Chapter 8

“What is Down Syndrome?”

The endless assembly area was crowded with NYJCians copying notes, talking about yesterday’s show and boasting of new shoes or watches. Chew Ling was holding on to her NDP 2006 bag when I asked her. She put down her bag, dropped to the ground like a child and sat with her feet crossed against each other, her underwear fully exposed.

“Linda, if one day I fall down, hold me. Don’t just see. I may hit my head and die.”

“What’s Down Syndrome?”

Chew Ling did not make any effort to close her legs. She jerked a little and coughed. “Don’t you watch Channel 8 dramas? Then again, those dramas are so faked.” She dug out a box of Panadol. Panadol? “You know, in those dramas, I don’t think the scriptwriters did research. You can see an OCD, schizophrenic or DID patient, all being diagnosed as Clinical Depression. It’s like the scriptwriters only know how to spell Clinical Depression. You seen any characters in Channel 8 dramas suffering from other mental illnesses? And gosh, government doctors in Singapore don’t wear those oversized white coats. And guess what you always see in those dramas? Every doctor wears a white coat.”

“What’s Down Syndrome, Chew Ling?” I looked at my watch. There were ten more minutes before flag-raising.

“Basically, a person with Down Syndrome has an extra chromosome. Each of us gets 23 chromosomes from our parents, but persons with Down Syndrome get an extra chromosome in chromosome number 21, which makes them different from others. But they’re just like anyone else! You should treat them-”

“Forget it.” I wobbled away from Chew Ling. When is she going to give just one-sentence answer?

“Hey- what’s with Down Syndrome? Why are you so keen on that?”

I froze. Why am I so keen on that? I pondered on that and after singing the National Anthem with a monotone style, I realized I was still wondering why I was so interested in Down Syndrome.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John was sitting in my bedroom, playing with the latest Pokemon toys that my mother had bought for him. Pikachu was fighting some monstrous Pokemon. John used Pikachu’s mouth to hit the monster and the monster flew all the way to my table, hitting one of my files.

“Sorry.” John said. “Mummy, do you want to play with me?”

“No.” I grabbed my file and put it back on my table.

John looked at me with his most innocent eyes and shoved Pikachu to me. “Let’s play together then.”

“Get out of my room.” I whispered, pushed the soft toy back to him and stepped towards the window. “Please.”

“Mummy -”

“Shut.” I said. Paused. “Up.”

“-but this is my room, too.”

“Get out!”

John started to cry. I wanted to reach for him, grab him and tell him that I was sorry, that a child should not cry for he had grown up. But I choked on my own thoughts: I, Linda Lim, am a child too.

What right does a child have to lecture on another child?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Serene wore the most expensive stuffs when she was in Secondary school. I thought she could be the only Secondary school student who wore a Tag Heuer watch to school: That watch alone could pay all her school fees in her four years of studies. However, not many students knew that her watch cost at least two thousand dollars. They thought it was just one of those ten-dollar watches which you can find at pushcarts.

On the morning of Wednesday, after flag-raising when all the students exploded to different lecture halls or classrooms, Serene grabbed me by the shoulder. That Tag Heuer watch reflected a ray of sunlight into my eyes. I blinked and stepped back.

“Shih Tzu, we need to talk.”

“I’ve got lecture.”

“You definitely need a lecture.” she said with her lips curving a little.

That was when the layers of blood near my left chest warmed up. Serene was glaring at me and her hand was shaking.

“What is it?”

“Forget the fucking lecture.” she muttered, released the grip on my shoulder and walked off. I followed her and throughout the whole journey, all I could hear were my heartbeats.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Serene did a movie scene when we entered the toilet: She pushed open all the doors of the cubicles to make sure that we were alone.

“Have you ever tried stuffing a calculator into your mouth since it’s so big.” Serene said after she was sure that we were alone in the toilet. She dropped her bag – a red Crumpler – near the sink and marched towards me. I looked at our reflections through the mirror and thought of what Chew Ling had said when she first saw Serene: Twins.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh. You got no mouth? Huh?” Her hand was shaking. Was it fear, anger or a mixture of all negative emotions that devoured her to such tremors? “You want to talk about true lies? I can also swear I see you telling that old virgin stories about me.”

“I really-”

“How can you betray your own sister?”

I’m not your freaking sister…

“How can you do this to your own schoolmate? We wear the same fucking nurse uniform.”

It’s not my choice to be your schoolmate…

“How can you.” She strolled towards me with her head down. “Shih Tzu, in this world, there’s only the predator and the prey. It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”

Just shut up, Serene, please…

“I used to be a prey. People bullied me. People looked down on me. But listen well. I’ve stopped being a prey since five years ago. I’m now a predator. And in this world of predator and prey, only the predator survives.”

“I learnt that in Science lesson.”

“So, Shih Tzu, listen well: In this school, I’m the predator and every one of you is a prey. The prey never touches the predator. The predator touches the prey. And Shih Tzu, yesterday, a prey just came to the predator and touched it. You learnt Science. You should know what will happen. The predator attacks, the prey evades. A prey never attacks.”

And like in the movies again, the door opened. I was expecting Mrs. Tee coming in with a cane, saying that she had heard everything and wanted to cane Serene in the butt. But a weedy Chew Ling stepped in with her NDP bag, looked at us and smiled. She rushed to the sink, spat and turned to us.

“Hello twins!”

“Shut up, Cedar.”

“Missy, Cedar is a tree and my Secondary school. My name is Tan Chew Ling.” Chew Ling said and put her bag next to Serene’s Crumpler.

“Tomorrow, Shih Tzu, you’ll know what happens to a prey who touches a predator. Discovery Channel is going to be ‘live’ in NYJC.” Serene said and grabbed her bag.

“Hey, your bag looks a little like mine. Is it a National Day Parade bag from Malaysia or some other country?” Chew Ling exclaimed. Serene snored, pushed open the door forcefully and disappeared.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Chew Ling, next time…” I went for the exit. “… learn to shut up.”

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