He told me that I wouldn’t be expected to drink beer if I didn’t want to, many of the guys didn’t, and also that they played cards just for something to do, with matchsticks and not money the stakes.
So finally I decided I would come along one evening and when I finally did, it ultimately led to my first real break in the city.
I went with Heri and a few of his friends. There was a man called Toni, one named Didi, Eko, and an older fellow by the name of Untoro and they all made me welcome enough.
Eko and I were the only ones not drinking and this surprised me a bit because I didn’t expect to see Heri drinking, but there he was supping away from a big bottle of Bintang beer he was sharing with the other guys. He saw me looking at him in puzzlement and sort of gave me a sheepish type of grin and a wink that seemed to say, ‘I’ll tell you about it later.’ I remember thinking at the time with fondness and amusement, ‘Ah Heri, Heri … what are you doing?’
As we started playing cards, we soon all became engrossed in the game and the intensity in which we all wanted to win was surprisingly high. It was good-natured enough, but everyone wanted to win, there was no doubt about that. As the evening went on, I began to relax more in the company of these guys and to start to feel like a ‘real man’ for the first time. I mean, here I was living away from home, working, spending my own money in leisure time with people much older than me, and I was feeling a real sense of independence; of having taken the first steps to real adulthood and of having my destiny in my own hands. I conveniently pushed to the back of my mind the minor details of my somewhat cramped living conditions, the dreariness of my employment and the very meagre daily wage that accompanied it, together with the fact that the job, as bad as it was, would probably end soon and then I would be back to square one, and instead just relaxed back in my chair and lost all my matchsticks to my brother and his mates.
Soon even this novelty and feeling of well-being wore off and I began to get just a little bored, so I started taking less interest in the game and more in my surroundings. We were at a small market, which seemed to specialise in selling cheap clothes, perfume and fish! There seemed to be a battle for supremacy going on between the contrasting aromas of inexpensive body spray and various dead sea life, the combination of which was quite an assault on the senses, I can tell you.
I was looking around at the vendors and customers and trying to take it all in, when I became aware of something else going on. All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, there seemed to be an influx of young women milling around. This was somewhat confusing. What were they doing there? They all seemed to be reasonably attractive and quite well-dressed yet they didn’t appear to be interested in doing any shopping, and what was more, they were all either in pairs or alone.
I was confused. Confused and naïve as it turned out.
My elder brother saw me gazing around in wonderment, and gave me another one of his knowing grins. ‘Hey, bung,’ he called out to me. ‘Do you like what you see?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied truthfully. ‘I don’t know what it is I am seeing.’
At this Heri and his friends all laughed, but I got the feeling it was good-naturedly and without malice, as if I had said something amusing and not as if they were mocking me.
Eko took it upon himself to explain the facts to me. ‘These girls are the same as you, bung. They come here from the villages seeking their fortune but soon find to their cost there is not that big an opportunity for poor illiterate country girls to become captains of industry.’
I was still confused and told Eko this. I asked him what the women were doing now in the market and watched him smirk and shrug his shoulders.
I looked at the other guys and they all had similar expressions and body language and then very slowly the penny began to drop.
‘No!’ I exclaimed. ‘Surely not! Surely these young women are not …’
‘Hush yourself, bung,’ admonished Heri. ‘Don’t cause a scene. They will not appreciate the attention and nor will their men. You can be sure of that.’
‘What men?’ I said my voice quieter now. ‘I see no men with them.’
‘Oh, they all have men not far away, bung, you can be sure of that too. You can’t see them but they are here, lurking.’
How fascinating, I thought. Fascinating yet seedy, dirty and sad all at the same time.
I tried to stop looking at them, but it was difficult. It wasn’t lust that made me look at these young women; (at least I don’t think it was). It was, I don’t know, interest more than anything else. They seemed to be at ease with the place and didn’t look especially nervous or ashamed or furtive or anything like I would have expected women in such a profession to look, and the men who approached them seemed exactly the same. I saw men walk up to these ladies and talk to them the way I would talk to a street vendor or shop assistant; with no embarrassment or special attitude whatsoever. I found it
