Messages from the Aethyr

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Mum, Dad, and myself have been planning to go to Singapore for a couple of weeks now. We were going to go visit a cousin of mine who is not too well and we were leaving on 14 May.

Plans change.

A string of events led to that change in plans. But in and of themselves, they seemed innocuous enough.

Last Thursday, after servicing our Honda, we brought the car back and noticed that the crack in our front windscreen had grown and was now stretching all the way down the left side of the glass. We ignored it.

On Friday, when Allan went to start the car on our way out to a dinner, there was an explosion which we later found out was an exploding battery. Kudos to Honda by the way for the great service and efficient and timely communications! But the service centre later told us that it was not common and our car was the first one that that centre had ever seen happen.

While the car was being serviced on Saturday, we made alternate plans to drive Dad's Merc down to Singapore. The car had just been serviced and it was running nicely.

With my car being serviced, and Dad using Mum's car, I had no choice but to run around in Dad's car. When I switched the airconditioner on, warm air blew out of it and remained that way for the next 10 minutes, the time it took me to get to my next destination. Yes, the airconditioner was on the fritz.

At this time, Dad and I agreed that maybe we should try the busses to get to Singapore. So off he goes to try and get tickets.

By now, looking back at the string of events that had occurred, I was not quite comfortable going to Singapore. It seemed like something was trying to tell us not to go.

The phone rings and it's Dad. He tells me the bus tickets are full. Going down on Sunday. Hmmmm! At that point I decided that we're not coming down.

Something was telling us not to go. I'm certain.