There are a lot of games I played when I was in Primary School. And the one that sticks in my brain like a sore thumb is Police and Thief. Now P&T is not a new game. I’ve seen it played by other kids all over the world, they have slight different set of rules but the essence of the game, which is; a group of kids chasing another, remains the same.
So what is so different about the P&T played in my Primary School? The only one word to describe is… its an all out war! Ok, I used 4 words… that how intense it was. This war takes place every recess without fail. P&T is a boys games, the girls were too busy playing 5 stones and whatever stones they can get their hands on.
5 stones and zero point was the rave back then.
The game would start with the usually “Oh-Ah-Peh-Ah-Som”; the most legitimate, unbiased procedure of choosing one’s fate. (If only the United Nation used this technique, half of the world’s problems would be solved almost immediately!) Then the number of boys, usually around close to a 100, would be split 50-50. The leaders of the Police and Thief, (usually boys from the monolingual or extended classes. These guys repeated Primary 6 so many times, they started to grow beards) would exchange a few words and agree on a spot for the “prison”- the prison is usually something prominent like a fire hydrant, a big rock, but for our case, it’s a huge tree near our school field. Once that is done.. then all hell would break loose.
Even though the “Oh-Ah-Pei-Ah-Som” is a relatively simple procedure,
some idiot boy never fails to mess things up.
The leaders are supposed to be in Secondary 4
but they seem to be stuck at Primary 8.
The huge tree that acts as a “prison” but without the family visits.
Thieves would run like headless chickens and the police would chase after them like as if, they owed them money. When I say “catch”, I mean it’s a struggle with arm locks and stuff. Like cheetahs chasing after gazelles in the African heat, the Police would grab a collar, headlock to a grinding halt or twist an arm of something but boys being boys, these thieves would try to struggle.. some got away but sometimes you’ll land yourself in prison aka the big tree.
You can never compromise with the Police.
I have been caught numerous times and sitting on a root-protruding tree throughout recess is no fun. But the weird thing when I look back is that everybody followed rules. The captured thieves would be sitting near the tree waiting for some daring thief to tag them, they did not try to escape or cheat or anything like that. Maybe its due to the fact that there was no means of escape; the tree was tightly guarded by 10 other Police boys who would not budge, creating an impenetrable fortress. Even the guy from Prison Break can’t escape this tree-prison thing. I don’t even think Alcatraz is this tough. You get decent meals there, over at the tree, all you can do is watch ants crawl up your socks.
Then sometimes, a prisoner, usually a boy who have been spending too much time at the tree, so much so that, it’s beginning to impair his judgement, would have this bright idea. He would tell other prisoners to start a “thieves chain”.
“The Current”
Thieves would hold hands with other thieves and make this long line.. A last, desperate line for help, if you will. If an uncaptured thieve would just tap onto the end of the chain, the whole imprisoned thieves would technically “have the right” to be free.. The chain was called “the Current”, yes, we got it off Science class.
This technique went on for a while but after that, it got banned when the Police leader claimed that it was unfair. This guy acts as if he is the Singapore Police Commissioner. At least, that is what he aspires to be. (Sometimes this Police guys can get over board with the game. I remembered finishing a meal during recess, and I was munching on an epok-epok when suddenly 2 police boys came from nowhere and decided to drag me to the prison tree. I told them, I’m not playing today and my epok-epok will be cold if I don’t eat it soon. They ignored my pleas and soon I realize, I have to freaking eat my curry puff by the tree.)
The hi-light of the game is when you can see human drama intertwine with the game itself. There was once, almost 90% of the thieves have been caught. The tree was like Changi Prison, all packed with thieves guilty of petty crime. I was getting accustomed to living life at the tree. We’d sing prison carols, write letters to loved ones and talked about how it was like to be free men. We thought we were definitely gonna lose then… out of nowhere, a lone uncaptured thief decided to do the unthinkable. He decided to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. 1 life for many.
He barged through the tight security and the Police boys would pounce on him worse than the NYPD. He would crawl on the ground as the whole Police contingent wrestled him not to move. He kept on inching on the ground and finally his hand managed to tag one thief and the result was a massive prison break! All of us were free again. You can almost hear the Police leader howled in horror throughout the whole school! The thief that rescued us from the clutches of tyranny lost most of the buttons on his school uniform. His hair was a mess and dirt was on his face…. But to all of us thieves, he was a martyr.
One unselfish deed that affects thousands of lives.
We need more people like this in Singapore.
Sometimes the Police have their share of success. The Police managed to catch all the thieves again, and they realized it was just one thief boy left in the fields. The leader unleashed one of his fastest police boy, usually a boy who clocked first for his Physical Fitness test. You can almost see the drama in the distance.. 2 sole beings chasing each other. White flashes of white and green (our school uniform color) over the glistening wet grass. Everybody looked in anticipation. Then suddenly, the lone thief was caught and grounded. Then a deafening celebration followed.
P&T went on for a long while until a boy brought a tennis ball to school. They decided to hit the ball at each other on the field and thus “Bola Rembat” aka “Dodge ball” was born.
Yesterday kids played games, today’s kids play MSN,
Evil Bunny