Scary....

This is freaky....

Monday 7th Nov '05
Time: 2230hrs.
Just came back from Hari Raya visiting. Was still clad in my kebaya, when my cousin called to say he wanna come over. When asked what time, he said, "Around 11."

Informed my parents. My mum hurriedly prepared to fry some mee. I prepared the cookies and spruced up the living area. My dad cut the cakes.

He came at 11.15pm. His infant son is asleep. His wifey wanna change his son out of his uncomfortable overalls and change his diapers as well. I watched as the sleeping baby eventually cried, unhappy at being rudely disturbed.

I quickly made them some tea. Baby is awoke and my daddy carried him around. I played with him. MY cousin was about to drink his tea when his handphone rang. His wifey decided not to drink hers cos it's still hot. The phone was passed to the wifey.

Her shrill voice then rang out, "What! Whose house is on fire?! Mum, where are you?"

My cousin grabbed the phone from his clearly agitated wife. "Mum? What's going on..? WHAT?! Have you called the firemen?"

Ok, something's clearly wrong here..... My cousin was clearly struggling to have a decent conversation with his mum-in-law. Either the line's bad or SHE'S in a bad shape... So he called his mum. Turned out, his mum-in-law's house was ON FIRE. Can you believe that?!

So they hurriedly packed up and apologised profusely to us. "So sorry. So sorry. My mum was crying and her house was on fire. It was just her and my aunt. I'd better get there..." Was all the wife could say, over and over.

My mum was like, "It's ok. You better go. Don't worry." Then she turned to my cousin, "You drive safely. Don't be so gan-cheong."

They got out the door, grabbed the baby from my dad and scrambled off. I dunno why, back then something told me to send the baby home....

I looked at the untouched cups of tea on the table. At the fried mee that didn't even managed to be served. Something's not right...
*****
This morning, I asked my dad about that incident. He called his sister (my cousin's mum) and all she can say was that the in-law was hopitalised. Ok, THAT sounds serious.

During lunch, my dad told me the story appeared in The New Paper. Ok... I THOUGHT it's a small fire... Maybe it's just a small report ran about it.

Still my curiousity got over me and I bought a copy of the paper. BOY, WAS I WRONG. It ain't just a small report. It's the headline of the day. The cover story. A whole 2 pages of it. And was the fire huge!!

All the while, I was thinking, Goodness, I wonder how they managed to bring their infant into that scene. All that smoke, ruckus and noise...
Now I know why I strongly felt that I SHOULD have sent the baby home, instead of letting the parents bring him along...

I wish them well. The house was above the playground (where the fire may have started from). The 3rd or 4th storey, but definitely affected. I hope the damage wasn't too serious. And during this festive season. Oh boy...