Twilight zone

The batch of people who went to the UK with me are planning a reunion soon. In the spur of the moment i texted Ustazah Munah and asked her, let's go, it might be fun. We are two recluse people, so i added, if you go i'll go. I could see she was reluctant...i was keen at first. Some of those people who have replied on fb that they'd be there, i would really like to see them again after all these years. However, after a week, those who have confirmed their attendance remained less than 10. Meaning that it's enough to just fill up one table...and yes, there are about 3,4people that i don't care if i don't see them again...one table means i would have to make small talk with them...even though i am keen to see the 2 people there, not for the life of me would i know what to say to the other 4. Thus, unless the number of attendees increases exponentially within the next few weeks, i may have to give it a go.

20 years ago, we had orientation one after another prior to sending us overseas. Harap2 kitaorang tak kena kejutan budayalah kononnya...anyway, one of the orientation was held in one of the schools in the east coast. It was not one of the sekolah berasrama penuh, the building was old hence the facilities like dewan makan, bathroom, toilets semua looked tired, needing a new coat of paint etc.. Anyway, i think we were there for 4-5 nights. The activities were fun though...the usual bangun pagi, sembahyang subuh, then jogging cam nak mati but kena control macho because the guys pun jogging pada masa yg sama. Then we had one lecture after another....zzzzzzz..

But apa yang nak distorykan kat sini...on the last day, the activities finished in the late afternoon. We were told beforehand that there would be several buses that'd take us back to KL. Since i had only one week before flying off, i really wanted to head home straight to Perak, instead of going to KL first, then dily daly kat situ and then baru balik Perak. So the plan was for me to spend a night at this good friend of mine punya rumah atok kat pekan tu and the next day i'd take a bus straight home. So she called up her uncle from a pay phone near the pagar sekolah earlier during the day and informed him to pick us up around 9-10pm, right after the other students have left on the buses. Of course we didn't want to miss saying goodbye to our friends, when the next time we meet would already be in the UK. Anyway, after the buses have left, the two of us with our belongings dok lepak2 kat common room waiting for her uncle. Suasana yg meriah dgn orang tadi dah kelam, sunyi and quite dark except for the few corridor lights. Of course there was no facilitator waiting with us..There was no mobile phones at that time and the nearest pay phone was the one near the pagar sekolah. And that was about 200 metres away from where we were. We all jenguk a few times towards the pagar, while contemplating whether to make a dash to the phone. But a few times we saw someone outside the pagar. Orang gila ke? Orang jahat ke? We dared not.

It must be after 11pm when i decided no one was coming to get us might as well kitaorg tidur je lagi semalam kat situ. We went back to the dorm we had been occupying but of course menyeramkan...there were only two of us and there were many empty double decker beds. There were no proper windows, only jaring2 with curtains. Nak pergi ke bathroom next door pun seram OK. There was no proper shower but one big common bathroom with kolah sebesar alam. I said to my friend, ni tak boleh jadi ni..how to sleep like this? Kalau tak kena makan dgn hantu pasti kena dirogol beramai-ramai. What with that orang gila luar pagar some more??

We never realised the existence of other people at that school. It was school holidays hence why the course was held there. But bila dah sunyi senyap camtu only then we realised that there were some students there yg tak balik kampung (the school was separuh berasrama). So we tebalkan our faces and knocked on their domitory door mintak tumpang tido sama. Thank god the sisters were really accomodating (Esah, ko mesti ingat kitaorg ketuk bilik jantan kan??). There were empty beds in their dorm, they took out some clean bed sheets and we slept soundly till morning.

The next morning, my friend called up her uncle who had left for work hence he couldn't come for us. We then called up our friend who was local and he came to pick us up. We then found out the supposedly 'orang gila' luar pagar was actually my friend's uncle. He couldn't enter the school premises because the gate was locked...if only we had been braved enough to go to the payphone.

I thought i was on Twilight Zone..