BUANASENI

PENDULUM

By Jo Haq

25 March 2024

6:08 am

THE PENDULUM, that was the focus of my dream, at least that was what Tun was interested about, "Say what? Tun, what do you mean?"

Tun looked at me with his fierce pair of eyes and uttered, "Look at the bitch's face will you. See how satisfied she is. It is as if she has discovered the secret of the Universe. That nasty bitch!"

I looked at Margaret who was sitting on a red-white-blue stripped sofa, with a stupid grin on her face like a crazy female Joker. Tun made his way to Margaret walking slowly but steadily in his grey bush jacket. He greeted, "Madam Thatcher, how do you do?"

"Ahhh! Mahathir! How nice of you to come visit me here. I am bored sitting on this red-white stripped sofa."

"If you do not mind me asking, from a distance, I hear the tick tock of a clock radiating from this rediculous sofa of yours. What is that sound?"

"Ahah! That is the sound of my policies. Hear it! What do you hear?"

I took the opportunity to say something while walking towards them after Tun had, "We heard a tick tock of a clock from that beautiful sofa of yours"

"Don't be a hypocrite boy! Tell the bitch the sofa looks ugly", scolded Tun while staring at me, again, with his pair of big fierce eyes, only this time accompanied by a big ridiculous nose.

"Well, I am sure this boy has better EQ than you Mahathir. Let him say the good things about my sofa", says Margaret. "So, boy, what do you think it means, .... my tick tocking sofa?"

"Well, errr... "

"Shut the fuck up will you boy", says Tun while kneeling to see underneath the sofa. I too find myself kneeling to have a look at what was under the sofa, only to be distracted by Margaret's old ugly legs swinging by the edge of the floating sofa with no shadows on the floor, if there was any floor at all. "Look! Look! I see now".

"See what Tun?"

"The arm of the pendulum. It is long, longer than one would expected. When it is long, the sway takes longer time, accumulating stronger momentum, hence producing a slower but more powerful sound of tick tock".

I observed. There was a golden pendulum swaying from left to right, and right to left, making a ticking sound that irritated my ears. "Okay, I see it. But I have no idea what the yardstick would be to conclude that it is longer than what one would imagine"

"You young punks know nothing about the tick tocks of a clock's pendulum. All you do is just play with the Chinese TikTok", grumbled the old Tun.

"Mahathir, my dear friend, my pendulum is made of cast iron and plated with gold. Its density is solid and that gives a wonderful velocity to its tick tock. It is very much like the solid move of a big ship. The bigger the ship, the stronger its inertia. Ain't no one gonna stop the ship, ain't it", responded Margaret, again with her stupid grin.

"Huh!", sighed Tun while standing back up. "I shall build my own pendulum, but for my red-white striped sofa accompanied by blue cusions with yellow moons and stars motives". Tun walked away while saying, "Okay Margaret, we shall meet again to compare the sounds of our sofas. Till we meet again".

I greeted farewell, "Thank you Mrs Thatcher. It was nice to have met you", and walked away.

"My pleasure young man. Go do your own shit with whatever you can find in that pathetic peninsula of yours".

I walked behind Tun towards an open door where another Tun was waiting with a pen and a little 555 note book.

As soon as Tun reached the other Tun, he said, "Daim, hang tengok sat apa besi, emaih, kita ada. I want to build our own super tick tocking pendulum". The other Tun just jotted down some notes and gave Tun a nod. Both Tuns left before I even reached the door.

I told myself, "What the fuck was all that?"