*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As far as I can remember, I was about 3 to 4 years old, playing around my neighbourhood in Clementi. I remember riding a baby tricycle round and round my house, which was in the middle of a row of house. That time, Clementi was still undeveloped and the houses were all in rows of about 20 houses. The houses were all connected without gaps.
I still remember riding out the front door one afternoon, go around the row to the back door, knocking very loudly. My grandmother, who was there to baby sit me, was preparing dinner. She hurriedly came to open the door. When she saw that it was only me, I gave her a smile and rode into the kitchen, carried the tricycle across the living room and out through the front door again, very silently.
"Knock ! Knock ! Knock !"
My grandmother walked over to open the door again, and when she saw it was me, she told me not to disturb her. Again, I carried to tricycle to the front door and again I rode to the back door and knocked. This time instead of opening the door, she lectured me, in dialect for she doesn't speak Mandarin well, for disturbing her when she had so much housework to do. Well, I had no choice but to find somewhere else to play.
On another occasion, I was riding around my neighbourhood when I saw a stray dog. I wasn't bothered by it and I was not bothering it, but it came to bother me. The dog ran after me. Ok, so it ran after my tricycle. But as I was young, and small, and scared, it seemed like a big dog chasing me. I shouted at it, hoping it would go away. I screamed, hoping it disliked high-pitched voice. It sure did, for it came after me even faster. I was screaming and screaming and then I stopped... I cried. I cried for help...
And another fine day, I was riding around my neighbourhood again when two bigger boys came over and asked me to lend them my bike. As I was afraid that he won’t return it to me, I refused and tried to ride away. However, the two of them stopped me and pulled me out of my bike and rode in it. Not being able to do anything, I ran home and told my grandmother, half crying.
She brought me back to the spot where I was robbed, but the two boys weren’t there anymore. We spend hours looking for them and my bike. (Ok, so it was only 15 minutes, but it did seemed like hours.) I was pretty sad by the loss. A few days later, however, my father spotted my bike abandoned a few blocks away. He happened to see it when driving past. Boy, was I glad to have it back. From that day on, I had a short stick with the bike, just in case anyone tries to rob me again.
Despite some of these bad experiences, my childhood days were those of happiness and worth remembering. My parents were both working, which was why my grandmother was babysitting me. My mother was a planning officer with an electronics company, Thomson. My father was a businessman, though I couldn’t figure out what business he was in and where his office was. All the time, it seemed like his office was at home. He also travels a lot.
I still remember one evening, the day before he was to leave for Brunei for a few days. His flight was in the next morning, but he was still not home at 11pm. At that time, my house did not have a phone. I forgot why. It could also be that the phone was out of order. Anyway, my mother and I walked to the public phone at the end of the street. Halfway along, many stray dogs came barking at us. I was scared. My mother picked me up and carried me to the phone. I knew at that time she was also afraid of those dogs too. After a few phone calls, she found my father at one of his friend’s house. Again, she carried my all the way back home, the stray dogs following. Later that night, my father came back at about 1 midnight. By then, my mother has already packed most of his things for him. He prepared his business materials for the trip.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
No comments:
Post a Comment