[SerflySGR]

Originally Posted by SerflySGR

Another thing that weighed heavily on my shoulders was the fact that Adek's grades were going downhill and I was desperate to fix this before his PSLE. I am the black sheep of my family and I was determined not to let Adek follow me in my footsteps. It was bad enough that I could not hold my head high whenever I was in the presence of my more successful brothers; I didn't want Adek to be looked down by his cousins.

The only silver lining I had was Wanda.


Or so I thought.

Every morning I made it a point to fetch Adek to school. Perhaps this was my way to try to salvage my already strained relationship with him. He has become more withdrawn ever since my wife left us. I had hoped that I could bond with him during our short drives from home to his school. Adek sat in the front passenger seat; his school bag and other barang-barang were at the back with Wanda.

"We really need to get you a tutor." That was the first thing I could think of to start the conversation.

"Ok." He replied nonchalantly.

"What subjects are you weak in? English? Math? Science? Mother tongue?" I enquired further.

"Whatever." That was his short reply to me.

Perhaps it was because I mentioned the word "mother" that triggered him or maybe he felt that I was smothering him? I've become more of a nag now that his mother is gone? I really did not know. All I know is that I just lost my wife and I did not want to lose my son also.

I turned into the minor road leading to Adek's school. A queue had already formed and cars could be seen itching forward towards the main gate. I remembered traffic being much smoother last time but with Singaporeans becoming more and more affluent and also all these terrorism scares, all schools have a security team to man the gates and parents could no longer just drive into the school compounds anymore.

While waiting for the cars in front to move, I turned my attention back to Adek. "You know PSLE is very important, right?" Adek rolled his eyes. "What happened to you? You used to love to study!" I said, exasperatedly.

Adek didn't answer. Instead, he pointed ahead. "Can move already." He said dryly. Turning my attention back to the front, I noticed that there was a gap where a car used to be. Not wanting the cars behind me to honk at me, I disengaged my parking brake, but my gear in "D" and depressed my accelerator. But before I could overcome the initial inertia, a white car had cut in front of me. Instinctively, I jammed my right hand at the horn and gave it a long blast. "Why you press the horn so loud?" Adek asked, irritably. I wanted to correct him that I could not control the volume of the horn and the guy who cut me was asking for it. The loud blast caught the attention of the white car in front of me and he slammed his brakes, opened his door and got out of his car.

I always thought that I was a cool person and, armed with my NS police training, I thought I would have better control of my emotions. Perhaps I was frustrated by the way Adek had ignored me; this fueled my anger and I decided to get out of the car and meet my challenger, head-on. I opened my car door and got out of the car.

"Hello brother." He said, "why you horn horn horn? This one is school zone, not your Ah Kong road, you know?"

"You cut me. I got dash cam......" Before I could finish my sentence, he interrupted me, "Please la! Don't hide behind your dash cam and Sony cam. You are in the wrong, just admit it. Be a man. Do the right thing."

I felt the blood rushing to my face as I struggled for words to rebuke this insolent kayu driver. He was clearly in the wrong; I was queuing up for my turn to get into the school but he just cut queue and now he's trying to turn the tables on me?

"Listen, mister. I was queuing for my turn to go into the school......" Again, before I could complete my sentence, he cut me, "If you were queuing, means there is a car in front of you correct?"

"Yes," I said "But........."

"If got a car directly in front of you then how could I have cut you? Correct or not?" He just seem to come up with some sort of twisted logic.

"But just now, it was not your car in front of me, the car in front of me moved off.........." I elaborated.

"Hello brother," he said calmly, "if you say that the car in front of you moved off and you also moved off, then how could I have cut in? Must be you dreaming; the car in front already moved off... Far far away... But you still talking on your mobile phone chit-chat and never notice and you hold up the traffic behind you. So if you don't want to go in first, then let people like me who want to go in first, go la!" This guy was certainly an expert at twisting facts.

"I wasn't talking on my mobile phone. The moment I noticed the car moved off, I also moved off." I defended myself. I never liked people talking on the phone while driving and I certainly did not like to be accused as one.

"Hello brother. If you moved off immediately and you cannot catch up with the car in front, this can only mean that your car engine got problem la!" He knocked at my car bonnet, mocking at me, "Maybe you want to get your car checked? My friend owns a car workshop; you can send it to them, I get them to do a 100% check for you?"

"There is nothing wrong with my car," I raised my voice, "if there is anything wrong, it's the way you drive. You just cut in like that......"

"Your son is studying in a prestigious school with European roots. Please la! Have some standard, change your cheap Korean car to a continental car like mine. If you cannot afford first hand, maybe you consider second hand?" Did he just change the topic again? This guy was seriously getting on my nerves!

"Listen brother." I pointed at him as if to punctuate my point, "I also got pay COE for my car and I've every right to......"

"Brother?" He retorted loudly. "Who's your brother? You are clearly in the wrong and now you brother here, brother there, point finger at me some more; you think what? Gangster ah?"

Before I could react, I heard the passenger door slam. I turned to see Adek snatching his things from Wanda and storming off in the direction of his school. "Hey!" I shouted after him.

"Late already. I got no time for this." Adek shouted back as he broke into a run towards his school.

"You see la! You not only make your own son late, you holding me back and making my son late. And all the people behind you all waiting for you to move on; this is just a small matter, no need to blow it out of proportions." He gloated.

Wanda came over to calm me down. She tugged at my free hand, as if to ask me to leave this heated argument.

"Yes brother, be more sensible like your maid la. Know when to fight, know when to walk away." He looked at Wanda and gave her a wink. "You are a very smart girl." Then he retreated back into his flashy car. I gave chase but before I could grab a hold of him, he entered his car and drove off.

I turned to face a mob of angry parents gesturing at me to get out of the way. I tried to explain my situation to them but I guess they were more concerned about sending their sons to school on time so I just got into my car and drove off.