1:57 p.m. - 2001-03-31
the man who saw monkeys and vanished into walls
the man who saw monkeys and vanished into walls
shawn:
me and ked were sitting around the zinc coverway at the tennis court during our lunch breaks;we were just sitting around drinking pepsi and i was telling ked about the stupid bureacratic bullshit i was going through with the school bowling team and the school admin and so on...you'd be mad if you were me....they are so inflexible with their rules....it's such a fussy affair,i don't want to care.
there we were,just sitting there laying out;in comes this sun-tanned 40-something man dressed in t-shirt and jeans,he certainly doesn't look like a teacher,he has a cigarette in his right hand and he notices us as he takes a puff and he walks over and calls out to us,seems he's quite friendly and all but me and ked were still pretty surprised,you know,we don't have much friendly strangers around here....he speaks to us:
"har-low! let off studying?" he asks me,his hand holding the cigarette addressing me.
ked shakes his head and smiles at the man,he signals with a nod of his head at me to talk to the man.so i said:
"er...no."
"well...then what time do you'all let off school then?" he asked as he sat down on the bench.
"5.15."
"wah-lau!" he scowled,"then what time you start school?"
i said 7.30 and he scowled again but in a softer way...i don't know why he did that...we were quite used to it already.
"wah-lau,i tell you,your study hours...it's almost like my working hours! cannot like that! study hours cannot be so long,you are still young..."he shakes his head and sighs.
i tried to explain to him,you see,we don't study long hours everyday...well,we have this time-table and so on...on different days we're let off early or later and so on.
"yeah-lah,but still...other people already finished their work and can go home already."he shakes his head at the ground ,like a lawyer fighting a losing case for us.
i asked him," uncle,what are you doing in our school?"
" i work here,you see those tiled roads...i hekp to repair them...and those toilet pipes too...wah-lau,you people very good at karate...the toilet pipes don't know who chop-chop,the whole thing split."
"then you got work to do,money to earn mah."
"work? yeah-lah but the money not i earn,the company earn...you know huh,dun know what's the problem,for eg. that road,your school wants us to repair it but we must get the what letter from the ministry first but they take a bloody long time...and the school blames us and then when the letter finally comes,we have to rush our jobs...stuck in the middle...sigh.."he taps the growing ashes on his cigarette and shakes his head at the floor again.
i looked at ked and smiled a bit,thinking about what i was telling him earlier about red tape.
"you'all study quite long hours you know.."he started again.
"yeah" we replied.
"cannot like that... i think you should study one day,rest one day,then study one day...like that,it's better..."he paused and continued,
"study so much also bad...see those monkeys", he pointed at the tree-tops and we turned to look but there was nothing but just leaves rustling in the wind.
"they go wherever there's food;they dun worry so much,going round and round in circles like us...yeeyeehaha all day..."he smoked and breathed out and stared at the cars running on the road outside the school.
then he said,"yeah lah,studying can learn words,can read lah,but ",he shakes his head,"learning too much is too much,weighs on your mind.."he taps at the side of his head.
he threw away the cigarette and then sighed,"..you know what,no offence meant lah,but you singaporeans are somehow always very serious,cannot yeeyeehaha....there's always this bittergourd face...so serious....you know what we call that in cantonese?...ban coot."
"huh? ban coot?"
"act cool..."he explains.we nod our heads and muttered in agreement.ked smiled bemusedly and checks himself;he hasn't said a word since the man came.
"you know,like me huh,i cannot be serious...i mean i can't stand it too,no,that's not for me,"he waves his hand,"you know,that's me,i can yeeyeehaha with you,yeeyeehaha with a small kid,yeeyeehaha with a grandma...that's how i am...none of that act serious bullshit."
"well it's like that...we can't be happy all the time and you know,people sometimes have their problems..." i tried to explain,
"and stress." i added.
"stress? what stress? yeah lah,but stress is you yourself go and find one...stress is a dead thing,people are alive,how can a dead thing go and bother a person?...must be the person go and trouble the stress and then get himself stressed up!" he paused for breath,"you know,people are like that,always troubling themselves...i seldom see a happy face around here..."
we nodded yeah...thinking over what he said. i thought about my incident with the school admin and i said,"yeah,but we are also victims of circumstances...can't help it."
the man: "what? sigh...that's why you must learn how to let go...let's say i go to work,i get problems,but after work,i don't carry the problems back home with me in my heart! you cannot do that! must let go! when its time to play,to yeeyeehaha,you must yeeyeehaha;when its time to serious work,well,you serious work."
"cannot always be carrying your problems...i go home after work and i see my children,i can talk and joke with them...how can i go home with an unhappy face?" he gestured with his hands," that would make the house a lousy place,nobody would dare to joke or laugh around the house...the father might anyhow blow up! heh heh...i don't like that."
"i don't like to use my position as a father to weigh down on my children,like that,you can't even talk properly with them...some people are like that."
we said nothing and just looked at the bench.then he said:
yeah you,do you talk to your father?
he was using rhetorical questions to prove his point.what a speaker.
i smiled and sort of said,"yeah...sometimes.."
"cannot like don't talk to them...must talk to your parents...when you find them in a good mood,you talk to them...
anyway,you'all studying sure have problems..but you'all must learn,must take it,cannot like force your kids,point a gun at them huh,if they cannot study,then cannot study lah,becos no matter how hard they slog,also very hard one...studying's not the only thing...must learn that...but one thing lah,you cannot turn bad,cannot like smoke or what take drugs heroin ar...do bad things."
"but huh,i tell you,those who take heroin,the white powder huh,they take it they can think very fast,they can think up schemes,their eyes like light up,sparkle like that",he mimicks,jerking up his eyebrows like some crazy idea just entered his head immediately,"something new comes about."
he sounded so experienced so i said,"uncle,you take drugs before is it?"
"no lah",he waves his hand,"but i got friends who did,they take the drug,they really become very smart,normal not like that,a few hours they can earn four thousand dollars..."he holds four fingers up to emphasize his point,"but of course the way they got the money is not good lah...but i can tell you...they surely can earn more money than those educated executives...but haha,easy come,easy go,out of money soon enough."
yeah,we nodded.
"yeah",the uncle says,getting up to go,"i tell you,you can always chat with me;i can tell you about what life philosophy,what chasing girls,what drugs,whatever,but you'all like very shy like that,afraid to open mouth...haie.."he smiles and walks away.
we smiled at him embarassedly and said bye.when he was gone,i said to ked," wah lau you,how come you never open your mouth?see lah,he go away already..."
ked smiled and said,"he was talking to you,you trouble minded turtle."
"yeah-lah,but also to you."
"i don't know what to say lah,he talk too much...but still quite friendly."
i looked at the bench and thought about it."yeah,what he says has some truth in it...wah lau,it feels like he just appear from nowwhere and then advises us."
ked laughed and said,"yeah,i think he's come to save us,see,he knows you got problems and all stressed up,so he comes out and says."
"yeah maybe he's an immortal,later we go and find him,we'll see him walking towards a wall and then vanish into smoke!"
"yar-lor-yar-lor,maybe he's jenny's father or what..."
"oh! father-in-law!" ked cried in mock astonishment like those people in detergent commercials when the stain is suddenly gone.
"just now i thought he like really saw monkeys on that tree."
"hahaha...we should be more like him...real friendly."
"yeah..fool power! we must yeeyeehaha,like fools and then cut fool hairstyle and then act crazy..."
"no..that's not the idea..."ked tried to find the words to say it but tailed away...
i got up and i picked up this green tennis ball and i threw it at him and then he threw it back at me again and we played catchball in the sun and we were sweaty-hot when the bell rang and we went for our classes.
