Perspectives

May 30th

It was a slow afternoon for me in Klang as I nestled myself into the massive chair in my fiance’s computer room. I am guessing the magnitude of these chairs are mainly due to the sizes of the Puah brothers, with both almost hitting 6 feet in height. I look dwarfish sitting in it as I try to finish the schedule for my music team on the Dell.

It was slightly past 3pm in the afternoon, I just had a late brunch with SY at the nearby Kopitiam. We were discussing random things such as where to go for dinner; should we watch a movie? Or how about just a visit to the mall? As we were idly going through these seemingly insignificant items, the call came in.

My mother’s voice came thru the receiver, “Rachel?” “Yea mom, what’s up?” “Rachel, Ah Ma passed away.” Silence. Two seconds. And then, “What? What do you mean passed away? How did she die? When? How?”

The questions poured out in a blur as I tried to make sense of what my mother was telling me. I stopped myself from hyperventilating as I focused my energies on prodding for the truth. My mother simply replied, “She died just now…on the sofa.” I knew then, there wasn’t going to be an explanation. I understood that it was just not the right time for her to tell me, especially not on the phone.

I took a deep breath and said, “So I guess I need to come home now?” She said, “Yes please come home.” We hung up and I sighed looking over at SY. We looked at each other grimly, at a lost for words. He offered me no comfort as I expected none from him. I just said, “I need to go. Please, can you take me home?”

I packed my bags in 5 minutes and had already felt the all too familiar choke in my voice when I am just about to burst out crying. The sting of tears had already started before I knew it was coming. Yet I packed with a mad frenzy and by the time SY came downstairs, I had my sunglasses on and he escorted me to the car.

The drive from Klang was the longest ride in my life.

I tried my best not to cry but failed miserably when SY held my hand as he drove us back to my parents’ house in Melawati.

I sobbed all the way home.