my younger brother and I troubled our mother like that too. I guess some things never get old, no matter how old you get. I was surprised to discover that you were 18 years old, not because that’s too old an age to play pranks, but just because you look so much older! I guess another thing that misleads me into believing you were older was that you were working at the food shacks. I meant to ask, do you like working? It must be nice to work with your family, and to also live with your parents, cousins, uncles and aunts in one building. But you seemed so excited at sunset the other day to be going home, that I wondered if you’d rather spend your day doing other things.

Oh and thank you for letting my friends and me ride with you and your family on your ferry. If it wasn’t for you guys, we might have had to spend the night with the monkeys at the beach! It gave us an excuse to get to know more about your life. And we got to see the fishing village near your home too, which was an amazing experience for us city people.  

Anyways, I just wanted to tell you what a fabulous and optimistic person you are, and that it was a real pleasure to meet you! You are one of those few people I’ve met who are happy with their lives, and if more people were like you, the world would be so much more content.  If I ever come to Penang, I’ll visit you at Monkey Beach. This time, maybe you could talk to me. If nothing else, I’d love to know your name.