Page 70 - KCN 2020

late night already? I thought I was going to do the cooking.”
BLUES
Woo Wei Tzern
It was a rainy day then. The morning sky was full of dark, gloomy
clouds. Heavy rain started pouring down somewhere around twelve in the
afternoon. I couldn’t remember the exact time because I was busy deal-
ing with piles after piles of paperwork in my office. It’s strange — there
usually wasn’t this much work. Anyways, the afternoon rain filled
up every drain in the city, and the streets were flooded. Food ven-
dors were nowhere to be seen, people in umbrellas and raincoats were
rushing to find a place to hide from the rain, the streets were stuck
in a traffic gridlock, trees planted around the city swayed, and their
leaves rustled. It seemed as though it was going to be an awful day.
It was already night, nearing nine actually. Rain was still pouring
from the sky, albeit only drizzling now. I had finally finished my work and was
in a taxi on my way home. Strapped in my seat, I was listening to a classi-
cal FM studio on the taxi radio. Chopin’s Etude Op. 25 No. 5 – probably not
the most ideal song to listen to while you’re stuck in traffic. This song was
part of a collection of 24 etudes, and had been given the nickname ‘Wrong
Note’ as it is filled with dissonant grace notes. The melody sounds like
someone nervously and carelessly playing through their first ever piano
concert piece, making the song sound like a mess. Though, at the same time,
the chords make it sound so beautiful. Makes you want to live in this ‘beau-
tiful mess’.
Looking out the window, I felt a deep sense of loss, because I
realized I had forgotten about me and my girlfriend’s anniversary.
The first thing I saw when I got back was her, sitting at the dining
table and drinking a glass of red wine. She had apparently already prepared
dinner for us – cold lasagna that had been sitting here for quite some time,
a big bowl of Caesar salad that looked very dry, and a plate of French fries
with ketchup drizzled on top of it. My girlfriend looked really disappointed.
‘I definitely messed up this time.’ I thought to myself.
“Long day of work, huh?” she asked.
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“Well, yea.” I said as I slowly sat down to eat, “Why’d you cook dinner
“Well I got impatient since it took you so long to get home.” She
answered, “Why were you late anyways, have you forgotten about our
anniversary?!”
“No, please don’t get angry about this. I just had a lot of work to do.”
“It’s not the first time you’ve forgotten about it, okay? If you knew
you were going to be late for this you could’ve just asked your boss
for a day off!” she shouted.
“I’m working for us, okay? Us! I’m working so we actually have
enough money to live a normal life, I thought this was what you wanted!”
I shouted.
She did say she hoped for us to have a normal life together when
we were having one of our nightly conversations, something we used
to do in the past. I remember the moments where we’d sit down on our
couch and just talk about our lives for hours. Sometimes she would feel
sad about her life and cry on my shoulder. I remember we agreed that if
any of us had a problem, we would be there for each other. ‘Where did
the good times go,’ I thought to myself. Three months into our relation-
ship, we just stopped having our conversations and spent less time together.
Half an hour into our argument, she got really mad and locked her-
self in her room. I sat on the couch, clueless as to what I was supposed to
do. A tear leaked from my eye. After that first tear broke free, the rest fol-
lowed in an unbroken stream.
Around eleven o’clock, I was lying on the couch, unable to sleep.
The door to her room was still locked, and she was asleep. The food on the
dining table was still there, rotting away. It would most likely stay that way
until the next afternoon. I decided to go to our apartment’s rooftop. I just
needed to clear my mind for a while.
I sat on the edge of the roof, face-to-face with a white moon. The
night sky was clear now, no sign of gloomy clouds. Looking below on the
sidewalk, I could see couples walking together, snuggling warmly in the cool
night breeze. I tried stretching my hand out to them, but my fingers touched
nothing.
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