“On Fridays” published in Thema (USA) and translated into Bahasa Melayu

 

 

“On Fridays” was published as a reprint inthe Summer 2025 issue of Thema. This was the sixth time that Thema had published one of my Malaysian-setshort stories, five from Lovers and Strangers Revisited.  Years ago, I pitched an idea to The Writerabout the writing of “On Fridays” based on my Story Behind the Story series, and the editor agreed and requested I follow an established format:  The Work, The Problem, The Solution, Beforeand After.  It was put on hold for a coupleof years (my last article took four years for them to publish).  Then a new editor took over and the projectfell through the cracks.  Ithappens.  When Thema accepted thestory last year, I updated what I wrote for The Writer and resubmittedit along with the previous editors acceptance and format suggestions.  Still waiting…

                                   

THEWORK: “On Fridays,”published in the Fall 2003 issue of TheLiterary Review (US) and Number 19 of Frank(France)—a joint venture on Expat Writing. Published fourteen times insix countries, originallyin Female (Singapore, March 1989), then later reprinted in Cha: An Asian LiteraryReview (Hong Kong, 2010) and Thema (summer 2025).

THEPROBLEM: The original idea for “On Fridays” came when I lived in Penang,Malaysia working part-time as an adviser for MACEE, Malaysian AmericanCommission on Educational Exchange.  EveryFriday I would take a sixteen-kilometer taxi ride into George Town—a shared taxiwith other passengers getting on and off at various locations.

Fromthe hundreds of taxi rides that I took, I chose to create one that wasrepresentative of all those rides.  Byusing the senses—see, hear, feel, taste and smell—I tried to make this one taxiride as realistic as possible by putting the reader in that taxi with me.  If they believe in that taxi ride, thenthey’ll believe in the story.  That it’sthe “truth;” that it “happened;” that there really was “a girl;” and that I’mstill “searching” for her.... Invariably my students would ask, “Have you foundher yet?”

I saw this taxi as ametaphor for multiracial Malaysia, where various races lived and worked togetherin relative harmony.  In the story, an expat,an unnamed Westerner, becomes interested in a Malay woman sitting beside him.  She is reading a letter and crying.  He wants to comfort her, but feels self-consciousbecause of the other two passengers and the Muslim taxi driver.

Normally I write inthe past tense, third person but chose to write this story in the present tenseto give the story an immediacy, and hopefully a timeless quality…and make itlinger, especially the ending, so it would seem like it just happened.  I also wrote it the first person at theexpense of people assuming it’s autobiographical.  Unlike the character, I don’t paint, and thecharacter taught English years before I did. The effect I was going for, I felt, would be better served because Iwanted the reader to closely identify with the narrator, to see himself inthis, or in a similar situation, and think about what he or she would do.  This was the one story from my collection Loversand Strangers Revisited that people would mention and relate a similarexperience of their own.

When I first wrote thestory, I had a lot of details describing the Malaysian sights along the way.  An editor from the UK made the comment that itread too much like a travelogue.  Aneditor in the US suggested that I lop off the final paragraph.  I didn’t like his suggestion, yet I felt hehad a point.  Also, readers unfamiliar with living in Malaysia, a Muslimcountry, may question the expat’s motives, so that would need to be addressedwithout intrusion from the author.  Thena few matters of truth were getting in the way of the story.  Already I can hear protests, “But that’s theway it happened!”  Yes, no doubt, but toget to the essential story, the “real” story, sometimes you need to take a stepback from your truth and ask yourself, does your truth serve the story, or doesit hamper it?  Truth often gets in theway of a good story.

THESOLUTION:  I cut out most of thedescriptions outside the taxi that weren’t essential to the story itself, justthose that highlighted that it was miserable, raining day.  With that US editor, we agreed to compromiseby rearranging a couple of paragraphs at the end, to make the story moreeffective, so the focus wasn’t on the man’s loneliness, but on his obsession intrying to find the girl.  It was alsosuggested that I make the expat character single.  Him being married (like me) raised some moralissues—is he cheating on his wife?  Goodadvice, which I took—an example of how “facts” or “truth” can have unforeseenconsequences in your fiction.

Areader, unfamiliar with Malaysia, asked me what’s the big deal if he does touchthe young Malay woman in the taxi, so I worked in the character’s concern aboutbeing arrested for “outraging her modesty” with three potential hostilewitnesses.  As a writer, you can’t alwaysassume that overseas readers will understand a local concern or what is atstake.

ThenI got to thinking, why doesn't he get out of the taxi at the jetty and followher after that yearning look that she gave him (I would), and if he does, Iwould need to make it clear why he has to return to the taxi, for fear oflosing his job, something difficult for an expat to get without a work permit.  So, I added this new scene to the story.

BEFORE AND AFTER:  Although this story had already been published in five countries andincluded in a collection of short stories, this revised version was accepted byFrank, a literary magazine in France, whose editor, incidentally, wasa guest editor for The Literary Review for a joint venture on Expat Writing.  For me, a double surprise.  As an Americanliving in Malaysia, I submit a story to France and it gets published in the USand France!  Later, Lovers andStrangers Revisited was also translated into French.

Speaking of translation, I recently discoveredby chance that “On Fridays,” had been translated in Bahasa Melayu and uploadeda year ago for a UniversitiTeknologi Mara course, from College Sidekick, which, Igather, gathers material.  They claimthat they are not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university.  Did they ask me or my previous publisher for permission to translate thatstory?  Did they even attempt to contactme?

Makes me wonder whatother stories from that collection have been translated in Bahasa Melayu?  Or even the whole book.  At one time, Ithought that would happen.  Maybe it has,and I’m just unaware.  Maybe it’s time I investigate,even look at the possibility of having the collection officially published intoBahasa Melayu.

           —Borneo Expat Writer