It was late at night when I sat on the bench in the newly constructed Clementi central staring at the 40 level resident building looming right in front of me. The night breeze was warm and gentle. I was enjoying my peace and quiet. A man in his late forties commented to me “Great place isn’t it? Nice breeze.”
“Yes” I replied with a chuckle.
Another man came within the view of my peripheral vision. It was the same strange man I saw just now, who was walking around Clementi central carrying two bags with him.
I saw this same man less than 10 minutes ago at a coffee shop on the other side of Clementi Central. I happened then to be feasting on my late night sushi which I bought at a huge discount and sipping my drink of barley, both of which were bought from the National Trade Union Center.
I noticed him looking my way when he first caught sight of me sitting at the coffee shop. It was a strange look he had on his face. He took a seat and sat down one table away just within my blind spot. I left after wolfing down the last of my sushi heading for the spot on the bench.
Now, here at the sitting area around the bench this same man started choosing a place to sit. He first opted for a bench 4 slots away in front of me. Good, I thought to myself, as a habit I never allowed things I am wary of to get into my blind spot for long. After fiddling around with his bench for a moment, he decided otherwise and opted instead for the bench right behind me. Once again, he got into my blind spot. Sneaking a peak around my back, I started having the strangest thoughts. That bench he opted for was facing in the direction away from me, why is it then he choose instead to be sitting in such an awkward position so as to be able to keep me in his line of sight? As you have rightly guess, this time with the same strange look on his face…
“Another member of the stalker club” I cursed under my breathe. I sat there enjoying the breeze some more before making my way home via a detour around Clementi central.
Lately, I observed this inexplicable phenomena. There must be something about or around me which I till now have problems pointing a finger to that somehow has this effect of drawing people, strangers included, to me. The effect seems not to be negated despite my absolute passivity. Also, it seems I have absolutely no control on who is drawn.
If this man was a true blue stalker case, then he would not have been the first.
On another occasion while crossing a road junction in China town area, I noticed another man this one in his late twenties, giving me the same look from the other side of the road junction just when the traffic man turned green. I chose to ignore him and walked across the road in the opposite direction as he did. Logically it should have been the last time, our paths should ever see again for that day at least. Strangely, it was not 5 minutes before I caught sight of him walking in the opposite direction towards me at level 5 of the building I entered after crossing the road. He had this strange expectant look on his face. Once again, I choose instead to ignore his presence and left level 5 for level 4. Unbelievably, the same person appeared once again right in front of me.
Out of all these encounters that happened, the worst instance was with this 60+ years old grand mama. That day, I was on my way home on a bus after having enjoyed an afternoon of solitude along east coast beach. The grand mama boarded the bus along Aljunied area, caught sight of me and immediately sat right in front of me to start a conversation. She was asking all sorts of questions and sprouting all sorts of nonsense.
Out of politeness, I patronized her with conversation and that was the start of all troubles that was to brew over the horizons. She was a fanatic, a cultist from some strange branch of Christianity who called themselves Messianic Christians. It was not two weeks before an uproar happened at home. My mum came home with an ultimatum never to talk with strangers again. My dad came home chuckling at the strange adventures his son inevitably gets into. My brother came home absolutely pissed off by the strange conversation he was subjected to at the stairway with some strange 60+ year old lady he had never in his life encountered before. My brother took 3 bibles (one of them the Messianic version) and threw them down the rubbish chute… Ouch!
Well how I got the 3 bibles are in themselves a very strange side adventure to this main adventure I just described. It so happened I was in SMU with Pasha attending some geek seminar, when she bombarded my phone stating there was something important she needed to pass me. The seminar ended at 7pm the bunch of us, techies were thinking of heading over to Chjimes for a drink. Unsurprisingly there she was waiting right at the door with her 3 bibles. Somehow I sense her intentions were something other than just holy. I shifted her attention to Pasha, who got somewhat annoyed really fast. Coming up with a better solution, I shifted her attention to another strange chap who somehow or inexplicable reasons got drawn into my company during the seminar. Aha… like meets like. I beat a hasty retreat to Chjimes immediately.
Enough with strange ones, now back to the normal crowd… The other day while having a drink with Terence a friend of Wayne, we happened to discuss on the topic of drinking and this strange symptom of rashes I have been experiencing recently on the mornings after my heavy drinking escapades. The conversation lead to the frequency of my drinking and this third party observation by him. The conversation went like this..
“so how often do you head out?” Terrence asked.
“There is usually a maximum interval of 2 to 3 days before my phone rings and I get some invites.” I replied
“You mean you don’t ever call?”
“Nope. Only if there is someone whom I am feeling really interested in having a conversation with.”
“wow… you are quite popular then.” He stated.
“Really? I never thought of myself that way. It is strange that it is even happening in the first place.” I commented.
Yeah it was strange indeed, I recalled back 3 to 4 years ago, my phone would ring of its own accord with social invites every 6 to 7 days intervals. This cycle has of late shortened by 50 to 70%.
When I posed this question to my mom one evening, her response went like this.
“Well, you appear to be one of the more carefree ones around who didn’t seem too busy with a family. So if people do ask you out, the success rate would be higher than average and they don’t have to worry about causing quarrels within families which usually happens when people get married. ”
This did provide a valid explanation for the normal crowd. It however could provide no explanation at all for the strange ones… In my opinion, to find out the source of this inexplicable drawing effect, it is important to go through a process of deductive experimentation and reasoning. This means to identify all possible factors that might contribute to this effect and one by one removing them from the equation and thereafter observe if such a deduction creates a drastically different outcome. In the event, whereby such a factor is identified (if it does even exist at all), I would have effectively harnessed the ability to control this strange effect I am causing in the social fabric around me and employ it to good use, perhaps just for personal entertainment… 😛