A pleasant surprise doc

Me Yoko, you pen-pal from Japan,” she said in broken English.. Yoko explained with difficulty that her family was stopping over in Singapore for two days before flying off to Australia f

A pleasant surprise

The doorbell rang and I went to answer it At the doorway

stood a fair and pretty girl with rosy cheeks

“You Mona? Me Yoko, you pen-pal from Japan,” she said

in broken English I could not believe my ears What a

surprise! Yoko explained with difficulty that her family was

stopping over in Singapore for two days before flying off to

Australia for holidays I was glad that my elementary

Japanese helped in our conversation

I was also surprised to see the many beautiful presents

Yoko had brought for me from Japan It included a

kimono, a Japanese paper lantern, some beautiful badges

with faces of popular Japanese singers and lots of

delicious Japanese foodstuff

She also took me to Hotel New Otani where her family

was staying in a suite Her parents, Mr and Mrs Tanaka,

were very friendly and generous They treated me to a

sumptuous Japanese meal in a cozy Japanese restaurant

I took the Tanaka family on a brief tour round Singapore

before inviting them to my home for dinner Meeting Yoko

and her parents had certainly been a pleasant surprise

An unexpected meeting

There was a tap on my shoulder I turned around and was

surprised to see Huiling My greetings were so loud that

everyone stared at me Only then did I realize that I was

still in the library Hastily, we went out to the corridor to

talk

Huilling is my former neighbor We used to be very close

friends We were in the same class in school and attended

the same church together But since we shifted to new

HDB flats, we had drifted apart Both of us were busy

trying to adapt to our new environment Hence, we

stopped writing to each other and lost contact

I never dreamt that I would meet her in the library We

were eager to know about the well-being of each other’s

family We loaded each other with questions Sweet

reminiscences of the past also came to our minds We

reminded each other of the games we had played – paper

dolls and hide-and-seek We also laughed as we recalled

how we both got scolded at the same time when we were

naughty What delightful recollections!

After conversing for almost an hour, Huilling had to go

because she had to meet a friend However, before we

parted, both of us reached an agreement We would make

an extra effort to renew and maintain our friendship