24 Flavours — 6. Taxi Uncles 1, 2, 3

This 24 Flavours literary journey is part of a series of writings from a few years back when Math Paper Press was actively publishing it. The series has since gone into hiatus but I’ll sharing the pieces that were written. Each piece is based on a food theme, 24 in total. I had devised mine to centre on my family, and some of the storylines are interconnected. Not all 24 stories are completed so you’ll have to check back periodically to read all of them.

“I know the fellow is staying in that block loh.”

Pa listened quietly as the Chia-zu, or owner of the taxi, explained his sleuthing method while sucking heavily on the bloody-looking tulang. It was a school night but here I was with them, listening to their planning, albeit mostly one-sided, of how to catch a mysterious person who had caused a big dent in the side of the taxi. I could tell that Pa wasn’t really paying attention at all though he was giving full attention to the tulang. I could totally tell because that was the same expression he had whenever he was watching soccer on the TV, and Ma would be reminding him of something, like what she needed from town or her mother’s place, and you know that Pa would call back home the next day, and asked what she needed.

“That bugger just banged into me when I was filtering out of the parking lot. I had the right of way loh. No way was I in the wrong. Damn unlucky! I was so shocked by the bang. And before I could come out to challenge him, he’d sped off already.”

“You don’t remember seeing a blue Honda Civic parked near you when you left the taxi for me in our usual lot right?”

“You know, I told the Ah-Neh who cleans our taxi, and he said the owner stays at this block. He was so dead sure that he said he’d lose his sarong to us if he was wrong.”

Pa passed me a piece of chiam tao loti that he’d soaked in the tulang gravy. I’d always thought we ate this type of bread only when Ma cooked chicken curry once a month. But then, who cares! I was just happy that Pa had taken me out with him on a grown-up outing, acting like detectives in those HK dramas that Ma like to rent from the video shop.