Emily and Samuel ✔️

ONE

And nitty gritty dirty little freaks, won't you come on and come on and raise your glass

As I lip-synced the song on the radio, I looked over to my grandmother in the driver seat buckled safely with her salt and pepper hair plaited to the side while we make our way back to her house from the airport. After my dad came to Singapore, we only visited her once a year during my school breaks and even though we've invited her to join us in Singapore so that we could be together she would decline the offer every time claiming that if she left to Singapore, she would be leaving grandfather behind.

She took her eyes off the road long enough to spare me a glance with her blue eyes and said: "Are you trying to figure out how many wrinkles I have now?"

Party crasher, panty snatcher, call me up if you want a gangsta

I lowered the volume down and leaned my body towards her face with a mock serious look as though I was trying to figure out how many wrinkles she really had. "I don't know gran, it feels like an unsolvable algebra question."

Before she could make a threat about giving away the brownies she baked for me I leaned over the passenger seat and gave her a side hug with a slight giggle, "I'm kidding gran, you don't look a day over your 20's."

Throwing a playful glare my way, she let her eyes returned to the road before she continued. "How was the flight Em?"

Thinking back to the 8 hours plus flight, it was surprisingly okay for my first flight alone since the people around me seemed to be considerate enough to leave me alone after I plugged in my head phones. "It was fine, the people beside me didn't really bother me much."

Just as I was about to ask her how have she been this year she swivelled into the parking space in front of her house. With a nostalgic smile, I studied the suburban house in front of me that was filled with memories I've created with my family over the years.

As I try to spot the differences based on my memory of the place last year I noticed grandmother's attempt at gardening on the front porch and snickered loudly. "Hey gran, did anyone tell you that your flowers look absolutely healthy and beautiful?"

Every year mother would plant some house plants so that grandmother don't have to water them every day but just once or twice a week yet whenever we visit the flowers are already dead or begging to be put out of their misery. "Oh shut it, not my fault these flowers are so demanding."

🚗

"Em? Do you want to go to the store with me?" I looked from my bag just in time to see grandmother's head pop in after she had knocked on the door. Not one to ever miss a chance in procrastinating, I jumped at the golden opportunity and picked up my phone.

We entered the car and buckled ourselves in before grandmother started the car and made the ten minutes' drive to the store.

The store looked exactly the way it was last year and every other year with the bright store lighting and the grocery carts piled up nicely outside. Retrieving a cart, I wheeled it in the direction grandmother was waiting for me and headed into the store.

"This way, I just need to grab some chicken, herbs, and milk then we can go," she stated in a manner as though she's sure she can walk out of the store with just the chicken, herbs, and milk. I've done enough grocery shopping with my mother to know that it's near impossible to stick to a shopping list and that we'll always end up with more than what we came for.

But finding the need to appease her, I nodded and pushed the cart dutifully behind grandmother. As we walked down the isles for the items and true to her words, she had only added the chicken and the necessary herbs into the cart leaving the milk for last.

"Hey gran, why don't you join the queue first? I'll just grab the milk and meet you there. You're still using the same brand, right?"

"Sure, remember to get the chocolate flavoured ones and check the expiry dates."

Heading to the dairy isle after promising that I would check the expiry dates, I slyly took the strawberry flavoured yoghurt drink that I absolutely loved and covered it with the herbs and chocolate milk.

Feeling like a ninja, I strolled back towards the check-out counter and tried to spot grandmother in either lanes only to realise she's ditched me in the –

"Emily! Over here,"

I spun around with a relived look knowing my grandmother didn't leave me behind in the store again. Instead of joining the queue like we agreed on just now, she was by the bread isle beside the check-out counters with another frail lady. She had her salt and pepper hair braided into a fishtail unlike grandmother's normal three strand braid, what strikes me the most was her glistening silver eyes. Staying in Singapore has made me forget that such beautiful eye colours exist since most Singaporeans have the average dark brown or black eyes.

"You must be Emily, I've heard so much about you from Nora, how are you?"

I snapped out of my reverie after processing that granny pretty eyes were talking to me. "You have really pretty eyes – I mean I'm good thank you, how are you?"

Feeling flustered, I couldn't help but feel thankful that I don't blush easily so that I could keep my cool from the mistake I just made.

"Thank you dear, well I have to go now my grandson's waiting outside for me and I hope you can come Nora, Emily you're welcome to come too." She said with a warm smile hugging grandmother and I before she walked out of the store.

We made our way to the check-out counters before something granny pretty eyes said hit me, I looked over to grandmother who's watching the cashier ring up our items patiently and asked, "where did she invited you too?"

"She invited me for a celestial event that is going on in the town she's living in next week, she also said she have a few guest rooms that she could offer if you and your parents wanted to come," she mumbled while squinting her eyes at the cash register screen.

A celestial event? Just the thought of it got me vibrating with excitement since Singapore is a country that hardly ever have any stars and I'm being offered a chance to experience a celestial event? Hell yeah.

Grandmother chuckled at my response and said: "I'm guessing you're up for it, I'll let your parents know so they can meet us there."

As we were making our way back into the car with me towing the grocery bags, grandmother turned around with an impish look and said: "On second thought, for sneaking that yoghurt drink onto the cart, you can call your mother yourself."

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AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you for reading this, it means a lot to me as a amateur writer but i hope you liked it and don't forget to vote if you liked it or leave a comment/private message on the areas you think I can improve on.

Also, Happy new year! May 2017 bring joy and happiness your way. 🎉