The Girl Down Under

The night birds hooted nearby. The full moon did not appear that “full” with the dark clouds circling it with their misty folds like how a mother would place her protective arms around her innocent child. Heavens must be mourning the death of a star as it had rained for more than a day non-stop. There was no way she could make it to the library at this rate. With a heavy sigh, the girl at the window released the edge of the curtain which she had tugged aside.

With a quick sweep, the girl’s eyes returned to the fine print of black alphabets surfacing boldly across the pages of a thick blue book. Upon the flick of a page, her quizzical eyes gazed at the diagram spread out on the page with labels and arrow heads jutting out all over the place. Hiatus semilunaris. Hypophyseal fossa. Piriform fossa. Rima vestibuli. Instinctively, the girl’s chilly fingers reached out to feel around her nose and throat, probing uncertainly while occasionally flipping the page back and forth for cross-referencing.

Taking a break from studies, the girl shifted her gaze to the Medshow script lying on the other side of the desk. A week ago, she had auditioned for the part of Fei, a Chinese medical student with a thick heavy Asian accent, and was successfully selected by the directors of this year’s musical production. The girl figured that the extensive vocabulary of Manglish that she had garnered over the years would now come in handy and not be scorned upon.

“Ok guys! It has always been an annual Clancy sold-out so we’ve gotta put in our best efforts! We’re talking about more than eight hundred people seated in Sir John Clancy Auditorium paying to watch us perform so let’s give them their money’s worth!”

The crisp yet forceful voice of Tessa Kennedy still rung clearly in the girl’s ears. With a bravado-like spirit and almost-professional acting skills, the girl understood why a senior like Tessa made the cut as one of Medshow 2006’s directors. It then became evident to the girl that slacking was not going to be an option.

A knock came on the door and the girl opened it to find her friend standing opposite her. In one hand was a loaf of white bread while the other hand clutched a butter knife and a jar of thick greenish coconut jam.

“Hi Shih Ying! We’re thinking of having supper down in the kitchen. Wanna join us?”

With a brief nod, the girl could already picture her teeth sinking into the soft slice of white bread smothered in thick spreads of pandan kaya; a taste that would bring back memories of home sweet home. Beaming away, the girl Down Under grinned from ear to ear as she closed the door behind her.