Reunion

Last Tuesday, I received a phone call from See Wei, an ex-classmate at Chung Hua Pujut, asking if I was interested to meet our other school mates in Woo Foo Restaurant on Sunday evening. Surprised and delighted, I said yes and from that moment onwards, I kept counting the days for the reunion dinner. 

For the past few years, See Wei had been the only one whom I had always seen around, for he owns a pet shop in the vicinity of my neighbourhood. The rest seemed to have evaporated in the air.  Upon graduation from our beloved primary school in 1982, the majority of us moved to SMK Lutong while the others either ended up in neighbouring towns or overseas. After SPM, we went our separate ways and saw each other less and less. This went on until our names lost their scent of familiarity in each other's mind. As the day for the reunion drew near, string after string of forgotten names made their presence felt in the dark recesses of my memory.  Things would have been harder had See Wei not formed an alumni group on wechat. Out of 52 students, 35 had been contacted but less than 20 had signed up for the group.

When the long-awaited day came, I found myself being the first one to arrive at the restaurant, followed by Yien Fook, an insurance agent and Chui Wei, the proprietress of an electrical shop. They had a hard time recognizing me because stress and overeating had transformed me into a big, overweight man. Similarly, time had made us almost strangers to each other and we only talked a little. The awkwardness was broken when more and more classmates turned up, and suddenly, the table was alive with chatter. Mee Ling, a housewife, took us down memory lane with her vivid recounting. Ding Ching, a contractor, cracked us up with his banter. Chong Seng, who runs a family plumbing business, seemed to have a knack for knowing the whereabouts of almost every classmate. See Wei, on the other hand, kept surprising us with some tales about our teachers' foibles. Yu Ngie, an active Lions Club member, dredged up an embarrassing moment that made me blush. Nyuk Lan, our top student before, looked arresting with her still slender figure. In contrast, Zheng Xin, another shop owner, and I spoke very little, smiling and nodding there and then.

The coming of Yong Liang made my heart throb with uneasiness. He had been my main tormentor back in our student days, always calling me a sissy and beating me up. However, the way he looked that evening erased all his malice. There was a touch of sorrow in his voice when he spoke, and his eyes  were full of drowsy resignation. When asked why he had not put on an ounce, he said that he had been so busy with life that he had no time to indulge in good food. Hearing that, I could not help commiserating with him. All my antagonism towards him was gone. He was, after all, a friend, the one I had misunderstood for a long time. 

When it was 7.15p.m, we waited another twenty minutes for more classmates to come. The time slipped by but nobody showed up. We decided to order food. Our order ranged from steamed fish, stir-fried Changkuk Manis, stir-fried ladies' fingers, stir-fried sweet potato leaves and braised pork with salted fish. There was nothing to shout about the food but it set us back a whopping RM210. All of us shared out the cost. 

The moment the inevitable postprandial lull settled over the table, our chatter turned into a dwindling murmur. Sometime around nine,Yu Ngie's wife, Lily, who is also our ex classmate, came. Her presence reanimated our spirits. We reordered drinks and chatted further into the night. Before going home, See Wei, the organizer of the dinner, told us that he would fill us in on when we would meet again.

I enjoyed the reunion very much, and glory be to God for making it happen.