LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE

Blog-reader Alice gave me a nudge on my ribs, reminding me that I had promised to write about Alice, an unfortunate target of my puppy love days...

What to do... I was about 17 or 18... and tell me, what interests boys of this age except, g.i.r.l.s.?

That goondoo of a boy would be standing in front of the mirror for like, hours... twiddling and fiddling his hair, making sure that every single strand and every other filament is in its 'proper' place... as if the girls would take notice... blah, those days...

Now, the sad thing is, nothing much really happened with this Alice girl...

Regardless, the 'height' of this non-event was the time when we climbed Kedah Peak in a group...

Was thrilled sky-high, literally... and was always trying to find excuses to walk alongside her... what a goondoo puppy-pest I must have been...

After that, visited her on several occasions in the evenings and yakked away the hours, fighting off the never-say-die mosquitoes...

She was petite, yes, and small-sized... with long flowing hair, pretty of course, and she looked terrific in jeans... as my friends like to remind me, 'my type'...

But it was not to be... those sticky-sticky mosquitoes were always in the way...

I climbed Kedah Peak a second time shortly after... and foolishly decided to pick some wild grass flowers to bring back for sweet Alice...

The streams were slippery and I could have slipped and knocked the brains off my skull... or am I exaggerating?

Thing is, was Alice happy to receive those miserable yellow grass flowers, wilted by the time I handed them to her?

Silly me...

Now, more than twenty-four years have passed us by, and all that remains is that song about living next door (actually, a few streets away) to her in Alor Star...

I have not heard much about her except that she once asked about me through a common friend...

Now Alice... if you are reading this... naw... can't be... can't be...

I close my case...