'Leaving Butterworth'

I looked into the stall, through the small opening where usually cash and tickets would be exchanged."Earliest ticket back to Taiping?", i said in Bahasa, to the woman who was seated there counting the day's worth of work. "Done, finished" - she replied. And the instance that i turned to walk to the other side (which offered only 9.00 pm tickets and the bus isn't a direct trip back, facilitating a few stops on the way - which would mean i'd be getting back home pretty late and tired), i heard a man asking, "Tickets to Taiping?". He was seated about two metres or so from the stall. In his hands he probably held about 10 tickets. I asked him for the price. "MYR8-00". The usual price was MYR5-90 per ticket to Taiping. I walked over to the other stall the moment he answered me.

It was 7.00 pm when i bought my 9.00 pm ticket.

I sat alone at a chinese drink stall, after having what was termed 'tai pau' in Cantonese. Two tall glasses of coffee prepared with thick condensed milk, around forty minutes plus of Deftones' self-titled and a handful of cigarettes kept me company. I waited with my thoughts, for two hours which seemed to be much shorter than expected.

( _")