Mid Week Spell

Last Wednesday, I was walking to work as usual. In those fifteen minutes or so of my version of brisk-walking, I would have to pass by the Eunos Food Centre. I normally avoid looking at the people having their breakfast, perhaps their first or second stop in their daily routine. A MacBook on one of the tables caught my eye. Come on, it is not a usual sight, not at a hawker centre. The owner was staring at it with an intent expression, and his left leg shaking furiously. Before I could feel any sort of amusement, my heart skipped a beat, of recognition and a sliver of pleasure coursed through me.

He was a college and university mate. The last time I saw him was maybe two or three years ago. He was with his wife and daughters. Yes, he is married. Marital status aside, he is first and foremost a friend. A friend from the distant past, a friend who might over the years regressed to being an acquaintance but a friend nonetheless.

 The years have treated him well. He looked handsome and dignified. A look that becomes the academician that he is. Yet I remember him as the boy in school who set the girls’ hearts aflutter. The boy who once said, while listing down his idea of an ideal girl, that he would like her to have my character. The boy who once said that if I were slim, I could snap my fingers and the boys would come running. The boy who once, out of the blue, told me to my face, “You look radiant today.”

It was a pleasant mid-week surprise. I did not go over to say hello. I did not want to break the spell he casted over me, even if for only those thirty seconds of strange magic.