I actually stopped in my tracks, with a regular iced green tea in my hands. You see, she'd not been there when I placed my Sheng Siong purchases on the table. Yet here she was, barely 5 minutes later, sitting at the next table in her cotton printed shapeless shift that many women her age (61 yrs) were fond of wearing, a mobile phone to her ear, looking like she's been there for some time.
She looked up as I approached. I smiled and sat down. Muffled dregs of what sounded like one side of a conversation in Hokkien filtered through my earphone-stuffed ears during lull moments in Hugh Fraser's narration of Agatha Christie.
Then I heard what sounded like a loud sigh and the clatter of plastic on plastic. I looked to my left. She was looking at me. Her mouth was moving. She was gesturing. I unplugged my ears just in time to catch Aunty say, in Hokkien,that we should sometimes cut others some slack.
I kept silent and looked enquiringly at Aunty. She told me abut her mobile phone conversation with her friend, an inveterate gambler. How she'd helped her friend get a loan to pay off loan sharks. She told me about her cousin who is almost 20 years her junior, and how she'd brought him up because he could not get on with his parents. I watched her talk about him with fondness and pride, telling me how much he looked like an actor, how well he is doing in the CID, and how he looks out for her. She talked about her husband, her daughter, her disappointment with her son-in-law. She asked about my life, my work.
All too soon, it was 10.30am and it was time for me to go. We said our goodbyes and I walked out of the McD's at Jalan Besar, making my way towards Kim Hoe Centre.
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