Journey mercies

Last Monday I had an unexpected visitor who dropped by my side of the world on her way back from Canada to Malaysia.

And the best part about where I live is that it's super convenient to get to from Heathrow airport. When I picked her up from the tube station, we bumped into a friend of mine from church. He asked Lekha how she knew me, and we both looked at each other before we told him we knew each other from a long long long time ago.

She's my oldest friend from when we were 8 years old! The first time we were in the same class together was when we were in Standard 4. I still remember the first day in Standard 4, we had to choose sitting partners, and we were quite quick in choosing each other. And I still remember how we just couldn't stop talking the moment we sat down next to each other. And I of course remember how during the teacher-parent meeting that year, I felt my heart sink with horror when I heard my class teacher tell my mother I talk a lot in class, with this Indian girl, and felt my mother turn her head to look at me as I hung my head in shame!

Lekha couldn't remember getting into any trouble for talking too much, but we spent a great deal of time filling in on one another on the gossips about ex-school mates and squealing with laughter over random memories of school time, like how she used to irritate me with her mouthing the national anthem rather than singing it during assembly. It wasn't so much of her not singing it, but more that as she mouthed the words, her lips would make a slightly irritating smacking sound and that was what annoyed me.

It was so good talking with her, because we know each other in a time that no one else can be privy of, so the friendship is truly irreplaceable. Some time back, she emailed telling me her maid decided to go back to her hometown in Penang after living for more than a decade with her family, because she and her siblings had grown up and the family no longer needed her help. It was a random thing to email me about, but she felt slightly sad about her maid leaving and I was the only one who knew her maid and what she meant to her.

During the course of our conversation, we agreed that we were both very different people from when we were in high school, but we would always know each other as we were then, and for some reason, that felt good. That no matter how high or how far we may fly, we still have a common thread of history to share with one another.