The Fire (Part 1?)

It was an ordinary Monday evening after work on 24th Nov, 2008.

Whilst at the office I chatted briefly with P & E. E seemed a bit distracted but she’s been that way the past few weeks. We’ve been talking amongst ourselves and worrying about her, is she okay?

Back home, I had just withdrew cash from the ATM and was sitting at the hall reading the papers, waiting for dinner. At 7.29 pm my hand-phone beeped, alerting me that an SMS message had come in. It was from E, a message that simply said “Luck very bad. House on fire.” I froze. What did she mean, fire? Big fire, small fire, what? If big fire, she wouldn’t have time to sms, would she??? Questions, questions…

As usual, when feeling tensed, I took out a cigarette. Went to the back of my shop, lit my cig, then called E. Why is she not answering ? I tried again and she hello-ed. I don’t remember what my first question was. (probably something stupid).For a brief moment her voice broke when she said “I got no where to stay tonite….” and my heart did a dive. We didn’t talk long; just long enough for me to get some facts from her. After offering her the use of my house, we hung up. Seemingly, a couple of drug addicts had caused an explosion while they were in the vacant house next door. Neighbours saw them running out soon after.

Dinner forgotten, I decided to go over to her place immediately. Thank God my brother didn’t take the car yet….. Faster faster ‘chup’ the car keys… I called S and then P… P already heard from Mrs Lee. We all agreed to meet at E’s.

As I was about to leave the house I remembered the cash I withdrew earlier was still in the pocket of the shorts I was wearing. I ran upstairs to keep the cash and when I was downstairs again, aiyo.. I couldn’t remember where I had placed the car keys. Since the phone call with E, I had gone out to the shop to tell Supri that I was going out so she should feed the dogs, I used the toilet, went upstairs to keep the cash…. now where did I put the keys??? Just as I decided to use the spare keys, I found it next to the sink where I had gone to wash a cup.

On reaching E’s, the whole place was a hive of activity even though by then, the fire was under control. The fire brigade was parked outside, firemen were walking in and out of the house, curious on-lookers and busybodies were loitering outside. It was already dark. Mrs Lee was there and the 2 of us went in to view the damage. In the dark you can hardly make out anything except that the floors were wet. The power supply had to be shut down when the fire occurred.

M dropped by with her niece for a while. P arrived soon after and E passed us some of her things for safe-keeping. The guitar is with me along with the I-POD and i-Home and ahh…Diane’s PS 2. Where is S? Called her again and she said she was still at dinner and would come later. Some officers from Fire Dept (?) came and E had to make a statement.

Storm was a pampered pooch that night. He had to be carried most of the time as the floors were wet and grimy. Mrs Lee instructed Rohimah on how to go about sweeping water into the toilet. P & I helped. Doc’s brother said that he would arrange for a 40’ container to be placed outside the house for storage purpose during the renovation and repair works which apparently would be quite extensive, based on what the contractor said.

We emptied the freezer. S’s was quite empty so she was suppose to take the food to store in her fridge. But where was S? Unbeknownst to us, S was having dinner with clients and she didn’t tell us that she was dependent on her colleague for transport. She didn’t figure that dinner would drag on and on. Instead of waiting for S, on my way home, I would leave the things with her husband instead.

There wasn’t much that could be done that night so they decided to lock up. E and family, including Storm and their maid would move in with Dr’s brother.

P and I planned to drop by the next day to help in spite of E’s insistence that they could cope…. If she wasn’t so distressed, I would have asked her to shut-up even though her I know it was just that she didn’t want to impose on us… We are friends. Wouldn’t you do the same for me had I been in the same situation?

By the time I got home, it was close to midnight. Suddenly I was hungry… time to raid the fridge….

F