Yesterday

Yesterday

I went to the tuition that I've been anticipating

We sat around a long table, near the little coconut tree

The wind chime (made of various used metal rods) was not as noisy as usual

There, my Indian tutor cum my neighbour was readyto teach us

Yesterday

I was near the petit coconut tree with my friend

Benny was wrapping up Eliza Clark's mint jelly for his sister

For gigi, gi. gi. he said pointing at his teeth

Yesterday

On the same ground in the evening

We were throwing a brithday party for my Indian tutor

Lantern was lit up

Party packs - peanuts cap Ngan Ying, chocolate wafer, colourful jellies, ballon and everything else that u can find in a transparent plastics given out to kids at brithday- were given

There were 2 big cakes

1 is number 2

the other 1 is number 1

and there was a banner reading, Happy Birthday Kala

Kala is my Indian tutor who I called Kak Vani (don't ask me why)

Food was good, great people, nice ambience

A laidback party with full 90's essence

Yesterday

It was only me

I was sitting at the dining table in the large kitchen

Above me, wau bulan of various shapes and sizes, made by Benny

Across the table, my Indian tutor's brother was having dinner

Then a couple came down and sat at the same table

There were grapes

They were fighting

The Indian brother finish his dinner in a haste

That left me with the arguing couple at the table

I must admit that I was shaking at that time

Yesterday

was the first time I see SP

a motherless child, that's what my Indian tutor told us

The child was spinning and making sounds with the racing bike

Yesterday

I sat at the same table

The same wau(s) bulan were above me

This time, a plate of steaming fried nugget was before me

Then, came 2 fingers running towards the nugget

They got hit before they reach the nugget

Then they came again twice and twice, they got hit again

Then I saw a hand wanting to shake mine.

My name is SP, that child said and spelled it out

As simple as that

A friendship was established

And then, every summer I would looking forward for that child visit

Along with the racing bike with white stars black rubber handle

Yesterday

I was on my way to fetch my then, 6 year-old brother from preschool

When I saw that child sitting knee up beside the racing bike near the chinese school

That child was bleeding

I don't remember what happen

But I remember funny yellow plastic bag wrapping the legs

everytime that child came out of the shower

Yesterday

I was a small child with lotsa questions

I was a bubbly girl who brave the lingo barrier

I was being asked about something regarding the friend that the presence that I always look forward to

I didn't reply

U see, I was not really good in standard Malay nor English

I spoke Penang accents all the way through my elementary

When I enquired my Indian tutor, she giggled and said that I must figured that out by myself

I looked blankly at past the child father at the mural of birds - pelican, mynah, pipit, flamingo

What was he asking me, I wonder about that until now

I never give him an answer

Today

perhaps I'm somewhere near to that child or perhaps we are far apart

We may pass by each other on the street and not realise it

The Indian family losses their mother when I was in standard 5, the last I see that child

My family moved to the other town when I was 12

I used to keep going back when I was in high school

With the hope that I can see that child again

I never get to see that child

Never know what happened to the racing bike

What stays there is just an empty guest house

The wau(s) bulan gone

The birds mural are gone

What's left for me is just the slowly fading memory of my good times, our good times

Thus I don't expect people to understand what I'm typing over here

This post is intended for me and me alone

Sometimes, I would always think

That it would be good if we can meet again.

It would be too good

So long..

Image from here