Monday, March 28, 2005

A Strange Encounter at the Bus Stop

I was going to school by bus when I encountered two small children standing at the bus-stop. They didn’t have any one with them as their chaperon which made me even more curious because they were too young to be going out without adult supervision.
As I quietly observed them, I noticed that they were both smartly dressed and were obviously happy and excited. Many kinds of possibilities and scenarios were racing through my mind as I tried to guess what they were planning to do. Could they be waiting for their parents to pick them up? Could they be waiting for the arrival of their friends? Could they be waiting for a bus like me or could they be running away from home?
Soon the two children began to talk. I could not help but to eavesdrop on their little conversation. The first boy said that he could not wait any longer for the ‘thing’ to come. Then, the second boy calmly comforted his friend to be patient because the ‘thing’ would be coming soon. The first boy started fidgeting around excitedly overlooking my shoulder to see if the ‘thing’ had arrived. My curiosity grew even deeper about the ‘thing’.
Not long after that, the bus arrived. It was time for me to go but I could see the children had no intention at all to get on the bus. To satisfy my curiosity, I decided not to aboard the bus but to continue observing the children. To my surprise, I realized that the children were simply waiting for the next bus. Although to be exact, they were waiting for a particular passenger on the bus, a young, attractive girl about 20 years old. The children stood up ambiguously and waved vigorously at the pretty girl and she did was smiling back at them.
I was completely dumbfounded at the surprising outcome of my observation. I never thought boys around the age of 6 years old or so would be so girl-crazed. While I tried to put my jaw back in normal position, then I truly understood what it was all about through their conversation again. The children were actually waving goodbye to their kindergarten teacher who was leaving school for good. I felt touched over the children’s sensitive gesture so I decided to buy them ice-cream as a reward. Amazingly, these children refused to take my offer based once fact that I was a stranger. Then they left the bus-stop while sat there with my jaws wide open again.
by CWO

Monday, March 07, 2005

At the Dental Clinic

Instantly, the smell of the sanitized clinic welcomed me as I stepped into the waiting room. I had to wait for my turn, as there were quite a number of patients waiting for Doctor Chow. Besides flipping through the magazine aimlessly, I started noticing the medical posters hanging on the walls of the waiting room: “How do you know when you are pregnant”, “Ten ways of detecting diabetes”, “How fat is too fat”, “Do you know if you have asthma?”, “The difference between flu and cold”…I never failed to learn a thing or two by reading those posters. Even though I also noticed that the very same posters had been hanging there since ten years ago when I first came to this clinic. My train of thoughts was suddenly broken by the shrieking cry of a hysterical little girl coming out from the doctor’s room. She probably got an injection which I feared most of all. Then I heard my name being called by the Grimm looking nurse. Time for execution…
by CWO

Scene from a Class

The bell has rung; students prepare themselves for another lesson. Among them, there are a few who are still eagerly chatting about last nights football match between Manchester United and Real Madrid. The excitement goes on until a strong figure steps into the class. He is our history teacher. He sternly puts down his books and then picks up the marker pen to scribble some unidentifiable letters on the board. Students are puzzled as usual but no one dares to question his authority. Very soon the history teacher begins to explain a totally incomprehensible theory of the past. Students regard history as theory because they can never visualize their seriously looking teacher coming out of his shell and open up to the wonders of ancient history. Yet no one dares to tell him the truth about how boring the class is. Students are forced to give nothing else but the fullest attention to him. No one is to write, copy, talk, drink, blink, or even breathe too loudly for it may disrupt the class. Everyone freezes during history class.
by CWO