Weekend Magic

Due to a static week at work, I couldn’t quite find the time and energy to shop for a mother’s day gift, so the moment the weekend arrived; I was out and ready to spend.

My mum has everything she wants, perfumes, pots, woks, pans, recipe books, furniture, vases, dining utensils, clothes, good kids, and now, even grandkid. So finding the perfect gift is usually brain-draining. SM suggested flowers (too practical I replied), but on hindsight when someone has everything practical, what they do need is some impracticality. Expensive impracticality. So I concluded that I should get her chocolates. Expensive chocolates.

Every weekend around Singapore, you would notice school kids raising funds for the needy and disabled. Mostly, they would grab their flag tins and sit around and chat for a bit, then go shopping and so on. It is but an excuse to meet up on the weekends. Such is charity in Singapore, a forced front, a point system needed to graduate from college.

At the junction of Orchard Road where pedestrian traffic comes to standstill, I noticed an RJC girl carrying her tin and asking for donations. I did a terrible thing – which was to avoid making eye contact. Worse still, I think she saw me do it. She took a couple of steps in my direction, then she paused and turned away, and then she came closer again. Why wasn’t she just approaching me for a donation?

15, 14, 13... went the traffic lights in the opposite direction.

10 seconds left. Phew! Come on! I edged forward into the crowd.

Excusemesir,wouldyouliketodonatetotheelderlyTheyarelocatedatToaPayohandsomeofthemonlyhaveonemealadayand...

Yes, I know. I donated to one of your schoolmates down at Shaw.

Oh okay. She starts to walk away, disappointed.

No wait, can you come back please.

There were so many things running through my mind. Foremost were her sincerity and heart for the needy. It would have been so much easier for her to ignore me, especially since I was avoiding her. What impressed me was that despite being obviously reticent initially, she plucked up her nerve, did the right thing, and asked. And behind the nervous regurgitation of information, her honesty and integrity reminded me of my younger sister in all her wide-eyed earnestness – holistic intentions but somehow lacking courage. And yet there was I counting down in my head. Even with the traffic lights working hard against her, she must have been under pressure, but she did it. And I was stirred to believe in the beauty of flawed humanity once again.

It would have been creepy of me to tell her what I was thinking, and she might have flipped if I said I saw my younger sister in her.

Well I don’t have small change, so I’ll have to give you notes.




Someone once told me that life is a join-the-dot journey of a “collection of magical moments”, and this was decidedly one of them.

As I looked back, I saw her give me a wave and wide smile. I winked back at her, only hoping I made her day as she did, mine.