At the dinner table...

Have you ever 

taken your dinner in a big crowd?

Whom all of the people

around you are your

blood-related 

brothers,

sisters,

uncles,

aunts,

Mum,

Dad,

cousins,

nephews,

Grandpa,

Grandma,

etc etc etc etc.

Well, I only got a chance

whenever I go back to my relatives

who are staying all across the South China Sea.

Yes. Living in the Peninsular of Malaysia,

and having paternal relatives who are

all in the other island of Borneo,

makes visiting harder.

I won't choose to swim there,

nor sitting a boat there.

Car can't bring you across the sea,

so the only choice is the air.

Funny to say,

but...

I have been in an aeroplane

more than in a train or bus.

 

Before economics became this kind of shit,

Mum and Dad were able to bring the family of four

to visit Grandpa and Grandma.

But the world is getting harder.

And conditions in the family

wasn't able to win the race with the world,

so...

we got to cut cost,

and only two were able to return.

Yeap, soon, I'll be visiting them.

Soon.

And that's only with my Dad.

Sad that Mum and Sis can't tag along.

We just don't have the budget!

Sad right?

That's why,

I promise myself

to work harder in life,

so all these financial kind of problems

will not exist anymore in my generations.

Then I might be able to pay my love to Mum and Dad

more abundantly. You say?

 **

Recently, I am watching many dramas.

And I am always excited when the scene

of a family dinner is going on.

I mean,

there's so many of them around the dinner table!

And everyone of them got a story.

So, if you want to talk, you have to talk!

Just imagine!

The atmosphere,

the surrounding,

the noise,

the chatters.

 

Well, I may have to

only dream of it.

As my family only have four of us,

this another type of experience

will always be in my imaginations.

And may my imaginations rule

and lest reality over-power it.

 *

As I sit at the dinner table,

I slowly,

gradually,

heard laughter

and someone

calling my name.

''Shoon..."