Three

I finished up the last touches of my latest masterpiece and left it at the corner beside the maple book shelf before my handphone started ringing. "Hello?" "Yo Chad, wanna hang out tomorrow? You me and a few classmates at east coast beach?" "Hi Saj. Sure". The place to meet was at Bedok train station, the time, two in the afternoon, I was half an hour early. So i dug into my bag for some impromptu entertainment, exactly what i found. I pulled out a small black book, obviously well used with worn edges and the pages were of a coffee stain color indicating age. This book clearly did not belong to me. Curiosity flipped open the first page and written in light pencil, "I was lost and here I am. Still am lost, but do I want to go home?" And in black ink, at the bottom right hand corner, "Dear Diary-" That was all I was allowed to read before Saj's head popped right in front of my face. "Yo dude! Whats up with that wierd book? Let me see it!" snatching it away from my hands. "That's not mine" I cautioned him. "Yea, I guess so, why're you staring at all this.. eh, I dont know" Saj, flipped the book close and passed it to me. I put it back into my bag, to welcome the others who had just arrived, forgetting that the book wasn't mine.

Once the entire group gathered, Saj, Natasha, James, three other 'new people' and I, we acknowleged with a nod and made our way to the beach, where we sat along the shore and waited for the sun to set, I sat at the extreme right end and James beside me. Yes, we were amusingly early, the sun wasn't going to set until around four hours later but we had alot to talk about. "So, who are the new people?" I asked him. He turned his head and gave me a look, indicating how clueless he was about my question. "The new guy and two girls who are joining us?" I asked again, amused at how stupid he looked. "Oh! well, they're really friendly people and it'll be fun working with them. Why're you asking? I thought you already knew them?" I was lost at two things he said. They being 'friendly' obviously confused me because throughout the entire trip, i didnt hear them utter a single word at all, I actually believed for a moment that they were mute, and I could have sworn I had never seen them before in my entire life.

At around eight, the seven of us dined at a nearby hawkercentre called "Ah Sing's coffeeshop". I had a bowl of beef noodles which actually included a suprisingly generous portion of beef. "How's your food Saj?" I had asked to break the silence" "It's ok" he replied, letting the silence fill the place again. "So how's yours?" I asked one of the 'new people', The day was almost ending but i still haven't got their names, I didnt really care. "I just said it was ok" Saj said. "I'm not asking you" I replied. Saj rolled his eyes as though I was trying to irritate him. Then I finally got my reply, an odd one, "We're just eating to fit in really." "You didn't have to buy food if you weren't hungry man." I told him, Saj and James shot me a look which said, 'stop acting wierd' and Natasha told me "Chad, will you just eat and stop tryin to be funny?", and the silence returned.

Just as we all were going our separate ways home, I had noticed that only Saj, James, and Natasha and i were left. The 'new' people must have left earlier without saying goodbye. "Chad, why'd you ask about the three new people again? and whats up with that book of symbols?" Symbols? I immediately took the book out, having no recollection of any symbols, flipped open the first page- in the place of the English words i read just before we met, were scribbles, doodlings? Symbols? i shook my head in disbelief, "There were words! It said err.. something like 'I was lost". They obviously didn't believe me. Trying to hide my apparent insanity I countered "So whats up with your suprise friends who just left without saying bye? Friendly huh?" "What friends Chad?"Natasha asked, appearing a little frustrated. "The three which just left!" I said, much louder than I had intended. " There were only four of us Chad! What three?" Saj said, obviously tired of the non-sense I was making. And I was baffled, how could there have been only four of us? There was Natasha, Saj, James.. those three people? I spoke to them. They were there... I saw them! This must be some conspired joke against me... I had hoped it was... It had to be.

The conversation ended with a most obscure ending, no one knew what was going on. Saj and Natasha left me with "This ain't funny Chad, see ya next week dude." I sinply waved goodbye to prove that i wasn't deaf.

My bus arrived.