This Girl's life (part 6)

Ana laid on the bed. The doctor had put her on a drip. She was in fascination as the fluid flowed through the tube injected into her left hand. She couldn’t sleep. Her eyes looked straight a head at the blank screen television attached on the wall. Her father had left a while ago. She knew that it was late and hoped that her father was safely driving back to Seremban. Her heart ached for her father. The whole situation was draining him. He had been by her side the whole week she was in Kuala Lumpur.

Ana pulled the blanket on top of her to cover from the icy cold temperature of the room. There was an empty bed beside. Her roommate was discharged from the hospital that afternoon. Ana shivered and clenched the blanket. The nurse had switched off the air-conditioner earlier but the coldness was seeping into her bones. She was already wearing wool socks and a sweater.

She turned restlessly on her bed. It felt like forever in the hospital. Doctors had come in asking herself and her father about her medical history. She had done several tests on blood pressure, EKG, stress test, inquiry on her eating habits, angiogram they even had a small camera attached to a tube to view her stomach, they took samples of her blood and urine to the laboratory.
God, she was dying to see herself in a mirror. Surprisingly there was no mirror in that room or even the bathroom which was located beside the entrance door.
There was her compact mirror, she had brought along but that was confiscated by the nurse. She slid her hand into her t-shirt, feeling her stomach and pinched it. She could feel the lump of excess fat. She was getting fat just lying there. She disgustingly tore the band-aid and the needle from her left hand…

The attendant laid the bowl of porridge on the mobile food tray and pushed it in front of Ana. Her father had came early, he sat on a chair near the window next to her bed and flipped through the newspaper. Ana looked disapprovingly at the food. She had managed to swallow a spoonful of porridge with some persuasion from her father. She whined that she didn’t have any appetite to eat but her father took another scoop of the porridge and firmly put the spoon in her hand.. as soon as the spoonful of porridge had gone down her throat ,she felt nauseous. She would have rushed to the bathroom if it wasn’t for her father who angrily grabbed her arm and held her on the bed. Ana felt her stomach muscle tightening, giving pressure to her chest and like a volcanic eruption Ana threw up all over the food tray. Her father let her go and slumped on the chair, speechless and defeated…
The attendant had the mess cleaned up but she came back a few minutes later with another tray of porridge.

Ana turned to the left side of the bed.

She remembered how angry she was and she had knocked the bowl of porridge of the tray and crashing to the floor. ..



Sofia knelt down and tied her shoelaces. The sun was scorching hot that day and she could feel sweat soaking the back of her white baju kurung. She felt a shadow loomed above her and looked up. Bai Yoon grinned down at her.

“Hi,” said the cute Chinese boy. Sofia smiled and nodded politely. She got up and walked past Bai Yoon to the school gate. It had been a week since she had seen Bai Yoon and almost ten days she hadn’t seen Ana. All her calls were met with busy lines and there was no one picking up her house phone. She hoped her friend was alright.

As for Bai Yoon. Well, she felt uneasy at his sudden interest with Ana and his friendliness towards herself. The fact that he knew more about Ana’s condition was troubling her. Ana was her friend and she was Ana’s only friend. Ana could at least let her in, wasn’t that what’s friends for? Besides, being near Bai Yoon and seeing him in school was making her uncomfortable. She couldn’t shake the image of the two of them in the waiting room with his head on her shoulder.

Sofia was shaken out of her imagination by a loud honk. She had walked out of the school gate and was about to cross the road when she felt a hand grabbed her arm. She looked at her left side where the sound had come from. A black Proton Waja parked at the side of the road. There was a middle aged man inside the car waving at her. Sofia frowned, she couldn’t recognize who the man was.

“It’s Ana’s father, “ said Bai Yoon. Sofia didn’t notice that he was walking behind her and he was also the one who had grabbed her arm seeing that Sofia was about to cross without even looking at the cars from both sides.

The man mentioned opened his car door and stood beside his car. Students passed the two teenagers as they stood rooted at the spot for a while. The man motioned for the two of them to come near. Sofia walked to the man with Bai Yoon closed behind.

Mr. Faizal gave them a tired smile.

“Where do the two of you live? I’ll send the both of you back. I need to talk to you,” said the man. Sofia noticed that Ana’s father looked tired and his shirt was wrinkled. He had aged the past few days from the last time she saw him.






Mr. Faizal kept quiet when they drove off. Bai Yoon sitting at the passenger beside him looked at Sofia through the rear view mirror. They drove passed the shabby Lake Garden Resort, and took a left turn to Lake Garden. Mr. Faizal stopped the car at the empty parking lot facing the lake. He didn’t mutter a word instead he leaned forward,put both his arms on the steering wheel and rested his forehead on the steering wheel. His shoulders shuddered and the two teenagers realized that Mr. Faizal was crying. Bai Yoon placed his hand on Mr. Faizal’s shoulder and looked at Sofia for help.

“What am I going to do?” Asked Mr. Faizal his head still on the steering wheel.

“Tell me what am I suppose to do?” He mumbled something incoherent. Sofia moved closer to the front seat.

“What’s wrong Mr Faizal?” asked Bai Yoon gently, his hand was still on Mr. Faizal’s shoulder.

“She won’t eat. My girl won’t eat and that’s killing her. And I can’t do anything about it.”

“She’s getting the help that she needs. Maybe you can talk to her,” said Sofia softly.


The man set up straight and slumped on his seat. He rubbed his face with both hands, wiping of his tears. Through the rear view mirror Sofia could see his eyes red with bags under his eyes. Sofia felt sorry for the man, he was trying his best for his daughter.

“She doesn’t want to talk to me. I don’t know what’s wrong, I don’t know what’s in her head. Can you tell me what’s wrong with her?” asked Mr Faizal turning towards Sofia and put his hand on her hand which was resting on the back of Bai Yoon’s headrest. Sofia was taken by surprise.

“I wish I could say anything that could help but I don’t know anything. Ana had never talked to me about her personal problems. We just talked about school and hot celebrities and guys,” said Sofia blushing when she saw Bai Yoon raised an eyebrow.
Mr. Faizal let go of her hand and sighed.

“The doctors feel that I should send her to Singapore for further treatment. There, they have enough expertise that can help Eating Disorder patients.”

“ Did Ana really have a heart attack?” asked Sofia. She really wanted to know the answer. She didn’t believe that her friend could have a heart attack but after reading the articles that Bai Yoon had given to her and also the painful expression on Ana’s face as she clenched her chest and fell to the ground.

“No. Thankfully. It was a false alarm, the report from the angiogram showed normal. The doctor believed that it might have been a panic attack considering her fragile condition and also the fact that something might have frighten her that night. Systems of panic attack can sometimes be mistaken as a heart attack, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness and fainting.”

Mr. Faizal laid his head on the head rest and looked in front. His left hand was on his head as if protecting his head from falling off.

“However Ana is still in danger. She’ 5 feet 5 inches, she should at least weight between 43 to 50 kg. Currently her weight is at 36 kg. If it reduces to 25%of her normal weight the possibility of a heart attack is high.” Bai Yoon was rubbing his neck. Sofia was busy playing with the loose string of thread at the back of Bai Yoon’s seat. None of them had anything to say. It was awkward, they were the only people that Ana knew and yet they were like strangers to her.


“What about her mother? Ana never spoke about her. Is she still alive?” asked Sofia.

“Ana’s mother left us when Ana was five years old. I’d rather that we don’t talk about her.” Said Mr. Faizal coldly and the subject was dropped.

“The physician in KL had given the name of the hospital in Singapore that could help in Ana’s case. I’ll be sending her there tomorrow. Would you like to see her before she goes?” Sofia nodded immediately. Sofia missed Ana tremendously. It wasn’t everyday that you meet someone that you can easily click with. It was pretty lonesome at school without Ana…..


Mr Faiza drove his proton Waja into the driveway. The big electric gate closed behind them. Sofia got out of the car and couldn’t help gapping when she looked at the house. Mr. Faizal had done good! They had a huge compound with rock gardens and a pave way which from the porch led to a shaddy cosy Bali style patio complete with a garden chair set on top of a wooden pavement which also led to a man -made waterfall built on the gate itself. The patio was surrounded by palm trees. Sofia didn’t mind studying in the patio the whole day.

They were greeted by an Indonesian maid at the door. The hallway was spacious with paintings hanging along the walls. Bai Yoon was quiet beside her. He was also busy looking around the house. The maid showed them to the living room. The sofas were colored Bache, with Mozart flooring and a beautiful chandelier hung 3 feet above the coffee table in the center of the room. Ana was nowhere to be seen. The maid excused herself to go and get Ana in her room.


Sofia surveyed the living room. The curtains were colored in golden brown and there was a small shelf at one corner of the room beside the window. On top of it was filled with miniature vases and miniature beer mugs. Inscribed on it was the place of origin such as vases from Sabah, Sarawak and Philippines, the mugs were from London, New Zealand and Australia.

Bai Yoon had made himself comfortable on one of the sofas while Mr Faizal was sorting through his mail left on the coffee when all of them heard a loud scream coming from upstairs.

Mr. Faizal had dropped his letters and was about to rush up the stairs when the maid came rushing down screaming something in Indonesian. Mr. Faizal grabbed both her shoulders and asked her what had happened. The maid looked scared. She answered her boss in a thick Indonesian accent and the words were flowing out of her mouth so fast that none of them could understand a word she was saying. Impatiently Mr Faizal shook the poor woman and asked her to tell them what had happened. The maid had turned pale and was even paler when Mr. Faizal had asked her roughly.

She said something to Mr Faizal in which Sofia couldn’t understand her but felt tense when Ana’s name was mentioned. What had happened to Ana? Mr Faizal rushed upstairs to Ana’s room with the two teenagers closely behind him. Ana’s room was simple, with a purple cover single bed, a study table with a Mickey Mouse study lamp beside the bed and a clothe cupboard fitted into the wall beside her own bathroom. The floor was polished parquet.

The room was neat and tidy but where was Ana? Mr. Faizal rushed into the bathroom hoping to find Ana inside. Nothing..Mr. Faizal put both hands at the back of his neck.He grind his teeth in frustration.

“I told her not to go out of the house!” hissed Mr. Faizal closing his eyes. “ She is in no condition to go out of the house !” He let go of his neck and barged through Sofia and Bai Yoon rushing back downstairs. Sofia and Bai Yoon was looking at each other with confused expressions. What was going on? From upstairs they could hear Mr. Faizal shouting at the poor shaken made. He shouted why she had left Ana alone when he had ordered her not to leave Ana’s side. He didn’t wait for a reply and instead walked out off the door. All of them heard the car’ door slammed shut and the engine started. Mr. Faizal had forgotten about Sofia and Bai Yoon.

The two of them went down the stairs and stopped behind the maid who had slumped weakly at the bottom of the stairs. She was crying and trying to wipe the tears away with the sleeves of her baju kurung.

Sofia put her hand gently on the maid’s shoulder to comfort but it only made the sobbing louder. Bai Yoon asked her what had happened. The maid was still crying uncontrollable and between loud sobs she told them that this was the first time of all her 10 years working with Mr. Faizal that he had shouted at her. She had never seen him that angry.

Both Bai Yoon and Sofia couldn’t calm the maid. A few minutes had passed when her sobbing subsided. She told them that after Ana was discharged from the hospital, she was quiet then before, she didn’t eat and would just stare into space. She hardly had a temper before but now anything could make her angry. She hardly eat. Her father had to sit in front of her and force her to eat, even then, Ana would cut her food into tiny bits of pieces. She loved eating with fork and spoon and she would eat each grain of rice one at a time. After a while her father would give up and leave her alone.

The maid sniffed and rubbed her already red nose. She told them she had only left Ana a couple of minutes to do the laundry. She was about to check on Ana when they arrived.

“Where could she have gone? Did she have a fight with her father before he left the house that afternoon?” asked Bai Yoon. The maid shook her head.

“Mr. Faizal is a good boss but he is always busy with his insurance work. I don’t think he ever spent any time with his daughter since he started work . In one way it is a blessing that the incident happened.”

“Blessing? Ana falling sick?” asked Sofia feeling angry that the maid should think that Ana’s predicament was a good thing. The maid shook her head.

“I don’t want her to fall sick. God knows I love that girl but at least my boss has taken notice of his daughter. He even made her some porridge and spent time to be with her in the hospital. Lord, that girl has wanted that kind of attention for a long time. It breaks my heart to remember her as a little girl waiting for her father to come home from work just to tell him that she got an award in a drawing competition. She was already fast a sleep on the living room sofa when he came back. He was so tired he didn’t see her when he passed by. I had to carry her to her room. He had already gone back to work when she woke up. You should have seen her sorrow eyes when she came down for breakfast the next morning.”

“You never noticed her eating problem?” asked Sofia indignantly. She had been their maid for quiet some time, surely she should have seen that Ana wasn’t eating. The maid shrugged her shoulder. Ana was never an eater when she was small. Ana would always make an excuse that she didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home as she would be late for her bus. The maid would pack her breakfast and Ana would take it along without fail. Her school finished in the afternoon, Ana would come home saying that she had eaten lunch at school. For dinner, the maid would prepare the food for Ana and leave it on the dinner table in the kitchen. She would do the ironing and when she finished, the table was cleared and the dishes washed. Ana spent the rest of her time locked up in her room and occasional came out to watch television or watched what the maid was doing.