I Had A Dream...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

This was hilarious.

I fell into a difficult nap. You know what? I realised that if I want to sleep in the afternoon, I HAVE to sleep in my parents room! It is only then that I can drift off to sleep.

Maybe because I need my mother's voice while she talks to herself, though I have to admit sometimes she is actually nagging at me (hopes Mummy doesn't read this particular entry). Or just.. I don't know. Nice bedsheets.. or even the smell of silkworm's crap!

Yes! They bought their pillows all the way from China and it has this silkworm crap thing sewn into it, the smell of which is supposed to help you sleep better!!!

In case you are disgusted, I can assure you that silkworm crap actually smells more like very nice tea leaves. It doesn't smell like crap AT ALL. Probably has to do with their diet. Silkworms.. I think they feed on mulberry leaves only or something right? I mean, for those that are raised and reared in man-made conditions.

So on a very pleasant Tuesday evening, I dreamt of Ah Gong :)

Super short dream because my Dad woke me up and asked me to go eat dinner.

In the dream I was standing at the staircase landing between the 1st and 2nd floor. Ah Gong was squatting in his usual place at the bottom of the stairs with his trademark red cigarette casing in one hand.

Yes. Ah Gong LOVES to squat. I think it runs in the family (along with Violence, but that's another funny story that happened during the funeral that I shall relate some other time). Squatting is a good and clean way to relax your legs when you have walked alot. I say clean because your butt doesn't need to be dirtied since you don't need to sit down on the floor when you squat (unless you fall down!).

We realised the advantages of squatting when we ran out of space to sit on the crowded train in Bangkok and so all of us squatted down and marveled at how comfortable it actually is.

The bad thing about Ah Gong squatting is that when he squats, YOU CANNOT SEE HIM.

Ah Gong is a rather tall guy. But once he squats, you won't even be able to find him even if you stood on a chair.

This has happened on numerous occasions when we went on family holidays. Close to 15 of us and yet none can find Ah Gong in the crowd whenever he squats down. But no issue; we figured out a solution quick enough.

The only way to find him is not to find the highest point of the place, stand on it and look out. It was to squat down and turn 360 degrees. You will be bound to find an old man in a baggy white formal shirt, dark blue pants and gold-rim glasses.

And when you do so, you quickly get up to your feet and run in that direction, all the while yelling out to the other family members who are looking for him that you have found Ah Gong already.

Now that I've mentioned Ah Gong's glasses. The last time Ah Gong made glasses was at the Nanyang Optical shop in Serangoon Central area. It was very funny. He has this THING for Gold spectacles. Most people his age probably likes gold stuff, I guess. Cos got classsssssss...

We took a long time to choose. The poor sales person also introduced to him frame after frame after frame. He liked none. Finally he took one from the shelf behind the counter and showed it to Ah Gong. Ah Gong fell in love with it instantly and told us in a cheerful voice that he wants it.

Of course, my parents agreed.

But all of our eyeballs (except Ah Gong's cos he didn't understand English,) almost popped out of their sockets when we were told that the frame itself costs around $400-500. After all, the pair of glasses looked like it had been with the shop for decades and no one wanted to buy it!

"Why?" My mum asked indignantly.

I was turning the frame over with both my hands trying to figure out whether is it covered with a super thick gold-plating or something and realised...

It was a pair of Yves Saint Laurent spectacle frame. . .

Eventually we had it made since Ah Gong only had eyes for that particular pair.

And I can't believe I talked so much and yet haven't even started on the dream yet!

Sorry! Okay, back to the dream. So I was of course shocked to see him squatting there. And he was shouting for the maid and saying "Kopi! Kopi! Kopi sekit!"

Okay, I don't know if I got my Malay word spelling correct or not. Sekit is supposed to mean 'little'.

Because coffee actually increases your heartbeat rate, which makes it more difficult for him to breathe when he is already panting as it is, so he could only drink a quarter cup of coffee during each serving. It was impossible to get him to stpo drinking coffee altogether (just like smoking).

Sidenote: Please quit smoking while you still can. Don't wait until you are too old and overtly dependent!

So he always asks for 'Kopi sekit'.

And there he was, as real as.. as real as.. while he was so real. Squatting down there, and as he shouted for his coffee, he was even making the hand sign of 'little bit' using his thumb and index finger. I don't know if you can get what I mean.

Most of all, he was wearing this particular pants that I haven't seen him wear for a really long time. I think since we moved from Boon Teck Tower, I haven't seen him wore that pair of pants.

It was a funny pair of pants. It was like Rose Gold in colour. Those that look like silk and semi-reflects light. And it is so girly because it has repeated patterns of flowers on it. I think Ah Ma wanted to make it into a bedsheet or pillow cover and then had some excess left so she made it into a pair of long pants for Ah Gong to wear it at home.

I asked him in Hokkien "Ah Gong, what you want? You want coffee?"

He looked at me and then said "Yes! Yes! Just abit! Abit can already."

I then realised everyone else at home then was totally ignoring him.

I pointed at him with a shivering finger and shouted out to my parents who were in their bedroom. "Don't you see him? Can't you see him? He's shouting for coffee!!" At this point my Dad heard me and although I didn't specify who the 'him' was, the look on his face told me he knew who I was referring to.

And then in REAL LIFE.. My Dad woke me up to go eat dinner :(

It happened to be the 7th day too. Chinese believes that the soul returns on the 7th day to the house and will visit the parts of the house that they frequented when they were alive.

I asked Marie to leave out a cup of coffee for Ah Gong that same night. Apparently I didn't give her clear instructions. She left a cup of coffee on the dining table every night for him, with that little metal spoon in the cup so that he can stir it while drinking. Ah Gong was the only one in the house who drinks his coffee with a metal spoon so I know that the cup that is on the table there every night was for him.

I think it's very hard because we are all so not used to him not being around. Dad's not used to how he no longer see him squatting around different parts of the house, smoking away (and then telling us that he quit smoking already). Mum almost accidentally told Marie to heat up the charsiew buns in the fridge and give one to Ah Gong.

I run up the stairs to the 2nd floor and I could almost imagine him shouting after me "Mai zao! Mai zao! Dang eh bua toh" (Don't run! Later fall down!).

When Chubby was much younger and we played catching together inside the house, Ah Gong would always say the same thing. And then he would add in his theory that Chubby's legs are short so he won't be able to fall down but I am different. I guess if he had observed the way Chubby walk lately, he will learn that Chubby IS able to fall down and walk into walls even with his keen sense of smell and short legs.

I've been preparing the food for the dogs since I've nothing better to do and I would usually let Kilo into the house in the process. It was easy to lure the dog out of the house again after the food is all prepared. He just follows me.

But Ah Gong would have none of it. He hates for Kilo to be inside the house because he feels that the dumb dog would knock down and break things inside the house. He would always scold Kilo. Actually, one shout from Ah Gong would be good enough to send Kilo scurrying out of the house.

But as you can imagine, these few days, Kilo has been contentedly waiting in the kitchen while the food is being prepared.

He wasn't there while we were having lunch, he wasn't sitting there again either when we were having dinner.

I don't know how long this will work but I kinda imagine him as being on a holiday trip. To somewhere really far. Like maybe, Europe. Touring Europe with his friends, haha!

The thought of it makes me laugh sometimes. It explains his disappearance as well as why everything else in his room remained just the way it was.

I remember everything about him clearly now. Especially his voice and the way he looks. He has this trademark lump growth he had since he was born. It was like a huge skin-coloured growth that even has many strands of hair growing on it. Ah Gong said it gave him luck and so he never had it removed.

I've heard hilarious stories about it. Like how when Ah Heng was a toddler and Ah Gong was carrying him, Ah Heng somehow got his baby fingers entangled with the hair on the lump.

Being a kid, Ah Heng solved the problem the best and fastest way: By pulling. I heard from my Mum that everyone had a shock because Ah Gong suddenly cried out loudly in pain. But my thoughts were that, thankfully enough, he didn't drop Ah Heng, HAHAHA!

I have to admit that while he laid in his coffin, I did went to take a peep at the mole again. It was still there. For some stupid unexplainable reason I just wanted to make sure.

CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:40 AM