I remember once when I was about five or six, I fell into a high fever. It was a day after I went 'missing'for a short while. My mum thought it was the traumatic experience the night before that had caused it.However, I had not thought that the experience was as bad as my mum felt.
The incident happened one evening when I tagged along with my grandma, my youngest uncle and his newly wedded wife for a show at a local cinema. I was indeed happy because it was a one in a million opportunity. Eventhough my father loved us very much, he had never brought us for any cinema shows, not even the roadside temple stage performances. I had never asked why but I did understand he was always very busy with his work.
I was enthralled by the big screen and because we sat quite close to the screen, in the seats of one of the front rows, I remembered I felt strange with the whole picture so near. I was completely taken in by the story so much so when the show ended I felt rather disorientated. As the show was ending, everyone seemed to get up so fast and in such a hurry to go out. I was quite mad at being shoved out the row as the people who were sitting at the other end wanted to go out. I had wanted to watch the cartoon that was still being run but was told to move on out. I turned my body towards the exit and slowly made my way towards it. There were some people who were extremely ruthless and they did not botther to give way. Soon I was pushed out of the doorway into the open area outside. I turned around to see my grandma but to my surprise, she was not behind me! All the time while I was squeezing in the crowd, I had thought she was right behind me. I thought she was moving out of the row to give way to the people at the other end.
I started to panick but told myself not to show it. I waited and waited for my grandma, or my youngest uncle or my aunt to appear, but minutes which seemed like years passed by without any sight of them. I nearly cried but I fought back my tears. Then, the crowd started thinning and there was still no sign of them. Incidentally, they were searching for me in the cinema. They were a little slow in coming out because they decided to stay for a while to watch the cartoon, not realising that I had moved away.
While my grandma, uncle and aunt who were also in panic, went looking for me frantically, I decided to run home myself. Every person that came out of the cinema seemed so frightening that I wanted to run home to my mum as quickly as possible. I had the whole journey back figured out in my head. The cinema was only about a mile away from my house. I had walked there before with my mum to visit one of her friends who lived somewhere closeby. I ran and ran. At first no one gave notice to me which was good because all I had to do was run towards my house. I ran along the main road which was quite bright because there were a few cars on the road. At certain spots it was quite dark and those were the places where I had to double up my speed. Then there was one place which was near a big drain where I had spotted an iguana the last time I passed by and at this spot, I trebled my speed. I was afraid that the iguana would come and lick me with its heinous looking long tongue.
I was almost reaching my house. My legs were already aching. A young man on a bicycle rode near me and wanted to say something to me. I was scared but I ran on , not looking at him . I wanted to appear brave and after some time, he went away when I pretended to shout for my mum. He must had thought my mum was nearby. I could see the road leading to my house ahead of me. How happy I was! I turned into the road and could see the kitchen door was opened and the kitchen light was lit. I could not run anymore. I stopped to walk. Suddenly a huge black dog appeared from nowhere and it barked at me so loudly that it made jumped and I yelled. I started to cry and that must had attracted my mum's attention for I could see her coming out of the kitchen soon enough. She must had been very surprised to see me. 'Why are you alone? Where's everybody?'
After that, my mum must had washed me up and put me to bed. I had no memory what happened when the rest came back without me but I remembered very well, I fell ill the next day. My mum had to give me some Chinese medicine for my nerves and because she was a Toaist, she went to offer some scacrifices in the form of joss sticks and some fruits to some spirits somewhere along the road which I took on my fateful journey back that late night.
The incident happened one evening when I tagged along with my grandma, my youngest uncle and his newly wedded wife for a show at a local cinema. I was indeed happy because it was a one in a million opportunity. Eventhough my father loved us very much, he had never brought us for any cinema shows, not even the roadside temple stage performances. I had never asked why but I did understand he was always very busy with his work.
I was enthralled by the big screen and because we sat quite close to the screen, in the seats of one of the front rows, I remembered I felt strange with the whole picture so near. I was completely taken in by the story so much so when the show ended I felt rather disorientated. As the show was ending, everyone seemed to get up so fast and in such a hurry to go out. I was quite mad at being shoved out the row as the people who were sitting at the other end wanted to go out. I had wanted to watch the cartoon that was still being run but was told to move on out. I turned my body towards the exit and slowly made my way towards it. There were some people who were extremely ruthless and they did not botther to give way. Soon I was pushed out of the doorway into the open area outside. I turned around to see my grandma but to my surprise, she was not behind me! All the time while I was squeezing in the crowd, I had thought she was right behind me. I thought she was moving out of the row to give way to the people at the other end.
I started to panick but told myself not to show it. I waited and waited for my grandma, or my youngest uncle or my aunt to appear, but minutes which seemed like years passed by without any sight of them. I nearly cried but I fought back my tears. Then, the crowd started thinning and there was still no sign of them. Incidentally, they were searching for me in the cinema. They were a little slow in coming out because they decided to stay for a while to watch the cartoon, not realising that I had moved away.
While my grandma, uncle and aunt who were also in panic, went looking for me frantically, I decided to run home myself. Every person that came out of the cinema seemed so frightening that I wanted to run home to my mum as quickly as possible. I had the whole journey back figured out in my head. The cinema was only about a mile away from my house. I had walked there before with my mum to visit one of her friends who lived somewhere closeby. I ran and ran. At first no one gave notice to me which was good because all I had to do was run towards my house. I ran along the main road which was quite bright because there were a few cars on the road. At certain spots it was quite dark and those were the places where I had to double up my speed. Then there was one place which was near a big drain where I had spotted an iguana the last time I passed by and at this spot, I trebled my speed. I was afraid that the iguana would come and lick me with its heinous looking long tongue.
I was almost reaching my house. My legs were already aching. A young man on a bicycle rode near me and wanted to say something to me. I was scared but I ran on , not looking at him . I wanted to appear brave and after some time, he went away when I pretended to shout for my mum. He must had thought my mum was nearby. I could see the road leading to my house ahead of me. How happy I was! I turned into the road and could see the kitchen door was opened and the kitchen light was lit. I could not run anymore. I stopped to walk. Suddenly a huge black dog appeared from nowhere and it barked at me so loudly that it made jumped and I yelled. I started to cry and that must had attracted my mum's attention for I could see her coming out of the kitchen soon enough. She must had been very surprised to see me. 'Why are you alone? Where's everybody?'
After that, my mum must had washed me up and put me to bed. I had no memory what happened when the rest came back without me but I remembered very well, I fell ill the next day. My mum had to give me some Chinese medicine for my nerves and because she was a Toaist, she went to offer some scacrifices in the form of joss sticks and some fruits to some spirits somewhere along the road which I took on my fateful journey back that late night.
No comments:
Post a Comment