Chapter 5
There are many people walking around in the mist of the crowd as you ponder your steps forward.
As you take a step closer into the territory that you once conquered, your emotions slowly and endearingly crept all over your soul.
You stopped and looked around.
Everything looks quite different from the day you last saw it.
It was then you realized how long it had been since the last time you were here.
To go back to the place in your heart that once only special to you?
I believe there are many places that are special to everyone of us throughout the times we live.
It could be your school garden where you used to grow vegetables for your science project. It could be a park where you use to walk with your ex. It could also be the place where you used to grow up or work.
As you looked around the surroundings, some structures would have been gone; others would have been refurnished with time.
Then you looked at the mass crowd of people walking past you everyday and wonder whether how much it means to them walking past it everyday.
Finally you smiled and wondered if there’s another person who had this special place in his or her heart the same as you.
There are many special places inside our hearts.
As we grow older we venture into more and more unchartered territories, leaving behind only the traces of memories for the place that we used to go.
Have you ever taken a day off from everything that you do and go back to that special place?
I believe everyone should because wherever the place might be now, I’m sure it will always be in your heart no matter what or when.
The night was filled with the sound of crickets over at the second storey bedroom. It was way pass midnight and the whole family was sound asleep except for one.
Edwin was lying motionlessly on his bed as the minutes count down.
Uncertainty crept all over his shoulder as he looked up to the ceiling above. A sense of unsuppressed fear was gaining momentum to overcome his excitement.
Question after question rang in his mind as Edwin had not used so much of his brains for a long time.
“What is that she wanted to meet me?”
Edwin sighed.
“Has she developed a liking for me?”
Edwin shook his head many times in the night as he lay in his bed.
Tiredness overcame his mental worrying as he closed his eyes.
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“Edwin?”
Edwin slurped and looked again. It looked very vague but he was sure that was the voice of Janet.
Edwin looked around him; there were nothing but an empty grass patch surrounding him.
“Yes?”
He just stood there as she slowly appears.
“How are you?”
Janet asked.
“I’m fine… I guess...”
Edwin was too shy to look into her face.
“Thank you…”
Edwin looked up and caught her smiling face.
“Come; let me take you to a place…”
Janet grabbed his hand as she guided him through a series of woods.
“Where are you taking me to?”
Edwin asked as he moved behind her.
Janet just turned and smiled once again.
“I want to bring you, to a place where no one has ever been.”
Edwin could not remember how long it took them to walk but Janet finally stop when they saw a bare patch of grass surrounded by trees and thick bushes.
Edwin saw something right in the middle of the patch of grass. It looked like a box or something.
“Where is this place?”
He could not stop his curiosity.
“Win, do you trust me?”
Edwin nodded.
“Ok…”
Janet pulled him closer to the box.
Edwin was getting afraid because this is not a place that you could find in Singapore. He began to walk slower behind her.
“What is this?”
Edwin asked as he looked at the wooden chest in front of him.
“Win, do you want to know what am I always thinking?”
Janet looked at him.
“Sometimes…”
Edwin nodded shyly.
“This is my heart….”
Edwin looked on as Janet unlocked the wooden chest.
“All my secrets are inside this wooden box.”
Edwin felt his sweat rolled down as Janet lifted up the box. There was a moment of anxiety mixed with fear. He felt his body getting warmer and more sweat broke out.
Suddenly…
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Edwin opened his eyes and broke out a cold sweat.
His body was drenched as he found himself lying on his bed.
“Was it a dream?”
Edwin thought as he looked out the window.
It was breaking dawn as the sun was slowly rising from the far east.
Everything seemed peaceful and quiet in his neighborhood.
“I guess it was a dream after all.”
It wasn’t a night of good rest as he closed his eyes once more.
“Ah Win… Ah Win…?”
Edwin opened his eyes and saw his father shaking his shoulder.
“Yes… Pa?”
Edwin turned himself sideways to make him comfortable.
“I thought you said you are going today?”
Edwin’s father was packing the cans of food in his room.
“Oh shit!”
Edwin jumped out of his bed.
“What time is it now? Pa?”
His father was shock with his reaction.
“It’s nine…”
“Oh shit, Oh shit…”
Edwin quickly grabbed his clothes and dashed to the bathroom.
“Are you late for your appointment? You forgot your towel.”
Edwin’s father knocked on the bathroom.
Edwin opened the door and smile at his father.
“Don’t worry Pa, all is fine…”
“You need money to take a taxi?”
Edwin shook his head as he took the towel from his father.
Edwin had to change three buses to finally reach his desired destination Yishun on time as promised.
He tried to look around but there was no sign of Janet anywhere. He then waited patiently and loiters around for a while before his phone rang.
“Win, where are you?” The sound of an agitated Janet stormed across the receiver.
“I’m here! At Yishun already, I wasn’t late. I mean I reached just in time but I could not see you.”
Edwin tried his best to explain.
“It’s ok, Heehee. It’s my fault, my fault” Janet changed her tone completely.
“So where are you?”
Edwin countered.
“Ehh… me arh.. Just got on the bus..”
“Oh.. Ok”
Edwin was more glad than angry to realize he wasn’t late.
“It’s terrible and horrible for letting girls wait for you, you know!” Edwin remembered how angry and pissed his sister was when she came home one day.
“I’ll be here soon..”
Edwin then went to the bus stop and kept looking at his watch momentarily.
Half past nine, a quarter to ten and the clock keep ticking slowly, suddenly ‘soon’ felt like forever to him.
He watched the on coming traffic in daze.
“Ooi”
Edwin then heard someone from behind tapping his right shoulder. He turned but there was no one. Before he knew it, he felt a tick on his left cheek as he turned back again.
“Haahaa!”
Janet couldn’t stop laughing with Edwin holding his painful cheek.
“Hey Janet”
He greeted shyly.
“Hey I’m hungry, can we go for breakfast first?”
“Ok, so what do you want? I’m not very familiar here.”
Janet thought for a while before pointing across the road.
“Let’s go to Swenson’s”
Edwin took a gulp as he thought of the three ten dollar notes in his wallet.
“Aiyah, don’t worry lah. I’ll treat ok?”
“How can I let you?”
Edwin put up his defensive ego.
“It’s ok Win, take it as my way of thanking you for the Math test and for me being late ok?”
Edwin still hesitated for a while.
“Oh.. Come on, you can treat me lunch later ok? Let’s go I’m really hungry.”
The bill came close to forty dollars and Janet did not even bother about taking the spare change remains.
“Come, let’s go”
She commanded.
“So where is this place that you want to bring me to?”
Janet smiled at him.
“Well we have to walk awhile to reach there. That’s why we must have a really good breakfast!”
The weather was cooling even though it was close to noon. Janet was counting the steps as she walked and Edwin followed behind closely.
The two of them come to a park right inside the neighborhood of Yishun. The park was quiet and filled with much forestation. It was a place which Edwin had never been before.
“There… over there.”
Janet pointed to the front as she led Edwin on.
They came to a place somewhere in the middle of the park where Edwin saw a pond. It looked a bit old and unmaintained with insects nesting all over.
As they edged closer and closer to the pond, Edwin’s heart pumped faster and faster.
“This is the place…”
Janet finally stopped as they reached the pond.
Edwin’s heart skipped a heartbeat as he froze in front of the pond.
He looked around the area and cold sweat drip down from his forehead.
The place which they are standing on is the same as his dream…
The only difference is instead of the wooden box, it was a pond that lies in front of him.
[To be Cont]
