The next morning, my handphone suddenly rang. I opened up my heavy eyes and looked at my watch. 7:30am! Who called so early?! I tried to ignore it but Kerr Li woke me up. I made my way to the phone, took it up and check who was calling. To my surprise, it’s my dad!
     “Hello..?” I answered in a sleepy and weary voice.
     “Hello, can I speak to Lim Han Wei?” said my dad.
     “Huh?” I mumbled.
     “Lim Han Wei..”
     I thought he was calling me? How come Lim Han Wei?
     I raised my voice and said “Dad…?!”
     “Oh…sorry girl..wrong number..” replied my dad.
     Ah…for a second I felt like screaming. I was dead sleepy and slept at 3am and he woke me up at 7:30am, and wrong number again?! Everyone was awaken by that phone call. We started to shower and dress up for our big day in town. I was busy putting on my make up in Szue May’s room when I heard a ring. I think it’s coming from my handphone in another room but definitely not a call this time.
    “Lis, someone has sent you a message,” annouced Jody. I looked at my watch, wow…so early.
     “I think it’s Aaron. See? He cares so much for you.” said Jody.
     I blushed as I checked the message. It was indeed from Aaron. After finished putting up those make ups, those girls kept asking me to message Aaron. I tried but it wasn’t getting through.
    “Now even God is helping you both, phone him lar! He must be waiting for your call now,” said May.
    I dialed the phone number. It rang only once and someone answered the phone. It was Aaron and the girls teased me about that. We then went to the town at about 10am. I went to a duty free shop to get some chocolates and a perfume my mom asked me to get. We met some of May’s from, including Nastassja, Cynthia, Sarah and Mathew. They were all very cool and we became really close friends in just a day, marvellous! We went to take pictures at the Waterfront Hotel. Some locals saw us and welcomed us in the public, it was sort of embarrassing though.
    We went back home at around 4pm and I was already half dead. Labuan’s weather was really hot and the sun was blazing! At home, the other girls were having chocolate with mints. Since we walked the whole town that day, the chocolate has melted. As they tried to take one chocolate, they couldn’t. Their hands were covered with melted mint.
    “Yuck, you guys are really disgusting!” as I see the girls licking the mint on the hands. “It reminds me of something lah..”
    “What?” the girls asked.
    “No lah, very dirty one, cannot tell.”
    “Tell lah, Ilissa!”
    “Something to do with sex…”
    “Ahhh…hahahha… you mean sperms??” asked Jody.
    “Exactly,” I replied.
    “Air mani, air mani,” said Christine as she was licking the mint on her hands. Suddenly, the whole house was filled with laughters.
    After those chocolate stuffs, we went to shower, getting ready for dinner outside. That night, we went to a small restaurant for a very delicious dinner. We ate crabs fried with some curry powder, fried tau-hu, vege, and deer meet. It was very delicious. Back at home, we promised to sleep earlier at about 11pm. The girls went online to chat while I just stood there, looking with Christine and Kerr Li.
    Christine and I then went to the living room and talked there. It was very quiet and peaceful. I could hear the bugs outside. Christine told me about her personal life with her crush and we talked mostly about guys.
    “I think you have feeling for Aaron?” asked Christine suddenly.
    “……” (This part is my private answers, sorry I cannot say it out to anyone, it is my own secret).
At about 12am, we all went upstairs and continued to talk again. I wondered what have made us so talkative. We broke our promise and talked until 2 am again.

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     Next morning, we all woke up at 10am. It was a very goodnight sleep. We packed our luggage and the next thing, we were getting ready for a picnic! We first went to the Surrender Park and took a lot of pictures there. It was a beautiful place and we had a lot of fun. Then we went on to another beach which I forgot the name and had picnic there. We went down to the beach and collected some coral reefs. The beach was covered with coral and was so beautiful!
    When we finished collecting, we went up to Szue May’s parent. They were talking to some friends there and a little girl caught my attention. She was so cute. Later, I learned that her name was Shei Ann. I talked a little to her and soon she was so attached to me already. We went to look for bellflower for her. It’s a kind of flower which looks like bell and has something in the middle. When you shake it, there’s a kind of “tok tok” sound.
    Unfortunately we didn’t find any but only one on the ground. I asked Shei Ann to take the seeds to plant it and she did just as I said. I took a picture with her for memories and went back to the grown ups.
    “Lis, Ann looks so much like you lah,” said Jody.
    “Yea, she is my daughter,” I joked back.
    “Who is the father?” asked Christine.
    “Aaron loh..who else?” answered Jody. “Aaron must have some kind of super sperm which can make Ilissa give birth in a day and the baby grow up to 5 year old in the 2nd day.” Not again, I thought. Why are they always teasing me again?!
    Shei Ann and Jody were there digging up the sands while I lay on the concrete bench.
     “Thinking of someone?”
     “Who? No…” I snapped.
     “Call Aaron lah..”
     “Handphone no signal..”
    I was lying there. Really wondering who was the one who spread the things between Aaron and I. Now the whole town nearly knew it and everyone is teasing me now. I closed my eyes and thought about Cynthia, May’s friend. She was very funny and nice.
     “Hello…can I speak to Aaron?”
    I opened my eyes and saw Jody using her handphone. I ignored her, thinking that she must be playing a prank on me again. She gave me her handphone and God... she really called. I didn’t talk to Aaron though this time, he didn’t seem to welcome us a lot.
    At 4pm sharp, we left the beach. Shei Ann was following us to the Bird Park. It was a very beautiful place with a lot of rare and beautiful birds. Jody took some pictures of it. We left half an hour later.
    We arrived at the Labuan airport and checked in at 5:15pm. Our flight was at 5:55pm. We then took our sweet time, buying chocolates again in the airport and went into the departure room at 5:45pm after the hugging business from May and her mom. When I went inside, I saw no one. I thought happily that our flight has a lot of empty space. I dropped my luggage and went on seeing perfumes in the small shops.
    “Boarding..Miri Boarding..” someone accounced.
    “Boarding?” asked Jody.
    “Ah…we are late Lis. We nearly missed the flight, everyone has boarded!” No wonder it was so empty. I switched off the handphone and ran into the aircraft. After a few minutes, the plane left.
    I couldn’t believe we were already heading back to Miri. I popped a sweet into my mouth and asked a little girl sitting next to me if she wanted some. We arrived home at around 8pm because Jody’s parents were late picking us up.
    Arriving at home, I dropped my luggage and gave my Snoopy a kiss. I missed home. I took a long shower, had a home cooked dinner and had an early night, ready for school the next day. Finally, my ears can rest from “Aaron, Aaron, Aaron.”

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Overall, it was a short but great trip. I missed it a lot now but it remains a sweet memory in my heart.
 
 

Written by: Ilissa Liew
        (7th November, 2000)