The Afternoon Assembly.

Miss Radha the headmistress says I'm the first pupil in the history of the school to be caned in public for locking up an old man who is the school librarian. People in the assembly are laughing which got Miss Radha kinda mad because she says this is no laughing matter and that we all should be ashamed of ourselves for finding this incident funny. And so she starts on a long winded speech about what could have happened if the library had caught fire with the poor librarian trapped inside because I had coiled the door-knobs together with a wire.

I stand on the stage facing the assembly of students in the afternoon session listening to Miss Radha speaking on a microphone which is an indication that this is a serious assembly because every one knows the school will only put out the microphone when Miss Radha has important message which she delivers in a long winded speech about the importance of virtue, rules, education and how we can all become prime minister one day if we put our mind to it. But today she is very sad to learn that the library, the very place where every great journey in life should begin has been treated with utter disrespect that it nearly kill an old man of a heart attack. This is a serious offence and the school may find it fit to expel me, or have me transferred to another school, provided there is a school in Penang that would accept me. Otherwise, the school will have to recommend to the state that I be sent to a reform institution as the last resort. This scares me quite a bit but I put up a tough front knowing only too well that I've gotta deal with this alone. Yusof and Siva are not involved. There were there with me but they took off when the librarian started to sound as if he was dying while trying to push the door open from inside. I thought he was dying too which scared me quite a bit that I figured I'd better unwind the wire that I had coiled around the door-knobs before the old man decided that an evening like this was as good as any to die as a librarian. And that's when the janitor caught me. Which is why I'm now standing on the stage ready to be caned by Mr Thomas Khor.

Maybe you've never been caned in public before but lemme tell you this; a whack to the bottom is the same as the whack you get in the office, or the teacher's room, or in front of a class. I know a lot of boys who can take a whack better than I do but most of them prefer to receive their share of the whack in private, not in front of the whole school, in front of the girls. Lemme tell you this; they don't know nothing. A whack in public is a high-class show where you're the tough guy. And you know how it is with tough guys, they don't cry. Which is why a lot of boys prefer to be whacked in private.

Today, I cry a little on the third whack. Two more whacks to go but I can't hold back the tears from coming out little by little like a drop of dew. No, not because of the pain. I cry because suddenly I feel so alone on a stage in front of the entire afternoon assembly.