short story - the fortune teller's words

  ''Choose five,'' said the woman, aligning the 20 cards faced down in a straight line.

  The woman had tattoos that ran down from the corners of her eyes to across her cheekbones. A hairband with a row of small sharp claws was pulled up to the middle of her head which made her hairs to all stand up. She also had a unique clothing which had very long sleeves that drooped from her hands. Her hands had to hold things behind the sleeves.

  Sally's eyes lingered around the cards and pushed 5 cards towards the woman. The latter turned over the cards. She scrutinized them - bear, sparrow, snake, bull and crab drawn on the cards each. Silence had taken for a while before she parted her lips to speak,

  ''You get burn''

  ''You mean i will be burnt down?'' exclaimed Sally.

  The fortune teller nodded slowly. 

  ''I will be caught in fire?'' Sally implored for more details but heard incoherent reply from the fortune teller with bizarre cadence that she wondered whether the latter was really speaking English.

  ''Notice small things. If failed then suspicious no hesitate,'' this was the words Sally was able to catch from her utterance.

  One of her friends, Eileen, recommended Sally to see the fortune teller before leaving for the one-week holiday in a tropical country. On her way home from the fortune teller, Sally still mulled over the words 'get burn' , 'notice small things. If failed then suspicious no hesitate'. She explained herself that she could be burnt in a fire hence she had to beware of any fire hazards, especially inconspicuous ones. It was like life-or death matter.

  Few days later, Sally and her 4 friends arrived in the country and accommodated themselves at a hotel.

While her friends were rambunctious about their holiday, she was alarmed and resolute to hedge against her quirk of fate.

  After unpacking at their rooms, her friends started smoking at the veranda. It was unbearable for Sally not to join them but having only to watch them as a smoker. She deliberately did not bring her cigarettes as she was afraid that the kindling of them might cause a fire.

  When her friends were done, she went to the ashtray and shot water onto the squashed cigarette butts with the sprayer she had brought with her. Their befuddled eyes pinned on her as they were watching her absurd and unusual behavior.  They fired a bunch of curious questions and she answered,

''To prevent any fires'' before leaving the veranda.

Spontaneous laughters were heard behind her back.

  Soon after, Eileen came to see her. To her disturbance, Eileen still seemed to be giggling. She asked Sally, ''What did the fortune teller say?''

  Sally told her the puzzling words.

  

''Sometimes, she tends to say things in riddles. Let me unriddle them. Mmmmmm......''Eileen mused. Sally looked at her attentively.

''When you are to be burnt down....you need heat...Ah!She meant that if you feel a little unwell you have to rest immediately without hesitation!'cuz you may get heat stroke!''Eileen concluded and Sally knew she should not trust her statement. She went on checking if there was any electrical sockets being overloaded which could lead to fire hazards.

  The next day, they went to a forest for two-days camping. They set two tents and ventured around the forest. At lunchtime, they made a fire and cooked noodles and some fish they had caught at the stream. After cooking, Sally quickly put out the fire completely with a fire extinguisher that had flown across the oceans with her but failed not to induce her friends' laughters. She sprayed water on cigarette butts they had thrown like the day before.

  At night, they made a campfire but was pulverized by the extinguisher as soon as Sally's excitement palled. The friends lit up insect repellent coils but the coils were shot by the water sprayer again in Sally's hand. Their friends were never annoyed but chuckled at her and went to sleep.

  On the fourth day, they travelled to a valley for rafting. It was the most relaxing and indulging activity for Sally as she did not have to worry about being burnt in water.

  On the way to the hotel after the rafting, Sally felt a headache. She thought she had caught cold  in water or did not feel good because she had not been smoking. She borrowed Eileen's cigarette and smoked to alleviate the pain.

  The next day, Sally woke up to find herself in stifling heat. She believed that she had a flu and smoked more cigarettes to ease herself. By the time they reached a temple for tourism, she could feel searing pain in her every muscles. Her friends asked her if she was alright and she told them she was fine but she ended up in a ward in a hospital.

  Lying on the bed, she could feel her whole body was burning. Scratching mosquito bites, Sally laughed at herself as she was getting hints of the fortune teller's words.

  

   

  

  

   

  

short story - the vagrant

  Don was back at the alley with several coins clenched in his hand. He flopped onto the mattress and slipped the coins into the aluminum  can, his so-called piggy bank. Lounging in the mattress, he stared listlessly at the sky where the nets of branches of the raintree were extended out beyond the dull brick wall. His right forearm on his forehead, he recollected how he had ended up here.
  He was a secondary student, heading to take the O-levels in the year. And he abhorred to take the O-levels. His parents' interminable harsh badger of acquiring good academic results to get into a good junior  college had irked him so much. It was almost impossible to assuage both of them when they found faults on everything he did no matter how hard he had tried. Feeling vexed and hankering after freedom, he ran away from home.
 He stayed at a train station building for a week until his father found him there. His father was intensely incensed, his face was creased in anger and he spewed vulgarity through his gritted teeth. He clutched Don's arm so tightly as if he was about to break his bone and raised his other arm to aim a slap on his face. Don was very scared by him and thrust him away before the attack. He raced through the crowd and slid into a train just before the door closed while his father was barging through the commuters.
 After 3 months had past, he was now living in the alley between the backside of a massive shopping mall and the brick wall with the arms of the tree overhanging to shelter him from the scorching sun and rain. He would go out to street to beg for money from the shoppers or salvage something out from abandoned materials like the mattress and always slept or rested at the alley.
  Few metres away from him, there was the blind man, sitting on newspapers. He always wore a cap, a mask, a singlet and a pair of sunglasses and trousers. He came to the alley since a month ago. Strangely, at the alley where few people passed, he could collect large sum of money. His tray in front of him was invariably full of notes - sometimes even 50 dollar notes while all Don earned on the street was a few
coins. He could be said to be the latter's life-saver. As he was blind, Don could take some money from the tray without noticing him and buy meals whenever he was hungry. On these days, he even bought some proper clothes and went to swimming complex to take shower.
  However, all the money in his piggy-bank was from his own work. He did not want to take advantage of the old blind man for everything and thought he could provide himself with transport fees at least.

  He was going home, tomorrow.


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                                                            <part 2>

                                                        --------------------------------------------

   If he reached home, he could end this rueful vagrant life finally. He would beg his parents for forgiveness and retake the O-levels to start a new life. The can was almost full but Don was afraid that it may not be enough if he would get lost in the sophisticated transport system. The sun had settled down and he got up to go to the street again.
  He knelt down on the street with his two hands gathered together on the ground. Abruptly, he felt his shoulders being pulled up. He faced two policemen and a furious manager.
  "We seek you for cooperation," one of the policemen said.
  At the police station, the manager complained that despite of the constant warnings to stop coming to the street in the vicinity of the shopping mall, the vagrant continued to beg the shoppers for money and that deterred them from the mall. Don was aware of the warnings but took little notice of them as it was only work that a vagrant could do. He wanted to argue but felt too impotent to do so.
  Don was charged of disruption of business and was to pay $300 of fine or be jailed. He was in distress. I want to go home! I want to go home tomorrow! The same thought raced through his mind. But there was still a way out.
  He went back to the alley and hooked fistful of notes from the blind man's tray.  He bought a penknife and a portable lamp. At that night, he planted the lamp adjacent to the blind man and waited at the blind corner of the alley for ambush.
  Around midnight, he finally spotted a silhouette of a woman refilling the tray with handful of money.
When she was leaving, he sneaked behind her back. He slipped the penknife around her neck to threaten her to surrender her money but was thwarted by a shout behind his back.

  "NO, DON!"

  The blind man pounced on him unexpectedly. Startled Don swung the knife involuntarily to fend off the sudden attack. The man's heavy body collapsed onto the ground. As the latter's head hit the ground, the sunglasses and the cap overturned from his face .

The light from the lamp shone on his father's face.

Blood dyed the alley red.

His mother's scream rang in his ear from behind.

Psy's Gangnam Style - review

The Review

  

When i first listened to Gangnam style, i thought it was a cliche - invariable Shuffling rhythm that even some newbies still use.

Probably what it attracts people is the music video and the horse-riding dance. The horse-riding dance impacts on the audience with its unique prance and it is made of simple, easy steps which anybody can imitate.

What impresses the audience the most is the music video. Have you ever seen any music videos filmed in a sauna, on a water taxi or toilet or dancing in an elevator? This brought new sensation with its comical performance.
Furthermore,this guy, Psy, is hyperactive. He knows how to enjoy, he sings while dancing although he is not very slim a(i don't mean he's fat) despite of being in mid-age. His unassailable enthusiasm energizes everyone.

Another thing i like to talk about is the meaning of the music video. Gangnam is a wealthy place in Seoul where rich people live in. Do you really think it is authentic Gangnam Style - where people tan their skin at  playgrounds?
Psy is bluffing, maybe he is living in the outskirts in the video, that he is rich but he is not so in fact. Probably he is telling us to be confident although we may not as well-off as others and be successful like him.

Other infos 

Some of people think that the lyrics is "Oppa Gangnam Style" but the correct one is "Oppan Gangnam Style". "Oppan" is the usual spoken form of "Oppa neun" where "neun" means "is".

Psy's other hit song is 'Champion'.