The Misunderstanding

The Misunderstanding

The bus stop was packed. My friends and I had just got off the bus and tried to squeeze through the crowd. Behind me, beside me, in fact, everywhere around me, there were people squashing us just to get up the bus. This was not the first time. I groaned in anger and impatience as I tried to get out of the bus stop, though I tried not to dampen my mood. After all, today was the day we had planned to have an overnight party at Junrui’s house!

I caught sight of an elderly lady stumbling towards me, hobbling with a little limp on her left leg. There was a red object on her leg…I’m not sure, with so many people walking past me, scrambling up the bus- the crowd seemed endless. Wait... is the red thing BLOOD?

“Let’s go! What are you waiting for, Jake?” one of my friends, David, whined. Just then, I saw the lady fall to the ground.

“Wait!” I shouted, and for a moment, everyone looked at me, making my cheeks hot and possibly red.

By the time I looked back at the lady, I realised that the lady was with two objects beside her, moving towards the nearby shopping centre. Squinting my eyes, I made out two figures with their backs facing me, and in black, even their heads. Or was that their hair? I gazed back, only to find everyone still pushing to board the bus, but I did realise that the queue was getting pretty short already, and we were clear to go to Junrui’s house, and start playing together- to start the party.

Still, pictures of kidnap made me shudder. "You have to help me. I saw two men dressed in black kidnap a woman!" I said to my friends. David inquired, “Why the trouble? Let’s just go, after all, we had arranged to meet at 9! If we don’t go now, we might be late!” He was right. However, I still was in a dilemma. What if that elderly lady got into trouble? I did not want any preventable accidents to happen. That would not be good, and I might even feel guilty the whole of my life, or at least for a long time.

I had already made up my mind to go and tail them. Initially, none of my friends wanted to budge, but after some persuasion, my friends decided to help out. Ah, what good life to have such loyal friends. We sprinted towards the shopping centre. When we got there, the door automatically opened and a gush of air welcomed us warmly, or shall I say, coldly. It felt good, and I felt like relaxing. Yet, I decided to push on, and motioned my friends to move on. We should catch up with those men fast, as we darted quickly across the shopping centre floor, moreover, they were lugging an elderly woman! How fast could they be?

There was only but one problem. Where could they be? We asked around, yet nobody knew. Unless…they were not here in the first place? Impossible! I saw them carry the lady inside! Or maybe they did not come in here at all? Or they escaped through some random place? Or... Or… no, it was not possible. How could they be invisible anyway? They would have been spotted by SOME people at least? I had probably watched a show too many. Another friend, Jasmine, requested, “ So, can we go to the party now?” She was the most impatient of the lot here, but I do not blame her. In fact, I was beginning to lose hope too.

That was when I noticed to men, both in black, uttering a few inaudible words. Could it be them? Yes, most probably. After all, they had hoods that were black, and they seemed to emit a certain mysterious aura. Ok, I admit I really watched too many movies. I had to get closer though. How am I to get closer without alerting them? So, I devised a plan. David walked past them while hearing what they were saying, then stopped halfway, a little bit away from them and listened. Having listened enough and to make it discreet, Jasmine came crashing to him. David said he did overhear some amazing keywords, whereas the rest of the words he could not really make out. All of us gathered to listen to the information that we had gathered. They were talking about some lady, probably the elderly lady, and something about the beverage stall nearby, and mentioned something about the back of the stall.

We had yet another problem. How could we get into the beverage stall back? It was trespassing, and that is a crime. What could we do? For once, my friends and I, usually the ones they call ‘creative’ had no ideas. Maybe one of us could ask for a drink and then the others sneak in? No. That was as bad as being a criminal.

“How about trying to ask how the drink is made, and then going to the back of the stall to see, and the rest go explore and find the elderly lady?” Jasmine suggested, looking at my friends hopefully. I shook my head in disagreement.

“No. That would never work. The beverage stall people are probably part of this action and would never let us go to the back to see the lady. Even if they were not, why would they show us the way to make the drink? They would think we were trying to copy their idea, and report it back to someone to make the same drink to steal business away. That would never do.” I replied, sighing in distress.

Out of the blue, the elderly lady walked out. She had a smile plastered on her face. I stared at her hysterically. Was she not kidnapped? Why was she so calm? I approached her and she backed away. I hesitated, before walking up to her and querying,” Were you not kidnapped?” At first she was puzzled, not knowing what I was saying. Unless this was not the elderly lady I had seen a moment ago? Finally, all came clear when the two man came to explain the fact that the red thing was a ribbon on her shoe, and that she, a friend of the two men who had invited her out ,had fainted with heat exhaustion, and was taken to the beverage stall, owned by the two men’s cousin, for some water to drink.

The two men and the elderly lady, old enough to be my grandmother, laughed it off, saying that we could actually be inspectors next time. I looked at my friends, and they looked back at me. In a few moments, we were grinning from ear to ear. I guess we all took that as a compliment.

All of a sudden, my friends and I remembered about the party. We waved goodbye to those men, who told us they were Mr. Judson and Mr. Hayden, and dashed to the party.

We were late by a good half hour and Junrui told us off. I started explaining how we got late, and EVERYONE wanted to hear it. So, we started sharing and soon all of us, including the other party people got engrossed in our story. I guess we missed quite a lot of fun but it had gotten us yet another memory in my brain to share, with some experience and three new friends as additional greatness too! (Not that I might be able to see them again...)