Monday, August 02, 2004 ++

It was a rainy day, the wind fighting over their turns to gush into my room. The whoosing sound scares the little kid. It sound as if the wind was about to gobble the whole child up. I heard mom waking me up. It was a cold morning, i did not want to wake up for school. The word "school" alone turns me off, there are still other terms like "tests" and "exams" they are much worst.




However much i hate the idea of going to school, i still have to. With much unhappiness, i forced myself out of bed, into the bathroom and to the bus-stop.




The bus-stop seem rather packed today. It must be caused by the rain, everyone squeezed into the little area they had. I too squeezed with the others. What seem like a year, the bus finally came. With much effort i managed to get into the bus. "Phew", i sighed.



I do not know what was happening in school. Everyone was roudy even me! " It must be the rain" i thought. But i wasnt. News about Mr Quah passing away spread the whole class. Everyone was busying gossiping whether the information given was true. Some faces changed dramatically. I felt sad, but with much doubt that the information is true.



All of us gathered in the small hall. And there we are, agian, squeezing in the pathetically small hall. Groans and whining was heard when the teacher adjusted us around. " Move to the left, move to the right", she would go.



I wondered, why are the teachers spending so much time in arranging us in order? In the past, we used to squeeze without much arrangments but today its different. It must be something serious. However much we did not like the moving and squeezing, we still obliged the teacher. Soon as a school, we prayed and sang the national anthem. "We the ci..tizens of Singpore..." the prefect sounded nervous. I reckon that was her first time on stage.



I thought it was a total waste of time to sit in the pathetically small hall and listen to a HISTORY teacher speak. He made a mistake or two, and that caused the whole hall to laugh at him. Why make a fool of yourself? The rain was still pouring, there was not a sign indicating when would it stop. God must be crying.



After the dumbest talk ever, we all watched a movie. It's rather odd. We should be in our classes cracking the toughest algebra question, hear the teachers nag or even doing the dotting business. Fine perhaps the teachers wants us to relax for a moment. The blood circulation isnt right, causing right leg to be numbed. I tried to move. I cant. I'm stuck in the forest-like crowd.



After the movie, we were finally dismissed. I think the teachers did not want to waste our time any further. There was a sad tone in the teacher's voice when she dismisses us. I wondered why.
The whole school was not right. What usually was a noisy canteen now sounded solemn and quiet. Something is terribly wrong. Oh yea i'm sure of it.




Soon, we were all called back to the pathetically small hall. Squeezing ourselves like a can of sardines. Everyone looked weird and odd like some big impact has hit them. The students, of course, continued to guess what was happening. Some even prepared themselves for the worst already. The hall was in a chaos, the buzzing noises irritate my ears.




The principal addressed to us. There was no sign that she cried or anything, i observed. The teachers too kept their coolness. But still i felt a kind of feeling that much words could not describe. It felt strange and i have never seen the school quieten down on their own, just like a broken down television.




Mr Quah had passed away. Peacefully i hope. He's now right beside God, who would banish all his pain and bring him everlasting peace. Saddness filled our little souls, although no one showed it, we all felt it. The rain still did not ceased, our hearts are heavy, eyes were all teary. God hear our prayer.




The school bell rang. Everybody dashed out of the school gate. The rain had stopped, the air felt fresh. The birds are already chirpping. Like the saying goes, there would be a rainbow after every thunderstorm. The passing away of Mr Quah would mean a new beginning for the school, a new journey for him. As i think back of the times when he scolded me, i knew it was all worth the effort. The Sun means life, we still have to go on no matter what.

9:51 PM

Site Information ++

Best viewed: Mozilla Firefox. COmpatible with: Netscape, IE5+, Firefox.
No Javascript.