The Hawker

Part 1: The Incident

The hot Singaporean air was killing me. I just finished Poly* and had no other desire than to go to the hawker centre and get myself some sugar cane juice. I could already imagine the sweat on the cold glass, but in the end I never got one. Not because the shops were closed or anything, but because I never reached that hawker centre on that fateful day. I got a phone call from the hospital, telling me that my Ah Ma* was dead.

They said she collapsed just like that, while still serving char kway teow*, shocking the customers as well as our helper, Chasa, and other neighbouring hawkers. And then, she died just like that. It's very confusing to me. Nobody could explain anything. Everything they said revolved around the word 'just like that'. I am the kind of person that doesn't believe that things happen 'just like that'. I demand explanations. But even the doctors in the hospital could not find anything and eventually concluded that she died because of heart attack. 

However, Ah Ma was not the kind of person who just died. I was never close to her but one thing that I certainly was sure about her, was that she would never die so easily 'just like that'. She was the most stubborn, tough person I have ever known. That was why we clashed a lot. No good words ever came out of her mouth, the same way they were never conceived in her heart in the first place. Her soul was as black as coal. But at least, she took me in when nobody was there to be my so called guardian.

Ah Ma left me nothing but a hawker stall in T*******. I censored the name, just so you all in Singapore would not try to look for me, haha. With no income, and nothing but a hawker stall left for me, I had to sustain my own life by continuing Ah Ma's legacy. Of course, unwillingly. I did not know how to cook at all. The chilli sauce that the tourists thought was nothing but some fancy condiment, even that took a lot of skills to make. Only Ah Ma knew how. 

Our helper, Chasa, had been with Ah Ma since forever. But she was just helping around, as her job title suggested. I would not blame her as well that she knew nothing about cooking. If I were her, I would have done the same. But now, to get money to live, pay rent, pay bills, pay my tuition fee, I have to work as a hawker, just like Ah Ma. Sorry, tuition fee is no longer relevant now that I have stopped going to Poly. 

I finally found a book containing Ah Ma's recipes in her drawer. Perhaps, I could master them, but no way in a short period of time. Meanwhile, I had to open the stall soon. After two weeks being closed, I finally got the stall reopened and started taking orders. It's lunch time. Customers started queuing up. The heat from the kitchen got my t-shirt drenched in sweat. I was not sure if it was really because of the heat or because I was so tense and scared of making mistakes. After all, this was my debut. 

Chasa called out the orders. I started to panic. Chasa yelled some more. I felt like fainting. Chasa suddenly screamed. Huh?!

I knew then why she screamed. All of a sudden, a woman in bright, neon blue jacket was standing next to me. She looked like a delivery rider, but I did not recognise any food delivery company with that symbol and that name. There was an embroidery of a bowl of noodles and the name was Jiak Cao. What the f***? For all I knew, jiak cao* means something else. Why would a company name itself like that? 

Suddenly, I felt something cold in between my the heat that travelled through my body. She held out a knife and secretly pointed it to me, instantly sending chills down my spine. I was not trembling, yet I wasn't saying anything. I was quiet, not because I wasn't scared, but indeed because I was scared as hell. My brain just had it hard to handle everything all at once and froze. 

Unknown Lady

Do not speak. Stay silent and close your eyes. 

I closed my eyes. Maybe, it was the worst decision ever in my life. It was such a stupid thing to do. Within a split second, I felt a sharp pain on my side, yet I could not yell. And then, everything was dark. Oh hell, did I just die? Who in the world barged into a poor hawker's kitchen and stabbed him without any reason? What are the odds? But that happened to me. Maybe I was just meant to be unlucky all the time. 

Yes, I said WAS. Because fact is, I'm still alive now and I would say that incident has turned me into the luckiest person on earth. Or so I thought.

***

To be continued.