“With their slippers as goalposts, four boys play soccer with a plastic ball; a ball with what loks like a scar across its side, and a navel where the air which gave it its shape might have entered; which skitters rather than bounces. Their field is a void deck, whose floor coats their soles with ovals of grey. When one of them scores a goal, an imaginary stadium roars euphorically, a multitude of streamers and flags flashing like the jingles of a tambourine.
They played until dusk, when it is time to return to their homes. A chorus of voices receives them: “How many times do I have to tell you, once you step into the house go straight to the toilet!” “Play until don’t know when to come back, is it?” “What were you doing until you got your knees so black?” “When you come back at this time you invite the devil in!” HDB life: one takes the stairs and elevators up to be brought back down to earth.”
— Alfian Sa’at, Malay Sketches