Running amok

‘Running amok’ is for some reason a purely Malaysian thing. We never saw anything like that in Malaysia.

But there was this one time, when we hadn’t been there very long, and we were enjoying one of the amazing markets. There were so many fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, and amazing cooked goodies and we were just mulling through them trying to work out what they all were, and what might be worth a try.

There was a shout, outside of the market building, and although we barely even noticed it because it had no meaning to us, it had a profound effect. The whole place went quiet, and as we looked around we realized that all of the stall-holders had disappeared. They had all ducked down behind their stalls, and it seemed the prudent thing to join them and hide with them at least until we knew what was going on.

As we peered out from our hiding place, we saw a man with a pistol pointed to the ceiling, striding through the marketplace, shouting words that were incomprehensible to us and apparently looking for someone.

He marched on through, and the market people came out from their hiding places, and life went back to normal.