'Kiri'

It is possible isn't it?--that certain individuals have the power to interpret who you are; dissect the contents of your conversation / responses and read you like a book (i.e. what's in a name?--sometimes more than you can ever imagine) within the span of minutes. The same reason why I shy away from conversations, especially in the backseat of dodgy looking taxis, with even dodgier taxi drivers in the thick of night. There's the trick that one can pull where they feign not knowing the whereabouts of your given destination, and you're stuck in that moment where you're talking, talking, talking. Taiping is small enough for everyone to know faces and places. But I'm not one to call any stranger a liar when they're driving me home---

Sometimes my thoughts go back to where all of this started, but I tell myself to believe and trust.

I'll always blame my mother for this neurotic aspect of me (I got it from you, I tell her, but she laughs it off like it's a joke that I've told with a straight face); but thank her (and dad) for genes that allow graying hair and not premature baldness.

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"I think they knocked the kid down. Did you know that? That's what they do now, man. Get out a little bit later, and you'd not be facing a gang of foolhardy juveniles on motorcycles; it's a damn bloody battalion of them. Once I was forced to drive behind them as they leisurely grouped together in front of me. The lot of them decidedly engaged in intellectual on road group discussion. I couldn't do a damn thing! A honk to them would have meant my ass kicked to Kingdom Come; death if I was lucky. I was traveling alone then. These cops are doing the right thing. These kids should be shown of their places. Illegal racing and cops would bust ass, like that lad there. By the way, I think he's just pretending to be more hurt than he actually is, no?"

"I think it's just a normal accident."

( _")