Ride on Time

Chapter 99

The silly quarrel only ended when Shree's soba arrived.
"Your one come already, my one where?" Vasu continued the argument.
"The yakisoba usually takes longer to prepare, Vasu," Mitsuo chimed in at last. "Especially since you took the set, it comes with torikatsu by the looks of it."
"Where's my temaki?" Shree asked, seeing how the hand rolls were missing from the tray. "The soup got, koyadofu, vegetable. Sushi where?"
"It's a scam!" Vasu dramatically said. "They put in the picture but never give."
They were about to call the waitress to report when the same waiter who brought the tray came up with a smaller platter containing the hand rolls.
"There's your temaki," Mitsuo smirked. "They just brought it in later."
"Oh..." Shree uttered, realising that she almost messed up badly. "Darn..."
The waiter arrived again, this time holding Mitsuo's karaage set. Though he wasn't very hungry, the food certainly did look delicious. So he went right in with a pair of chopsticks given at each table.
"Now, where's my yakisoba?!" Vasu piped up again.
"Vasu!" The other two immediately groaned.
"What, I'm just hungry," Vasu reasoned.
It eventually came and he quietly started eating. Vasu even apologised for being annoying but the two of them didn't even mind. In fact, Mitsuo was even enjoying his company, laughing at his stupid jokes and remarks.

Shree picked a book with a red and black cover from the Asian Literature corner and turned it over to read the synopsis on the back cover. To her dismay, she found no synopsis but a list of reviews from various sources. Shree let out a grunt of annoyance and put it back on the shelf.
"Why?" Mitsuo asked, a little amused at her action.
"How are we supposed to know what's going on in the book when they put these stupid reviews instead of the synopsis?" Shree picked the book back up and showed him the back cover. "Stupid lah, certain people."
Mitsuo nodded in agreement. "True. I hate it when that happens too. That's why I had them put the synopsis on mine." He picked up a copy of Timeless Love from the same shelf and showed it to her, grinning.
"You must be proud that your books are here too," Vasu remarked with a chuckle. "Anyway, where's the mystery section?"
"I think it's that side," Shree said, pointing in the direction of the mystery/thriller section.
Vasu nodded and went off while Shree stayed in Asian Literature section with Mitsuo, trying to find a good book to read.
"Why can't I find a nice Japanese book with nothing scandalous going on?" Shree grumbled before grabbing a book about the life story of Geisha from the shelf. "Is this book good?"
"Not sure, I haven't read it yet," Mitsuo shrugged.
Shree gingerly stared at the cover, then at the synopsis. "I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to buy this... don't know if it's a good book or not, but given my experience of reading..."
"You know, I kinda find that offensive?" Mitsuo jokingly pointed out.
Shree quickly shook her head. "That's not what I meant. This book's about a geisha. Many non-Japanese people, especially some Malaysians, misunderstand a geisha's work on artistry and music as something... else. They think they entertain their clients in... a different manner. Though it may be true for some, I for one know that it's not a part of tradition, though there isn't any restriction. Still, that's not what being a Geisha is about. At all."
Mitsuo looked at her intently. "Did you watch the movie adapted from this book?"
Shree placed the book back on the shelf. "Nope. But some people still think that geishas provide other services, even my history teacher back in secondary school straight up told the entire class that. For some reason, it just made me feel very uneasy, especially since I knew it wasn't true."
Vasu eventually returned, holding a copy of Dial M for Murder by Fredrick Knott. "Still not yet choose ah?"
Shree quickly cleared her throat and grabbed a colourful book called The Sisters of the Sword: The Warrior's Path by Maya Snow. Little did she know, it was just one book among a rare series of four.
"Let's go," Shree said, leaving the aisle.
"Wait, where's the local section?" Mitsuo piped up. "You guys bought books, I haven't taken a thing!"
They brought him to the section and he went straight to the shelf of Shri Mohan's books.
"There's so many more and none of you told me?" Mitsuo sounded betrayed as he reached for one of the books called The Magic Potion. "Ooo!" He didn't even bother reading the synopsis as he tucked it under his arm and reached for another one called The Wondrous Paradise and another called A Whacky Deepavali.
"Hey, isn't that the one we took for STPM?" Shree piped up, pointing at the last book. "It is!"
Mitsuo turned to her in surprise. "I thought you said you took The Collision of Two Worlds for that SPM thing?"
"Oh, that was for SPM," Shree chuckled. "This one STPM, whatever that Vasu's taking now. It was one of the short stories in Semester One." She turned to her brother. "You also took, right?"
Vasu nodded. "Nice story. But why is it so thick? I thought it wasn't very thick as a short story..."
"I think there's two versions of it..." Mitsuo said, reading the cover. "This one says original version. Whatever you guys took in school must've been the summarised students' edition."
"Oh yeah, I remember another book being like that..." Shree nodded. "Whatever, just take what you want. Almost five already. The phone shop closes at six."
"Can I take one of those too?" Vasu asked his sister, reaching for the book.
"Take," Shree urged. "I wanna read this version too, especially since this Shri Mohan feller appearing everywhere now."
Mitsuo snorted. "He is?"
"Well, yeah!" Shree sighed. "Especially after meeting you. First our neighbour his best friend, then the Sherry husband feller his best friend, then Shruti his sister, the our mother telling she used to know him in college, then you big fan of his stories. Like that feller haunting us lah."
Mitsuo frowned slightly, not saying anything as he took a few of the books and silently followed them to the counter, playing with his necklace. Shree felt like she said something wrong, offending Mitsuo all of a sudden.

"Mitsu, are you okay?" Shree asked as they walked back to the car. "You seem upset, did I say anything wrong?"
Mitsuo shook his head, finally letting go of his Manji. "No, you didn't say anything wrong. But I realised what you said was right. This Shri Mohan guy does appear everywhere all of a sudden."
Vasu snorted. "Maybe he is haunting us for some reason."
Shree gave him the side eye, motioning for him to stop fooling around before turning back to Mitsuo. "Maybe he's just a really good writer. Besides, we are friends with his sister, and she's always reminiscing her memories with her brother with us. You know how sometimes we find something new? And then the next minute it just appears wherever we go for some reason? I'm pretty sure it's one of those things. After all, Shri Mohan is from PJ. Maybe he's just famous." She smirked when the red Viva came to view. "You know, this car is pretty famous around town? Everyone from the burger man to Vasu's friends know us just as soon as they see this car."
Mitsuo shrugged. "I guess that's true."
"Don't fret about it lah," Vasu added, giving him a light nudge. "You also like his stories, right?"
Mitsuo nodded, a slight smile on his face. "I do."
"Great, so let's go and collect Vasu's phone," Shree chuckled, unlocking the car and making her way to the driver's seat. "Let's go."

Vasu's phone looked as good as new save for the scratches on the back. He quickly turned it on and started testing it to see if it worked fine.
"Everything's okay," Vasu sighed in relief. "But I'm still not going to school tomorrow."
"Can lah," Shree chuckled. "Anyway, now where you wanna go, Mitsu?"
"I don't know, we've been eating the whole day," Mitsuo shrugged.
"Hey, I took you to museum also, right?" Shree pointed out.
"Museum ah? Where lah?" Vasu asked, eagerly leaning forward in his seat.
"Taman Jaya," Shree said.
"Oh," Vasu nodded, realising that they didn't leave town without him. "That one. PJ history, right? I went there to get info for my assignment once."
"It's a very interesting place," Mitsuo agreed. "Also, where should we go now?"
"That's what I'm asking you," Shree pointed out. "You're asking me back?"
Mitsuo just shrugged. Vasu frowned thoughtfully and eventually got an idea of his own.

-sabar means patience. But there's also a joke where the person says Sabah Sarawak if they get too impatient and someone keeps telling them to be patient since the two words are alike. Sabah and Sarawak are states in East Malaysia, situated in Borneo. It's just a small joke when one gets too aggravated with waiting.