Twenty-five

Yesterday, I broke a beaker during Chemistry practical class. It was in examination condition. After boiling the solution for about 10 minutes, surprisingly and irrationally, I tried to transfer the BEAKER to the basin using a TEST TUBE HOLDER. Of course, how on earth can a test tube holder holds a beaker? I must had been running out of my mind, letting the unnecessary things wallowing in my mind all those whiles until I lost my ability to rationalize things. Darn..

So it fell and I tried to save it. Yet I failed and it broke.

Automatically as if it had been programmed, I turned and got to the sink and opened the pipe and let the water ran down my burning palms. Ms. Jacklyn was saying something, yet no one words got into my ears. Michelle, the first one came to me and asked if my hands were alright. Within a minutes, Chia Venn approached me and asked me the same question. Sooner, Hanis, my housemate who made me a birthday card during my b'day, did the same thing.[I was touched..I really did.]

Later, my palms were still burning. I mean, they are BURNING. It was, painful. Here came the the stern-looking lab assistant. Gingerly and slowly, she applied some medicine on my burning palms. I started to weep. [Glad that i was inside the 'preparatory room'] It wasn't about the pain. I simply felt touched by her. To me, she was a complete stranger; and this so-called stranger took care of my wound with utmost care, as if I was her little sister. "Don't cry..." I remember how soft her whisper was, and how sincere it was...that it touched my heart.

Within two minutes I calmed myself down. Reluctant to let my friends see my weeping look, I put on the 'everything-is-alright" mask[a mask which I have been wearing all these while] and carried on...

It costed me RM6 for breaking the beaker. In other words, I bought something else with this RM6. Had I not broken the beaker, I would not have seen the who are the real friends that I've got.

Chia Venn, a friend who I thought I've lost when she got together with Beng, has always been there for me when REAL troubles come. About two months ago, she was also the only one who consoled me. In fact, she was the only one who saw me through when that happened.

Hanis, my housemate+classmate. Besides making me a birthday card, she helped me to wash chicken when I first cooked in student house. She helped me to remove the 'fat' as it is unhealthy to consume "chicken's fat". Although there has been little conversations/interaction, she seems to be ready to help whenever I needed one. How nice of her...

Thanks a lot. I appreciate them. Thanks.