"Will you come tomorrow?" asks 16-year old Ah Cat.
I have no idea whether that is a question or a request.
For what is certain, I have works to do tomorrow. So I definitely couldn't come...even if I wanted to.
The first time I met Ah Cat, I have a mixed first impression on her. Underneath her dry personality, she looked comfortable with herself. And she looked at me as though I was an alien thrown out from the faraway outer space to live with human.
Later I found out that she is fascinated by my supposedly 'big eyes'. There were some people in the past that said I owned a pair of big eyes...although I didn't quite believe them. A senior in my former school once asked me to borrow my eyes...as if I could unplug it from my eye-socket at my own freewill.
Lai Kuan occasionally said so also.
I still remember Najwa once said I have a pair of big and curvy eyes...or in short, pretty eyes. It was a rare occasion to receive a compliment from her...and I didn't know how to appreciate it. But that was the time when the mantra "till death do us apart" still persisted among us.
My eyes are normal...whatever they may say.
I read somewhere that people with big eyes are probably 'more intelligent than average'. So do people with a large forehead. I am an average people...so I don’t have big eyes (I don't know if my line of logic is correct here) For what is certain, big eyes and big forehead don't guarantee success unless we work hard towards it.
Ah Bie, Ah Cat best friend, thought I was a Chinese. A lot of people share that misconception nowadays...something that was unprecedented in the past. Maybe because I mingled more with Chinese now compared with the past. A good friend of mine even said I looked like Yassin Brothers. Weird. Does that mean I'm a bit of an Arabic-looking guy? Great...now I can join PAS. Yess. Masuk syurga.
Big eyes are not a characteristic of a typical Chinese. If you say I have big eyes, and at the same time trumpeting that I looked like a Chinese, that's a contradiction in itself. I can't have big eyes AND looked like a Chinese at the same time. One of it must be wrong. Or both of it could be wrong.
Ah Bie asked whether I was of mixed parentage. I am a true-blue authentic Malay. My mother is Malay. My father is Malay. I knew little about my grandfather and my grandmother...but they must be purely Malay. I am fully Malay at heart and soul. And I’m very proud of that.
Ah Cat was left teary-eyed after a strong telling off from that lousy Lao Yi. It was harsh...considering she is just a teenager. She's just too young. Ah Bie tried hard to console her...she even pleaded with me to come tomorrow to keep Ah Cat accompanied.
I hope Ah Cat remains strong. I began to love her personality. Childish and cute...although she looked a bit "messy".
I won't come tomorrow...or the day after...but I'll definitely come the day after that...
