Chapter 6

[ A Lost place in Time ]

Have you ever gone back to a place you after a long long time? A place lost over time, and is lost within your memories space.

It could be somewhere you used to go everyday. It could be the route to school.

The route to school for some is a short journey but for others is quite a walking distance as they do not have the same luxury of having people fetching them.

Do you still walk back the route to school?
Are the shops still the same? Are there people whom you will see everyday still there?
Take a walk down the memory lane of yours when you walked the same route once more. What has changed? What has remained?

Maybe nothing had changed, but yourself.

“*Yawn…* Yes….Hell…o…”
Janice picked herself up from the irritating ring tone from her mobile.

“You still at home?~?~!?~?! ”
An unbelievable voice of astonishment exclaimed over the speaker.

“Yeah.. Wassup? It’s a Sunday you know.. if not at home then go to work..?… ”

“Hey Ms Ja “ not so” Nice… We are supposed to go out today…. Didn’t you recall our appointment??”

“Ken.. is that you? KEN!!! Oh… shessssh… Sorry Sorry.. I guess I was totally knocked out clubbing yesterday. Where are you??”

“I’m down stairs.. … since 9am..and you got about thirty-seventh time missed call”

Janice looked at her clock.. it was 10am already.

“Arghh Sorry.. Hey why don’t you come up to my place first? Its at 9th floor #09-464” Janice suggested.

“I need to dress up mah, you know girls.. it will always take a long time for them to dress up”

“Don’t worry, I will definitely come up and please don’t spend too much effort in your dress up. It won’t make a difference!”

“Shit you jerk!”

“Hey Ken… sorry lah… don’t be angry ok?”
Janice trying her very best to be nice for once while opening the door.

“You go ahead and dress up, I’ll make myself at home…”
Ken said as he plunged onto the sofa like his own.

Something caught Ken’s attention among the shelves. There were arrays of photos of Janice being neatly arranged on display. There were photos of Janice in almost every year in her life.

As Ken browsed through the photos, he saw a familiar face among the photos.
It was Mabel & Janice and the photo was taken right outside the school gate with a
“To my dearest, Happy Valentine’s Day !” scribbling of words on the photo.

The dated displayed below the photo was 14th Feb 1997.

As Ken continued to browse through the photos , there was another photo of both of them. It was taken not long ago.

Mabel too had changed, looking more feminine than before. Her smile is still the same and can really melt your heart.

“Boo!” Janice sneaked behind Ken nearly made he screamed.

“What are you looking at? Pretty me?”

“Nope, I was wondering when did the Aliens abducted you and transform you. Guess they did it not long ago”

“Let’s go out.. I’m hungry liao..and you haven’t tell me where we going” Janice pleaded.

“Ok, let’s go, let’s go”

Ken drove through the Tampines town and finally he parked along the roadside.

“Get down, Janice.. Let’s walk..” Ken said as he undo his safety belt.

“Huh? Where are we going? Why have to walk…” Janice complained as always.

After alighting from the car, they walk through some housing estate and found a coffeeshop.

“Hey it’s the coffeeshop we used to go for breakfast !!” Janice excitedly expressed.

“Now I know where we are going.. you want to go back to our old school?”

“Yeah, it’s been so long you know…since I last walk this route to school”

“Me too Ken, but at least I still comes back every year..”

“Why you come back for?”

“Why must you ask everything?” Janice getting annoyed.

After breakfast, they walked the same route which both of them took during their secondary school days. They walked past a few shops, some selling magazines, and a hair salon that Janice did perm her hair once and made herself the laughing stock of the school for almost a month.

Ken realized that not many things have changed, even after 10years..

As they reach the school gate entrance, Ken suddenly realized that the school was no longer functioning.

“Did our school closed down?” Ken turned to Janice..

“You mean you didn’t know? Where were you? In Mars?”

Ken stood at the gate for a moment, staring aimlessly at the locked gate.

“It’s been a long time, Let’s go in…”

[To be Cont]