Phase 1
So here’s how. My father, my brother and I went home from somewhere. I don’t know where we went to but that was how the story initiated. We then saw these contractors (two of them altogether) unloading materials for building houses and buildings, I finally figured out it was for us.
One of the workers was young but older than me and the other, I assume, was middle-aged. They worked really hard under the very hot sun. Eventually they were done. My brother insisted my father to give them some monetary tips. Thus, my dad took out $25 from his pocket - $10 for the young guy and the rest was given to the old one. But then the second guy was refusing to accept the tip and chasing my dad to return the money to him – we later found out that he was the boss and he didn’t need it.
After several failed attempts to give the money back, he simply put the money under a metal bar they unloaded earlier, hoping that one of my family members would take it at the end of the day. “Here, just take this $5..” that was from my dad to the old guy. Memajal, haha. If I am not mistaken, at that very moment, the young worker was sneaking as if I couldn’t see him – he was sneaking from our view (he assumed he was) taking the money his boss put under the metal bar.
When the contractors were about to leave, my dad pulled the middle-aged worker to the garage and they started to talk about buying a car! To put it simply – it’s about the worker’s car. And the trade was so fast that the deal was closed right there with cash exchange.
Phase 2
Finally, we decided to go home. Wait, I thought we were already home! I looked around.. no it actually wasn’t! We were someplace else – it was like a shopping complex. Before making our way to our car, my dad decided to go to the restaurant next door. It was only the two of us as my brother simply went somewhere else using his own car.
While waiting for my dad to finish his meal, I pulled out my handphone from my right-hand trousers’ pocket to text my girlfriend that I would be a bit late for home. But then, just when I was going to text her, her message got to me first – so I pressed the Unlock function on my phone to stop the loud ringtone. She said she was currently with his brother attending a wedding at Charcoal.. and she also commented that $7 was, in fact, a lot for a credit transfer (previously I mentioned to her that my father sent me that amount worth of handphone credits).
Phase 3
I was bored waiting for my father finishing his meal (because I wasn’t eating at all). I chose to get out of the restaurant to wander around outside the complex. I looked around and found McD! A new McD branch? Amazing! I went in and I saw my friend. He hid his face with his hands and I bursted into laughter. I approached him, he was with his friends eating martabak. I don’t know what to say. And I heard from him “kedapatan tia..” because he was supposed to be in KB but he went back to Brunei-Muara early without letting us know.
And then I saw this shop - it looked like a restaurant from the outside so I went in to figure out what it was. It was simply a place for people to relax. I saw an unoccupied seat and got myself there. On my left was a British-Indian guy appeared to be about 30+ years old. He was leaning back so relaxingly that it seemed he had no single problem at all in this world. And on my right was a Malay lady (also looking like she was 30+ years old) lying down facing downwards.
Phase 4
A moment later, I felt the lady’s feet actually went into every pocket of my casual attire. I don’t even know why and how she did that. I rushed off the chair and asked her what on earth was going on. She thought I stole her wallet. I realized that she was the third lady to have done that to me in that weird world. A few seconds later, the guy did the same thing – but he was using his hands. I just had to ask him why. His answer was similar to the lady’s – he thought I stole his wallet and I also realized he was the third guy (male) to have done the same thing to me.
I couldn’t stand it anymore and I had to explain it to him, “Hello mister, here’s what you need to know. Today, altogether, there were three ladies who thought I stole their wallets and they used their foot to sneak into my pockets. And there were three guys, including you, who thought I stole their wallets and they all used their hands. The point here is – Do I look like a thief to you?!”
He gave me the most perplexing answer I have ever heard, “Hey relax man.. do you know what that means?” “What?!”, I yelled softly to avoid other eyes from looking at me. He replied, “that means you’re the man.” “Hah??!” “Yeap..you’re the maaan!”
I don’t get it. “errr… I’m the man?” “Yup you are” “err what are you talking about? Errr ok whatever.. I’m the man!”.
Phase 5
I decided to get out of the place. On my way out there was this group of Chinese girls who went past me. I spontaneously raised my voice to them and yelled, “Hey girls! That guy over there *pointing out to the guy (he was even smiling)* told me that I’M THE MAN!~ Yup I’M THE MAN!~ thanks dude! You’re crazy. *Rolled my eyes*” . At this point, I started to get confused with everything and from this point forward, I ignored everything I heard from them. I could hear the sounds of “what??” many times. When I was already far away, one of the girls yelled “hey dude, merry Christmas!”. I did not answer, and I was not even looking at them. I simply frowned and kept walking. I could hear their voices discussing “hey he’s a muslim wah”. Seconds later, they all yelled “Assalamualaikum!!”. Oh my, I had to stop, took a glance, looked away and finally I knew something was going wrong with everything today.
On the far side of the building I saw my father just got out of the restaurant and entered his car. I decided to go home alone using my own car which suddenly appeared there. I don’t even know how it got there. I said to myself, “Weird day.. I’ll be seeing my sweetheart after this and I’ll have to tell her what happened.. because it is just a very weird day.” Just when I was about to text her that I was about to go home. Someone woke me up for sahur.
