Day 8: Waiting Hour

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them. ~E.V. Lucas

I let Mervin go to school for a Lego robotic workshop on his own. I had allowed him to come back by bus on his own too but by noon, I was at the bus stop waiting for him to come back from school so that we could go IMM together for lunch and shop for my friend’s son’s belated birthday present.

After fifteen minutes, I was getting impatient. What was taking Mervin so long? His workshop should have ended by noon. And two buses from his school’s bus stop had passed by.

After another ten minutes of rants and raves from me, I called the office to confirm about the timing. It turned out that the pupils had just been dismissed from the class. Oh, I have wronged him again. I settled down happily with Angel and waited patiently for him again.

Fifteen more minutes passed and there was still no sight of Mervin despite a few buses from the school’s stop had gone by. I began to let my imagination run wild again.

“That rascal! I bet he must have sneaked off to play again!” I fumed.

“Ya lor!” Angel added some fuel to the fire, “He’s always like that one!”

As the time ticked by, my anger was infused with worried. Did something happen to him? Could he have gone home via another route? May it be that he was actually waiting anxiously for me outside our home?

Two more buses had gone without Mervin on board.

“Perhaps we should go home and wait in case he had taken another way home,” I suggested.

“Oh, ok…” Angel grunted unwillingly.

“I think we’ll wait for the next bus and see,” the extra journey put me off too.

Another bus approached but left without even stopping.

“Oh darn. Maybe we’ll wait for just another bus,” I shuffled my feet.

It was 1.15pm when he finally arrived.

“What took you so long?” I asked.

“The teacher let us watch a video after the workshop because we were well-behaved,” Mervin replied meekly.

“After that?” I pressed on.

“Then I waited with my friend for his mother,” he shrugged.

“Trust him… Trust him… Trust him…” I repeated to myself, especially after that weird dream the other night.

I couldn’t stop myself before I blurted, “Didn’t you go and play soccer with your friends?”

“No way! The PE room was locked so we couldn’t have access to the balls anyway,” Mervin retorted.

I had to learn to trust him this time. I felt guilty doubting him again.

“So does it mean that if the PE room is not locked, you would have gone to play soccer?” it suddenly hit me and I just had to know.

“No…” he protested.

“I just want you to know that I’ll get worried if you don’t come home in time. Ok?” I just hope to rebuild the bridge of trust between us again.

Rachel wouldn’t have worried me in this way. I remember there was a time when her friend asked her to wait for her mother with her. But Rachel refused, telling her friend that I would be worried about her if she returned home late.

Ok. I have to face the fact that Mervin is a boy and men tend to be more faithful towards their friends than to their family.

I tried to place myself in his shoe and think like him. But I couldn’t resist the urge to tell him, “Please consider my feelings before you do anything in future ok? Mummy was really worried about you just now. Even though it was kind of you to accompany your friend to wait for his mother, do you know how I feel while waiting for you in vain? You have to be responsible…”

Oops. I did it again.