Bushwhacking

Walking out from Tanglin Camp after Yi-Sheng’s book launch along a rather dark creepy path, Alec and I were the last two in the procession with Fay just in front. We had fallen silent, perhaps a little cowed by the atmosphere. Unnerved by menacing jungly shadows, I amused myself by walking like one of the Bushwhackers.

“Um…dear…you’re being weird…” Alec whispered, as he walked beside me.

I thought this was a bit rich coming from someone I have had to physically restrain from public vogue-ing whenever the song in question is played, so I protested “No one can see me, what’s the problem?” and continued merrily.

After a good thirty metres or so of my happy bushwhacking, Fay turned around as if meaning to say something to us, but suddenly her eyes widened in fear at something behind me.

“WHO IS THAT???!!” she exclaimed, lunging towards me to try and see who, or what, was behind me. “ARE YOU SOMEONE??”

My heart performing the sort of spasmodic leaps one’s heart performs in such circumstances, I whirled around too.

Who or what emerged from the shadows? A short, slightly plump, totally ordinary looking lady who was somewhat shocked by the outburst and walked quickly past us, laughing nervously, to the distant sanity of the shuttle bus.

According to Alec she had been behind me the whole time, so the poor lady first had to deal with walking alone behind a group of silent strangers on the dark creepy path, one of those strangers beginning to walk in an exceedingly bizarre fashion (look, use your imagination – the Bushwhackers were funny on TV, but if you saw a shadow walking towards you like that in the darkness? Meep!), and another one of those strangers loudly demanding to know whether she was “someone”. Maybe you just had to be there, but I’d have been a little shaken if I were her. Sorry, lady.

Apart from that, what I also wanted to record here was a lovely evening spent steeped in pride for Yish, the filthy synergistic hilarity that characterizes our particular group of friends, and the immense honour of being able to purchase a book with my name among the dedications in the front, spelled the way only Yish spells it.