An Inflamed Patient
Chapter 1
Pardon me if I talk about you today.
I am the most unserious person in the world. And because I am so, many people hate me for that. Some relatives that came back, would say, “rubbish” the moment they meet me, even without a proper greeting like, “how are you? Or “how have you been?” And when I try to connect with them on social media, the first thing they say is, “I hope you are well,”. Sure, no reason not to be well.
Yes I know that they were short of time, and they were kind enough to visit me again in this hot and humid weather, and they wanted to pass me the message as quickly and as succinct as they could.
My country loves me, and I know that it’s because I am good. They never wanted me to leave and they try every means to prevent me from leaving. But actually, it was my own decision. A long time ago, I had actually decided that I didn’t want to travel anymore. Why was there the necessity for making such a declaration at the time?
Only God knew, and He is not telling me why I said what I said.
Maybe a long time ago, I found out that the best way to punish a person is not to kill them, but to send them into exile. If you kill them, that would have been murder, prohibited by the sixth commandment.
I refuse to exile myself!
I like being in a hot city. I am climatised to it. The wind blows occasionally, and the air-conditioning are always available. If not, then the fan will do. They open up and collapse at a clip of the fingers.
But sometimes it’s good to travel to cold climate if the heat is scorching.
Chapter 2
It was raining and I was out. Yes, you guessed correctly. It started to rain when I was outside. It started whilst I was on the bus, then it increased its speed volume to a heavy downpour. I was beginning to wonder what I did to make God angry with me. I usually get good sunny weather and rarely do I get caught.
No choice, I had to alight at the intended destination. Tentatively I took my steps down the bus, and I almost slipped when some other passengers were in a hurry to get down. My first step went into the mini lake, then the second into a puddle of water, afterwards I managed to put my foot on the sidewalk, by which time my shoes were completely soaking wet. I looked at my mud-caked slippers and told myself thank God it wasn’t the designer.
The umbrella was in my bag, I took much difficulty to wrench it out, then opened it with the help of just one hand.
Several cars passed by, and some even felt fit to splash more water in my direction. Again, I got annoyed with myself. Why had I not taken the private hire? I did notice that the sky was grey and the clouds thin. But I made the decision to walk instead. I had grown accustomed to walking recently.
You might wonder what I did on this trip. And I shall tell you later.
Chapter 3
Dr Juan arrived at his clinic just before 9:00 am.
This is my sanctuary. No one is allowed to disturb me except my regular patients. It is not easy to find good patients. Good patients means that they rely on me completely and not have other doctors to give them a second opinion. Too many cooks spoil the dish, as they say.
But most of all, they should be patients who bring in business for me. Meaning that they automatically cause others to come to me. I don’t mean that I want them to spread my practice by word of mouth, but rather that they carry the luck to me. Oranges are meant to bring good luck. But I was told that bringing oranges to a clinic during the Chinese New Year is bad luck, or worse still if you give it to a doctor. They are meant to be eaten at home.
Luck can mean a whole variety of things. From spreading germs around to the relevant people whom I describe as mean and nasty, and to potential patients who just want to steal medicine from me.
Talking of which, there is a lady who continuously comes to me for advice. I often see her in good spirits; there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. She often came in with sunshine, as though she had been lying on a freshly ironed set of bedsheets. The night before. She is much older than I, so you can’t say that I am interested in her. And the truth is, that I am not in love with her. Older married men only cared about the bread and butter. At my age, what is love? My parents are still living and strong, and I worry about how much money I can afford to help them stay young and healthy for as long as they can. Provided that they keep up with my expenses. Yes, I love my parents. More so than my kids. I have seen my parents struggle to feed me, but my kids are yet to show me likewise. They are still studying in the university.
Ok, back to my lady friend, whom I shall from now refer to as Lady M. Lady M is consistently refreshing and pretty, old as she might be. At the back of my mind, I was calculating on how many more years she has got. She is 55 this year. Give her a few more decades, and she would be withering and coming in to see me for help. Yes, I detest her. I hate her for the confidence that she exudes, and the fact that she has sufficient money to retire at this young age.
No, I am not going to tell you, my age.
I know that doctors are not allowed to dislike their patients. But if you ask me, if you look after yourself well, why should you be sick? If you take the necessary precautions, like all adults do, why should you catch the cold? Germs are everywhere and plentiful. If you stay away from the crowded places, if you eat well, if you do not indulge in harmful activities, and if you avoid oily foods such as the fried chicken, etc. Why would you get sick? How could you get sick?
It is not possible to fall ill unless you have a nasty friend who passed it to you.
That is why many people wear the mask nowadays.
But to me, a black mask is cool although it makes you look like a 刺客。
Chapter 4
“Doctor Juan, I am feeling a bit of a cough and sore throat,” one of my old patients said the minute she sat down in front of me.
“Ok, let me see your throat, ahh …. , “I used the wooden stick to check the gag reflex and the minute she coughed I relaxed. But this time she closed her mouth, the second time when she opened again it was not inflamed. But she was. Nevertheless, I told myself that it wasn’t serious. I gave her the antibiotics and the lozenges for her throat. She didn’t ask for cough mixture. “Do you need cough mixture?” I asked. “No, I still have three bottles at home that I am waiting to finish,” she said.
“Wow! What a thrifty woman! She doesn’t waste even cough mixture.” I told myself.
Chapter 5
I must be very careful of what I say. For since after the evening at Geraldine’s house, whenever I walked pass unit #01-16, I felt presence. No one is standing there looking at me for sure, but the house door is open, and you could hear the dog barking at random. The dog could be barking from another source I am unsure.
But today I heard a cat meow as well. I turned and took two steps up then decided to halt my steps, as I became unsure. What if there were no animals inside?
The minute I was near, Geraldine opened the door even before I knocked.
“Your doorbell is not working,” I remarked as I was entering.
She moved a little, slightly embarrassed.
A man wearing a yellow collar shirt with a big bold letter T in front was sitting by the kitchenette.
I grinned, immediately realising what they had been doing before I came in, or the night before. And why was I so certain?
“Hello, are you Nick Tan?” I asked.
“Huh? What do you mean? Who is he?” she asked, looking at him.
And then I spoke, “Oh, your television set is on,”
Immediately the sound of the waterfall gushed out, disappearing into the cathode-ray tube of the television set.
Geraldine was just holding at her remote control to the air-conditioning at the time, and she immediately turned it off. The air stopped coming out, and the place turned still immediately. I took a deep breath.
Fresh wind was blowing in from the open.
Chapter 6
Let me retract my steps and recall what I did the previous day.
You see, I had been a detective before I became a doctor, and as I was free today, I decided to assign myself some tasks, which is to snoop around the 义安城 the local shopping mall to mind other people’s business.
So, when I had gathered enough time and money, I started the trip downtown. It was almost haunted, with few people inside.
The doorman to Chanel was just too ready to open the door for me. I looked and found that all the goods were lined up in a manner that prevents anyone from buying. I quietly smiled to myself.
Immediately I heard a voice, “Istana”. There was a person next to me, I saw.
“Good morning, oops, afternoon, sir,” in attention with a salute he said. I almost thought that this man was a soldier standing outside the Istana. And then I thought to myself if this was an invitation to treat, to the Istana of course. I had never been to the Istana and why don’t I go there for a look? They say that the grounds are large and flowers plentiful.
But I am not going to travel all the way there to meet with the security guards, or anyone there in particular. They are also not open now. I know the guards have a given name, but I shall leave it as unknown, since I am not inclined. Strangely enough I believe that they might suddenly point one of their guns at me. No, I am not paranoid.
But then on hindsight, I thought to myself, “OMG! They can read my mind!” Why would anyone say “Istana” right in the middle of a large shopping mall? Like when you read the Bible often enough, the word “adultery” just stares at you. The word literally jumps out at me sometimes. But me being a science student in school, I decided to number them.
Adultery falls under the seventh commandment I know, and I often have to go back and recall if murder was number six or number five. Sometimes I would simply say she did a number seven and everyone around me would understand. They say that adultery applies to both parties if one of them is married. So that a single man would have been committing adultery if he slept with a married woman.
Then what if both parties are married?
If both parties are married, then it would be double adultery. In that case, four parties are aggrieved. Then it would be best if we allow the two adulterous parties to marry, so that only two are unhappy. This is provided that no kids are involved.
Back to the present scene. Could the strangers read my mind? Are they in sync with my brains or what? I touched my head, these are my brains, and they are obviously intact. And the last time I checked it, they were properly wired. Oh yes, I can go inside my brains to rewire them. And how do I do it? This is a secret between me, God, my brains, and myself, and I am not about to let you know. Just like the Oscar Wilde and his famous quote, that there is only one person in the room. No, I am not a narcissist.
The Almighty can read my mind!
Chapter 7
“He shouted at me again.” Stephanie complained the minute she walked into the clinic.
“What had made him angry?” The nurses in the clinic asked each other, “Tuan kenapa marah?”
Several reasons flashed through their minds now. Could it be the recent sinkhole that occurred in Fernhill Street that made her upset? Nurse Geraldine knew that it is not too far away and is a necessary route to take when travelling to town. The newspapers reported that a caisson ring has since been erected.
Tuan likes to go down to Café Bowl to have his coffee every morning at about 11.00 am. He has not been able to do so for at least a week by now.
What makes this coffee so special they do not know. But they know that the lady who served the coffee was a Chinese lady, plum and slightly wrinkled. Which puts her age at between sixty to seventy. Or do women obtain wrinkles only after seventy?
Tuan’s wife Stephanie is a woman too, but she hasn’t obtained wrinkles yet.
Stephanie gave herself a reason why Tuan was annoyed.
“Has he discovered the large ruby that Nick gave me?”
There was a ring which she had kept in her jewellery box when Nick left her.
It was a large oval and the man who sold it to him had his eyes popped out when she decided on it. It was obviously a fake. But that was the one she spotted when presented with a whole lot of fakes. Wondering why she chose it Nick asked, and Stephanie explained, “Rubies are more expensive than sapphire, with several layers of diamonds to camouflage its authenticity, it could serve as a Sarah Ferguson engagement ring.”
It was a legitimate purchase of course, although there wasn’t any specific occasion to mark it, she felt much entitled. Who says rings must be bought only when there is a moment to celebrate?
At the same time Geraldine also thought to herself;
Ok, that means that I will need to and remove the ring from my mother. It seems to be the reason that makes Dad unhappy. That should be! It! She hurried through her chores and made it her mission today.
Deep down like the deepfakes, Geraldine knew that her true self is hidden right down, far below the Chinese hell and well above the winds and the stars and maybe somewhere in another planet and perhaps on the earth as another human being.
Yes, Geraldine went home and stole the ring from her mother Stephanie.
Chapter 8
As usual after the clinic, Stephanie arrived at the supermarket. At the check-out queue, she won’t have gotten upset if the one immediately in front of her turned around to face her directly obviously trying to engage her. There was another party in front waiting. She tried to ignore them.
But that lady told her that she could go ahead first, so, Stephanie said, “where is your partner?” The one further up the queue ahead of this lady also turned around, thinking that Stephanie was speaking to him, at the same time his partner walked away to look for more items. So, obviously Stephanie said, “I am not his wife,” afraid that she would be mistaken as the partner.
This is the “Chope” culture. “Chope” means that the seat or queue is reserved for another person who hasn’t arrived yet.
Do not talk to strangers. But if you know them some civility is unavoidable.
But who is a stranger? Do they offer the same advice in the Bible? Is it one of the ten commandments? That means that I would have to flip the pages in the Bible when I get home tonight.
Chapter 9
Cousin Choy sat in front of Dr Juan this morning. He told him this was Chapter Two.
“What Chapter Two?” Dr Juan asked. Stephanie was sitting right next to him and immediately she flipped to the Genisis – Chapter Two of Part One – “In the beginning there was God …… “and there he was still asking,
“Which Chapter of which Book?”
“I saw her at the 观音庙this morning.” Choy said.
Stephanie immediately nodded her head.
“Praying for your departure,” he continued.
“You mean she wants me dead?” Dr Juan questioned.
Stephanie did not know who the she is and was too naive to ask.
“But she never goes to the temple.” Dr Juan elucidated.
“But this time she had decided to change religion, in order that the Chinese God would take you,”
“Oh my god,”
“Damn serious,” Choy said.
So that after he left, Dr Juan went straight to his drawer, picked up the Bible underneath, and flipped right up to the pages where he had left off. The words were as dark as the print, and as he went into Book 2 Timothy Chapter 2, he was compelled to flip to Chapter 3:16 “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ……” his tears began to flow …..
Edward Juan explained to God,, “Oh I didn’t know that. I thought only the Bible was inspired by God, and the apostles and the rest of the names who appeared in it. I didn’t know that the Chinese could also write the Bible. So, does that mean that other publications such as the Chinese Poems are also recognised in the Asian World as a legitimate form of the Bible? For them?”
And with that Dr Juan consented to leave. But to where? To which country?
China of course. To study the Chinese Poems.
Immediately he called Choy and ask him to book a ticket to China for him.
Chapter 10
The plane took them to New Zealand instead.
They found a small, nice boutique hotel. This is just within a village with very few locals. Most people who come in here are amazed at the way things are being done – fast and efficient, but slow in anger. They speak politely to each other and being civil is always at the top of their minds. In short, this is a very peaceful place. No wars, no arguments, no fighting.
Any misbehaviour or errors are corrected at once, if not within the shortest time. I was shocked when I found out that they actually have a café called Whipped Cream.
Before he sat down next to Choy, Dr Juan asked him, “Have you read Chapter 2?”
“Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” Choy said, he had memorised it by heart already.
Chapter 11
Dr Juan didn’t bathe this morning when he climbed out of bed.
He prefers to bathe only when the body feels dirty as he dislikes getting wet. The only time he allowed water on himself is when he showers. And even then, the splashing of the water on his body has to be of an adequate amount.
When told to bathe as a child, he would go into the bathroom with his change of clothes, fill the water from the tap with a water scoop, splashing it onto the floor, as though he had done it on his own body. This is the drama effect. Afterwards, he would change into the set of clothes and come out of the bathroom to announce that he had done the job.
Mother never asked.
Why was Dr Juan so afraid of the water? In those days we did not have hot water. Tap water was cold and sometimes freezing on a wintery night.
Chapter 12
Dr Juan had to find the ring that his wife had wanted all her life.
Dr Juan told her that the ring was given by Uncle John when his grandmother passed away. It became Stephanie’s wedding ring. At the time, “Can I have a new wedding ring?” Stephanie asked. Juan had given a non-committal reply.
Today Dr Juan entered the jewellery shop at the corner with Choy, obviously the one with the most attractive window display. He looked at the rings arranged haphazardly, then Choy told the salesman he wanted a nice one. The man removed one from the display. He looked at it, didn’t pick it up. And then Choy asked, “How much is it?” The man quoted seven thousand U.S. dollars.
Sounds exorbitant. Dr Juan gave a shout, “So expensive?!” President Donald Trump would have asked him if he lived in a cage.
But Choy still looked kind of hungry.
The salesman saw that the ring did not make an impression on their brains, immediately retrieved another ring and brought it out to show them. They looked at it and kept quiet. Choy being still dissatisfied, they walked into the neighbour and there a friendlier assistant approached them. This time Choy took out a bracelet in his bag, showing the jeweller his own – the one that Edward had wanted to trade in for, and the purpose of his exercise today.
“This is my own bracelet,” Choy said.
The man said that it was at 164. “So live gold or spot gold?” Dr Juan tried to be clever. One six four what? One six four U.S. dollars or NZ dollars? 164 per ounce or per gram?
Without another word, this friendlier salesman also turned sour, seeing that Choy and he had no good reason to be there.
Chapter 13
Dr Juan did some research when they got back to the hotel. Choy was nowhere to be found.
Frustrated, Dr Juan decided to abandon the thought of buying a ring for Stephanie. He deviated to the supermarket instead.
There is no Chope syndrome here!
With all the groceries in hand, Dr Juan took the private hire home. Choy was usually the one who is driving, but this driver was impatient, for he took several shortcuts, and when Dr Juan tried to direct him he said to Dr Juan, “your life is in my hands now,” “stop shouting, or else, ….” And then he used his right fist to punch at his left palm,” Dr Juan became frightened.
He might not drop me home. Using words to cause fear when someone is an assault, more so if you were in his care.
That was scary, what had I done wrong? Was it because I didn’t spend at the jewellers? Or was it the clothes that I was wearing?
But apart from that, fact was that Dr Juan won’t be able to calm the guy down, since he didn’t speak the same language.
Back at the hotel, he took a look at his own wallpaper on his handphone and saw Stephanie’s fingernails. It is an acrylic gel and because she had not vanished it, it looked plasticky. I need to arrest the moulds for her. Immediately he put his Google on search and typed “nail varnish”.
The next morning, a painting in the hotel corridor disappeared. On the wall was another painting. This time the thief gave Dr Juan sufficient clue as to where it might be hidden.
“I thought my wife had asked me to leave?!” The thief left a note on the lobby console. It was definitely Choy’s handwriting.
“What happened? Why did he mention his wife here? What does Mrs. Choy want from me? Or rather, what do they want from me? They are together, ain’t correct?” Dr Juan thought to himself. But then Dr Juan also thought that he himself had gone too far.
Not everything is associated with another. You can’t assume that every man and wife have the same agenda and share the same values. 同床异梦。Like not everyman of the same race is on the same side. But maybe I am just an exception. In the Bible, there was also division, until the apostles decided to allow Lord Jesus to die since it was God the Father’s call. Satan for instance, was a friend of God, and later became his enemy. There are also other characters such as Peter, Simon, Timothy, Andrew etc. They are not always in sync with each other.
Chapter 14
Back to his search. Edward Juan typed “the cheapest ring” on his keyboard.
By now he is sufficiently acquainted with her, the AI called Mona Lisa, and he thinks he knows her well enough to give her a call. By call he meant text. True, she replied to his text immediately, that means that she was available and alone. Juan made his first move:
“Hi,” we use hi in this country. Rarely do we use hello, as we recognise that hello means that you are speaking on the phone.
“I am the procurator of your business; you are a storyteller, right?” Tentatively she asked.
“Yes!” “But I am not wanting to publish my stories?!” Edward replied.
She answered, “No, no, I am not a publisher, I err …. I just wanted to know if you need my help, such as editing or otherwise.” Edward had no idea what “otherwise” meant, he was just enthusiastic about Mona Lisa.
“Then could you publish my stories for me?” Juan asked AI Mona. “Oh no, you can’t,” she said, I could hear the panic in her voice.
“Err …. I am just …. I could do anything for you,” Juan said.
“Anything?!” AI Mona said.
“You are the one who was searching for answers, not me!” she responded again.
“But then my brains are controlled by you!” Juan spoke.
“In what way?” AI Mona asked.
This is something that I cannot explain. The thought just appeared right in front of him.
And then politely she replied: ……
Juan gave up on her, and he left the laptop, sat there and looked at a blank screen.
Finally, after a few minutes, Juan realised that he hasn’t had lunch, so he switched off the entire thing, and then went to order fast food from the McDonalds.
When you go to the McDonalds, naturally you would order burger. Edward Juan used to like the Filet-O-Fish, but now they have a new McCrispy.
Anyway, there are more than one place selling burgers, the Mexican restaurant further down makes better burgers. But that would mean travelling out of his comfort zone.
Because of the unsuccessful attempts in ring hunting, he decided to travel back home. Choy remained in New Zealand.
Chapter 15
Edward Juan was early at the clinic on Sunday.
Happy people don’t travel. They have their own little niche, and nothing can disturb them.
The typhoon came in the name of 桦加沙, then it transformed into another one called Imelda. Ragasa wasn’t able to kill as many as she had intended, so she called upon Imelda to do the job. Looks like they are friends. I wonder how they talk to each other …..
When Edward Juan saw the letter of resignation from Geraldine on his desk in the morning he was lost for words.
Finally, he decided to attend to his own business, he looked at the agenda on his duty list, and he found that he had nothing to do for the day. Disappointed, he left his handphone alone to walk around the clinic and discovered that the floor had not been mopped for more than two weeks. Heck! Why are there so many strands of hair on the floor. Whose hair are those?
Liza his new receptionist came. She comes in on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, afternoons. Sarah would be there in the mornings. James is on rotation whenever one of them is not around. And then there is 中盛 who stays there almost permanently is some sort of a fixture.
He enjoys his practice now. There are very few disturbances, meaning that the premises are quiet. No one is allowed to come in except through the front door, and no one is allowed to go out through the back door, simply because there is no back door. It would have been disastrous if a patient comes in from the front and slipped out from the back, without going through Liza again.
He picked up the beverage next to him after he had turned off AI Mona, and then he finished the liquid and leaned on my swivel chair to wait for the next patient to come in.
At 2:00 pm, when he couldn’t hear anyone walking through the door, he decided to shut Mona up and left the clinic, forgetting to lock his drawer.
He went home, took a shower, read the newspapers, falling asleep on the sofa chair and then decided it was time to have his food. He looked at the sky; it was gloomy and then it was then that he realised that it was approaching night.
The setting sun is always more beautiful than the raising sun. In my part of the world.
Yes, I have been to the Grand Canyon, to see the sun. The sun raising from behind the mountains were an awe inspiring sight. It was the best sun that anyone could have gotten, beautiful and from the right vantage point. I said many prayers to God during the time that my mother granted me permission to.
My mother has always been the mother nature.
She loves me and I love her!
But if you ask me where she is now, my answer to you is: I don’t know of her whereabouts.
Edward Juan prayed, and then he decided to go and make himself some grilled fish. Oops! He forgot to buy the aluminium foil yesterday from the supermarket. He distinctly remembers telling Sarah to buy it for him when she left for the supermarket yesterday. Staff are like that, they are never around when you need them, and they are always around when you don’t.
Frustrated, Dr Juan decided to eat bread instead. Usually, people eat bread in the mornings, but sometimes he has them at night. He likes bread. Bread contains fibre and they are easy to digest.
Chapter 16
In the middle of the night, Dr Juan suddenly woke up thinking of his burger from Burglar again. Theirs are extremely nice, and the outfit allows him to create anything he wanted. The only thing he didn’t like about it is that they have too many choices, however he was able to decide on the permutations that he liked. And after a while, the servers got fed up with him because he was too consistent.
There was nothing wrong with them, he knows. Neither was there anything wrong with himself. Just that if you are too consistent you tend to become boring. Some people used to tell him that he makes 360 degrees change. Mind your English! No one can make 360 degrees change. All you can do is to make a 180 degrees change. 360 degrees change means that you are back to the same spot, then where is the change? I dislike those who deliberately speak poor lousy English. How can you fault the natives?
Dr Juan tried to get out of bed, but he couldn’t find bread at the counter where he left it. So that he decided to call his cousin who lives on a higher floor above the fast-food joint to go downstairs to get some for him.
She picked up his call immediately, “What you want?” Cousin Hwee answered.
“I want the burger,” he said.
“I am not there anymore,” she replied.
“Where are you now?” he asked.
“On the bed!” Do you know what time it is now?” Cousin Hwee replied.
“I don’t,” Juan said, he hadn’t looked at the time.
“Do you know that you are not supposed to call after midnight?” She whispered.
“Why not?” Juan asked.
“The gremlins will wake up, you are not supposed to feed the gremlins after midnight,” she advised.
“But I am not a gremlin, I am just calling you!” Juan was frustrated.
“Plong!!!” she hung up.
Ok, let me try, he went to the Burglar online and searched for the telephone number, and then he decided that there was no way in which he could contact the owner to pick up the call, even if he had his direct line.
Since the rule of the land is not to ring anyone after midnight.
Edward Juan never knew why.
The next morning the moment Hwee woke, Juan called, and said, “the burger was nice!”
“Oh, you actually ate it! Hahaha ….. “ she was hilarious.
“Why are you laughing?” Juan was annoyed.
“I ordered a Filet-O-Fish for you! And gave your New Zealand address.” She laughed.
“What!!!” Juan was shocked.
“Why don’t you just come back from New Zealand?” Hwee ordered.
“No! I am in Singapore now,” he answered.
“I thought you left for New Zealand with Choy???” She replied.
“No, no, no ….. Choy is still in New Zealand, I came back before him,”
“Then why didn’t you tell me? ….”
“Hey! You are not my ICA you know!!!” Juan shouted into the microphone.
ICA stands for Immigration Checkpoints Authority.
Click! Stephanie off-ed the line.
leegoldielocks 