It seemed that everyone else was done getting dressed ages ago and here i was still looking for matching pair of socks, combing my hair, doing a second take on the outfit i was wearing, yadda yadda…i always liked dressing up to go out. Going out is always reason to dress up, especially in this country where fashion seems to be a distant relative. Moreover, dressing is about being presentable and about showing other people your respect for them (and obviously respect for yourself. There isn’t much respect for oneself if one dresses to be chided or laughed at)..

Anyway so here i was applying the final touches to myself and seeing myself out of the door so that i could get down to the car where everyone was waiting (no longer patiently) for me. I ran along the corridor but at the first corner, i stopped in my tracks. Amidst the many pots of plants was a pair of cold-blooded eyes staring back at me.

*Gulp* i swallowed my saliva hard. Run! i told myself instinctively, urging my legs to get moving. Knowingly, there was no way i was going to be able to make it pass the green scaly reptile. What in the world was a baby crocodile doing there? i thought to myself as i made a dash for the staircase to my left. 2 floors down with 6 more storeys to clear, i made my way through the corridor to the other staircase near the lift lobby and continued on my journey. Hoping i had thrown the crocodile off my tracks for a while, i hastily pressed the buttons of the lift, urging the lift doors to open quickly; all the while hopping from one foot to another so that i would be ready to break into a run if the croc appeared in my view again.

With a sigh of relief, the lift door finally opened just as i saw the croc appear at the top of the flight of stairs. I leapt into the lift that was mysteriously filled with yelping dogs and pressed the button, willing the lift door to shut in time. The scene within the lift was hilarious and uplifting with heaps of fur all over the place, each crying for attention from this stranger that had entered the lift.

*Ting* finally…the sound of bell announcing that we had arrived at our destination – the first floor. I stumbled out of the lift, still watching in awe at the number of dogs and cats (at this point in time, cats had joined the scene too) in the void deck.

“Oi! What took you so long?” A familiar voice rang out.

I ran towards my family and explained the ordeal that i had just been through. After i had related my experience, they looked at me incredulously and said, “Are you sure? We just ran into the Major and he said that the crocodile he kept as a pet had died some years ago.There can’t be another crocodile in the estate…’

Leaving the washroom, friends she bumped into along the way stopped to ask if she was alright. ‘Yea, i am. Just not feeling too well’, she said, her excuse for the way she looked. 

Upon leaving the school building, she suddenly felt free. The long heavy skirt that she was wearing felt weightless as well. She began to soar like an eagle. ‘I can fly!’ she exclaimed. 

Immediately, a mischevious grin spread across her face as an idea lit in her head. Since i look like a ghost today and i can fly, why not….

Letting her long black hair loose, she spread her arms out in a manner that looked like she was about to strangle someone and swoped down towards her first target.

‘Arghhhhh….!!! A ghost!!’ a high pitch scream pierced the otherwise dull atmosphere. 

Before reaching the target, she soared back into the sky giggling with delight. ‘This is fun!’ she thought to herself. She flew to a tree and watched for her next target, ignoring a small but growing crowd that had begun to gather around the fainted girl.

The sky looked ominous. It was going to rain. I had better close the windows i thought. I looked out. All was quiet and i could see the big patch of grass land outside and the blocks of HDB flats beyond the field. All of a sudden, something caught my eye. Nope. It couldnt be. But it was. The thing still remained even as i rubbed my eyes a few times.

Below i saw a big fat rubber looking white plane (looks like those that are made of those hot air balloon material actually) outside. And the funny thing was that there were chains that were hanging from the base of the aeroplane. More interestingly, attached to one of the chains was a comfort taxi. What was going on?

I had no answer to that. All i know was that before it ascended any higher, i had to take a snapshot of the sight.

Mum and Dad appeared at the doorway of the master bedroom where we were all lazing around. All smiles, they handed out the souvenirs they had purchased on their short holiday trip before disappearing to wash up.

Shamantha, Spencer and I poured the contents of the bag onto the bed in excitement while our older sister and her friends went to bed (yes, they were having a sleepover). Scouring through each an every item, we had a comment for everything. One particular item that caught our eye was this ruler like object where you could use one end to teach children how to read time. There was even food for us to sample! (more like perjoy sticks)

All of a sudden, the room began to spin and the surroundings began to change. It seemed we had gone underground. Water was filling in on us and we struggled to hold onto all the souvenirs. Alas the water became deeper and we had to tread water. Our items were floating away and the underwater current was proving to be dangerous. Turning behind towards the direction of the underwater current, we saw to our horror the formation of a waterfall. No way were we going to go with the flow.

With all our might, we swam towards the edge (yes, there was an edge, the wall..and mysteriously enough, there were grills we could hold to below the surface of the water). I turned and saw Spencer going passed me (greater mass, greater push i guess…heh no offence) and i held out my hand and grabbed hold of him, pulling him to my side and to the safety of the grills. Interestingly enough, many things were caught in between the grills and did not seem to be affected by the current. My hands caught hold of something thin and long. I lifted it out of the water. It was a chocolate perjoy stick! Yummy! Food to fill my stomach!

Slowly we made our way to dry land. It seemed like we were in a sewage or something, or at least we were somewhere underground. We began our hike through the dim and damp corridor. Now and then, we would pass by tunnels either on the left or the right; tunnels which were too dark to peer into.
After trekking for a while, a funny howling sound was heard amidst gushing sounds. From a distance, white fumes were being emitted from a particular tunnel. Every single strand of hair on our body that could stand, stood in its ends. Shivers ran down our spines. Eerie.

Quick. Let’s just walk quickly and ignore it. One of us said. And so we did. Right after we passed the tunnel, we made a dash for it running as fast as we can to get as far as we could from the fumes, if they were fumes at all.

We came to the end of corridor. It was split level. Further down, we would have to climb back up again. Goodness knows why anybody would create this split in level for such a short distance! But we had to climb down if we wanted to continue the journey towards the end of the tunnel, towards what we hoped was an opening. Spencer made his way down first. Looking at the distance we had to climb down, an idea struck me. We can continue to walk on the higher level if we could just make a little jump to get around the railings where there is a little platform. If i could hold on to the railings and walk, i would be able to get to the other side safely. I made known my idea and took the lead.

Just as i swung over and grabbed hold of the railings that was positioned above me, my hands came in contact with funny small solid like things on the top of the railings. Because of the contact and the fact that my hands had swept some part of the railings, some of these funny things dropped. It landed on the side of my mouth. Urgh! Yuck!!! Dried shit! I thought. I was quick to spit, and was desperately trying to remove any remnants of shit off my face with a free hand.

At that moment, i realized Spencer was doing the same thing too. He had tried to scale the platform from the ground. There was shit everywhere and we hadnt noticed it earlier due to the lighting. Argh. Thankfully, Shamantha had not moved at all and was safe, not for very long anyway.

Shit prevailed. We had to touch shit no matter what if we wanted to move on. Perhaps it wasn’t the easiest route. Maybe we should have just made the extra effort to go the longer way.

It’s interesting how one can spend time with people and yet not make any progress understanding one another.

I m sure the whole world is connected in some way. My relative’s relative’s relative could jolly well be a good friend of mine and her relative’s relative’s relative’s……relative’s friend could be the brother or sister-in law of my cousin. So we are really one big family. In that case, why do we look upon others differently? If I weren’t so sane, i would run around hugging eveyone and thanking them for being a part of my big family. Ahah…world peace.

But really, it makes you want to treasure and hold on to every moment for fear that you will lose everything with one wrong move.

Life is mundane but it is the people who make it interesting. And mankind is a bizzare species. Sometimes i wonder if everyone is trying so hard to be liked and to be part of that in-group, why do we even have to bother since everyone is in the same boat? Then again this might be a sweeping statement because researchers may tell us that everyone cannot be classified under a single category. There are the different personality traits – the extraverts and the intraverts – as well as those who are high or low self monitors.

‘Give me all your money!’ He yelled jerking his gun in the direction of the cashier and pushing a bag forward.

The shop was run by three young men and they looked on, bemused.

‘How about this kid, you don’t take any of the money in the cashier and i will let you take anything you want from the store. I will fill up your bags right now. Just point to what you want.’ The oldest of the three men negotiated.

The boy looked at his friends then turned to face the three men. Nodding his head he yelled out what he and his friends wanted. After the bags had been stashed full of tidbits and other groceries, the boys grabbed hold of the bags and made a dash for it.

One of the owners immediately gave chase while the other two stayed behind. They knew that the gun was harmless yet they had decided not to risk it.

Meanwhile, the guy lost the boys as they ran into a huge group of campaigning students heading in his direction. He decided to give up and return to the shop when he saw one of the boys talking to a long hair, fair skinned girl.

He yelled at the kid and tried to give chase but was stopped by the girl. Upon hearing the story about the theft, the young girl was apologetic and apologised to the shopowner on behalf of the boys whom she claimed were her good friends. Goodnaturedly, she volunteered to work at the shop to make up for what her friends had done. Back at the shop, all three shopowners agreed. If a girl would be so silly to take the rap for her male friends, why not? Besides, she was quite sweet looking.

‘What should i do?’ She asked. She was told to sweep and mop the floor.

(right so this dream is kinda like a jap/korean/chinese show so you have to imagine them speaking in chinese, or at least when you watch jap/korean shows, it would have already been translated into chinese)

‘I have never swept the floor in my entire life because my housekeeper would do that!’ She protested but continued to proceed to do what she had promised.

Days passed and the girl soon became good friends with the three men (think of the kind of relationship that F4 had with Shan Cai) and she continued to work there even though she had already more than repaid her ‘good’ friends’ debts. She felt happy at her job. Nonetheless, she was very much a very young girl at heart and she had immatured thoughts.

‘Hmm i wonder who would be most concerned about me if something were to happen to me?’ she wondered. In her head, she daydreamed of things that could happen to her and finally struck upon an idea. In the basement of the shop, there was a manhole with a pile of mud. If she were to fall in it by ‘accident’ and yell for help, who would be the first to come running? Perhaps then she would be able to tell who was the most anxious about her.

One day, she decided she would act upon that thought. But curiousity killed the cat. As she fell into the mud, she realized that even if she were to shout, she would be out of hearing range. Also what was even worse was that the mud did not seem to be normal mud but quicksand! As she struggled and cried out for help, she continued to sink deeper till her desperate cries gradually became muffled and was silenced.

Hours passed and no one had seen her. People started getting worried and soon they discovered the body. It was filed away as an accident and years passed.

But her family, a rich and wealthy family, would not forgive the shopowners. The mother also became paranoid that misfortune would befall upon her other daughter. She could not bear to lose another child and so she had strict instructions set in place for the young girl. The young girl was forbiddened to leave the house on her own. Hence, since she was born, she had never set foot beyond the four walls of her house. To keep her busy, she was assigned the task of sweeping the many floors in the house.

One day, her chance arrived. With her mother busy on the phone and the cleaner busy cleaning the pool, there was no one else who was free to keep watch on her. Still holding on to the broom, she made a dash for the entrance and was free.

Crossing the road, she ran into her belated sister’s friend. Surprised and worried to see the little girl out on her own, she decided she would accompany her on her walk. The little girl crossed the road and walked on happily, taking in the sights around her. She stopped at a convenience store. It was the convenience store. But of course, the little girl had no clue.

She went in and was enthralled by the mashmellow cushion. The friend was uneasy as she looked at the shopowners. While she recognized them, they did not know her. The happy chatter and innocence of the little girl and the fact that she was carrying a broom with her drew attention from the shopowners. There was something familiar about her which they could not comprehend.

The little girl having decided she would get the mashmellow cushion eventually bought herself, her belated sister and her friend each a cushion and happily went out of the shop. The friend, afraid that history may repeat itself or afraid that the little girl’s mother would be furious if the little girl and the shopowners ever get acquainted in future, turned to eye the oldest of the three and said, ‘Bernard, you watch out.’ and left.

The shopowners turned to look at each other in bewilderment. How did she know his name? Why did that little girl look so familiar?

Meanwhile, the little girl and the friend crossed the road and headed in the direction back home.

Around me, everyone else didnt seem to think it was a problem. Walk on, they said.

I looked diagonally across the road at that animal that so frightened me that i could not think of how i should proceed on. The leopard sauntered freely on the pavement. It turned to look in my direction. Hastily, i tore my stare away and glance elsewhere. How should i move from here?

I walked on at the pushing of the ladies behind me. Move it, they said. It wont harm you.

I took one look at the approaching cat and muttered, right. keep walking. quick. get out of its sight.

The cat crossed the road in my direction but its gaze was not on me but on the ladies behind me.

oh oh, i thought.

We rushed over to the shop, wanting to find out more about the note. What might happen to us? What are the danger signs we should look out for? Why was the note in the lady’s shop? Was the lady boss behind it in any way? Obviously, she was our prime suspect as we have not been on that fantastic terms. But we could no be too sure.

Over at the shop, we demanded to see the lady boss. ‘She’s not in’, her assistant claimed. The assistant was however, kind enough to show us the death note that was left on the doorstep of the shop earlier in the day. As we sat down to examine the note, the assistant offered us some chocolates.

‘Bite carefully’ I warned under my breath. ‘You don’t want to be swallowing nails or something lethal and dying as threatened.’

The death note left us completely clueless except that we had to watch out for sharp objects. The chocolate was fine and we did not find anything surprising apart from dark chocolate ganache.

The lady boss returned. Alert bells rang as we watched her with suspicion. We demanded to find out how the note came to be at her shop and why our perpetrators would leave it at her shop. Was she behind anything at all?

Maintaining her stand, she firmly pushed away all our snide remarks and said, ‘Look, if i wanted to harm you both in any way, would i go to this extend of leaving a note at my doorstep so you can come here to waste my time and raise suspicions and throw sarcasm at me? ‘ In a quieter tone, she said, ‘Whoever it is, i have a gut feeling it will happen tonight. Let me help you find out who is behind it.’

We looked at each other uncertainly. Why was she so certain it would happen tonight? But what else could we do? We turned to her and nodded.

Escorting us into her office, she beckoned us to take a sit and we began to strategize and brainstorm the various ways we might possibly be harmed by sharp objects. Lunch boxes were checked for sharp objects, the delivery man was also scrutinized for hazardous weapons etc

Finally, daylight was running out and the lady had to run an errand. She could not stay with us any longer.

Time passed and nothing happened. We were getting very uneasy.

The lady finished her business and headed back and as she walked, two men with slightly long unkempt hair walked a distance apart, one nearer her, the other further behind. They looked like they were headed to the shop to buy some groceries. From the corner of her eye, she saw something glisten and saw the man nearer her take out 5 metallic claws that were enjoined at one end. The claws were so sharp it would do nasty damange. Her heart beat faster. This was it.

She increased her pace. The man also increased his pace. She stopped in her tracks and so did he. He turned to face her and smiled, lifting the hand holding onto the weapon…

A few students chased each other around, seemingly to play tag or police and thief whichever you may choose to call it. But this game was different from the usual. It involved pushing and shoving and a little of hide and seek. Strange World. I remembered being chased around and i eagerly searched for a place to hide. I dashed through a door and slammed the door shut. It was the house (or some sort) of a teacher i know. The first floor was amazingly small and there was a pile of rice bags that i sat on at the foot of the winding stairs. Just as i sat on the bag, i knew i was doomed. The door creaked open and my catcher’s face zoomed in, her eyes twinkling with glee. Found you! Argh!!!!!

I ended the game and ran off into another room where the people played a different game. Here, a storyteller tells a story to the participants of the game. Thereafter these participants will have to lead a normal daily life in the little room which has been designed to look like a village. Around the village, another group of ‘antagonists’ will be scattered around and their task would be to obtain details of the story. It is up to the participants to weigh the cost and benefit of revealing details to anybody. If they release the story at the right time, they may stand to benefit handsomely from it but at the small price of a simple forfeit. A wrong move would entail a lost in money.

So yea..that’s how the games went…