Episode 3: Breakfast

I was surprised.

Andrew actually knew how to cook now. He made what he called an Aussie 'Bushman�s Breakfast': cooked lamb chops, sausages, rasher bacon, sliced mushrooms, half a tomato with melted cheddar cheese on top and finally, fried eggs. It was a vast improvement, considering the last meal he cooked for me nearly resulted with me being hospitalised for food poisoning; no joke. The dickhead hadn�t cook his beef stew properly the last time making me throw up my breakfast, lunch and dinner in one go, and leaving me with a severe bout of diarrhoea. I had to be rushed to the hospital. Luckily it wasn't serious, and I left the same day after having my stomach pumped.

At least everything today looked cooked for a change. I poked at my food with my fork.

"Hey, trust me. It's perfectly safe to eat, alright?" Andrew said. "I'm eating it too. You die, I die,"

"Well, as long as I don�t get admitted into a ward by myself this time," I grumbled, nibbling the edge of a sausage. "But I�ll cook breakfast tomorrow,"

"Heh, sometimes I wonder who's really taking care of who now,"

I sipped my tea.

Meet Andrew Lim. I've known Andrew since we were in high school, when he was my senior. My mother said that if I'd been born in December as expected, I might have shared the same class together with Andrew. Nevertheless, as fate would have had it, we became close friends. After he graduated from high school and moved to Sydney to further his studies, I kept contact with him. In fact, it was because of him that I wanted to study in Sydney too. I figured I wouldn't feel lonely studying with him by my side.

Despite being a year older, Andrew always looked young for his age. Young enough to even be mistaken as my younger brother once! He had inherited his boyish good looks from his father and was popular with the girls back then. Charm and wit were his best personality traits, able to fire them off like Chinese firecrackers even in the tightest situations.

"So, what are you taking?" Andrew pipped.

"Huh?"

"Y'know, what courses?"

"Oh. I'm umm...going to do a couple of courses in English and Anthropology, together with Art History,"

"You gonna be a teacher?"

"Wha...? No, of course not,"

"So what do you wanna be then?"

What do I want to be?

Good question.

Hard answer.

My father has been a lawyer for nearly 30 years in the small town I was born in. My mother works as his paralegal, assisting him in the day-to-day paperwork. Before I had started my kindergarten years, there was this one time when I overheard conversations between my mom and her lady friends while they were sharing gossip in the living room. One of mum's friends went "Ooooooh, your youngest son is just so c-u-u-u-u-t-e! He looks just like Mr Chan! (that was how they addressed my father back then) I bet he's going to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer~".

I didn't understand what being a lawyer meant then, but from the way I observed my mum's friends, it sounded really impressive.

It must have influenced my parents because not long after that, they had adopted a new procedure for me: Every day at 3.30 pm, my parents would read to me an article from this really thick encyclopaedia, a different article everyday before I took my nap. Maybe they wanted to influence my reading habit so as to get me on the right track on becoming a lawyer. Or maybe they wanted me to have a head start in my studies. I wasn't sure. Why they didn't do the same thing with my brother before I didn't know either. Guess they didn't want another aspiring doctor in the household.

Fast track a few years later: I'm in primary school and my teacher asks the class what they want to be when they are older. The girl who sat in front of my desk raised her hand enthusiastically and replied that she wanted to be a nurse. Three desks away, a boy answered, "A pilot!" The rest of the other replies were pretty standard, ranging from firemen, policemen, doctors, astronauts, lawyers, teachers, actors, singers, the usual suspects. One boy behind me had answered "I want to be the king of the world!", which was met with a huge roar of laughter by the other kids in class, except for our teacher who sharply replied "Well Kevin, unless we see an improvement in your marks, that won't come anytime soon," When the laughter had died down, the teacher turned to me and asked the dreaded question.

"So Eken, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Something in the back of my head screamed LAWYERLAWYERLAWYERLAWYER and it echoed throughout my brain in Dolby Digital Surround.

Do I really want to be a lawyer?

Are you really really sure you want to be a lawyer?

A small voice of protest arised from the back of my mind. I wasn't sure, but already, my tongue was pressed against the back of my teeth, ready to spit out the word "Lawyer" to the eagerly awaiting teacher who was staring right in my face.

I quickly shut my mouth, and just stared back at her.

She sighed impatiently, waiting for an answer for a few seconds when the school bell rang. Saved by the bell! Just like that old saying goes. She finally turned away and walked back to her desk, gathering her books while speaking to the rest of the class about the homework for the next day.

And here I am. 10 years later. Faced with the very same question.

I took another sip from my cup.

"Dunno, I'll see where it takes me," I said.

"Aw geez, that sounds like some serious planning. I thought you already made up your mind when you chose these subjects?" Andrew groaned.

"Not really. I took them because they sounded interesting in the course description. And you know how much I hate math, so scratch out anything to do with science,"

All students taking science courses in Sydney Uni have to take at least 12 credits compulsory units of Maths, meaning at least 4 maths courses. And I was sure as hell wasn�t going to do that.

Andrew let out a sigh, just like my teacher back in my primary school.

"Whateverlah, Mr Happy-Go-Lucky. Anyway, we better get going. Any later and it�ll be lunch by the time we get there,"

"Yah yah. Let me finish this tea first,"

"Right. I'll go get my coat first. You too. It might get windy later," Andrew said as he went back to his room.

"Uhuh," I said, as I finished the remainder of the tepid liquid in my cup. I shouted back at him.

"What do you want me to do with the dishes?"

"Leave it! I'll clean it up when we return," he shouted back from his room.

I went back to my room and grabbed my bag together with my jacket. I headed to the hallway, to find Andrew waiting by the door.

"Ready?" he asked me.

"Yeah, let's rock,"





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