.bliss.

is when you return after a hard day at school and find Swedish meatballs in the fridge (yes with the customary sauce too) to make up for your long overdue dinner. only because the parents bought it home cos they knew we'd like them.

(who needs to stay in hall at times like this?!)

.surprise.

is when you come home at 11pm on a saturday night and you're the earliest. so the parents and the sister are out partying tonight, you think to yourself.

.curiosity.

is when at 12 midnight even your sister has come home but not yet the parents. and these are parents who sleep latest at 12.30 on saturday nights.

.thoughts running wild.

is when you stay online only because your parents are uncontactable and nowhere to be found, and all you can do is watch the digits run on the clock till 3am.

.selfish relief.

is when your parents finally come home and said grandma had fallen and was admitted to the hospital. i'm glad both of you are ok.

.switch of roles.

is when you start scolding your parents for not calling when they stayed out late and for making the children worry unduly.

.stumped.

is when your mum replies so you know how we feel.

*

call it humour call it chance,

but when there was drama in this house, there was drama outside the other.

when there were tears in this room, there was a broken heart in another.

*

there's a strange unsettling feeling when you unintentionally hear daddy fearfully shouting in his sleep because of a bad nightmare.


you find yourself unconsciously reduced to a little girl in her torn frock, peeping from behind the wall not daring to make a sound.

daddy, someone made your little girl cry. can you come give me a hug?