Thursday, December 02, 2004

30 mins in MackeeDee's

Time: 6:12pm
Date: 1st December 2004
Place: MacKeeDee's in Fortune Plaza, Taipo

Me and O were sitting at a table eating chicken nuggets and french fries. Two tables from us was a woman in her late 50s/early 60s, one boy around 10 years old, one girl around 5 years old. The woman is probably the grandma, having been given the pleasure of spending some quality time with her grandchildren. The boy sat opposite grandma, head down, eyes fixed on the food, eating away at his french fries in a quiet, consistent pace. The girl sat next to grandma, face turned away from her and towards us, head on the table, quiet. Staring at me.

Grandma did not stop talking.

Her speech was repetitive, "... never get your things ready in time in the morning ar.... never know where your stuff is ar.... xyzabc@$TE% ar.... ar bean gor bean gor ar, is better than you ar.... you keep your eyes open and see la, one day ar, #%$&*&xy~ ar...."

She did not eat. She kept on talking at the boy who said nothing. He kept on munching those french fries. With his head down. Expressionless.

After a while grandma took out an exercise book from the girl's schoolbag, and told the girl to sit at the next table (right next to us). It's an english assignment where the girl had to write "one" "two" "three" "four" and "five" a few times each.

Grandma started getting frantic.

"....won toe fee faw .... write la! .... not like that ar, won toe fee.... like that ar, write properly la, not so big ar! Har, you still like this, I don't bring you to eat cake tomorrow! ... won toe fee faw ar.... "

She kept grabbing the pencil from the girl and rubbing out what she's done with an eraser.

"Goh goh, is this right? Is this won? which one is won? This is toe?"

The boy lifted his head a little, in slow motion, and nodded without even glancing at the exercise book.

"...like this ar! You can't hear me mair? ... I don't bring you to eat cake tomorrow ga!" Et cetera.


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