Heart Racing Tales

By Lee Zsa

Do you remember your first day in school or your first day at work? Recollecting these memories often bring a smile to our faces, some even let us relive the moments. Here the author has penned some of her heart racing moments throughout the years she spent away from home as a student and as an educator. Some of these stories are witty and have unexpected endings. While others are reminiscence of beautiful memories to keep the heart racing. Her narratives are not always of the harrowing kind, some may even leave you in stitches. To add color to her narratives, the author did not shy away from using some commonly used local words and phrases.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Nov 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781543772142

Lee Zsa

The author spent most part of her life away from home. As such she treasures her encounters and relationships with the people she met and worked with. Each friendship is a gift and holds a fond memory. Hence, the author penned her memories hoping that perhaps her quirky reminiscence may bring some good memories of their own.

Book preview

Tale 1: The Drive Home

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Years ago, when I was still living in Kuala Lumpur I often returned home pretty late at night.

One evening after work, a friend asked that we had dinner together. There were matters we needed to discuss but not on an empty stomach. I was too hungry to care where we were going for dinner. After a delightful dinner and fruitful discussion, we were on our way to drop him off at his place. Our chatter came to a halt. At the intersection into the dark lane leading to his house, we saw a lady in white with long dark hair sitting with her head bowed looking at the ground. We went past the lane leading to his house and drove straight to the end of the narrow lane to reach the main road. Along the way, he asked if I could still see the figure in my rear and side mirrors. Yup, she was still haunting my mirrors for a good few minutes before she disappeared. When we reached the main road, we headed for the brightly lit petrol station. There, I stayed in the car as instructed while he went out to check the car. Later, he instructed me to drive straight home; not to stop anywhere.

I began muttering whatever Qur’anic verses that came to mind. At the tollgate leading into the highway, I wound down my window because silly me did not have the smart tag ². As I was driving away from the toll with the ticket between my lips and the window was winding up, I caught sniff of the ylang ylang ³ or was it jasmine fragrance? That shook me quite a bit. I do not know where the scent was coming from. For crying out loud, I was in the middle of a huge open space. When I reached the highway, I pressed the accelerator as hard as the speed limit allowed me to. I could feel my heart thumping rapidly.

When I reached my apartment building, my designated carpark was on the fourth floor. On that very night, on that very floor and on the very row where my designated plot was, the lights chose to flicker. My heart began to sprint as I parked my car. Then I made a dash for the entrance to the apartment units. What usually took me about five minutes to walk felt like fifty mins. When I passed through the secured door and into a small lobby, I felt claustrophobic. The door shut with a loud bang. I jumped and shivered as I repeatedly pressed the lift button. I kept looking at the floor indicator. All the time muttering Qur’anic verses as loud as possible. I looked at my watch and it was close to three in the morning, and I was all alone. When the lift door opened, I rushed in and aggressively pressed the eleventh floor and close buttons. It felt like ages to reach my floor. The lift door opened, and I rushed out like a Mad Hatter; I scrambled and wobbled to my unit door. I fumbled with the keys to unlock the grill then the door. I felt like Alice running and fumbling. Grill and door unlocked, I crawled inside. Then, I slammed the door shut and reached out for the light switch then slammed shut and locked the grill then the wooden door.

I stared into the living room like a zombie. At the end of the room, through the opened sliding doors, I could see the twin tower stood majestically before me.

HOME SWEET HOME!

List of words:

²smart tag is an on-board device that allows vehicles to pass through the toll gate using as an electronic toll collection system.

³Ylang ylang is another name for frangipani.

Tale 2: Night Nongkrong

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In the 1990s, I worked in Slim River, Perak (Northwest of Peninsula Malaysia). It was a small campus preparing students to study overseas namely Australia and Ireland.

It is a residential campus, for both staff and students, almost like a mini village. The students were housed in hostels with common bathrooms. In the beginning, the staff lived in a block of hostel rooms with ensuite bathrooms. Each room was fully furnished with two super single beds, two floor to ceiling built-in wardrobes, and chairs. It was a two-storey building. The staff residence accommodated both academic and non-academic staff.

Each evening, the staff had dinners at the campus cafeteria (which was above the students’ dining hall) or we dined out in the nearby towns like Slim River, Bidor or Tapah. Each evening as we walked to and from the cafeteria, we would break into domestic chattering. Sometimes, the staff would share incredible tales during these walks. Often there were references to the famous Bercakap Dengan Jinn ⁵ series because the writer was from a nearby village. So, it was only natural that sometimes we referred to his stories and made our own hunts. After dinner, we often sat along the corridor and continued with our chatting. Sometimes, these chats went past way after midnight.

The upper floor housed mostly the bule (ang mohs) ⁶, where the Heads of Departments and academic staff had rooms there. The ground floor was more how do I put it? ... more happening and lively. Most of the local staff shared rooms on the ground floor. The local staff would often stay up late and trade ghost stories. We bonded well.

I was designated to a room on the top floor next to the only staircase. My room had a verandah that overlooked a thick bush and some chiku ⁷ trees. I did not have to share my room; those on the top floor did not have roommates.

On some evenings, we gathered along the corridor on the upper level and star gazed. One evening, after dinner we decided to go straight to our rooms because most of us were tired, so there was no late night nongkrong ⁴ that evening. As a habit, after I unlocked the door, I gave salaam ⁸, entered my room and switched on the light. Then, I headed into the bathroom to wash my feet, face and both hands. I rested a while on the bed, then woke up again and headed to the bathroom to take my wudhu ⁹ prior to perform my Isya ¹⁰ prayers. I am an insomniac. So, after prayers I reached for a book and tried to read it. I felt uncomfortable, thus I reached out