I Don't Remember Seeing Him

I hate having to come for training during weekend. Waking up as early as 7.00am on Saturday morning was like a military campaign. Why there’s a need to spend a full 8 hours of futile boredom on the I-care-for-nothing day?

And the rest of the participants weren’t particularly discreet about our displeasure either, so the trainers promised a shorter hour while doing a really 'fun stuff’ together. (Snort, after discussing the whole economic impacts on Iceland for 2 days straight, what could possibly be more fun thing to do today? Would boiling family pet be next?)

So I sat serenely (half-asleep) in the corner, disassociating myself from the unearthly clamors around me. I need my sleep. I need my sleep. I chanted loudly to myself.

I didn’t expect any intrusion, but then there this one participant came to me unannounced. I was alarmed. Gee, I hoped it wasn’t about my nasty remark about his stripe shirt over morning tea break yesterday.

"Mus, semalam ko kata ko Sekolah Sains Muar kan?”. I nodded, a little surprise but swollen with self-important.

"Ko kenal adik aku, Taib Tariq kan? He just told me about your dirty little secret”. He chuckled and seemed quite devilishly pleased.

I was unmoved. Being a perfectly normal, hot-blooded teenager many years ago, I could have done a million and one things that I probably wouldn’t be proud to admit now, but hey, that’s just that.

In fact, I assure you, I do not have any problem when someone, somehow knows a little bit about my past. I have nothing - seriously, completely hideous - to hide. I’m not a psycho who pulled the legs off ants as a child, nor do I have any outstanding arrest warrants, so like I said, I wasn’t particularly concerned.

"He told me what everybody called you back then. Pretty nasty nick huh?”. I felt the blood seeped from my ears. He just made a pretty irreversible, unforgivable mistake.

I swear I couldn’t remember a thing what happened after that. Only that, it was the last time, anybody ever heard about him, ever, again. *Shrug*

And Oh! The class went really, really well.