Parting Gifts

The spirit of cleanliness had inspired my fingers that Saturday, and I was possessed. Throwing, recycling and more throwing seemed to be the only things on my mind. There behind a long forgotten cupboard was a tin of Wong Lo Kat. Bearing a message, "Drink when you are feeling tired", it was signed with the initials, PQ. It has been a year or so, since I have seen this girl who gave me the tin of herbal drink. This was one of the many parting gifts we gave each other before we went in our own ways.

Besides the drink, I was given a pair of shoes, which served me till its last straw throughout my Pre-U years, a hair band I still use until today, and a teddy bear. I see these items lying around, collecting dust, slowly losing the meaning behind its existence.

*****

When we were at National Service, everything meant everything. Being confined in limited space for a span of 3 months had restricted our minds from conceiving and discussing ideas that led us out of the camp's perimeter. We fought over the pettiest issues and laughed over the silliest things. We never spoke of anything that concerned of our future, we were only concern about the present and ourselves. Hence, when we began to leave, we were quite sure that we would miss each other so much, so we gave each other gifts, signed each others' shirts and books with promises of keeping in touch, (for probably the est of our lives).

Sadly, a few months in, our promises proved to be void.

*****

I held the tin in my hand, looked at the waste paper basket and tossed it in. Like our friendship, it was probably expired by now.