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June 09, 2005

Images From the Fuzzy Past (Part 3)

Love-birds and late night suppers

The lovebirds were gushing about the places they would want to go for their supper and discussions followed on how they would make their way there, either by car or public transport. I sat there listening to them running through the list of gastronomic possibilities, i.e., Teochew porridge at Beo Crescent, Zion Road Food Centre and other places, and smiled to myself as memories of a distant past were evoked.

The first pair of lovebirds had weathered through a storm (of sorts). He had been a little unfaithful by allowing his emotions to make decisions. While being in a relationship, he jumped into a pseudo one, which created distrust with his girlfriend. It became hard for her to entrust her love to him since then, and her life had been filled with loads of insecurities which could border on possessiveness at times. After an uncharacteristic night of bingeing on her own and some arguments later, they made up, but the past gave her a good excuse for treading cautiously.

The second pair of lovebirds just celebrated their sixth-month-together milestone. I was still unsure if they already had their first argument since they looked extremely lovey-dovey together and the messages they posted on each other’s Friendster testimonial section could cause a serious case of goosebumps. Theirs was a case of sweet and innocent love, devoid of the simmering erotic tinge found in some relationships, i.e., the excessive touch-here-touch-there behaviour displayed in the company of friends. Their demeanours shone and glowed when they looked at each other. They were very much in love.

Of course, being a witness to this non-descript incident would conjure up memories and images of a distant past. There was the beaten-up 1979 red Toyota Corolla, which I christianed “Presilla”. There was the journey to the student dormitories where she stayed. There was the route I drove which became so familiar, i.e., the few roundabouts. There were the nights I remembered, either during the simmering summer evenings or the wintry cold nights, driving to her place. Then, there was the 30-minute drive to the city, during which, we, like the lovebirds almost five years later, discussed excitedly our choice of supper for the evening. It was an impromptu date, if you like, and at that time, I was more immersed in love than she was.

I could picture us at the table at the unearthly hour, tucking into our plate of XO fried noodles or pigs’ innards porridge. Then, there was the 30-minute drive back to our abodes, while our little conversation of our events of the day filled the silence in the car.

I did not join the pairs of lovebirds for supper. Primarily, I believed I would feel uncomfortable being in the company of lovebirds. Then, there was the paunch around my waist which would threaten to render all my work pants redundant if I were to indulge in more food binges so late in the evening. Most of all, it would feel just very appropriate to leave the pairs of lovebirds on their own, indulging in their little romantic spaces.

***

The Girl Who Sat Next To Me

There was that email the other day which alerted me to new additions to a Yahoo! Group I subscribed to. Perhaps it was not as useful as Friendster in finding out whatever happened to your old secondary school classmates and stuff, but I got a little excited whenever I came across a new addition to the group who graduated around the same time as I.

And as fate would have decreed it, the new addition carried a name which I found a little familiar. A few clicks later, I managed to get connected to a lady who sat with me during my final year in secondary school.

We were a little short for our age, possibly slightly below the average height for a 16-year-old, so we were placed right in front of the class (first row). Somehow, gender segregation in class was not practised in my school then, our fates were sealed somewhat for one entire year. By then, we had been classmates for three years and numerous group outings later, we could be considered close friends, though no romantic interest was involved between the both of us. (Truth be told, I was more inclined towards girls from girls’ school then.)

So we sat next to each other in class in 1991. It was to be our final year in the dilapidated school and one which created heaps of pressure on us, even during those days. Being of Malay and Chinese parentage, she had both the features of the races on her face. Granted she was not drop dead beautiful, yet pleasant enough for any decent guy looking for nothing more than a decent relationship and a good soulmate. Since it was during the days when the hippest of teenagers hung around places like Fire disco or get called names like the Marina Square kids, there was not really much for the not-so-hip teenagers like us to do and group outings were usually confined to the odd movie at Lido or lunch at the Scotts Food court. So, besides seeing her in blouse and pinafore almost every day for ten months, her dress sense could well be that of any teenaged girl in the late 80s and 90s, from those rare class outings we had.

The only thing which remained vivid in my mind from our year sitting together was how I fell prey to laziness and frequently decided not to bring my textbooks for classes. Of course, this was common amongst secondary school kids like us then and as long as that classmate of yours sitting next to you was not to uptight about sharing textbooks, your school bag would be very much lighter. However, she was not one of those, or so I thought, in particular those Biology classes, where our green textbooks (with the photo of a Tiger on its cover) weighed a ton.

Whenever it was time for that class, I would instinctively turn towards her and flashed a sheepish grin. That would be my non-verbal cue to her that yes, I did not bring my textbook to class again. She would then heave a grunt and a “hmph”. If it was a good day for her, she would simply roll her eyes at me at pushed her textbook in between our desks. If it was a bad day (or if she was feeling PMSy that day), she would turn away and ignore my non-verbal pleas to share the textbook.

We lost contact after our graduation and she was one of those whom I believed I would never see ever again.

Yet, almost 15 years later and all thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I re-established contact with the girl who sat next to me in class during Secondary Four, albeit it was only via MSN and we had yet to arrange for a coffee session.

So, our conversations on MSN centered around news of our other classmates, such as who got married to whom, so-and-so was now married with X number of kids. At first, we kept our marital status under-wraps but after some ill-disguised attempts from her to find out if I have joined the majority of our classmates in marital bliss, I let the cat out of the bag. Through this, I found out that she had been married but no kids at the moment, yet.

Posted by D W at June 9, 2005 01:33 AM

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Posted by: whateverstreet at June 13, 2005 04:20 PM

Posted by: fhope at June 14, 2005 12:04 AM

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