Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The body of the stranger was gone as well. The pool of sangria had turned emerald. The sequins changed clothes. Shigeru touched the remains. Cold.

“Shit!”, Jings exclaimed as she observed the remains of the stranger. Slurpee-like substance. Missing body. Japanese. Fragments of the intrusion of Hiroshi Nakamura’s grave started to reassemble on her mind again. Like a jigsaw puzzle she never intends to complete. Never.

Judging from the condition of the coffin and the symmetrical scattering of unearth soil, it appeared that the intrusion came from within. Perhaps an explosion. The police didn’t buy that. They couldn’t explain the Slurpee as well. One thing’s for sure. The body was gone.

Nakamura was an interesting character. Always immersed in books, this writer has not much of a life other than hitting the gym. And Jings, of course. Well, for the last few months of his life, at least. He was way too good with words and that hit Jings at her softest of spots. The amazing positions had Jings crying out for dear life. But they had never spent time together after midnight. He would leave at 11.55 pm, everytime. “Why?”, Jings asked one too many times. The answer was always silence.

Pengyi hated Nakamura. He thought Nakamura was weird. Jealousy played a part as well. 10 years of friendship with the last 5 as a couple, Pengyi and Jings were so close to tying the knot. Until Nakamura came along. They remained good friends and naïve Pengyi still laboured hope that one day, she’ll return to him again.

Came one night when Jings decided that she had had enough of this midnight joke. It was raining heavily when she parked her car a block away from Nakamura’s double-storey house at Desa Hartamas. At 1 am, the house was obviously dark. And Nakamura was probably asleep. But the gate was wide open. So was the front door. The living room was freezing (definitely not the air-conditioning system) as she entered. “What’s that strange smell?”, she asked herself.

Her phone beeped. It was an SMS.

i hv news abt n…coming over now..i luv u.

The sender was Pengyi.

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