it was already 11.30p.m after a hectic day at the office. The
usual SBS bus had not arrived yet. I decided to take an alternate
bus service that plied a longer route, as I did not wish to take
the chance that my usual bus will arrive, since it was almost time
that a last service would either be on the way or would have
left.
As the passenger-empty bus travelled along the unfamilar route,
I glimpsed ahead in the dark, a dim silhoulette of a school. The
one I had studied at before. On an impulse and with a sense of an
unknown longing pulling me, i got up, pressed the bell to get off
at the nearest bus stand.
The bus quietly rolled away after alighting me. I walked the
short distance to my former school, and found it fully fenced up
around the commodious grounds and gates locked, with not a sign of
anyone in the deserted landscape, save for a few passing cars
heading home to their mansions far ahead.
It had been years that I returned since my graduation from here.
Looking up from the gates, I could see my previous classroom on the
second floor of the main block nearby. Gripping the rusty bars with
my bare hands, I hurled myself over the portal and landed onto the
school's compound.
Under the pale moonlight and twinkling stars, I made my way to
my former classroom. Lonely and quiet, with not even a chicada
chirping away, I sat down on my former seat.
Suddenly, the room came alive and as bright as a morning
classroom could be, right before my eyes and filled with people!
Infront of me was Yuet Heng, with her pony tails and usual
well pressed pinafore,chatting animatedly to plumb rosy cheeked
Susan. On my left was Arul, my best buddy, copying my maths
homework so that he could hand it up later.
They seemed not to notice me. I reached forward to pull Yuet
Heng's hair, as I often did playfully, but my fists grasped only
air where her hair was. Turning to my right, Johan and Sam were
reading their comic books. I called out to them, but they heard me
not.
In frustration, I shouted out, and in that moment, the cold
chill darkness returned. The living figures seemed to float
away, everything else disappearing into the bleak nighttide. I then
realised it was my imagination playing tricks, memories long buried
of a happier and innocent time once lived.
In sadness, I stumbled out, headed to the courtyard and made my
way out thru climbing over the gates again, noticing only then that
this school would be torn down soon to make way for new
developement, another victim of Singapore's ongoing urban renewal
programmes.
With a heavy heart, suffering from long lost but cherished
memories, I paced the silent lited pavement,buffeted
with cool gentle breezes flowing around me, making that
journey home, alone, wishing all the while that time could be
unwound back.
Back to my school days where there were friendships made,
relationships formed, trials and tribulations of life shared.
filled with joys, naivety and innocence. Books, education, passing
exams were not the only thing that mattered.
In a few hours more, a new day will dawn, a rekindled hope for a
better tomorrow will arise, and each moment to be treasured and
cherished, for it will be fleetingly gone before one knows it.
Everything else is transient, only the memories remain. They are
part of humanity's gift that is called life...
Therefore, seize each day and make the best of it, before it turns
into memories, memories of which good or bad, happy or sad is
within our own freewill and choice.
nice 