16 December 2012:
Support.
The plastic bag rustled as I took it from the gnarled hands of the kway teow man. “Your wife doing okay?” he asked me in Hokkien.I’ve heard that umpteen times since she slipped into a coma. It’s been almost six months now, and she has no sign of waking anytime soon.
I mumbled “still the same”, thanked him for the piquant packet of fried kway teow, and left. I think I would soon get used to buying kway teow without her by my side.
I met my wife 13 years ago at this exact kway teow stall. She was only 23 years old then, a dainty, shy lady who was waiting patiently at the side of the stall. The fumes from the kway teow frying, although saliva-inducing, caused the area to be very hot and stuffy. She was sweating profusely.
I handed her a piece of tissue and the rest, they say, is history. After two years of courtship, we got married.
As the car cruised along the expressway, I thought of my wife now. For almost six months, she lay motionless on the hospital bed. The constant beeping from the life support machine was the only indication that she was still around.
I sacrificed my work for her, and my boss Jean was unhappy. Thankfully, she was very empathetic and helped me out whenever she could. For six months, she supported me along this difficult journey.
The car engine grumbled till silence and I yanked the car key out. I had reached the hospital. I walked in through the sliding glass doors, took a lift up to the eighth floor, walked through door B, turned left, walked all the way and turned right at the corner. This routine to get to my wife’s ward, I have been doing it for almost six months. It was routine to me, almost like a hypnotic experience.
“Beep … beep …” the usual sound of the life support machine. I pulled a chair to her bedside and opened the packet of kway teow. It was cold by now.
I was almost done when the door opened. I looked up and saw Jean’s familiar face.
“Hello Tim!” she was forever cheerful. Perhaps that’s how she helped me out through these six months, by filling my life with laughter.
Jean pulled another chair over and sat beside me, observing me finish the last of my fried kway teow. The room was still silent, only filled with the faint “beep … beep …”
Jean started looking intently at me when I came back from throwing the empty packet away. Her right hand crept onto my left thigh and she started moving it up and down. I cocked my head at her and frowned a little. “Not here, Jean. Not in front of my wife.”
“Why?” she asked coquettishly, “she has been lying there for six months. She won’t know.”
“But …”
Jean put a finger to my lips. “These … should not be used for talking.”
I shrugged, but it soon turned into a smile. My wife went into a coma almost six months ago. Times were tough since then. You can’t blame me; all I merely wanted was support.
This one is another short story I've written, this time in English. I wrote this months back before my O Levels, as a practice for free writing in English. Due to its risque nature, I eventually decided against sending it to the teacher for evaluation. I hope you liked it.