The emotional scars disappear, the exhaustions expire and all the stubborn strengths subside as she appeared fragile, as fragile as the quivering glow of the candlelight, but most of all, and at that moment and in that frame of time, she was all I’d ever wanted for her to be — peaceful and oblivious.
Belle slept like a baby.
Switched off the cartoon box, put away the rigid frame glasses, that always make her eyes seem a set smaller, and then I whisked a portion of her fringe to the side.
I bent lower and, as soft as I possibly knew how, smooched her goodnight, for I knew I couldn’t stay for much longer, even if the drizzling rain playfully drizzled on, and even if she was too tired to hear my whispers.
The lingering cough and wheezing breathes made it hard for me to say anything much, and It wasn’t the ideal conditions for me to stay on either, but an option which I wished I could have chosen.
It’s way past 2am and I had a hunch that someone needed me more.
Like a brother who won’t mind a helping hand while tying the knot.
Yes, he’s the bridesgroom and his wedding feast is this Sunday, another night to go after tonight, and I could sense that he was caught in a teeny tiny knotty situation.
You know that a bridegroom is having a tough time when the guestbook that he orders online, comes into the mailbox in A5 size.
“I didn’t know, the text was too small.” He, the bridegroom, my brother, the anything-goes-fella, would say to me, without me even asking about it. “I thought that they were all of the same size!”
You see, you see, he could really use a helping hand, especially when things like this happened with just 1 more night to his big day.
So I offered instead of signing on guestbooks, we’d have guestboards! Huge, 3ft by 3ft posterboards where guests can scribble and doodle their well wishes at the wedding hall’s entrance, as seen in the image above.
And where I offered 3 pcs, he requested for 5 boards! Kasi betis, nak paha pulak1!
It feels good that at last I’m contributing something to his preparations, because, seriously, it feels sucky that I’m not really helping out much.
And then he suggested that we recced the halls.
Like a bridesgroom, who’s travelled too far and made too many decisions, he resigned with a grateful, satisfied comment, at the end of the recce.
It is superb! Eloquent, yet simple and modern at the same time.
Black + Turquoise + White does turn out to be good choices for a wedding hall deco after all.
Thus I shall not go on about how I thought the wedding hall could be beautified and balanced out, but the truth is that it really was ample and nice, plus it was still ongoing and unfinished, so those thoughts of mine were better placed in reserve.
Surreally, everything glistened magnificiently in the night.
The colours, the props, and the misty atmosphere combined perfectly, and I’m sure my brother wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Maybe my Sister would’ve had second thoughts? She had to trim Pandan leafs through the night!
This was taken after we cut out the final leaf, but it wasn’t this way earlier, because earlier it looked like a pack of ‘overgrown ferns’, that threatened to make your hands numb and eyes sore.
On the bright side, the fragrance it oozed smelt like the perfect wedding, and not even the thoughts of intimidating ferns couldn’t slow us down!
So she was cutting up the leaves when I got home at about 3am and, had I not grabbed the red big pair of scissors, sat beside and starting trimming along, I bet that she’d still be trimming till the morning sun peeks into the living room.
Miraculously we managed to avoid trimming our own precious fingers, while we chatted away, both in our drowsy voices and wondrous minds — she was wondering how it’s going to be like when she begins work this Monday, while I was wondering if I could have stayed, had I brought my pyjamas along.
So no pyjamas, but just my biking raincoat, and it was enough to allow me to drift home to render these little packets of aid, gladly.
Nothing much, but at the very least, I hope it eased a troubled mind a little bit more.
Now that those minds have been put to ease, I guess it’s time for me to feel at ease — time to sleep!
I’m here hoping that my cats don’t suddenly jump on me because it’s already 6am now, which is about the usual time that they expect to see food in their bowls.
BUT, I suppose that they won’t be seeing much in their bowl till it’s afternoon. Now that’ll twist their tails in a knot!
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1. Kasi betis, nak paha pulak: Malay idiom which candidly refers to someone who asks for more than what he’s being offered. Literally translated as “Offered the (leg) calf, now the (leg) thighs are wanted.”
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