Write Affair

Now I Know

Anisa sobbed quietly in the corner that she found in the garden. She didn’t realise that a simple gesture would make her friend say those mean words to her. As a ten-year-old, all she knew was that as long as she was nice to people, they would return her the same way. Her mother had taught her that. However, Gregory wasn’t happy about her being nice to Hasan. He called her a fake and put his tongue at her and gave her the evil eye.

Thinking back, Anisa started crying again. Gregory was horrible, she thought. Hasan just needed her help in Mathematics and Gregory didn’t have the right to say mean things. “Anisa?” a voice called out softly. Wiping her tears with her hands, Anisa turned towards the voice. It was Hasan.

“Anisa, I’m sorry that Gregory was so mean to you. I didn’t know he would do that.” Hasan looked at the ground as if a flower would suddenly grow where he was staring hard at. Anisa didn’t answer and smiled. She walked towards him and put out her hand. Hasan stared at her when he saw the hand. She was smiling at him. It was the first time that anyone had smiled so gently at Hasan that he didn’t know how to react but when she continued holding her hand out, he shook her hand.

“Hasan, we are friends. My mummy taught me to be nice to everyone who deserves it. You deserve this. Gregory can go suck his thumb for all I care. I know that we are friends because you came to find me and comfort me. Thank you.” The both of them smiled at each other.

Back in class, Ansia ignored Gregory’s snide remarks and concentrated on what the teacher was saying. Hasan pursed his lips and did the same. Finally, Mrs Lim stopped her teaching. “Gregory Chan, stand up and go the back of the classroom now!” The class except Anisa and Hasan looked at Gregory. Humiliated, Gregory stood up, the sound of the chair’s legs dragged across the floor loudly and he walked to the back of the classroom with his head bowed.

The lesson continued without any interruptions. After school, Grace and Krishna went up to Hasan and apologised for treating him so cruelly. Anisa winked at her new-found friend who winked back. Her mother had often spoke about true friends and she now understood what she meant.

“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked” ~ Bernard Meltzer [Source]

Tags: Friends, Relationships

It Was Worth It

Amy had been lost in her life. A life she was dreading each day to wake up to and being tied to. Feeling that life was dreary and tiresome, she had been contemplating about ending it; with her life, in order to escape the darkness. That was until she met him. He had a kind of aura about him that drew her to him.

He would often listen to her and just let her vent out her frustrations. Often, his single question would make her stop and think deeply. “What do you want out of life?” he once asked her. Six months later, she was still looking for an answer. An answer that came in the form of two homeless people she had met a few weeks before.

“It’s good to see you again, Amy. How have you been?” Tina asked with a warm smile.

Amy brightened up at her friend’s smile. “Tina! It’s good to see you too! I seem to have lost myself.”

“You are here, aren’t you?” Tina was puzzled at the answer. “Everyone is here.”

“Well, technically speaking, I am here but,” Amy faltered off.

“What is it that you have lost, dear?”

“My worth, I guess.”

“There, you just need to find it and put it back where it belongs,” Tina’s assurance gave Amy something that she had never felt before. A belief that she would find her worth was so powerful that her mood lightened for that day. Passing her some food vouchers, Amy bade her friend farewell and went on her way.

Two weeks later, she met John who was often seen with his son. “Amy! How good to see you!”

“John! It’s great to see you too! Hello, Mark. Here, your favourite sweet.” Mark’s eyes lit up at the sight of the sweets and took them with a grateful smile.

“I trust that life has been good to you,” John began.

“I think so.”

“My dear girl, you have a job, family and a warm home. Life is good!”

Stopping her thoughts in their tracks, Amy stared at John for a long time making him feeling uncomfortable.

“Amy? Is there something I said?”

“Yes, John. And you are giving me something that I have been looking for! Thanks!” She beamed at him, “I know what I can do now! There’s something I need to do, bye!” John was too stunned to react to her sudden change. Mark blinked at his father.

A year later, John, Mark and Tina were being ushered into a building and were shown to their rooms before being brought into the function room. Amy was on stage welcoming and thanking the audience. “Thank you for coming to Sweet Home. I have been lost in my life looking for my worth. I used to be an accountant working until late into the night on certain days. I’m sure some of you understand what I mean,” smiling at the crowd.

“Today is the opening of Sweet Home and it was made possible because of three people I have met. I would you to meet Tina and John. Tina, John? Would you please come to the front? Thank you.” A shuffling occurred before the two of them went up to stand beside Amy. “It’s great to see you both. These two have gave me something to do and here it is. All of you are now inside this building. A building made from the labour of trust and love. The past one year was really challenging but it was worth every minute because now, I can help others have a place to stay until they find their own sweet homes.”

Everyone clapped at this. “Without Tina and John, this wouldn’t have been made possible. As mentioned, I have three people who gave me something and I would like to introduce you to the most important person in my life, my fiance, Tom.” The round of applause was astounding. Everyone had met Tom at various stages in their lives. They were grateful to his words of wisdom and now that Amy and Tom were working as a team in building Sweet Home, they felt at ease.

A year of working hard at gaining the license, volunteers and donations was worth it. Things were difficult at first but eventually, with persistance, everything paid off.

Tags: Emotions, Family, Feelings, Friends, Life

Reaching 30: Chapter 1

[Author's Note: Sneak preview of the novel being written for NaNoWriMo.]

The postcard read “My dearest jewel, I miss you so much! I wished to be with you now! Love, Edward” Tossing the postcard to the dustbin, Calista continued her work. She didn’t care about Edward despite his declarations of undying love for her.

All she felt for him was a sense of irritation and annoyance. He was persistant and she wished that the earth would swallow him up at times. All the bouquets and flowers he sent almost every week were often given away to her female or male subordinates. The males wanted to pacify their girlfriends or wives. The females just wanted to feel romantic or make their husbands or boyfriends feel jealous.

Calista enjoyed her work and was happy to be an events planner manager. Being in this position wasn’t easy as she had to overcome prejudice from men who often gave her that “What-is-a-woman-here-for” look whenever she visited her clients with her male subordinates.

However, her efforts and results have paid off and her director was always satisfied with her work. Everyone in the office respected her as she often stood by them when they had problems with difficult clients.

Her phone rang just before lunch. It was Edward. He wanted to lunch with her. Rejection seemed impossible when her secretary pointed that he was just outside her door. Sighing, Calista resigned herself to an agonising lunch with him.

Just as they were leaving the office, Calista saw her regular client. “Mr Fu! What are you doing here?” Mr Fu beamed at her and introduced his friends saying that he was bringing them to see her. “What a surprise, do you want to have lunch first? We can always discuss it during lunch.”

“Will I be disrupting you and your…”

“No! No! He was just leaving.” Calista cut Mr Fu off before he could complete his sentence as it was simply drive Edward’s ego further, something she didn’t want. She left with Mr Fu and his friends happy for the intervention. Edward was left at the lift lobby. He scowled at her leaving back.

When she returned to her office, her secretary was worried for her. “Miss Teo, I doubt that Edward is happy. He looked evil just now when you left.”

“Lucy, I think he is harmless. I have tried to tell him in whatever ways I could to let him know I don’t like him but he still doesn’t get it. I think this ought to let him know that I don’t care to have lunch or anything with him at all.”

However, Lucy was worried because his face was scary at the lobby and she couldn’t convince her boss that he could be up to nothing good even with his nerdy appearance. She left the room reluctantly and hoped Calista would be safe.

Calista took note of Lucy’s words to heart. She didn’t want her colleagues to be worried about her when it was her problem. Edward was known to be persistent and today’s episode must have wounded his ego even more than the previous times.

She just couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t let go when she had informed him in various ways that she wasn’t remotely interested in him and had always rejected his advances. Sighing inwardly, she started on her planning for her new clients.

It was two weeks later when a woman stormed into her office demanding her to leave her husband alone. Calista was called a slut, bitch, snake and all other terms that the angry woman could think of. Shocked, Calista didn’t know how to react but she had no idea who the husband was.

“Who is your husband” she asked when the tirade died down due to the woman pausing for breath.

“You don’t know who he is?” the shriek was hurting the ears. “He is Owen Fu! The two of you have been meeting each other almost everyday and he hasn’t been home for the past two weeks!”

“Mrs Fu, your husband and I were only talking about work. I have a business dealing with him.”

“My foot! Work indeed!” Mrs Fu spat out the words as if they were vile. “The two of you have entered different hotels for 3 consecutive days and you telling me it’s work?”

“The hotels are for selecting the ballrooms.”

“Right! I don’t believe you, you little slut!” At that moment, the security guards arrived to pull the angry and jealous wife out of the office. “So, you need bodyguards now? I’ll have a piece of you!” Mrs Fu struggled to be freed so that she could slap Calista. However, she was no match for the guards. Soon, she was dragged away screaming and kicking her way out of the building.

Calista sat down at her desk in shock. She didn’t know that by meeting her clients after work would affect their families. She never had any problems with any of her clients until now.

“Miss Teo?” Lucy was at her door. Calista motioned for her to enter. Lucy closed the door behind her and sat in front of her. “Here’s your hot drink. I think you need it now.”

Calista took the hot milo from her and sipped it, grateful to have such an efficient secretary. “Lucy, I will need to cancel my appointments for today. I’m going to take the day off and leave today’s work to your capable hands.” Nodding, Lucy took note and left the room. Calista proceeded to pack and called Sonia for a drink.

Sonia arrived at the pub at the same time as Calista. She was the only one Calista would confide in first. They found a corner in the pub and ordered their drinks. Enjoying the atmosphere, they drank in silence until Calista recounted her scary encounter with a jealous wife.

Sonia listened with animated eyes. Finally, she said, “Well, from the looks of you, I can understand why she called you a slut. You still look beautiful while she could be frumpy looking. And going to a hotel with a man does look suspicious.”

“I know, but I was really talking to the hotel managers with my client. I just don’t understand why she didn’t go and ask them if she doesn’t believe her husband.”

“From her point of view, her husband is quite influential and could easily influence anyone to just ‘lie’ to her. She is getting older and feeling inadequate when dealing with her younger counterparts.”

“Sonia, you could be right. She was all wild-haired when she stormed into my office just now and the guards did have some difficulty trying to stop her from clawing at me. I think my face would have been the first to go.”

Sonia laughed but she was serious when she replied, “True but if it were any other woman who could escape the clutches of those guards, I think you would have been in more serious trouble.” Calista agreed.

As they left the pub, a dark figure was following them towards the taxi stand. Feeling chilly, Calista turned around but noticing nothing. Shrugging the ugly thoughts away, she boarded the taxi with Sonia.

Tags: Emotions, Family, Feelings, Friends, Love

That Italian Man

“Uncle Elmo!” The heavily mustached man turned around only to be smothered with hugs from an excited female. It took all of 5 minutes to extract the arms and the bags. Passersby were amused at the scene where a huge man was being hugged tightly by a young and frail-looking girl who shouldn’t be impossibly strong to entangle him.

“Bo. Nee. Ta, I can’t. Breathe!” Elmo managed to extricate himself from the entangling mess. As usual, his favourite niece was so enthusiastic that she was carrying her mass number of bags and throwing herself at him without removing the strings and knots.

“I’m so excited to be finally here! ITALY!” she shouted at the last word. Elmo cringed. She was in her element, excitement often made her unaware of her surroundings. Sighing, he picked up her largest suitcase wondering what on earth was inside her bags. The luggage fees hadn’t deterred her from bringing almost her whole room during her travels.

They proceeded towards the parking lot to his car. During the ride, Bonita was so animated about the wedding that she would be attending and the life back home. It was unfortunate that her parents were engaged in an important business negotiation that they couldn’t make it for the wedding. Elmo smiled quietly, she was her usual talkative self.

“So, Uncle Elmo, who is the lucky bride?”

“Her name’s Flora and she just graduated from Cambridge a few weeks ago.”

“Wow! What did she major in?”

“History. She mentioned something about wanting to know more about what happened and why things are the way they are now.”

“How interesting.” From the tone, Elmo knew she wasn’t interested in history. Bonita never was. She was of the Natural Sciences type. He wondered if the two girls would be able to get along during Bonita’s stay. He hoped he could let Bonita explore Rome, Venice and Florence since the wedding was still 3 days away.

After washing up at her uncle’s place, Bonita announced that she wanted to explore the streets. Elmo nodded and went off to busy himself with the wedding stuff. Bonita decided that taking the public transport would be too much since she wasn’t going to wander off too far.

With a map and her trusty camera in her hand, she was off on her own adventure. The cobblestones fascinated her and she took various angles of them. Since she was interested in visiting Basilica di San Francesco, she went off to the place as her first place of interest.

The ruins fascinated her further. The history was sad as quite a number of people were executed there until the 13th century. Busy with her phototaking, Bonita slipped on a loose stone. At that moment, she felt someone holding her and breathed in the strong masculine smell. Heady from the smell, she nearly fainted.

“Signorina, alright?”

Stabling herself, Bonita regained composure and looked at her saviour. He was swoon-worthy. His deep-set eyes and incredibly hazel brown eyes were captivating her. He was talking to her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m alright now,” Bonita finally replied. She smiled at him. “Grazie.”

He grinned showing off his perfect set of white teeth. Bonita was in love. She had never met such a perfect man that was charming her. Regaining herself, she bowed and left reluctantly as she didn’t want to be late for dinner. Uncle Elmo would be worried.

Throughout her solo visits to other parts of Italy, Bonita was hoping against hope that she would see him again but to her dismay, he wasn’t in sight. On the wedding day, she finally met Flora, the wife of her cousin. She was a lovely woman and Bonita realised that those who studied history needn’t be boring either. They chatted happily away just before the bride was to be wedded officially.

That was when Bonita saw that Italian man again. He was in a suit and strode purposefully towards her cousin. Wanting to know his name, Bonita crept towards them. “Orlando!” Her cousin was saying. The rest were in Italian that she couldn’t pick up as she was bad in learning new languages.

Knowing his name made her feel closer to him a little. After the solemnisation, everyone went towards the buffet table. In her attempts to find a table, she bumped into Orlando. “Ah, signorina. We meet again.” He was flashing his pearly whites at her again.

Bonita smiled demurely not wanting to give herself away. “It’s nice to see you again, signor. I see that you are my cousin’s friend.”

“Si, we have been best friends since high school. I’m very happy to see that he is now marrying a wonderful woman.”

The both of them found a table and started to chat away. After the wedding had ended, Orlando proposed that he take Bonita around as most of the Italians prefer speaking Italian to English. Bonita was delighted and accepted his offer.

Spending 3 days with Orlando was pure pleasure for her and she was happy to be accompanied by him. They went to The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Grand Canal and The Uffizi. They took countless photographs of each other and together.

On the 3rd day, Orlando seemed gloomy. Sensing his sad vibes, Bonita was at a loss as she didn’t know him well enough to intrude on his personal thoughts. However, during dinner, Orlando spoke his thoughts. Floored, Bonita was at a loss on how to reply at first.

“Married?” was all she could utter. He nodded sadly.

“Don’t you have to accompany your wife or something?”

“It’s like this, the day I met you at the Paradise Hill, I like you. It was like the first time I saw my wife, my heart was on fire and I wanted to see you again. I was so happy that you are Carlo’s cousin that I wanted to see you more.

After the 3 days with you, I realised that I still love my wife. I haven’t seen her for a week now.”

“Did you quarrel? I’m sure it can be solved easily.”

“Well, it’s like this, she saw me with my arm around another lady.”

Bonita was speechless. She never knew that this handsome and trustworthy looking man was capable of being such a Casanova. Perhaps men who had his looks tend to have such a behaviour. She told him sternly that he had to keep his hands only on his precious wife if he loved her that much.

Relationships can be thrilling and passionate if they put in the effort together. A marriage was to be kept sacred and renewing the wedding vows should help them remember why they got married in the first place. They ended the day with Bonita reminding him to get some flowers and gift for his wife.

Orlando seemed to walk with a lilt in his strides. She smiled. That Italian man had made her stay in Italy more exciting and she didn’t regret it.

[Entry to Tiger Airways contest. Share your holidays here.]

Tags: Family, Friends, Holiday, Italy, Relationships, Short Story, Travel

Making The Right Choice

“Something wrong?” she wiped her hands on the apron and walked towards her daughter. Putting her arm around her, she let her weep quietly into her clothes. After a while, the crying had stopped. Dinner was still waiting to be cooked.

Her daughter was led to the kitchen to sit while she continued her preparations. They ate in silence. Leaving the dishes aside, she took her daughter’s hand and they both went to her room. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Tears threatened to spill out. Her daughter swallowed and began her story.

Finally, the cause was known. Yvette was upset that Paul had seem to take her for granted again. He would always thrust her with some task to be done and she would do it. However, he never thanked her once for her help. This time, he had gone too far. He had told her to take his place at a seminar while he settled something. More »

Tags: Family, Friends, Love, Marriage, Relationships