When I was a kid

Every morning I would wake up to the sound of the car engine. I would run out and jump into the Nissan ute* that was just about take my sister to school. Sometimes Dad would say, "Nogat wok blong yu, stap back." Other times, when Dad was in a good mood he would let me into the car and off we would go. We would drop my sister off at her school and as we were driving back Dad would play rock music and nodding his head as if he was about to dance in the driver's seat, he would look at me and say, "Come on Tolly!" And together we would sing and nod our heads as we head home. That was what dad and I used to do most mornings.

Dad and I were best friends, though his strictness pissed me off sometimes. Soon Laurie joined our group and the three of us (Dad, Laurie and I) formed a gang. We would drop Mareko (she hates that name) at school and then the three of us would spend the entire morning speeding in the car and listening to 70's and 80's rock music. Now when I listen to Eagles, Dire Straits and even Beatles I think of Dad and those mornings we would go roaming in the car with load music on and Laurie and I begging Dad to drive faster.

One time Laurie didn't notice that there was a hole in his short and as we were seeing Mareko off at her school, some of her friends spotted the hole in Laurie's short and said, "Weeeh...yu gat windua long trausis blong yu." How embarrassing. I was glad it wasn't me. Another time we were travelling back home after dropping Mareko off when Laurie's stuck his head out the window and was suddenly convinced that his hair was very long and that he could start a fire with it. In fact his hair was no more than 1cm long. He made himself believe that his hair was long and that he could start fires with it after watching a movie titled Firestarter. What a silly boy my brother was.

Dad's village is close to Momote Airport and sometimes (a lot of times actually) Dad would drive us to the airport just to see the Fokker F-28s. I remember seeing a DC3 once, but I think that was before Laurie joined our gang. I remember wanting to be a pilot when I grow up and Dad was fully supportive of me. Then later influenced by Dire Straits I decided to be a singer. I wanted to stand on a stage with a microphone in my hand just like Mark Knopfler. Later I got bored of Dire Straits and decided to be a medical doctor...after discovering the hiding place where Mum hid medicines and all her books on medicine. I couldn't read then, but Mum's books had diagrams and I enjoyed looking at them. I particularly liked anatomy and would spend time looking at the diagrams, and later I would catch grasshoppers, praying mantis and frogs, and dissect them. I would then sew them up and send them home after telling them that they have been cured of their illnesses. My hospital is a cherry tree close to Kapak's** house. I should be in jail by now for killing so many insects and frogs. By the way, I never became a doctor.

Sometimes I got tired of being in our gang of three and I would follow Mum to work. Mum worked in a high school health clinic and I enjoyed seeing her at work. I was always tempted to touch the medical equipment and medicines in the clinic, but I couldn't play with them because I was in a real clinic. It was not a place for a kid to play doctor games. I would get bored and escape to the printing room, and the typist who doted on me would give me a job to do such as handing her papers or pressing the print lever on the printing machine. One time, without her approval, I started fiddling around with a printing machine and almost ruined it. I got told off by Sr Margaret, the school's principal, who was also a nun. I still have vivid memories of that moment when she told me to stop playing with that machine, that I was a bad boy, and that I couldn't replace that machine if I damaged it. I hated her from that day onwards. And I got scared of her too. Every time I saw her my heart would start to pump like hell.

I began to spend more and more time away from the gang (the gang formed by Dad and I and later joined by Laurie). I guess I was getting older and my interests were changing. Also, although Dad was still my best friend, he was beginning to focus more and more on Laurie, which made me jealous sometimes. I remember one time when I felt really hurt when Dad told his friends that Laurie was stronger than me. I was upset for days. Laurie is younger than me, how could he be stronger? I kept thinking. I began to drift away from our gang. I became closer to Mum. Laurie and I started fighting a lot. I always won the fights...and I always got the blame. Laurie became my number one enemy and Mareko became my enemy on occasional basis. They would team up and play games while I would play on my own. But Mareko, being the oldest and sensible among us, would always apologize and invite me to play with Laurie (and her).

Some of the games that Mareko, Laurie and I played together are Mande-praide-vindio and Spring mountain. In Spring mountain, Mareko would play the talking mountain that always revert to its original shape and size after being crush to nothing by Laurie and I. Another game that Laurie and I played is called Kapoopoo kapoo kapoo. In this game, all we needed was loud music and strangers. It could be played anywhere. We would listen to loud music and observe strangers walking to the beat of the music as we sing, "kapoopoo kapoo kapoo." It was so hilarious that we always end up laughing and the strangers always wondered why we were laughing.

Despite being enemies Laurie and I liked to play fights (another one of our games) on our bed after mealtimes. Sometime the fights turn into real fights (and I got the blame) but most times we enjoyed those fights, which Laurie and I called takol. Dad and I are still friends, and though we didn't put much effort into our gang like we used to, we still maintain our closeness as a family. Occasionally Dad would play Eagles, Dire Staits and other 70's - 80's rock music, and Laurie would dance the Laurie Dance***. Mareko developed a new interest in nail polish, make-up, music and other stuff such as boys, and didn't pay much attention to Laurie and I anymore. But as time went Mareko, Laurie and I became best friends. We realized that there's only 3 of us and we have only each other.


*The ute was, years later, sold to my aunt for K200
**Kapak passed away several years ago
***The Laurie Dance was created by Laurie