Hi Uncle Chua

I called up Yuko as I was walking down the Gombak Hill after work. I was tired and needed some company and I thought I should call her too since she was quitting her job. So we talked as I made my way down, and was still talking after I boarded the taxi.

The moment we finished our conversation, the driver, in his excited Singlish "hey, you were speaking in Japanese?"

And he relayed to me how he enjoys visiting Japan, how his elder daughter used to study Japanese, how his daughters studied in Australia, how his younger daughter came back and got married, how this and how that ...

It was a continuous 15min conversation, not something I was ready for as I was suffering from nausea after long hours before the computer screen. But I didn't want to spoil his mood and tried my best to entertain him. Halfway through, a thought came to me: if I offer to pray and bless him, how would he respond

I had no chance to raise it up as he couldn't stop talking

We finally reached my block and he turned back. In the dim light in the taxi, isn't he the Dad of Diana and Serena?

Hey uncle, it's you, I know your daughters lah

Diana and Serena are my childhood friends. We go to the same church and all. Well, this uncle couldn't recognize me, well I don't blame him because I guess I really changed a lot in my 5 years in Tokyo. We still go to the same church but he comes in the morning and I go in the afternoon.

Afterall, I'm the low-profile type in church heh. What's new.

But he could vaguely remember me. Afterall, he drove Diana to the airport to send me off in the middle of the night before. He promised that he'd tell Serena and Diana about this encounter, and I believe he will. I was just thinking, it couldn't be just coincidence, could it?

That if I didn't leave at that time, that if I hadn't called Yuko and talked in Japanese, that if I didn't flag his cab among the many zooming by along Dairy Farm Rd, that if I had chosen to lie low since he couldn't recognize me anyway, haiz...

This is the kind of "struck by lightning" occasion when all the stars are aligned. I just hope I haven't used up all my luck in the encounter just yet lol