Singapore,
12 February 2013
“I found
a ring on the floor this morning. If you are the owner of the ring, please
contact me at 9327 4188.”
***
Peter and
Anna read the paper pasted next to the lift. Anna murmured, “The owner is very
honest.” Peter nodded and smiled, “Maybe there’s this guy wants to propose his
girlfriend on the Valentine’s day. Too bad he lost the ring.” Anna laughed at
him, “Wow, your imagination…”
***
Lea read
the paper pasted next to the lift and smiled bitterly. She glanced at her own
ring. Well, her friends have asked her to take off the ring. “You can’t wait
for him anymore,” even her daughter said so. Lea did not care. She just knew
that she should keep the ring to remind her about her husband who left her ten
years ago. She knew why.
***
Emily woke
up that morning and thought, “Well, what’s next?” She was not the same Emily as
the day before. “Morning…” said the ‘husband’ as he yawned and smiled at her.
It’s still very weird for Emily to take note then from now one, she will refer
to John as her ‘h.u.s.b.a.n.d’. She whispered at his ear, “Did I kick you last
night?”
***
Anna put
her shoes on the shoe rack.
“Hi Cath!”
Her
housemate, Catherine, was washing the dishes. Catherine washed her hands and
dried them quickly then ran to Anna. She paused for a second, and whispered,
“Anna!”
“Eh…what?
Your kids behaved well today and no parents made noise today?”
Catherine
shook her head quickly and showed her left fingers to her. Anna noticed the
shiny diamond ring and half-screamed, “Catherine!!!! Congrats!!” She hugged
Catherine very tight then she stepped back,
“Wowww.
When-where-and-how did he propose??”
“Well,
don’t laugh, okay?”
Anna nodded
but she already giggled even before Catherine explained the story. Catherine
took a deep breath,
“At McDonalds
this morning!”
“WHAAAT??”
Anna burst out laughing. She calmed herself down and asked again, “How come?”
“Well, we
met for the first time at McDonalds seven years ago. I ‘found’ him on
Friendster. Well, you know, last time we used Friendster. He was my secondary
school friend, so I just proposed that we met up that time.”
“Hahaha. I
don’t know you are quite aggressive.”
“I’m not
aggressive, I was being pro-active. The rest of the chasing part was initiated
by him.”
Anna
laughed again, “Well, I’m so happy for you! Looking forward for the wedding
invitation. Finally!! My roommate is getting married.” Anna looked at
Catherine’s blushing face and smiled. Yeah, she knew how long Catherine has
been waiting for this. In Anna’s eyes, Tony, Catherine’s boyfriend – oops,
fiancée – is the typical-young-generation-man. He wanted to build his career
first, he wanted to save enough money to buy a car first, he wanted to ‘enjoy
life’ whatever it means for him. Catherine was ready for the commitment since 2
or 3 years ago, but Tony was not.
***
Lea put her
shoes on the shoe rack.
“Hi Mom.”
“Hi Aunty”.
Kim and Anthony, her boyfriend, greeted her at the same time.
“Hi. You
eat already?”
“Yup. We
went to Holland Vi today and had a Japanese ramen there. Oh Mom, you
should try it out next time!”
“Is it that
good?”
“Oh well,
you have high standard.” She looked at her boyfriend and said in sarcastically,
“My ex-dad was a chef and my mom has been waiting for him to come back and cook
all of the love recipe again.” Lea was not in the mood to quarrel with her
daughter today and not in front of Kim’s boyfriend. She ignored her daughter
and walked to her room as Kim said again to Anthony, “You know, sometimes I
think my dad must have put some love poison in his cuisine so that my mom does
not forget him even after 10 years of neglect.” Anthony felt uneasy and talked
softly,
“Kim, don’t
talk like that please.”
Lea turned
and smiled at the 18-year-old guy. Her lips made a ‘thanks’ then she closed the
door behind her.
After a while
she had learned not to cry anymore. Her thought flew back to her wedding day,
the day when she felt that she was the happiest woman in the world. However, at
the back of her mind, she remembered that her mom had told her that love is not
a fairy tale or even a Barbara Cartland’s novels in which the husband would
kiss the wife and carry her to their bed.
Lea closed
her eyes. She knew that her husband was so special. He was nice, he was kind,
and he just adored her. He had also been patient in taking care of Kim and he
did not complain about it. However, after Lea’s second unfortunate miscarriage,
he changed. The first loss of the baby happened when Lea worked overnight for a
few days when she covered the news on election. The second happened after Lea
and her husband quarreled when her husband asked her to change her job.
Lea always
told herself. It was not only his fault, but it was her fault. There had been
so many times her friends asked her to talk to him in the early stage of the
problem. There had been so many times her friends asked her to change her job
or at least just work part-time, but she just loved her job as a reporter. She
indeed enjoyed her work and she thought, “Things will work out well.” She had
made mistakes and she did not want to make a new mistake. She did not believe
in divorce and if the last things that she could do were to take care of her
daughter and forgive her husband and herself, then she let herself do it.
***
Emily’s mom
used to say that Emily slept like a ‘fan’. She would turn and turn for one
round so that she would kick her mom when she slept with her mom. That’s why
the first thing that she asked that morning was whether she had kicked her
husband.
One week
before their wedding, Emily had prepared a list of weird things that might surprise
John.
1. I
have OCD-like-symptom that all hangers must be hung in the same direction
2. I
hang my undergarment in the bathroom in the evening till the next day before I
hang it somewhere else
3. After
my alarm rings, I will wake up and move to sofa to sleep again for 15 minutes
4. I
kick people when I sleep, beware!
John
insisted that she should stop at point 4, so that “I do not call off the
wedding because of other weird things that you do.”
Apparently
that morning Emily did not move to the sofa. One of the reasons was the bed in
the hotel felt so nice and comfortable and she enjoyed staring at John sleeping
next to her. She wished every day would be like this, but they could not. They
had limited budget, so they would only stay in that hotel for one night and
that very day they would move to John’s parents’ house. Their unit would only
be done two years from now because the government only started to build the new
unit after they were engaged. They did not have enough money to make down
payment earlier because both of them pursued their Master’s immediately after
graduation and they refused to wait until their unit is constructed to get
married.
That evening
Emily ‘officially’ moved to John’s parents’ house. She read the paper pasted
next to the lift and smiled to John.
“Well, my
wife would kill me if I ever lost my wedding ring,” said John calmly.
“No la. My
husband is more precious than the ring mah.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Mr
John. Stop forcing me to say sweet things, you’ll have diabetes later.”
***
Singapore,
14 February
Anna looked
at the lift in front of her and told Peter, “Oh no. The paper’s gone! Maybe no
one claimed the ring.”
“Hahaha. It’s
okay. Maybe the owner has claimed the ring already.
“Or maybe
the guy has bought new ring already because he wanted to propose the girl on
Valentine’s Day.”
***
