Vanessa

Last night I dreamt of a childhood friend, Vanessa. She joined my class in Primary 3 and left after Primary 4. In that short 2 years, we used to swim and play together. Vanessa came from a well-to-do family and she is an extremely smart girl, did well in her studies. Yet she is very humble and did not look down on poorer kids like me.

In Primary 4, the form teacher selected Vanessa to be a prefect while I was chosen to be a librarian. Vanessa didn't want to be a prefect, preferring to be a librarian because she loves to read, I think. So in the end, swop of places and fate, I became a prefect. In the years to come, I would have become the Head Prefect, if it was not for Vanessa then, I guess.

Anyway I remembered feeling angry with her for doing so then. And began to ignore her. The good natured her still continued to humour me but I was stubborn. Till even after she left school, she wrote letters to me asking about my well-being. I remembered in some mornings, while I was walking to school, her dad's car would passed by and she would called out to me and waved at me very excitedly! In one of her letters to me, she would write: "Saw you from my car this morning, waved at you but you didn't see me. How are you, my friend?"

Till this day I still feel guilty that I was so oblivion about her. Anyway, last night was a long dream. I dreamt that Vanessa still looked the same, tanned looking with big eyes and bright smile. She was walking alone in front of me, and I kept following her behind. We walked and we walked through endless empty roads and quiet highways, in the dark of the night. We just walked and walked without talking. It was a sad dream to me.

If I were to see my friend Vanessa again, I am sure I will be able to recognise her but what will I say to her? How are you, my friend?