Old Flames

What do you do when you come across an old flame?

I found 4 of my so call 'old flame' on Facebook recently. Mostly from my secondary school days.......and that's why they call it puppy love. They are now married with family, aging gracefully...well you can see by their physical change.

Maybe I should just leave it as it is. Funny though but I feel I owe them some explanation of the break ups. Maybe for my own peace of mind.

We were young then.

I felt a bit hesitant to write this article. I do not not want people close to me get this the wrong way. But it was my past and I have come to terms with it. I have kept this a secret but now I wanna share part of my past.

No real names and all based on true events. Pictures? Yes I still have each an everyone of them. But in order to respect their privacy, I opted not to upload them in my blog.

Mr A.

I was 13 and just started with my secondary one. I was a 'freshie' and became the attention of the seniors. A few voiced out their interest in 'adopting' me as 'pet sister'. I wasn't that attractive so I don't see what those people saw in me.

Mr A was an all rounder school athlete. You name the sports, and he had medals to prove. He was 17 that year of 1981. Those days we were shy to express our feelings towards each other. Secret messages or notes would always be the bridge to connect our friendship. We started to have secret meetings after school. Lied to my grandmother on several occasions such as, "I going to the library to study." Yeah, right! I did go to the library. Mr A was a librarian at school, you know....

Then I became more bold. A hobby I enjoyed during those years was jogging and Mr A would later join me along my jogging path. I liked his company and no 'hanky panky' going on...but at 13 it is not a descent thing to act that way. When we arrived at a small park, sometimes I would meet up with my other girlfriends. So you see we were not always alone. We would chit chat and talk about school stuff...sooooo very innocent.

Later I noticed some of my secret notes were intercepted, yeah, like I wouldn't noticed they were missing from my bag! Probably they were rolling and laughing out loud reading my letters and notes. Moreover, whoever responsible pretended as though nothing happened. This is an inside (the house) job. I will not forgive the person who did that until he/she come forward and confess. Such an invasion to my privacy. Come one weekend my I insisted of going for my usual morning jog. My persistent back fired when I received a strike on my face for disobeying my grandfather. He did not allow me to go jogging. He knew I was going to meet Mr A. Someone had spied on me! I barked back at him and the burning right cheek implanted fear in me. From then on...no more secret meetings with Mr A. I refrained myself bumping into Mr. A at school, no longer stayed back after school or go to the library. I was embarrassed. Soon we both went our own way. I never get to explained to Mr A why I did not turn up on that Saturday morning. The relationship died out just like that. At that stage I had a feeling my dad already knew about this incident.

Mr A left school that year after his final exams and it is not until the New Year of 1985 when I saw him again. I was with my parents having dinner in a fancy restaurant in Jaya Supermarket. It was a cool restaurant back then and there were life performance by local entertainers(sometimes Filipinos groups as well).

(One of the things that my dad enjoyed doing was taking us out for fancy dinners at cool restaurant with life bands. While we were staying in Penang, he took us to Captain's Cabin- The Ship and I saw Alleycats and Headwind performed. Oh ya...he took us all out to a new discotheque in town. It was owned by a friend. I was 18 at the time, and imagine how excited I was stepping in to a discotheque.)

Back to my story, I got the shock of my life when I saw Mr A, waiting on our table. I am sure it was Mr A but what was he doing there? Yikes, I am with my parents and they must not know who Mr A was. Through out the night, I stole a few glances from a distance and whenever he served us. I pretended as though he was just another waiter. I am sorry about the way I acted but I am not crazy to approached him and later explaining to my parents how I knew him. I knew he knew that it was me and I flatly denied what he knew with my arrogant facial expression. I was mean. But I need to survive. Hey, I'm the one going home with mom and dad!

I am sorry Mr A. The way I acted was such an embarrassment. Mr A is now living in Puchong, married and has 4 children.

To be continue.....next is Mr B.