Friday, October 04, 2013

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW


HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

(This story is written by Lim Poh Keng,a friend of Zest Zipper. It is a rehash of the original story ‘Sudden Departure of a Friend’ by Zest Zipper. It is revised with the intention of making the original story more dramatic and philosophical.
The writer would like to dedicate this story to the late Mr.Xiao Chai Chin.)

 WHEN age catches up with us, one by one our comrades would leave us for the Yellow Springs (黄泉,huang-quan ). To lament is out of the question as Time hovers above us with impunity as we all have to fall into its deadly grasp. Not too long ago Time has claimed its ‘latest victim’. When my buddy, Kim Boon, broke the news of the passing away of our dear friend, Chai Chin, it was nothing short of expecting the unexpected! However, Kim Boon’s dreadful tidings were yet to be verified and he requested me to see to it whether it was true or otherwise. That whole night I did not sleep a wink as the urgency of the matter was spinning in my mind! I could not make myself to believe that Chai Chin was no more with us!

ON the next morning, the first task to be put into action was to inquire at the coffee shop from the char-koay-teow vendor, in order to extract from him the truth of Chai Chin’s fate! “Yes!” he blurted out-the confirmation of my worst confounded fears- Chai Chin had truly kicked the bucket, with a massive heart attack on the way to the hospital. I suddenly felt a chill running down my spine as if I was as cold as Chai Chin’s corpse itself. The setting of Xiao Chai Chin’s (萧财庆) sun shocked several of his classmates as well. It was all too sudden for all of us to swallow and be choked by this terrible news!

AUGUST 9, 2013 was a fateful date for me and Chai Chin. It would turn out to be our final encounter in this lifetime. I dropped in at his stall for breakfast. Who could have expected that it would become the last rite for him to serve me for the very first and last time his white curry mee! If there were any consolation at all, it would be at least I was lucky enough to have tasted his white curry mee- even just this once and for all time.  Small consolation that! Likewise, many of his classmates were left disconsolated at his passing.

AS a matter of fact, Chai Chin had phoned me up several times telling me of his inclination to sell white curry mee at a coffee shop here in good, old Bukit Mertajam(BM). Frying noodles for umpteen years had lost its zing for him. It was high time to move on and embark on a new venture.  It struck him that selling white curry mee would open up new vistas in his business. After a thorough and meticulous survey of the curry mee enterprise around town among the various vendors, he reached the confident conclusion that his curry mee would be the cream of the crop, if not one of the best in BM!

As a passing jest, I tendered the proposition that he displayed his business banner outside the coffee shop to publicize his specialty of white curry mee bearing the following catchlines:

                          ‘Why Carry Me?

                       Try Carry Me.

                       You’ll Carry Me Home!’

The last line turned out to be a premonition, now that I see its darker meaning! “You’ll Carry Me Home!” suggested a funeral procession whereby the deceased was sent to his everlasting resting place! O what have I done? However, at that point in time when my suggestion was tendered, Chai Chin responded favorably as he believed it would advance in his new venture. But on second thoughts mayhap he was jesting with me.

AMONG our circle of friends was my classmate, Seng Kwang. Whenever he returned from Sabah to BM, I would gather him and Chai Chin around for a reunion at the coffee shop to while away the evening with small talk as we threesome were really close chums notably during Primary Five at school. We would rally around to share a fag, each one taking his turn for a few puffs. We exemplified the adage of “Boys will be boys!” during those innocent bygone days.

Chai Chin was also a brilliant story teller, and he would regale us with his engaging tales. Many of his narration set us roaring with laughter so much so that we were assailed with stomach aches!

One such incident is worth accounting here.

CHAI Chin spotted a conspicuous mole atop his right shoulder. This was interpreted as being burdened with family responsibility. Consequently, his friends advised him by way of coaxing, to have it promptly removed.  Eventually, Chai Chin paid a visit to the fortune teller to get rid of his inauspicious blemish. It so happened that the fortune teller was busily absorbed with a client when Chai Chin presented his problem to him. However, in a jocular vein, the fortune teller counseled him in the Teochew dialect: “Sang Kar Chun Tik, Toa Miang Ta Kea!” ( 双脚伸直,就不用擔家!). Literally, this is paraphrased as: once you have stretched out your legs, you are no more carrying the burden of your family responsibility, which means: upon death one is free from all responsibility. However, Chai Chin missed the point by the mile. So he literally took a seat to stretch out his legs upon it, and sat patiently waiting for his turn to have a consultation with the fortune teller, and to get his mole disposed thereafter. When the latter had finished with his client, he was taken by surprise and hilarity to notice Chai Chin displaying his yogic posture with outstretched legs! In a fit of exasperation, he let out a yell at Chai Chin: Tambai Kia!(Stupid Oaf!) for misunderstanding his earlier injunction. However, when the truth dawned upon him, Chai Chin burst out in rollicking laughter!

BACK TO THE PRESENT.  Now that Chai Chin ‘had stretched out his legs at last!’, the necessity of removing the luckless mole from his shoulder is no more relevant to his well-being.

Life and death, tears and laughter, permanence and change….., ultimately death would spell the end for all of us miserable mortals… for  life is impermanent but death is undeniable, unavoidable, and unforeseeable – it can come at any time when you least expected it!

Not seeing Chai Chin for only just a month was his life cut in twain so suddenly leaving both his dear folks and friends alike in limbo, scarcely saying a word of farewell to any of them. We, mortals all, will take the same road as Chai Chin one day when it will all become evidently clear that everything is

                  HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW.

MAY Chai Chin – zaijian (再见) Goodbye to him – attain an auspicious rebirth – and also rest in peace. Amen.

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