IT'S a little after midnight. Now is the hour of deliverance.
What we have been waiting for shall arrive. We know because it's been like this for many weeks.
We clamber out of bed quietly and leave the room for the kitchen. The lights I do not switch on for I do not want to awaken the others.
The aluminium basin stands before me. It is bending under the weight of the pots, pans, plates, cups and whatnot.
I say a short prayer, put one hand on the discoloured tap and gently turn it a little. A hiss shoots out, followed by fits of coughing.
I stare glumly at the tap, but a grin breaks the grimness when finally, after a minute or two, a trickle of water forms.
Thus begins our midnight labour. My brother and I patiently remove the scraps, dirt and oil from the utensils in the basin.
We slather them with dish soap and hold them to the tap one after another. The world seems to move in dizzyingly slow motion as the water tiredly runs over the objects. The blackness of the night stares at us from beyond the wire mesh. A deathly silence surrounds us.
It's now about 1.30am. The work at the basin nears its end. My brother turns away to the bathroom. He collects the enormous heap of soiled clothes from a basket and begins to wash them. It is arduously slow.
About an hour later, or maybe it's 3am, the washing ends and we are washed-out. We head back to bed to spend the night's remaining hours in the company of dreams.
This was our story, night after night, 40 years ago when we were students still. Classes in the morning, homework in the evening, and 'home work' late at night. But we did not mutter and murmur.
At that time, Sungai Kantan and Jenaris had fewer people and more creatures. And not so dependable water pipes.
But the problem flowed away into history, and we gained regular water supply happily.
So those episodes are in the past. Or are they really?
The problems we conquered years ago in many parts of the country have liberated themselves thanks to us. In their 'freedom', they are shackling millions to days of deficiency.
Yesterday, the NST said "1,196,457 account holders in 1,292 areas in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang, Shah Alam, Kua-la Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat" would go without water. The reason: the defiling of Sungai Selangor.
It's a soap opera without end. For billions in other lands, and for millions in this country.
Sigh. We wait again for the hour of deliverance.
The writer is NST production editor
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times