Sunday, July 25, 2004
The Story of Ha and Chew
Chapter 7
The thud of footfalls upon the concrete steps bounced off the walls of the building, the sound traveling perhaps only marginally faster than the fleet footed ascent of one particular man. He was charged with a certain electrifying power; the power infused in a hot-blooded healthy, albeit slightly horny, young male when first stricken with the blossoming passion for another person, especially one of the female persuasion. Feet lent wings by purpose, Chew scaled the stairs relentlessly and with astounding alacrity. An old lady pressed herself against the wall barely avoiding the boy who darted past her and once again up the next flight of stairs, disappearing as abruptly as he had appeared.
"Young people nowadays," she mumbled to herself, "Always rushing about, here, there and everywhere all rascals all of them. Back in my time.." shaking her head she slowly trailed off in her speech, lost in thought of days long past. Wearily she continued lumbering down the stairs, the reverberating sounds of Chew's mad dash upwards left in his wake.
Wheeling round the corner, Chew came to the last leg of his journey and sprint down the all too familiar corridor to where his long time confidant and friend, Kien, lived. Though strictly speaking, he didn't do too much living there so a more accurate description would be more like, where his long time confidant and friend, Kien, slept, for that is what, Kien did, for the better part of his living life. In fact, though both of them were of the same age, it could be said that Chew had probably lived twice as long a Kien if one were to clock down their waking hours.
Beyond the door, Kien lay sleeping on his bed, the sunlight falling upon his legs and gradually inching its way up his pale, milky buttocks. His consciousness dragged kicking and screaming back into the waking world by the sounds of an incessant knocking, Kien woke from his very very thrilling dream where he was a lord of an ancient warrior race. In this Kien have often argued with Chew, for he often debated that though he slept away much of most days, he did a great deal of living in his dreams and in that, Kien was in no way behind Chew but had in fact lived a much more varied and fulfilling life. Legs flipping down the side of his domain of slumber and hopefully, one day many many years down the road where the ratio of men is to women were greatly unbalanced towards the latter, fornication, Kien sat upright and rubbed at his eyes a moment then tried to stand up. He would have stood up, if it weren't for the fact that he actually fell down. Crumpling down onto the floor face first Kien cursed out loud, fifth time this month it had happened. Problem was that Kien's buttocks, was a much heavier sleeper than Kien himself, presenting a situation where his buttocks often continued sleeping even though he was wide awake.
When finally Kien's buttocks woke up, a full 5 mins later, the two of them made their way to the door and lighter sleeper of the two opened the door. "What are you doing here," Kien said groggily.
"Let me in! I need to use your phone!"
"Now?"
"Yes now!"
"Okay, wait abit then," replied Kien as he turned to get the keys. "Why do you need to use mine anyway?" he asked quizzically while he rummaged though mess on the table in an excavation for his keys.
"I don't have a phone at home remember?" snapped Chew tersely.
"Oh yar, what the hell is up with that man," questioned again holding up something that looked like a week old pizza.
"My grandmother, she doesn't like all these things at home. She's technophobic I think. Something to do with a microwave that kept exploding her eggs," Chew replied in retrospection, "I think there was also once when a rogue washing machine went wild and ravaged her delicate underthings. That was the last straw for her, she threw out most of the appliances and called them a menace to society."
"Woah," Kien upturned his brows in appreciation while he pushed aside some cans sporting fungus of rainbow colours aside. "Like the terminator eh."
"I seriously doubt my toaster is going to gain consciousness and launch nuclear missiles dude," Chew replied in mock exasperation as he watched Kien lift an underwear stained with ketchup and Cheetos off of the table.
"Hey, you'd never know. Hang on a sec, I think I see it." Then he overturned the shoe on his table and out fell the keys, much to Kien's delight. Looking toward Chew in puzzlement, Kien ventured a question, "Who do you want to call anyways?" Sensing no answer forthcoming, he asked again while he unlocked the door, curiosity now piqued, "Come on, tell me. Who is it you want to call?"
Face scarlet red, Chew confessed in embarrassment, "That girl." Knowing all too well that there could only be one girl but yet relishing in his discomfort, Kien stifled his laughter and put forth an expression of befuddlement suggesting that he knew nothing of what Chew spoke and thus requiring his elaboration. "You know, that girl!" When Kien shook his head in the negative yet again, Chew blurted out hastily, his ears now burning, "That girl that I like, you know who it is! Her name is Ha. I met her on the bus and.. I got her number."
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For the 7th time Chew slammed the phone back down onto the unit. "Again?!" Kien cried out as he slapped his pal at the back of his head. "Just say hello! How hard can it be?" Chew could only shoot Kien a dark look in feeble retort. For the past hour, Chew had sought courage, but failed. "My patience has been worn thin. Call her now!" For while Kien gave Chew all his support, Chew was a great big wuss!
For the 8th time that day, Chew dialed the number on the slip of paper, ink slightly smudged from his sweaty palms. He depressed the numbers one... by one... painstakingly slow and accurate, but as to how inaccurate one could be when dialing a number, greatly would be the reply given due to Chew's shaking hands. The first time, he had totally dialed the wrong number and all he got was an Indian on the other line. And once he took so long to dial the number that the dial tone died and he had to start all over. There were twice when he hung up immediately after hearing the ring tone and once when he hung up after hearing the ring tone twice. Then on the 5th and 6th try, Chew had just held onto the phone and struggled with his breathing to fight his overwhelming anxiety. As to why he didn't just redial instead of pressing each painful number after painful number one after another to both their agony, it just didn't occur to either.
And so, the ring tone came and after once, twice and thrice, Chew moved to hang up the phone yet again but Kien held the earpiece forcefully back onto his face mashing his ear in between the phone and his sweat covered face, then someone picked up. Chew took in a sharp breath and..... held it there. "Hello," came a cackle from the other line. Chew froze, tensed up, sweat, then shook as he looked for his voice. "Hello," came the voice again, obviously filled with irritation. His lips parted, dry and peeling skin tearing apart from each other slowly whilst he swallowed hard before he.. slammed down the phone! Grabbing his hair in frustration he screamed, "It's so HARD!!!" He looked towards Kien for consolation but already he had given up and was going back to bed, brooding over his lost sleep.
"You're hopeless," Kien concluded. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask, when did you get her number?"
"This morning, on the bus," came the reply.
"This morning? You mean this morning? This very morning?" Kien spun around suddenly and sought confirmation.
"Yes. She gave me her number this morning on the bus."
"What time is it now?" came the question as Kien advanced towards Chew.
"Erm.. Let me check, its.. 1126am," reported Chew after looking at his watch.
"And you came right to my house after that? Immediately? Without going to school?"
"Yar. I was so excited man. I couldn't wait," explained Chew as a matter of fact, oblivious to the increasing air of tension as Kien's dark look became more homicidal.
"Did it ever occur to you that she might be in school then? Please pray tell."
"Oh yar hor," Chew exclaimed in much delayed comprehension, eyes wide open, his mouth locked in an 'O' of enlightenment and his fist smacked against the palm of his upturned palm. Then Kien pounced on him.
"My sleep for this??!" Kien screamed in fury, throwing punches at Chew as he struggled to protect his face.
Then he was stopped by the knock on the door. He swung the door open ready to bark at the unfortunate to knock the wrong door but to his shock he saw two police officers standing there. "Open up, we've received a complain that the residents of this apartment have been making prank calls to harass other citizens of this country. Please come with us down to the station for investigation."
Vincent has left the building! [2:57 PM]
Food is a many splendid thing, food lift us up where we belong... All u need is food!
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