She ran through her short, permed hair with her wrinkled hands. Frowning, she sighed loudly and dropped the coins back into the small plastic box. Mrs Tan had been practicing her coin tricks the whole afternoon. Amusing herself was her only form of entertainment. She stopped suddenly when she thought of her grand child. Her grandchild, Johnny, never had a good life. His parents were gone, and Mrs Tan could not afford to give him a comfortable lifestyle. He rarely had new things, he never went on holidays. When all the other children had exciting vaccations, he would spend his holidays in the run down two-room flat, playing with the worn out toys. What could Mrs Tan do? She had no money.
"Ah, tiolet! Finally!" A man's voice suddenly broke her chain of thoughts. She snapped out of her daze and found a very familair looking man in a track suit, clutching his stomach and looking relieved as he stared at the toilets behind the desk she was sitting at. Duty calls. She gestured to the sign that said " 20 cents per entry" and strecthed out her palm. She waited as she watch him dig into his pockects, searching for coins. Then she realised who he was... He was the star of The Freezing Point! Yes, it was Derek Ng Tian Rui! Derek looked up after a short while, looking panicky and asked in a pleading voice " I dont have any coins, but can you please let me in, auntie? I really need to go..." Then he dug in his pockets again and all of a sudden, a five hundred dollar note dropped out from his pocket. Mrs Tan straightened in her seat as her eyes kept glued to the cash. "This money could be the only solution," she thought slyly to herself. There was hope...
Derek picked up his dollar note and looked at it, then stared at Mrs Tan awkwardly. He felt really urgent to use the toilet but was he going to spend five hundred dollars just to use some old, public toilet?Mrs Tan broke the silence by clearing her throat and then she said " I'm sorry, but you have to pay to get in," her eyes never leaving the cash in his hand. Derek grimaced. The urge to use the toilet just got stronger but how could he let this " toilet auntie" take advantage of him? Then finally, when the pain in his stomach got to the point where it was unbearable, he finally gave in. Derek slammed the note on the table and dashed off to the toilet to relief himself. Mrs tan chuckled to herself and she picked up the dollar note and kissed it. Five-hundred dollars was not a big sum, but she could probably just bring her little Johnny to malaysia. She could imagine how thrilled he would be.
As she wished, hoped and longed for, Mrs Tan got to see a bright smile on Johnny's face. The three-day vaccation was anything but extravagent but it still was a treat for Johnny. And until today, Mrs Tan is still amazed by how lucky she was that time...
Saturday, July 14, 2007
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