What will be shall be

Dance of the Angel

The old man limped towards a big rain tree and collapsed into a heap at its roots. Startled and awakened by his own impact, he was relieved to see that his beer bottle was still intact. He took a sip from it and sat down with his eyes closed. The bottle seemed his only comfort and friend nowadays.

The breeze was comforting with the willow plants swaying to the rhythm of the wind. The sun was about to set and its golden rays spreaded across the willow field beautifully. It was a sight to behold but the old man was not absorbed nor touched by the beauty of mother nature.

His wrinkles ran deep from the corner of his eyes to near the side of his ears and his eyes were lifeless and dull, seemingly uninterested in anything around him. He had no focus and was only concerned with his beer bottle.

Fate had dealt him a cruel hand. A fire 10 years ago not only took away his property, but also the lives of his wife and children. Since then he never really recovered and was living from hand to mouth by the compassion of the villagers. On the top of that, he had sought the comfort of the bottle to numb the pain of his loss, choosing to live his days in a daze.

As he was about to slumber into sleep he heard a soft music playing. He opened his eyes to locate the source of the music. The source was impossible to detect as it seemed to be coming from all directions. That was when he saw a figure standing around 50 metres away from him and it was dancing to the music.

Somehow the figure had a magnetic effect on the old man, drawing him nearer. As he came closer he realized that the figure was that of a girl and - she had wings! The old man rubbed his eyes, wondering if his beer was playing a trick on him.

The angel continued her dance as the old man looked on in bewilderment. This was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life. The angel turned and then danced towards the direction of the sun. The old man followed quickly but the weird thing was no matter how fast he moved, she was always the same distance away from him. No matter what, he was not about to lose sight of her as he believed that this angel was here to help him to relieve his pain.

The angel came to the edge of a cliff and by a wave of her hand, a rainbow appeared out of nowhere, bridging a path from the cliff to the skies. She then continued her dance towards the skies and every once in a while, turning round to beckon the old man to follow.

The old man stopped in his tracks at the edge of the cliff, seeing the angel escalating higher and higher up into the sky. Why not? he thought to himself and spread himself open and threw himself off the cliff.

He could not tell whether he was flying up to the angel or down to the pits of the cliff. But he knew that in a matter of seconds, he would be embracing the peace and reunion he had craved and waited for so long.

posted by malmoncolo @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

The money talk

"You know your cousin Ah Peng? Heard that she's now earning more than $7000 a month. Really envious hor?" my mum said to me just that day.

It isn't the first time she talked to me about the success of the children of her peers or my some distant cousins. I wouldn't say I was totally unenvious of those people and knew that my mother was hoping that instead of people boasting to her about their children, she was hoping that she could be the one boasting to other people instead.

It wasn't too long ago that she kept telling me about so or so who has gone abroad for further studies or so or so had got a scholarship given by the Government. Times has changed. The same bunch of people she was talking about have evolved into the successful people she has been talking about now. My mum has aged. So have I.

Just recently, I was at a gathering with some old friends whom I have not met for quite some time. And I felt so odd-out. Their conversation revolves round fast cars and their bosses or the office politics, each boasting to each other about their own prospects and potential while I looked on with amuse. I was almost oblivious to them. Until someone suddenly noticed my presence and turned to me,"What about you? Where you working at? Or still studying?" "I'm in the army." I replied. "Oh, you regular?" he asked. "Nope. I'm large." was my reply.

He certainly wasn't amused and continued his boast about his success to the other people around. And I was kind enough not to remind him that how just a year ago, he had come to me saying that he had owed a lot of money and need help and wished to borrow a couple of hundreds from me. To which I lent and only got it back half a year later.

There was this other guy in the group who turned to me and said that he's starting up a business and offered that maybe someday I can go and work for him. While I have nothing against having a friend as your boss, I couldn't forget that arrogant grin on his face.

Look at the gigantic difference. While these people are talking about fast cars and that office slut, I am still bitching about my Sergeant Major and Officers. To think that this bunch of people was the same bunch who played marbles and block catching with me when we were small kids.

While I don't really feel that inferior because I am very sure about this theory "The world is round. You never know what will happen in the future", it wasn't that pleasing hearing people rant to you with a hint of mockery in their tone, shattering my fragile ego. I regretted not throwing these people down the block when we were playing block catching back then.

As the saying goes, money is just a number game. How true that is. It is the number of times I'm hurt whenever I'm reminded that I am lacking of money. I'm waiting for a Sugar Mummy to come to my rescue. Or a TOTO windfall. Or better still, both.

posted by malmoncolo @ 4:00 PM 3 comments