must be the leap year

remember my musings about how art/entertainment imitates life and/or vice-versa? since wednesday, it just went up a notch. strange things have been happening since wednesday.

the head of jemaah islamiah (supposedly a terrorist organisation), mas selamat, escaped from the ISD's whitley road detention centre on wednesday. as i picked up the papers yesterday morning and saw his face there with the accompanying headlines, i was just shocked. how could this happen? apparently, he had asked to go the toilet during a family visit or before and that's when he fled. that sounds too easy. watching too much 24 set my brain ticking, as i tried to play detective figuring out how a high profile criminal like him who poses a big threat to so many people could have escaped so easily? going to the toilet?? hello??! next thing we know, the military, police, airforce, they're all over scouring the roads, coasts, borders, homes, schools on a major manhunt for mas. meanwhile, all the possible plots are flooding my mind. insider job? an excuse to put him down? plain stupidity and carelessness???

i was having lunch just now and looking at my gate and i started to imagine mas running into my house to take refuge. i imagined i was on the stairs looking down and he couldn't see me. i tried to plan what i would do, how i would outsmart him, get him caught. but he must have had alot of training in combat so that would be tricky. i imagined him going to the kitchen and knew that if he got himself a knife, it would be too late. i imagined aunty sitting in her room, oblivious that a man, now armed, was just outside her room. i imagined how i'd save her, how i'd knock him out cold with a vase or something. it's not highly impossible. i imagine that having nowhere to run, it could turn into a hostage situation. but if it's an insider job, there are probably more people involved, planning his whole escape route. watch 24 season 3 if you don't believe me!

then, last night, i was at the park near the main road beside my house. mutu and i were talking when we heard a loud sound. i remember the first thought that ran through my head, "motorcyle!" after a moment's hesitation (we hesitated because it seemed like noone was stopping, there was no shouting, and everyone seemed to be going on with their life normally), we decided to go out and see what it was. when we caught our first glimpse of the road, we saw a man lying flat in the middle of the road, knocked out cold! we walked over to where he was. 3 other people were there, but they were passerbys. noone saw what happened to him. but from what i heard, he was definitely hit. and whoever hit him had scrammed. it was an old man. there was a cut on his left leg and his right elbow was dislocated (it was a horrible sight to see his arm dangling from the elbow!). his newspaper and wallet lay a distance from him. one slipper was still on his right foot or nearby, i forget, and the other one lay some distance away. thank goodness he was still breathing. he looked as though he were sleeping. one of the bystanders smelt his breath and realised he had been drinking himself. someone called for the ambulance and the rest of us stood there not knowing what to do, afraid that by moving him, we might aggravate an unknown injury. just then, a woman came by and started yelling instructions to us. a few of us followed her instructions and carried him to the pavement. the ambulance and police came and by that time, the guy had already woken up. he was struggling and trying to get up from the stretcher! he just wanted to go home!! can you believe this guy? he didnt have an IC or anything with him, not even a phone. and he refused to let us call anyone. well, mervin and i left after the paramedics and police came but i guess the guy is probably ok. i just don't get how you can hit someone and drive off, even after hearing the thud and the screams and watching the person's body squirm on the ground or lay motionless. i wonder how you can live with yourself. or are you "used" to it? i guess i can understand but it really shows some kind of poverty somewhere. fear stinks. it reeks. but i think, nonchalance is worse.

then, there's this dog. he has a collar so i think he belongs to someone around here. but he keeps walking around freely on my lane. this morning, when i was in the bathroom, i heard the dogs in this lane creating a racket! they were howling away and barking. and amidst their howls, i heard the squeaks and yelps of another dog. i ran out of the bathroom to the window, afraid that something bad was happening but i couldn't see where that yelping bark came from. i did see the wandering dog but he seemed to be looking at something in my neighbour's house. when i got back just now, that dog was still outside my neighbour's house!!! it looked like he'd been waiting there the whole time. i asked aunty why he was there and aunty said, he must be waiting for "ginger", the neighbour's dog. but i didn't see ginger anywhere. i've never seen ginger in my life! it's so strange.

i think what makes these 3 separate incidents very strange is that there are so many missing links in these stories, thus enshrouding them in mystery. how did mas escape and where is he now? who hit the old man? why does the old man want to remain anonymous? why was that dog yelping today and why were all the dogs howling? why was the wandering dog stationed outside my neighbour's house for such a long time??? so strange...

update: the wandering dog is ginger's lover. the howling this morning was because they were "at it", through the gate. gosh. haha. and then, the neighbours took ginger inside and ever since then, wandering dog has been sitting there at the gate waiting for his lover the whole day! he's still waiting there!!! sigh.