Quantum Leap - Vol. 1 The Leap That Starts It All

C004 Encounter

As I was walking towards the group of men, I noticed that at the end of the neat row of houses, a majestic looking 2 storeyed bamboo house stood with a complete enclosure of a wooden wall about 10 feet high.

The two-storey bamboo house was not built in stilts but rather was built in the ground up instead. Maybe there's a small clearance away from the ground to prevent water seepage so that's another thing altogether.

Long bamboo pokes were used to construct the walls of the house and I had been to these type of sturdy two-storey houses made entirely of bamboo poles.

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There was a military stint back in Clark Air Base in the Philippines and I had followed some of our compatriots back to their hometown somewhere in Lucena province.

The hometown was a fishing village and the Chief House was made entirely of bamboo. We did spend several nights there and the floor, or basically, the whole house would creak when someone moves around indoors.

Frankly speaking, it was one of the sturdier buildings despite build near the sea and exposed to a lot of harsh weather conditions and typhoons.

Of course, nothing beats a stone bricked house but I was wondering that since it's near the sea before, and the harsh weather's and typhoons almost 20 times per year, do these bamboo houses remained as sturdy as they seemed to be?

I never had the experience of embracing a typhoon in such houses so I would not know how it goes about, actually.

Well, in Taichung, Taiwan R.O.C was a totally different experience altogether.

=*=

Two tough-looking male guards stood at their positions, each holding wooden-handled pikes and wearing almost the same attire but of different coloured as mine, stood at both ends of the entrance of the majestic house.

The same type of "keris" was adorned at their waist, supported by a kind of wrap cloth and identically coloured headgear was also worn as well.

The wrapping cloth that was around their waist and was as long as below their knees and the cloth was made from a different material than their clothes that they were wearing.

It looked as if it had been specially woven or loomed as there were intricates designs and colours to it.

Several unlit torches were placed at the top of the wooden walls; meant to be lit when darkness shrouds the settlement or village.

From the looks of it, some high ranking persons might be residing within.

"OH, MY GOOODDDDDD! What kind of era am I in right now?"

"Everything is so goddamned backward and there is no modern technology around at all!!! How am I gonna survive even a single day here???!"

I thought aloud to myself with my mouth gaping wide with a mixed feeling of astonishment, surprise, overwhelming disappointment, and darkness.

I had both hands on top of my head as I looked at the whole scene before me as a sense of realisation suddenly crept up to me.

As the whole sight that suddenly overwhelms me, I suddenly felt weak in the knees. Cold sweat began to form on my forehead and my back is drenched with perspiration.

My knees went jelly-like and gave way under my weight. As soon as I hit the ground I yelped out painfully without a care in the world at all. "OOOUUCCHH...GOD FARKING DAMN IT!!!"

My eyes suddenly went watery as my knees hit the ground hard. Sharp-edged pebbles poked into the unprotected knees and scratched deep while some thin trickles of blood seemed to form where the abrasions were.

As I was kneeling on the ground in that awkward manner, I heard a soft pattering of feet running close by; coming closer and closer every second.

A silhouette of a shapely young woman stood in front of me, with the sun slightly behind her; when suddenly a tiny squeaky female voice called out, "Abang...?"

"Ahh... Eh... Huh....??" I stammered at the shapely figure before me; words incorrigible at the least making no heads or tails of a normal conversation. "Ahhh..... Iiiisssssshhhhh....."

Words seethingly escaped from my lips as I stared googly eyes at her while enduring the stinging pain at my knees at the same time.

"Eh,  Abang..... Are you alright?" asked the young woman with a hint of concern in her voice. I looked up from my position and squinted.

The sun rays positioned slightly behind her gave off an impression as a halo around her.

I chuckled slightly and said, "I'm alright. Just feeling a bit hot only after walking around for some time."

I said while spreading my hands. "Haiyo, Abang, you go wait at the 'meeting point' while Ani prepares you some drinks ok?" the young lady nonchalantly spoke while at the same time without realising, she had mentioned her name to me.

In the next few moments, I would not be in a situation to ask her name later; whilst pointed to the direction of the group of bare-bodied men sitting under the cooling shade of an umbrella tree.

"Alright, Ani, thank you very much for your concern," I muttered under my breath which was still audible to her.

She walked off and headed beeline to one of the thatch houses; waved leisurely and spoke a few words to the women who were thumping their long sticks at the mortar filled with grains, and then went straight in after using a small coconut shaped cup to wash her feet at the foot of the wooden staircase.

She was barefooted and I was wondering how these people would be able to pitter-patter around the area without even having slight protection on their soles.

It would be a test of ones ability to be able to walk around barefooted outdoors. I am pretty sure that the soles of those feet would be hardened and calloused.

I looked at her direction and suddenly felt that I am unable to peel my eyes off her back as she sashayed her hips.

From my point of view, that young Ani seemed to be only 16 or slightly over. "Who is she and does she have any reference to me? And what is the deal with the Abang thing?"

"Even if I do not understand what it meant, I guessed it is supposed to mean an elder brother or something."

I pondered as I stood up and brushed the debris at my knees and looked carefully at the cuts and grazes due to the sudden fall earlier. I then gingerly walked over to the men and sat down.

"Hey, Bo. You just came back from the beach? You looked as if you had seen a ghost before. Are you feeling alright or do you need to drink something sweet? You and your weird ailment..."

"If you do not have something sweet in the morning, you will complain of giddiness or something like that." intrigued one of the men with a tattoo of a seagull on his left chest.

"Yeah, Bo. There's no chance for the stormy seas to die down at this moment. Just look at Cheng now."

"Just wait for another few more days before we head down back to the seas and collect our 'treasures' soon. You just wait for us to haul in the 'treasures' and you can weigh them afterwards."

Another man quipped in while pointing at Cheng; the man with a tattoo of a seagull on his chest.

"So, my name is Bo after all. A very weird yet simple name. Hmm, I don't think I have the chance to ask them about a mobile phone anywhere because somehow, I am in an era where there's no such thing as a mobile phone, much less modern technology...!"

I thought silently to myself and while chatting with the rest of them I quickly discovered that the trio; Cheng, Ding, and Eun were blood brothers and fishermen by trade.

I happened to be somewhat like their supervisor to help them sort, weigh and sell it to the other interested parties from other nearby settlements.

I later learnt from them that they hauled in green mussels from the seas which attached over time by a thick thumb-sized rope which they used several coconuts as a buoyant.

The rope was then suspended into the sea by at least 10 or more feet and then was weighed down by rocks at the bottom of the ocean.

These green mussels were native in New Zealand and it seemed that the place that I am in right now was quite close to the waters near New Zealand.

Somehow, the clothes that the men wore had little to none close resemblance to what I would have thought what the New Zealanders wore that time.

And a keris? I don't think this island or country is in New Zealand at all. Maybe in close proximity perhaps?

The men would dive from their wooden paddleboats and held their breaths underwater while using a dagger to separate the green mussels from the rope.

Once the green mussels had been removed from the rope; it is then placed into a small net shaped like a sling bag that was tied to their waists.

Then the men made a few trips diving underwater and making their way to their sampans to dump the mussels inside.

Upon filling the desired amount, they then climbed up into their paddleboats and rowed back to the beach.

Since the paddleboats had no keel and also a flat bottom, it is advantageous for the fishermen to row in straight unto the beach.

The flat bottom paddleboats also had a big advantage of not tending to tip overboard when they climbed aboard from the sea.

The total number of these ropes that were in the sea right now was no less than 50 of them, so on a good haul of 'treasure', the trio could bring in about 300 to 350 pounds of mussels a day.

That would take up a lot of diving into the sea, harvest the green mussels and then someone would be able to haul them into their paddleboats.

These men would be able to dive into the sea and hold their breath close to 3 minutes at a time...! Pretty remarkable...!

A short while later, Ani sashayed and arrived carrying a rectangular tray with a wooden gourd and 3 wooden cups.

A small wooden bowl contained a golden liquid that looked like a glaze. "Abang, here's some tea and honey to sweeten it."

"I just harvested the honey from the beehive house behind our home. There is a bit of honeycomb crust inside it as well."

"Also, after you had cleaned your scraped knees, you can apply the honey to it as well," advised Ani and while I simply nodded, I can't help myself looking at her cute dimples as she smiled warmly at me.

Towards the end of the day, I discovered that Ani was indeed my little sister and both of our parents had long since passed away in a tragic sea incident some 3 years ago.

I searched at the back of my mind of who Bo was and any kind of significance or reference it may impact anywhere shortly.

So I was in no hurry to find out who I am and what am I suppose to do in the next few days and also to find out what happened to the original Bo which I had taken over.

I find everything was a bit queer and so I decided to quickly adapt and make use of this opportunity to learn about my new self, my little sister, the trio as well as the new environment so I would be able to move around freely as noone would suspect anything at all...!

=*=

Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you and God Bless.