Time travel

I went back in time yesterday. Well, not literally. Yesterday, I went to Depot Road for an interview. I took a bus down from my place and alighted at Alexandra Road for a transfer. When I saw the bus approaching, I immediately picked up my pace and started to run towards the other bus stop. As I ran, things started to change around me. Even my clothes began to warp into from green to white. I was wearing my secondary school uniform again. I had on my back my old school bag that was heavy with a whole week worth of materials inside. I remembered this...I wanted to run faster for my NAPHA test so I resorted to running up the dreaded hill with a heavy load. It worked of course and I eventually got my gold award which I wanted. However, I suspected that it stunted my vertical growth. The bus came closer and I realised it was an unfamiliar number. Immediately the 'flashback' ended and I was violently jerked back into the present. It was a new bus from Bukit Merah towards Bishan, it didn't exist 10 years ago.

A while later, I got on a bus androde towards CMPB. Along the way, I saw the buildings of my secondary school. The school has moved to Jurong West for a few years already. What's left are only buildings standing in loneliness, lifeless without the kids, their paint peeling away from disrepair as the neighbourhood tore down the old buildings to make way for the new suburbia. When the bus passed the school, I had a glimpsed into the compound. For a brief moment, I could see my younger self running around with my classmates. I was always running...... running into mischiefs, running from classes, running from responsibilities, running away from growing up...... The nostalgia of my youth, the memories of being an adolescent..... What happened to all those close friends that I had? They're still around. We still say hello to each other when we meet in the streets. Exchanging a few words of formalities and cellphone numbers. Were the bonds so weak that they could not stand the test of time? Was any of it real in the first place? Because right now? It seems almost a fantasy that I've even lived through that 4 years of secondary education.

Later that night, I went for a preview of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. I went time travelling again. I went further back this time. I'm back in primary school.... I read 'Charlie' around primary 3 or 4. I felt the cold and my tummy rumbling when I 'walked' to school with Charlie. I could smell the chocolate fumes tantalising my nostrils whenever 'we' walked passed Mr. Wonka's factory gates. I was squealing in delight when Charlie found some money in the gutter. (Ok...I didn't exactly squeal...more like a yelp).

Things were very much different before I went to secondary school. I played with girls more than I played with boys. No no, I'm not like most boys at that age. I didn't think girls were disgusting or nauseating. Girls smell way better than boys did and are a whole lot neater too. They're smarter and I always had a knack for being close to people with intelligence. Occasionally I do like letting go and grovel in the mud like pigs with the boys. Surprisingly, the boys never taunted me for hanging around the girls. Not that the boys were very 'macho' at that age too...

I want to be a kid again....