And So, I Am Home

The heat hits like a brick wall.
In the car, mom tells me that my sis is waiting to see me
at break time, at school; we have an hour or so to kill
til then.

The traffic is terrifying, I am no longer used to this wild way of driving
where people swerve as they please,
where lines on the road seem to be mere random squiggles,
where motorists zigzag about revving their little kapchais,
I am not used to the lack of courtesy and when I do drive,
I have to dig deep for combative driving skills.

I take mother to the market and pick out the things I want her to cook;
Crabs, prawns, french beans.

48 hours around the globe and I am exhausted but the sister awaits.

I pass the fruit seller, ask how much one mangosteen is ,
its a gift, he tells me
later, I go back and by the orr kym mangoes, always sweet succulent juicy.

The sister is taller, leaner and beautiful, she kisses me full on the lips,
tells me she missed me, she loves me; I love her too.

I get home to mom's (I agreed to 3 nights),
shower, then collapse into bed.

3 hours later I hear the voice of an aunt,
and drag myself from the clutches slumber,
more aunts come, we eat,
they bitch about grandma, we laugh, we eat again
we watch a movie, then mom slices up the mangoes.

I reach for the first slice, and the moment it spreads on my tongue,
recoil, because it is incredibly sour;
I check myself from spitting it out, flash a wide grin
and turn to my aunts " Wahh! This mango so damn sweet!"
They rush for it.

=D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sleep that night for 13 hours, mom wakes me at 1
"You have to go fetch your sis from school!"
"Same shit, different country!" I grumble

I see Daddy, the stepmom, the brothers
I see the girlfriends, and some KL friends at Bagan.

My heart twinges at a bottle of house wine
quality and price, i could get 4 bottles at least in the UK,
of better quality for what I paid there, sakit hati!

I go back to my apartment, poke around
touch things, the white leather chair that my friends
stole on a drunken night out (;

I buy seafood maggi mee, take it back to mom's,
eat and fall asleep.

Nana wants to go for a drive but I keep putting her off because
I am jetlagged and busy and have been told she is bordering on
incontinent thanks to laxatives, and must line the car seat
with newspaper!when I finally say yes,
I make her promise to not take any; I tell her I'll take her tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning I wake late.
Father has gone hunting, stepmom to HK,
I have offered to take the boys for lunch
clashing with my plans to have a sleepover at mother's
with the sister.

I take the kids all to lunch together
except sister only eats chinese, one brother only western
and the other cannot recognise me and keeps calling me
'Auntie'.

The older stepbrother(8) on my dad's side wants to know
if my stepsister is my sister then who is she to him?
"You are unrelated, you are just friends," I reply

Later the younger brother calls me 'Auntie' yet again
and the older one turns to correct him
'No she's not your auntie Sean, she's your sister' then he pauses,
thinks for a bit and says 'well, she's my sister, but I don't know whether
she's yours too.'

I then play with them, balk when my sister,
who at 12 years old has plans for the mall with her friends..
is that even legal?

I take her anyway,then take the boys home, and spend 3 hours
with the older one, helping him do 3 pages of homework
8 year olds have the attention span of gnats
(or maybe all men just do)
he wanted 15 min breaks every 15 mins.

Left to pick the sister, except she wasnt answering her phone
and when she finally got into the car, I told her off
then felt bad, then told her how to manja to prevent from
being told of again by mom when she got home
(run to mommy, hug her tightly before she can say anything
and announce "Mommy, you're the best mom in the whole world!
I love you soooooo much!"

She fails, and gets scolded big-time.

I play Boggle with my aunts, Scrabble, I speak to the Bee
and of his imminent arrival..and then, I finally, go home to Henry
and we sleep (=