It has been awhile and I'm still glad tt I have yet to run out of taxi luck.

No, I'm not pregnant with my third kid,
And No, this time, I did not rest my butt in the front seat.

Heeding the worried advice of my girlfriends,
I take the backseat nowadays,
and always slide myself close to the left hand side,
diagonal from the cabby uncle.
So that it's easier to talk.

And according to my girlfren,
most importantly,
more convenient to escape,
Shd cabby uncle decide to go crazy and start grabbing me.

It wasn't a funny ride tonight.

Uncle cabby was telling me about his certain mobile lines were terminated
and sent to certain credit companies
after realising tt I was working for a certain call-centre.

*scrunches up face*

Then somewhere along the CTE,
uncle cabby began to ask abt me.

I told him tt I am just a part-time staff by night,
and a student by day.

Then somehow,
we started chatting abt intimate parts of our lives.

He has 3 daughters,
eldest is 20,
currently still on waiting list of SMU.
2nd girl is 18,
still in poly.
His 3rd baby is 15,
innocent secondary school child.

Him being in the front seat,
I could not see his face,
neither could he see mine,

perhaps tt attributes to a feeling of safeness,
perhaps the dark cosy interior of the cab provided just the right setting for vulnerability.

Despite the matter-of-fact way tt he puts it,
there was a thread of sadness, of helplessness in his voice as he said

"My daughters don't talk to me. The only time they did, was when they need the money"

Somehow,
looking at the back of his head,
I found the courage to say

"I seldom talk to my dad too. I'm closer to my mum. I guess all daughters are closer to mums"

"Maybe I don't see them enough, this is my part-time job too, *laughs humourlessly* in the day, I work for s'pore export"

"Similar case for me, when I reach hm, my dad's aslp, when he wakes up and leaves for work, I am aslp"

He nods in agreement.

A pregnant silence permeated the cab.
Words tt were dancing around us,
a fear to verbalise the painful truth that

sometimes,
even when the situation is right,
even when the chance is there,

we just don't have the courage to communicate anymore.

There is just too many things to be said,
too little ways to say them
and much too much capacity for suppression.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone who has been workin in the call centre where I've been slogging my guts out
would have been acquainted with a familiar friend.

I never knew the taste of recognition is the exact same bitter taste of cold bile
choked in my throat.

It was shortly before 9pm,
and after something called the "group huddle" ,
designed by management to inject some sliver of motivation to call centre slaves in the corporation,

I was full of passion,
energy,
and had smoothly nailed 25 calls.

Time was 8.48pm.

Full of pride,
I hit on the "accept" button,
ready to hit my 26th call.

With the way my luck was going,
I never thought it was going to end.

"Zhen me chen hu ni ne, sian sheng?" ("How may I address u" in mandarin)

The reply came,
in a somewhat familiar tone.

I repeat,
I have never heard the voice before,
but I swear,

I HAVE HEARD THE TONE BEFORE.

"WO SHI MR ANG"

lightning streaked across the sky
a black cat jumped over a coffin

Buttercup of the powerpuff girls teleported in front of me
and whacked me on my face with a sledgehammer.

Could it be?
Is that him,
the one-and-only,
the legendary---

Mr ANG?

I was certain I was going to die,
choked on my bile.

"ni you wo de zi liao liao hoh?" (U haf my info already rite?)

*swallowed*

"shi de, shen me neng bang ni de mah?" (yes, what can I help u wif?)

"Wo yao zhao ni de manager, lah-lia." (I wanna look for ur manager, lahnia)

I enq abt the matter
he refused to tell me,
only tt he spoke to her before.

The only piece of info he is willing to give me is tt

"ta de hokkien hen, ni zhi dao lah, bu shi hen hao de" (He basically means tt her hokkien sucks)

Riiiiight~~~~

HOW THE HELL DO I KNOW WHICH MANAGER'S HOKKIEN SUCKS?!!!!

So I went thru a gazillion names,
and finally sifted out "shania",
which I thought was closer to "lahlia"

"shi bu shi shania?" (were u referrin to Shania?)

"ta de hokkien shi bu shi bu zhun de?" (Her Hokkien is it lousy one?)

"ying gai shi ba" (I think so)

"huh? wo gen ni jiang lah, ta bang wo zhao yi ge hao mah, hen mei de, jiu shi na ge manager liao.ni men chao de dao de mah. Ni cha cha kan" (it is the manager who found a really nice no. for me)

"Ni ke yi gen wo que ren yi sia ni men shi ji shi shuo guo hua de mah? hai shi ni na ge hao mah is na yi ge hao ma ne?" (cld u clarify on the no. or when did u speak?)

"ni check de dao de lah, wo hen jiu mei you ting dao ta de sheng yin le" (U'll be able to find out, it's been a long time since I heard her voice)

I wanted to slam his freakin face into the monitor screen.

I swear,
times like this,
I am most thankful we are not using 3G devices to take calls.

I cheaked thru his freaking million records,
does he even know he has 5 billion records?

and decided on a no. which I thot was very nice.

I asked him if that was the one he was referring to.

"ni check kan you mei you private no." (Is tt a private no.?)

shit.
At that moment,
my stupid humor chose to make its presence known,
and lovely nageb came to mind
(shall tell u tt story some other time. Has sth to do with a certain Scot, named McGregor)

Great,
tt no. does not haf the CNND.

I searched for the one tt has,
asked him if tt's the one.

"bu shi, na ge hen jiu le. Bi jiao xin de" (no, it's a newer no.)

BIG shyt.

I searched again.

I gave up.

"jiu shi ni gang cai jiang de loh. wo you mei shuo na ge hao mah shi private no."
(It was th no. tt u gave me just now. I didn't say it was a private no. wat)

&^%&^%$#*&

Great,
now tt we have determined the no.
I only have to uncover his riddle no. 2,
the identity of the manager,
then call transfer,
and my nightmare is over!!!

YESSSS!!!

"na jiu shi shania le, qing shao deng," (tt must be shania, pls hold on)

"deng yi xia.wo you mei shuo bu shi ta. Na jiu shi ta lo.ni wei shen me mei you gen wo na I/C he PIN no.?"
(wait!!!I did not say it wasn't her in the 1st place. It was her wat. Why did not ask to verify my I/C and pin?)

OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!

I swear,
when I saw the pop-up reminder tt he is "pin" cust,
I told myself
die die also must get pin then reveal info.

However,
once he spoke, all rational thoughts just fled.

That was the biggest mistake I cld ever make.

He nagged me on that for 10 min
"forgave me" for another10 min,
taught me to "not tell anyone abt tt mistake" for 5 min,
"acquainted" me with some of my colleagues for 10 min,
before allowing me to run off in search of Shania,

my salvation.

"Hi, is shania working tonight?"
I asked manager Mr. Bandaras.

"Oh, she left already. Why?"

Damn.

"Mr Ang lookin for her."

He turned back to his computer screen and pretended he did not hear me.

Shit damn.

A funny sound to the left drew my attention and I looked at the girl beside me.

She was smothering her laughter!!!!
"Shania will be back the day after. 2ml off"
Then she patted my back.

Shyt.
and I was once again reminded of Nageb.

So reluctantly,
I returned to my seat,
picked up my headset again,
and prepared myself to be mutilated.

For the next 15 min or so,
he tortured me with qns like

"Are u scared of me? There's no need to be scared of me one"

"forgave me" all over again,

lectured me on the "adult work politics"

and then asked the most ridiculous qn I have ever heard

"ni zai xiao shen me? Ni zai xiao wo mah?" (What were u laughin at?me?)

I almost dropped dead on the floor.

FOR GOODNESS SAKEss!!!!

I wanted to murder the man!!
To hell with a death sentence!!

I'm sure the satisfaction wld haf been worth it.

And I lied.

"wo be shi zai xiao ni.wo zhi shi fei chang gao xing, hen nan de you xiang ni zhe yang de ren da jin lai.zhe me friendly,zhe me yuan yi ba ni ren shen de jing yan chuan shou gei wo men hou bei"
(Of cos I wasn't laughin at u. I was just glad to get ur call. we don't get many pple like u, so willing to impart ur life experiences)

I must have picked up a skill or 2 from our very dear "enforcement division"

Anyway, he seemed pretty pleased with my ans.

Then he began torturing me again with questions like
do I know this person personally,
or do I know that person.
Was i angry with his "lectures" on my negligence,
my unwarranted fear of him,
everybody's fear of him,
how there is diff reactions when he calls in with a certain no.,
as opposed to another no.,
how punctual he is with his payments,
cos we have WONDERFUL service.

How CLOSE he is to our MANAGERS

And then the clock struck 10pm.

And he was back to "forgiving me" and "office politics"

I snapped.

"Mr Ang, hen bao qian, suay ran wo gen ni liao de hen kai xin, dan shi yao shi ni mei you ren he guan yu dian hua de wen ti de hua,wo bi xu gua dian hua le, yin wei wo hai you hen duo customers zai deng zhe jie tong."
(I'm sorry, despite the enjoyable conversation we were having, I'm afraid I have to hang up if u do not haf anymore mobile-related enquiry as there are many customers waiting to get thru)

And my second greatest regret was not having said that EARLIER.

By the way,
in case anyone's wondering,
he called us up to thank the said manager for helping him pick out this no.

Cos as a result,

HE STRUCK 4D TWO WEEKS AGO.

TWO WEEKS AGO.....
TWO FREAKING WEEKS AGO!!!!

On 2nd thoughts....
I should count my lucky stars tt he did not make me guess his telephone number from the winning numbers of the 4D draw.....