Ride on Time

Chapter 109

The place seemed like a stage and Shree was one of the dancers. She held a fan in her hand though she was fully dressed in her colourful Bharatanatyam garb. She seemed to be perfectly aware of what she was performing, though none of it added up with the rules of the traditional Indian dance.
The dance was finished and Shree was suddenly throwing something at the crowd of onlookers, something that seemed like grains of rice guests would throw at a marrying couple, but at the spectators instead.
She suddenly found herself in front of a mirror. It seemed exactly like the mirror of her vanity, but still somehow different. Shree looked into the glass but was greeted by a painted face with hair adorned with various ornaments that she didn't recognise and a hairpin that reminded her of wind chimes. The reflection smiled at her with half-painted lips, her top lip mostly white while the bottom lip was a crimson red.
Shree reached for her own head to touch one of the hairpins and pulled it out. She placed it on the table and the next thing she knew, the maiko in front of her was missing a hair ornament.

***

Shree woke up in surprise. It took her a moment to register her surroundings before finally realising that she had just woken up like usual. It was still dark but everyone were already up with the exception of her.
She sighed and got out of bed. Vasu was finally going to school after playing truant for the past two days. And she was the one to drop him.
Shree also remembered that it was Setsubun, the reason Mitsuo wanted to go home yesterday. She kinda felt bad for him, left to celebrate alone while his parents were doing so in Nagoya. Well, the only thing she could do now was cheer him up.
The first thing Shree saw as she left the master bedroom was Vasu sulkily having his breakfast at the coffee table. She yawned at sat down on the sofa across from him, rubbing her eye.
"So, you're finally going to school today," Shree remarked in a sleepy voice.
"Yeah lah, if not they will give letter all for no reason," Vasu rolled his eyes. "Not like they're teaching properly also."
Shree chuckled. "True. Anyway, you wanna do anything for Mitsuo later? He's a bit sad at not celebrating Setsubun with his family."
"Who wouldn't be?" Vasu said after swallowing his mouthful of bread. "I think it's kinda mean of his parents to leave him to celebrate alone in Kyoto while they nicely sitting in Nagoya."
Shree chuckled. "It's a festival that's supposed to be celebrated at home to bring luck and cleanse the evil. For what they wanna celebrate in Nagoya, don't know."
She noticed how her brother had slowed down his meal because of the conversation and decided to leave him for a while, going over to the bathroom instead.

Mitsuo woke up feeling empty instead of the usual excitement he had whenever it was Setsubun. Well, this year was different. He still thought that it was unfair for him to celebrate alone while his parents celebrated in Nagoya. Mitsuo still didn't understand the logic, seeing how it was best to celebrate the festival at home to ward away evil.
Then again, it was his parents' choice, not his.
He sighed and took his phone out to look up a good place for breakfast. After all, he did cancel the hotel's breakfast since it actually costed him over a hundred ringgit for each morning. He decided to just cancel it, seeing how he missed it so many times before. Well, he was saving money now too. A lot of money.
In the end, he decided to go to an Indian restaurant quite near Shree's place. He recognised it to be one of the hawker stalls in the food court near her place.
Maybe he can get that taufufah again, after all, it was the best and freshest one he had ever tasted.

Yume no Tsuzuki starts playing as soon as Shree started the car. Her grandmother got into the backseat while Vasu opened the gate so that she could pull into the driveway. Chandrika had already gone to work in her Arteon so the porch was emptied out when she stopped the Viva in the driveway to wait for Vasu.
"Do I really have to go to school today?" Vasu groaned as soon as he got in beside her. "Monday holiday, some more."
"You didn't go yesterday and the day before that, you better go," Devi scolded. "If you don't go today, they'll give you a bad conduct. Do you know that?"
"What bad conduct lah, one idiot never come to school for a whole week, went to PD it seems," Vasu countered. "They not teaching properly also, then for what?"
"Just go, they might give tips for your Sem 1 retake," Shree urged as she made her way towards Jalan Penchala.
"Where got?" Vasu rolled his eyes. "Only Sejarah and Literature teacher doing. I where got retaking those exams?"
"Just go," Devi insisted. "Today until twelve only. Can come back early, right?"
Vasu sighed. She was right about that. "But my class is on the fourth floor. Fourth floor. The lift also spoil so must use stairs only."
"Good lah," Devi pointed out. "Use stairs exercise, what."
Vasu sighed. "Easy for you to say. It's not like it's actually helping me lose any weight."
Shree snorted as she drove towards Jalan Templer.

Mitsuo somehow navigated his way to Old Town by taking the free PJ City Bus. The Internet didn't provide a proper address, but he recognised the picture of the food court.
So he started making his way towards the Kopitiam he and Shree ate at a few days ago and crossed the busy Jalan Pasar and landed himself in front of a row of hawker stalls. He remembered Shree mentioning that her house was at Section 2, thus the food court was there too. The sign on a shop told him that it was Jalan 2/38 (Jalan Dispensary).
Mitsuo scratched his head and made his way in. It was a one-way street but it didn't matter since he was going on foot. He knew he was in Section Two now, especially because of the vibes, but where the heck was the food court?
He spotted an elderly Chinese man in a fisherman's cap walking towards him from the opposite direction and went to him.
"Uh, sorry to disturb you, Uncle, but do you know where the food court is?"
"Which food court?" The man asked, much to his dismay. "Here got a lot lah."
"The one... the one near the Chinese school!" Mitsuo said, remembering how Shree had pointed the school out the last time he went there.
"Road 32," the man said, much to his surprise.
Mitsuo had no clue where that was. "Uncle, how do I get there?"
The old man put a hand on his shoulder and leaned closer. "You see that lorong or not?"
Mitsuo nodded. "Yes?"
"Must go inside there, walk straight all the way, then must turn right after the field. Pass the school and just walk all the way, the shop there only."
Mitsuo nodded and bowed to thank the man, much to his surprise, and went on his way.
He knew that lorong meant path and entered the intersection just as the man had said, walking all the way straight until he reached the field. Mitsuo turned right just as he passed the field and walked all the way straight. He passed the Chinese school, which was surprisingly quiet, and came to rows of houses.
And there it was, the food court. Mitsuo grinned and started making his way towards it. He spotted the road sign and instead of saying Road 32, it read Jalan 2/32. This confused him even further.
Whatever, he reached his destination, and what's more important now was breakfast.

The streets in Old Town, which is Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, and Section 4, were all labelled with just numbers in the old days, without sections. Remember how the old man had said 'Road 32' instead of '2/32'? It's because the roads were only sectioned later, with Roads 1-21 being in Section 1, Roads 23-54 being in Section 2 and Section 4, and Roads 55-69 in Section 3. Section 2 and Section 4 are a bit of a mixture. Road 33 is in Section 4 but Road 38 comes under Section 2. The division is done by location since Old Town is literally a trapezium with the sections divided by the three main roads which is Jalan Othman, Jalan Pasar, and Jalan Selangor.
I found out about this the hard way. We were looking for a place in Old Town and decided to ask a man where it was, much like what Mitsuo had done, and he told us Road 23. We had no clue where it was until we experimented by adding a number at the front with a slash on Google Maps and eventually found the place in Section 2.

Here's a map for clearer view of Petaling Jaya. You can also see where Jalan Gasing and Bukit Gasing is, where Shri's family lives. Section 8 is there as well and of course, Old Town. Also, the map mixed up Section, or Seksyen in Malay, to PJS, thinking that PJS means Petaling Jaya Section. PJS actually means Petaling Jaya Selatan or South Petaling Jaya. They are two completely different sects of PJ.