I was quite looking forward to today's lunch, I delayed my physio by 30 minutes, and did all my work in the office. Sean agreed to drive me, the others decided to go to the same Japanese restaurant for lunch.
We were queueing in traffic, when we saw an elderly man walking along the kerb. He was using a walking stick and his gaze was in the middle distance. 'What's he doing?' I wondered aloud as I rolled down the car window and asked in Hokkien 'where are you going?'. As he tried to answer, he staggered backwards and fell, hitting his head on the road.
Syahidah and I rushed out of the car to help him up, he was dazed but able to talk. We put him in the front seat and he gave directions to his home. After a few moments, we realised that he had no idea where home is, neither does he remember his home phone number (he gave us only 4 numbers). His memory was failing him, but not his hearing - he took part in our back seat conversations, answering/ interrupting in English, Mandarin and Hokkien.
I told Sean that we should take him to a 'cop shop' speaking in code since the old man's hearing is so good. We headed to the police station in HuiSing.
Just as we were turning, I asked if his children were in town, and he said yes and gave a name that I knew from a while back. I met his son while CK was working at the local council.
After a roundabout of phone calls, we were able to locate the old man's son who then sent his son to collect grandpa. During the 20 minutes when we waited outside my lunch venue, the old man was chatty, joking with me about the scolding he's bound to get when he arrives home.
I ate my lunch one hour late, but had an interesting story to tell.
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