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A Little Story of Love
Jul. 8th, 2009 11:31 amOriginally wrote this in facebook, but since I have had experience with facebook deleting accounts... :)
Prelude to the story
A couple of months back, swmbo[1] was reading some random blog where some angsty teenager had written a short story, put it up, and yanked it after someone criticized it. All her fans were in an uproar about the insensitive bastard who dared criticize such wonderful prose. She put it back up. We read it. I went - meh, what's the big deal?
SWMBO issued a challenge - write a better story.
I thought and thought - I used to be quite good at turning a few words together, but in the past 20 years or so, my abilities have been eroding at a steady rate. Can I still do it? What should I write about?
Inspiration came from #2 daughter. That day, she wanted to hear the story of how her parents met. When I first told the story to my children, I did not tell them the characters were their parents. Of course, they figured it out soon enough, and loved the story, and never got tired of hearing it.
And since it is SWMBO's birthday soon, why not dedicate this piece of prose to her? So, Happy Birthday, my love, my heart.
On to the story:
A Little Story of Love
It was 1994, and America had won the right to host the World Cup. When I was growing up, I was never really interested in sports even as my friends spent all their free time kicking a ball around. However, the 1994 World Cup will forever hold a special spot in my heart.
That year was my last year in school. I was supposed to have graduated in May, but due to extreme mudding[2], I had to repeat a class. I already had a return ticket to Malaysia burning a hole in my pocket, so, I returned to Malaysia at the end of May. I did the usual meet and greet with all my old friends, hung out with my family, and I thought I was going to spend the rest of summer doing pretty nothing worthwhile.
Somehow the idea of visiting a friend in Singapore came up, so a couple of us got together to plan a visit to a friend who was studying in Singapore. After making some plans, and having it fall through, Shanker and I bought overnight train tickets to Singapore for June 23. That evening, Shanker's father took us to the train station, dropped us off, and we were off for a weekend of fun.
We got good seats - front row seats - and so there was plenty of leg room for both of us. The two of us were having fun, we were on top of the world with nary a care. And when we get to Sunny's place, we're going to have a weekend of fun. We were just two young men, out for a good time. We were tall, dark and handsome... Well, Shanker was anyway, I'm just tall.
We sat down, put our bags away, and started people watching. I was quite happy when this pretty girl sat down right behind us, but made no move to talk to her. After waiting a while, Shanker and I decided to make a pit stop as it was going to be a long ride. While ambling around on the platform, I noticed the pretty girl leaving - oh no! What calamity! I watched carefully as she moved to a seat about half a carriage away, facing the opposite direction. Oh well, easy come easy go.
Shanker and I started back for our seats. I kept an eye out for our new seat neighbours hoping for more pretty girls - hey I was a young man in my prime! We took our seats and began waiting for the train to start. More and more people were boarding, and this group of people came by. I nudged Shanker and nodded at the girl that just passed us. He smiled at me. I turned around to look at her, and I must have done a heck of a lot of good deeds in my past lives or something, because that pretty girl sat down right behind us, right behind Shanker, which allowed me to peek at her from between the seats.
I was so excited. I nudged Shanker again, pointing to the back. He smiled knowingly at me, and went back to his rest. I peeked at her again. The last time I had felt this way about a girl was back in Form 3, when this new girl joined my class, and I stared at my new classmate all year long for the next three years.
Time passed. I had lost my opportunity to introduce myself to the angel sitting behind me. After the first five minutes or so, it just becomes steadily more and more difficult to overcome the social inertia. I was kicking myself mentally for not having the guts to even say hi. But it was no use crying over split milk.
About two hours later, my stomach informed me that I should consider hunting down some small game, or maybe buying some food. I got up and went looking for the cafeteria carriage. There was a 50% chance that the cafeteria carriage was in the direction I was hunting. Unfortunately, I had to disappoint my stomach. However, I noticed that the guards were watching the 1994 World Cup championships on the TVs. It was already around midnight, and there was nothing else to do on the train.
I went back to my seat, and loudly grumbled to Shanker that it was unfair that the train guards were watching World Cup, and they would not turn on the TV for us. They should turn it on so that we too can watch world cup. Then, for some reason, I turned around to my neighbours, and asked them, "Don't you agree with me?"
I surprised the lot of them. I started talking with them, and it turns out that the three girls and one guy were doing the same thing Shanker and I were doing - visiting Singapore during their vacation. Later on I found out that swmbo bought her tickets at the very last minute, on a whim, just like Shanker and myself.
Obviously, I found everything they did to be very fascinating, and offered numerous unsolicited advice and running commentary on anything and everything. Shanker looked at me and shooked his head. I knew what he was thinking about - what a silly boy...
At one point, I was such a pest that swmbo turned to me and said, "Shut Up!" *sigh* It was my own fault - I told her that if she found me too bothersome, she should tell me to shut up. She apparently decided to take me up on my offer.
But, little by little, I found out more and more about her. Luckily she sucked at playing UNO and I could offer lots of unwanted and unnecessary advice. The guy in their group keep shooting daggers at me with his eyes, but I was wielding a Shield of Studied Ignorance which deflected all his daggers. Later on, he had warned her about guys like myself, saying that if I could talk that way to her, I could talk that way to any girl. While that was true... but normally I don't.
After 2am or so, the other people in her group decided to ignore her new friend, and went to sleep. The two of us basically stayed up all night chatting away. It was... exhilarating! Shanker kept trying to go to sleep, but I'm sure he was not very successful because he kept turning around, and then opening an eye to look at me. I wonder why he found it difficult to sleep...
One of the things we talked about was our hometown, and I asked swmbo where she came from. She said, "Ipoh" which is the state capital of Perak, the state north of us. I asked, "Really? Ipoh itself and not a town near it?" SWMBO then said she came from Sungai Siput. I asked her, "North or South?" meaning the North Sungai Siput town or the South Sungai Siput town, as there were two. She thought for a while, and then surprised me with her answer, "Middle".
While my geography really really sucked, as evidenced by the SPM results, I do know about Sungai Siput since it was my father's hometown, and we visited it numerous times when I was younger. My father had opened a shoe store in Sungai Siput with his brothers and one of my grand uncles still owns a wine and chinese medicine store on main street. We still go back annually for "Chin Ming" or the chinese day for remembering and honoring the dead ancestors - my grandparents were buried in Sungai Siput.
I stared at her for a few seconds, and then repeated my question, "No no, I mean Sungai Siput Utara[3] or Sungai Siput Selatan[4]". She was surprised that I would know about this little town of 10,000 people from another state. She was really surprised that I had a personal connection to the town. It turns out that she thought my question was about the location of her home town, and she spent a couple of seconds trying to place it on the map before concluding that it was near the middle of the state.
Soon, it was 4am, and I could see that we will be arriving in Singapore soon. I decided to take a chance and asked her for her phone number. For some reason, she decided not to give me her phone number, but gave me her address instead, telling me that she stays with her auntie. Later on, she told me all she expected me to do was to write to her. Which I did, a lot, but that was later.
Singapore was fun, Sunny was a gracious host, and Shanker, Sunny and I enjoyed ourselves the way geeks would. We visited comic stores and computer stores and spent too much money. I kept thinking about that girl on the train, and Shanker laughed at my fumbling attempts to talk to her. But, he concluded, even though it was a lousy attempt, it worked! I'm not sure what he was basing his criticisms on, as, in our little group, I was the first one with a girlfriend! Well, I will be the first one with a girlfriend - that wouldn't happen for another 2 weeks or so.
We went back on Sunday, and I kept an eye out for that pretty girl, but we didn't see her.
On Monday I thought about her. I started writing a letter. I wanted it to be a good letter, showing her my sensitive friendly side, without being overbearing or even stalkerish. I wanted to tell her how I appreciated the long conversation we had and how I would like to see her again.
I filled up my trashcan with drafts of the letter over the next couple of days. I carried her hand written address with me whereever I went. While driving back from my parents canteen, I started thinking about her, and decided to pay her a visit! I went to her house, and wonders of wonders, it was her real address, and further more, she was in. So was her mother, but I thought that lady was her aunt at first. I was curious why her aunt was grilling me, asking how this strange boy (thank god I had had a hair cut at my mother's insistence when I returned).
My angel came downstairs and rescued me from the interrogation by taking me to the local mall. I had lunch with her, and we caught a movie - When A Man Loves A Woman with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia. I'm sure it was a wonderful movie, but I don't remember any of it! I do remember sitting next to her, and talking with her and hmm... I should go buy a copy of this movie... After the movie, I made sure to get the angel's phone number this time.
A couple of days later, I called her up and invited her out on a date - the first official date in my life, and it's with this beautiful angel! It was a Friday, July 8th - 15 years ago this very day.
We went to the National Zoo. I had been there a couple of times when I was a child, but I have not lived in Malaysia for a few years then. It was quite an adventure trying to recall the exact route to the zoo, but I was highly motivated! We made it there, and had a good time. That night, I asked her if she was free the next day, and wonders of wonders, she was.
We went out everyday for a week, and she decided to spend her 21st birthday with me! I was so happy. We went to a place called "Mines" or 4 Seasons - basically a theme park with 4 seasons which is something you don't see in Malaysia as it is 3 degrees above the equator.
I was deliriously happy, but also slightly worried - what if she didn't like me? Yes, we have been spending a lot of time together, but there's always the possibility that she didn't like me, or worse yet, just liked me as a friend! True, we did hold hands, but that was only because we had to cross a large drain getting to a cinema downtown, and I was just helping her out. That we had then continued to hold hands during the movie itself was... pure joy. And it just felt so natural to hold hands coming back out - after all, I had to help her across the drain again, right? Might as well be prepared.
I had began giving her little pecks on her cheek, but she hasn't really responded. Sure, we're holding hands now, and seeing each other every day, but I still wasn't sure - did she really liked me? So, one evening, as we went up Bukit Gasing to enjoy the scenery, I sat on a post, pulled her to me and sat her on my lap, and told my angel that I liked her very much, that I would like to marry her and grow old with her if given the chance, and wanted to know how she felt, wanted to know if she could give me a signal. I told her I wasn't sure if she liked me kissing her cheeks, and if she didn't, I would stop.
I then waited for her answer, while holding her in my hands. She looked at me, grabbed my face, and planted a big kiss on me! My my my my lips... she was kissing my lips!!! I know I didn't die and go to heaven, because this is probably illegal in heaven! My first kiss! I was 23 and finally had my first kiss!!
We had to settle for a long distance relationship, and there's a lot more to tell, but I'll have to see if my angel smacks me silly for writing this... :)
I do know that I came out ahead of this deal, she's smart, bright, very beautiful, and gave me 3 wonderful children. All she got in return was me, a messy, inattentive and thoroughly lazy husband :)
What was interesting was that my friends would come up to me and say how lucky I was to have found her. One even went as far as to share his personal story of how he gave up on one girl, and had regretted it ever since, and that this girl is a keeper, and I should never give up on her.
I do want to point out that I got to visit her when she was studying in Australia, and nothing quite beats staying in an all girl's dorm in Perth, for a month. Nothing...
[1] SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed
[2] Mudding - Multi-User-Dungeon - text based computer network games. Caused quite a few drop outs it did.
[3] Utara - North
[4] Selatan - South
And a special thanks to Ms. Chu for the flowers, for which I still owe her $25 or so.
Prelude to the story
A couple of months back, swmbo[1] was reading some random blog where some angsty teenager had written a short story, put it up, and yanked it after someone criticized it. All her fans were in an uproar about the insensitive bastard who dared criticize such wonderful prose. She put it back up. We read it. I went - meh, what's the big deal?
SWMBO issued a challenge - write a better story.
I thought and thought - I used to be quite good at turning a few words together, but in the past 20 years or so, my abilities have been eroding at a steady rate. Can I still do it? What should I write about?
Inspiration came from #2 daughter. That day, she wanted to hear the story of how her parents met. When I first told the story to my children, I did not tell them the characters were their parents. Of course, they figured it out soon enough, and loved the story, and never got tired of hearing it.
And since it is SWMBO's birthday soon, why not dedicate this piece of prose to her? So, Happy Birthday, my love, my heart.
On to the story:
A Little Story of Love
It was 1994, and America had won the right to host the World Cup. When I was growing up, I was never really interested in sports even as my friends spent all their free time kicking a ball around. However, the 1994 World Cup will forever hold a special spot in my heart.
That year was my last year in school. I was supposed to have graduated in May, but due to extreme mudding[2], I had to repeat a class. I already had a return ticket to Malaysia burning a hole in my pocket, so, I returned to Malaysia at the end of May. I did the usual meet and greet with all my old friends, hung out with my family, and I thought I was going to spend the rest of summer doing pretty nothing worthwhile.
Somehow the idea of visiting a friend in Singapore came up, so a couple of us got together to plan a visit to a friend who was studying in Singapore. After making some plans, and having it fall through, Shanker and I bought overnight train tickets to Singapore for June 23. That evening, Shanker's father took us to the train station, dropped us off, and we were off for a weekend of fun.
We got good seats - front row seats - and so there was plenty of leg room for both of us. The two of us were having fun, we were on top of the world with nary a care. And when we get to Sunny's place, we're going to have a weekend of fun. We were just two young men, out for a good time. We were tall, dark and handsome... Well, Shanker was anyway, I'm just tall.
We sat down, put our bags away, and started people watching. I was quite happy when this pretty girl sat down right behind us, but made no move to talk to her. After waiting a while, Shanker and I decided to make a pit stop as it was going to be a long ride. While ambling around on the platform, I noticed the pretty girl leaving - oh no! What calamity! I watched carefully as she moved to a seat about half a carriage away, facing the opposite direction. Oh well, easy come easy go.
Shanker and I started back for our seats. I kept an eye out for our new seat neighbours hoping for more pretty girls - hey I was a young man in my prime! We took our seats and began waiting for the train to start. More and more people were boarding, and this group of people came by. I nudged Shanker and nodded at the girl that just passed us. He smiled at me. I turned around to look at her, and I must have done a heck of a lot of good deeds in my past lives or something, because that pretty girl sat down right behind us, right behind Shanker, which allowed me to peek at her from between the seats.
I was so excited. I nudged Shanker again, pointing to the back. He smiled knowingly at me, and went back to his rest. I peeked at her again. The last time I had felt this way about a girl was back in Form 3, when this new girl joined my class, and I stared at my new classmate all year long for the next three years.
Time passed. I had lost my opportunity to introduce myself to the angel sitting behind me. After the first five minutes or so, it just becomes steadily more and more difficult to overcome the social inertia. I was kicking myself mentally for not having the guts to even say hi. But it was no use crying over split milk.
About two hours later, my stomach informed me that I should consider hunting down some small game, or maybe buying some food. I got up and went looking for the cafeteria carriage. There was a 50% chance that the cafeteria carriage was in the direction I was hunting. Unfortunately, I had to disappoint my stomach. However, I noticed that the guards were watching the 1994 World Cup championships on the TVs. It was already around midnight, and there was nothing else to do on the train.
I went back to my seat, and loudly grumbled to Shanker that it was unfair that the train guards were watching World Cup, and they would not turn on the TV for us. They should turn it on so that we too can watch world cup. Then, for some reason, I turned around to my neighbours, and asked them, "Don't you agree with me?"
I surprised the lot of them. I started talking with them, and it turns out that the three girls and one guy were doing the same thing Shanker and I were doing - visiting Singapore during their vacation. Later on I found out that swmbo bought her tickets at the very last minute, on a whim, just like Shanker and myself.
Obviously, I found everything they did to be very fascinating, and offered numerous unsolicited advice and running commentary on anything and everything. Shanker looked at me and shooked his head. I knew what he was thinking about - what a silly boy...
At one point, I was such a pest that swmbo turned to me and said, "Shut Up!" *sigh* It was my own fault - I told her that if she found me too bothersome, she should tell me to shut up. She apparently decided to take me up on my offer.
But, little by little, I found out more and more about her. Luckily she sucked at playing UNO and I could offer lots of unwanted and unnecessary advice. The guy in their group keep shooting daggers at me with his eyes, but I was wielding a Shield of Studied Ignorance which deflected all his daggers. Later on, he had warned her about guys like myself, saying that if I could talk that way to her, I could talk that way to any girl. While that was true... but normally I don't.
After 2am or so, the other people in her group decided to ignore her new friend, and went to sleep. The two of us basically stayed up all night chatting away. It was... exhilarating! Shanker kept trying to go to sleep, but I'm sure he was not very successful because he kept turning around, and then opening an eye to look at me. I wonder why he found it difficult to sleep...
One of the things we talked about was our hometown, and I asked swmbo where she came from. She said, "Ipoh" which is the state capital of Perak, the state north of us. I asked, "Really? Ipoh itself and not a town near it?" SWMBO then said she came from Sungai Siput. I asked her, "North or South?" meaning the North Sungai Siput town or the South Sungai Siput town, as there were two. She thought for a while, and then surprised me with her answer, "Middle".
While my geography really really sucked, as evidenced by the SPM results, I do know about Sungai Siput since it was my father's hometown, and we visited it numerous times when I was younger. My father had opened a shoe store in Sungai Siput with his brothers and one of my grand uncles still owns a wine and chinese medicine store on main street. We still go back annually for "Chin Ming" or the chinese day for remembering and honoring the dead ancestors - my grandparents were buried in Sungai Siput.
I stared at her for a few seconds, and then repeated my question, "No no, I mean Sungai Siput Utara[3] or Sungai Siput Selatan[4]". She was surprised that I would know about this little town of 10,000 people from another state. She was really surprised that I had a personal connection to the town. It turns out that she thought my question was about the location of her home town, and she spent a couple of seconds trying to place it on the map before concluding that it was near the middle of the state.
Soon, it was 4am, and I could see that we will be arriving in Singapore soon. I decided to take a chance and asked her for her phone number. For some reason, she decided not to give me her phone number, but gave me her address instead, telling me that she stays with her auntie. Later on, she told me all she expected me to do was to write to her. Which I did, a lot, but that was later.
Singapore was fun, Sunny was a gracious host, and Shanker, Sunny and I enjoyed ourselves the way geeks would. We visited comic stores and computer stores and spent too much money. I kept thinking about that girl on the train, and Shanker laughed at my fumbling attempts to talk to her. But, he concluded, even though it was a lousy attempt, it worked! I'm not sure what he was basing his criticisms on, as, in our little group, I was the first one with a girlfriend! Well, I will be the first one with a girlfriend - that wouldn't happen for another 2 weeks or so.
We went back on Sunday, and I kept an eye out for that pretty girl, but we didn't see her.
On Monday I thought about her. I started writing a letter. I wanted it to be a good letter, showing her my sensitive friendly side, without being overbearing or even stalkerish. I wanted to tell her how I appreciated the long conversation we had and how I would like to see her again.
I filled up my trashcan with drafts of the letter over the next couple of days. I carried her hand written address with me whereever I went. While driving back from my parents canteen, I started thinking about her, and decided to pay her a visit! I went to her house, and wonders of wonders, it was her real address, and further more, she was in. So was her mother, but I thought that lady was her aunt at first. I was curious why her aunt was grilling me, asking how this strange boy (thank god I had had a hair cut at my mother's insistence when I returned).
My angel came downstairs and rescued me from the interrogation by taking me to the local mall. I had lunch with her, and we caught a movie - When A Man Loves A Woman with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia. I'm sure it was a wonderful movie, but I don't remember any of it! I do remember sitting next to her, and talking with her and hmm... I should go buy a copy of this movie... After the movie, I made sure to get the angel's phone number this time.
A couple of days later, I called her up and invited her out on a date - the first official date in my life, and it's with this beautiful angel! It was a Friday, July 8th - 15 years ago this very day.
We went to the National Zoo. I had been there a couple of times when I was a child, but I have not lived in Malaysia for a few years then. It was quite an adventure trying to recall the exact route to the zoo, but I was highly motivated! We made it there, and had a good time. That night, I asked her if she was free the next day, and wonders of wonders, she was.
We went out everyday for a week, and she decided to spend her 21st birthday with me! I was so happy. We went to a place called "Mines" or 4 Seasons - basically a theme park with 4 seasons which is something you don't see in Malaysia as it is 3 degrees above the equator.
I was deliriously happy, but also slightly worried - what if she didn't like me? Yes, we have been spending a lot of time together, but there's always the possibility that she didn't like me, or worse yet, just liked me as a friend! True, we did hold hands, but that was only because we had to cross a large drain getting to a cinema downtown, and I was just helping her out. That we had then continued to hold hands during the movie itself was... pure joy. And it just felt so natural to hold hands coming back out - after all, I had to help her across the drain again, right? Might as well be prepared.
I had began giving her little pecks on her cheek, but she hasn't really responded. Sure, we're holding hands now, and seeing each other every day, but I still wasn't sure - did she really liked me? So, one evening, as we went up Bukit Gasing to enjoy the scenery, I sat on a post, pulled her to me and sat her on my lap, and told my angel that I liked her very much, that I would like to marry her and grow old with her if given the chance, and wanted to know how she felt, wanted to know if she could give me a signal. I told her I wasn't sure if she liked me kissing her cheeks, and if she didn't, I would stop.
I then waited for her answer, while holding her in my hands. She looked at me, grabbed my face, and planted a big kiss on me! My my my my lips... she was kissing my lips!!! I know I didn't die and go to heaven, because this is probably illegal in heaven! My first kiss! I was 23 and finally had my first kiss!!
We had to settle for a long distance relationship, and there's a lot more to tell, but I'll have to see if my angel smacks me silly for writing this... :)
I do know that I came out ahead of this deal, she's smart, bright, very beautiful, and gave me 3 wonderful children. All she got in return was me, a messy, inattentive and thoroughly lazy husband :)
What was interesting was that my friends would come up to me and say how lucky I was to have found her. One even went as far as to share his personal story of how he gave up on one girl, and had regretted it ever since, and that this girl is a keeper, and I should never give up on her.
I do want to point out that I got to visit her when she was studying in Australia, and nothing quite beats staying in an all girl's dorm in Perth, for a month. Nothing...
[1] SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed
[2] Mudding - Multi-User-Dungeon - text based computer network games. Caused quite a few drop outs it did.
[3] Utara - North
[4] Selatan - South
And a special thanks to Ms. Chu for the flowers, for which I still owe her $25 or so.
