I suddenly realize how important my parents are to me. I can’t live without them. Neither can I imagine my life without them. Without them, I’m just nothing. Last Friday during tuition, I received a call from mom, I didn’t answer the call as I thought that she was trying to get me to ask whether lesson has ended and to tell me that she has arrived. After lesson, Amelia said that she wanted to pay her fees, I thought, since I haven’t paid mine, I might as well give my mom a ring and ask her whether she wants me to pay my fees then. The phone rang for a long time, then my mom’s voice was heard over the line, but, it wasn’t the usual loud voice that I heard, it was one without strength, as though she was very sick. She just said, “come home yourself.”

What was wrong? Then seconds later, I received a call from my brother, “May! Did mom go and fetch you?”, “…no…”, “I just called her, and she sounded so sick...”, “where are you?”, “I’m at Douby Gauht…”,”I’ll take a cab home, quick go home as soon as possible ok?”, “ok…” My heart was really pounding, thoughts of what could happen to my mom raced across my mind, I ran all the way up to check to see whether my mom was playing a trick on me, but, there was no car in sight. How could this be? Thinking of the fastest possible way to go home, I rushed all the way back down to ask Mr Tay whether he was going home and could give us a lift. He said he wasn’t, but he could give us a lift to the main road.

The traffic light turned right after the turn. I was thinking, shit, of all times it had to turn red now. Then Mr Tay saw a taxi behind, and said, “eh the taxi behind is empty.” Without hesitating, both Amelia and me got off the car and boarded the cab. It was a mercs, but I wasn’t even in the mood to enjoy the luxurious seats inside. But I was glad that it was a merc cab, at least it could travel much faster then the normal cab. The journey home seemed much longer then usual. Every traffic light seemed to turn red even more often then usual, and there were more cars on the road then usual. Bloody hell. Why is the journey so long? Okay. At this point of time, I was really frantic, tears were welling up, and I couldn’t help but think of everything that could have happened to my mom. I was praying and praying that nothing that bad happened. …

I got off the cab as soon as it stopped, telling Amelia to settle the fare first. I ran all the way home and rang the doorbell. Surprisingly, my cousin came to the door, the car was in the porch, my mom’s house slippers were at the bottom of the stairs. I asked my cousin where my mom was, she said, “I thought she went out to fetch you?” huh? Couldn’t be, both cars were parked in the porch! So I ran upstairs, and I approached my parents room cautiously. The light was on. I pushed open the door and said mom? A weak voice replied, “I’m here.”

I barged into the toilet and saw my mom sitting on the toilet bowl. She was sweating all over, her hair was wet with perspiration and her shirt was drenched with sweat too. She was moaning and groaning. “get me the feng1 you2” she said in a weak voice, the one that I heard over the phone. I ran out and finally found the feng1 you1 and brought it to her. The toilet was also boiling hot, so I got those manual fan and a towel brought them in as well. I gave her the towel to wipe herself while I fan her. Then she said, “Don’t fan, I’m very cold…cold…sweat…” Then she said, “I’ve been sitting here ever since 9pm, I wanted to go and fetch you when I suddenly had cramps. It was so bad that I couldn’t even walk to my bed.” Her voice was so weak, and so soft. I got her a fresh change of clothes and filled up a hot water bottle and brought up panadol for her. But she did not want to swallow anything at the moment, but instead, she just sat at the toilet bowl. She asked me to prepare the bed for her because she wanted to lie down later. So I went out to the room and took off the covers and laid the blankets properly. I didn’t know what to do, my cousin has gone home. I couldn’t reach erjie, and gor was still on his way home. So I started praying, tears falling down my face for the first time.

After that, I sat in the bath tub next to mom, after a while she asked me go bath, saying that she wanted to change. So I told her to call out if anything happens and went downstairs to my bedroom Call out? I won’t even hear her all the way from downstairs! So I rushed through my bath and ran upstairs again. Checked on mom and found her still sitting on the toilet bowl. I asked her whether she wanted to go to the hospital. But she said that she was too weak to walk. So I went out, telling her that I would be at the upstairs living room, and if anything just call out to me. I didn’t dare to make any noise, for fear of not hearing my mom’s call, if any. I called gor up, he said he was in the cab on his way home. Thinking that I might as well do my work while looking after mom, I went down to take homemakers proposal and started typing on the computer. After ten minutes, gor arrived home, he went to check on mom and asked me what happened. After that he went to bath.

I felt so comforted and less scared that at least someone else apart from mom was at home. But after half and hour, mom’s stomach still kept aching. It was still as bad as ever. And she kept going to the toilet. Even worse, she urine out blood. Ok, it’s not menses. So I rang up erjie again, hoping that I could get her this time. Luckily, she answered her phone. “yes may?”, after telling her what happened and asking some questions she said she would come home right away. I was so thankful that erjie was a medical student going on to her last year. At least she knew what to look out for, what to ask and what not to do.

After half n hour, she arrived home and went to check on mom. She was asleep. Then gor took over by using the com, I went down to my room, thinking that it might have just been over. But, at 3+am, mom woke up, and the pain was still as bad as ever. We had to take her to the hospital and she had a jab. After the doctor gave her a check up, he said that everything was normal and it was most probably food poisoning. So we took her home.

I was still thinking of how to get to school the next day for my lit test. Fell asleep thinking about it. Honestly, I was really scared that something really really bad happened to my mom, and I found out that I really couldn’t live without her, I couldn’t imagine the day when she goes, even my dad. He flies ever so often, will anything happen to him when he’s abroad?

It was the worse day I ever had.

At least today, she could come downstairs and sit for a while. But her stomach is still pain, and even though there’s no motion, but blood still comes out. And I’m still worried that something would happen to her. Until she fully recovers, then I’ll have that one peaceful day.