The café is freezing; too early in the morning and I’m sitting inside. My coffee has grown cold and the words aren’t coming. My pen lies idle on my notebook. Time to head out and get warm. It’s nearly eleven and the sun is out in full force. My eyes blink in the glare and when they get used to the light, I see someone who looks like you.
You whom I’ve not spoken with in three, maybe four years? Maybe more. The person who looks like you is turned from me and walking away so I cannot tell if that is your face, if that is you. The shoulders match, the slope of neck that rolls away. Your legs, your shapely calves. Your gait, as you walk and talk on your mobile phone. You are waiting at the traffic light. I hesitate. It turns green, you cross. I decide and cross too.
I do not call out but I am close behind. Should I? I know I won’t. Finally there is a fork in the road – will you go left or will you go right? You turn left. I turn right. Once more our paths diverge, if this is truly you, that is. We walk our separate ways, as we did four years ago. Yes, I know the number now; I remember. It was a leap year too when we ended.
Kenny Mah believes in the good in people. He has been blogging for over ten years. No, his hands aren't tired. Yet.
Funny that I should be listening to this (http://mp3.zing.vn/bai-hat/I-Will-Survive-Cafe-Del-Mar/IW8O6WFC.html) while reading this..
And please call me should you ever walk behind me. We’ll go for NL. ^_^
@gfad: I will more than call you if I ever spot you — you are my favourite nasi lemak buddy, after all! *hugs*
:(
@Michelle Chin: I would like to comfort you and say this is only a story I made up but…
*hugs anyway*
Happy Leap Day to you, Kenny!!!
I’m wishing everyone who was born on 29th Feb a “Happy Birthday” ‘coz they simply don’t get wished as many times as the rest of us. ;)
Btw, I feel your post & it will make a great scene for a movie.
@jemima: Happy Leap Day to you too, dear! (Or is that Happy Leap Year Day? I’m uncertain as to this point, but we get it, yes?)
Apparently folks born on this day are called Leaplings or Leapers or the 29-ers. I heard this bit of trivia on the radio less than an hour ago while driving so you know it’s gotta be true? *chuckles*
Leaplings!! Funny term dat. Happy leap year, dear kenny mah!
@ciki: Happy Leap Year to you, meine Leibling! *winks*
Happy Leap Year to you too. Wonder how many girls will propose to their bf this on this leap day.
@Baby Sumo: It’s a brilliant date for a proposal cos their better halves then can forget it for the next three years before having to remember the anniversary again, hahaha…
Happy Leap Year to you, Kenny.
PS: Don’t know about this phrase until today, thanks for teaching me new thing :)
@Choi Yen: You have a Happy February 29th too, my friend!
Run back! And call your lungs out! Make this a leap year to remember!
@minchow: I’m gonna try and make every year one to remember! Hurrah!
Leap years are known by that name for a reason, my dear Kenny. You’re supposed to “leap”, not stay close behind someone like a stalker. Ahem.
@Michelle: Hahaha… That’s a funny one! I rather leap onto a bed of rose petals lah…
i don’t personally know any leapers, but i hope they have a hopping-good birthday today!
oh, and thank you for writing & posting daily for two full months so far this year. it’s become like my daily bread of mental-emotional sustenance each morning, my food for thought in lieu of an actual breakfast :D
@Sean: Has it been two months of daily writing already? Yikes. And to think I had one point consider taking a hiatus on blogging this year! Wow-ness.
And LFB can’t beat good ol’ sliced white bread lah.
A bed of rose petals? Really? Romantic-lah you. Personally, I’d sneeze non-stop if I did that.
And I second Sean’s thank you. Though I don’t come here every morning, I like knowing that I’ll find something here when I do. Heh.
@Michelle: Haha, I was careful to type “rose petals” and not just “roses” cos that might include the thorns!
You and Sean — so sweet lah!
Lord, I pray to you on this leap year day that our dearest Kenny will not take a hiatus on blogging this year. Amen!
@jemima: Oh, gosh you are so cute lah, dear! I guess a hiatus is completely out of the question at this point, eh? Eeks.
Hey! If not for CK, I would have proposed to you today. :p
Someone just told me that women are only allowed to propose marriage to men on a leap year day. :p
LOL!!!
@jemima: Damn that darn CK then. *chuckles*
The Leap Year Myth for women’s proposals is rather quaint, don’t you think? Given how all the women in my life are such get-goers, I bet they’d take the first step towards getting hitched if they haven’t already! Hurrah for the ladies!
“And LFB can’t beat good ol’ sliced white bread lah.” <— bah. if you think so highly of sliced bread, how come never accept my offering of that loaf the other night. it's still in my office pantry, btw! heheh :D
@Sean: That’s cos you decided to pass an entire loaf of bread to us when CK and I already had a whole pandan cake at home! No point wasting the bread; we figured your colleagues would enjoy it more. Hehe.
*reads Kenny’s reply in shock horror*
I’m still single & I must be the last of the women in your life to be still single… if I don’t propose to anyone by midnight, I’ll have to wait another 4 years.
*GASP*
@jemima: Never wait. It’s just a myth, this whole leap year business. We make our own lives, we do.
aww… this post is just… i dunno… encapsulating. (been reading too many medical texts lately, fuck.) captures all aspects of the human emotion.
@Jun: Poor thing — hope the weekend comes soon for you and you get some respite from those medical tomes. *hugs*
OMG, it’s been a few minutes since I read the post…. I have nothing to say! Ehehehe. I’m so sorry! I mean, I get the story. But, I don’t know what to comment :p
Oh, well, let me try. Was it your CK? :D
@Rad: That’s cute, you not knowing what to say, haha. The story is all that matters, really, not the details. So don’t worry about it. You read it fine. *smiles*
looks like her, walks like her, sounds like her but do you think it’s really her?
@lena: Who knows? That’s the perfection of a mystery. *winks*