Cerita Cik Mat

Believe me, this was not my intended post for today.

There is this guy from school I know, and coincidentally, we are actually came from the same town. (Ish..ramai manalah sangat budak N9 kat sekolah kat Utara ittew kan???)

We grew up in a town where everybody knows everybody, if not everybody knows my parents. My mother was a district nurse, so she practically knew everyone!!! Advantage nya..if you jalan kaki bawak plestik bag, there will soon be a car slowing down offering to send you home..or when you get stranded anywhere with no money or food, trust that all this benefactors jelmaan will offer their help. I am so sure in return, they must have received some favour from my mother, like takyah beratur or tunggu lelama kat spital to get attention.Agaknya lah...

When he was in school, this guy..I will now call him Mat (sebab memang nama dia ada Mat pun) boleh lah tahan cute. Tinggi jugak...sportsmen (tapi idok la sport yang glamer cam DD tu...this guy just main baling lembing and all that sport yang selalu dapat pingat tapi to us, idok le hebat mana...)

I was delighted to be reunited back with him via FB (haiyaa..menatang ni lagi) and of course, menengok gambo nya sekarang...dia pun sudah menjadi ikan buntal, padahal masa sekolah, dia kurus like cicak kobeng aje gamaknya. I remembered him being the quiet one, MSU (Mat Surau United) and set-set jantan-jantan berwibawa yakni..idok le nak ngacau bebudak pompuan or membuat benda-benda keji saperti menghisap rokok didalam toilet, dikebun sayur or dibelakang kereta Ustaz yang pendek tapi suara ngalahkan loudspeaker ittew. He was so nerdy, he made stuff...as in mencipta pensil 2 in 1 (Read, pensil and kat hujung nya ada rubber) and so many experiment on his stencils like pembaris berkuasa turbo, geometri set berkuasa minyak pelincir ( I so have no idea what I am on about) pendek kata, he is such jack-the-lad who can create anything from his school stuff demi mengonfirmkan lagi tahap ke nerd' an nya. Dalam class, memang dia selalu menjadi bahan kutukan senyap-senyap geng-geng pompuan jahat yang memandang sepi kebolehannya itu...pun begitu, geng pompuan jahat ini, tidak malu pula nak meminjam alat tulis dari si Mat ini bila masing-masing ketandusan pencil 2b atau scientific calculator tu.

BAM!!!! After almost 20 tahun, we saw each other again in FB. He is now a Quantity Surveyor and live in Kiah's homestate. Married.

However, I noticed something amiss. He is now very over-friendly. He chatted to all the girls from school on their FB wall. I dok pikir, okaylah..sekali bah, sekali pantai berubah...and after all these years, maybe he has developed more social skills. I certainly hope he has since re-style his appearance, bayangkan la..tahun 1988-90, jaman budak-budak pakai seluar if not baggy, seluar Amy Search...he is wearing seluar kembang kat bawah jaman 70'an tu. Ni misti takda pilihan lain lah tu kan, kalau tak dipaksa dek makbapak! Ataupun, he is just oblivious to what was 'in' at that time.

Over-friendly ni satu hal...ada sekali dua, I nampak he chatted to other girls on their wall about how he used to try to chat them up masa kat sekolah. I'm sure those girls misti dok pecah kepala nak ingat balik, apa lah mamat ni mengarut but them girls are much to polite to say anything like..hah! ko ngorat aku? Bila masa? Or lagi sadiss..ish..aku tak rela di ngorat oleh seluar sapu sampah mu ittew!!!

The truth is, you're likely to see him talking to his geometri sets than wooing girls.Couple of days ago...(Kiah dah nampak ni) he re posted his pic jaman dia sekolah dulu. Jantan, biasalahlah..kalau tunjuk gambar masa dia slim, dia rasa dialah kununnya idaman Malaya kan? Some girls commented just being polite but dia nya siap cakap lagi..jgn tenung lama-lama, nanti kau tergoda or something like that (padahal masa sekolah, tu la yang kita dok tengok, and tak de pulak rasanya nak demam angau)

I think he commented on my status updates ka photo..so he got us into reminiscing jaman sekolah, dikala aku dan geng pompuan-pompuan durjana suka duduk kat tembok menghadap toilet budak lelaki tu. This guy, kalau gi toilet nak mandi mmg suka berkemban dengan kain pelikat nya, so mana tak nya..kena jerit kan? Lagi jantan-jantan tu malu, lagi lah situkang sorak ni syok menyorak, kan?

Tup-tup...terus dia kluar cerita yang dia dulu jual mahal kat I....katanya because I am tall, he rasa malu nak dekat. But yang aku tahu, he is much as the same height as me...plus, bila lak masa aku ada nak 'membeli' from him?

So me and another schoolfriend of mine got into talking about him and we discussed his 'sudden' fictitious revelation kononnnya dialah Mat Romeo kat sekolah.

Apa ke hal nya? Dulu, dengan kambing makan rumput tepi jalan nak cakap hello Miss pun malu..ni kan pula nak ngorat budak-budak pompuan yang lain..kan?

My friend cakap dgn I, eh Makji, you kan ala-ala psychologist gitu, so, what do you make of this?

I cakap..entah lah...he does this openly...so there's a possibility that this is a show for some people, maybe his wife. Maybe he is such a nerd tapi nak tayang kat wife dia yang dia ni before is before the jejaka idaman Malaya, so he does this openly hoping that wife can see.

My friend tanya..aiks, orang camni pun ada ke?

I said, ada. After living life for a while, feeling that there's nothing interesting they can show off, people can re-create another personality of them they want to feel proud about.

My friend tanya lagi..but dia dah kawin beranak pinak, perfect apa?

Well, didn't you know woman is part of men's showing off. They are more proud about how many gilfriends they have in their lifetime than any other materials.

Because this Mat guy is a nice guy and our parents know each other, I decided not to layan his fictitious fantasies nor do I want to embarass him openly. I think he knows the truth. I just wish that he is proud of his once upon a time nerdiness, because that was what made him distinctive to us and that is how we like to remember him.