XK (8) Wistfulness

today, as i was cyling, i saw a woman across the road waving frantically at a man running away from her. i stopped to be singaporean about it. theft? lovers' tussle? she thought he looked like a cab? then i saw him dropping stuff as he ran. his bag was open! so he was doing a real hansel-and-gretal number. i started screaming at the top of my voice. OEI!!! OEI!!! OEI!!!!!! this was one of the rare occasions where i had to say, my voice wasn't loud enough. wistfulness no.1: i should have had quicker thinking and screamed "OEI! GUY IN YELLOW SHIRT!! 穿黄色衣服的人"

too bad i didn't. so i crossed the road and started picking up all his stuff. turns out it was medication. i then started to pedal furiously after bus 60, which was the bus he didn't board. kidding. of course it was. wistfulness no.2: i should have checked out the medication there and then to see if i could have contacted him through the clinic.

as i was cycling after the bus, another dude on a bicycle stopped me and asked if i had picked up the guy's stuff! so i said yeah. and he said, "he's your who? (singlish for how is he related to you?)". i said i don't know him. then the dude said, "so why you help him?" and i said, just helping lor! wistfulness no.3: i really wish i had said something like "Cos Jesus Christ loved me first" or "it's always good to help people don't you think!" or "it's such a joy to be able to help others!" or "why not? it's always nice to be able to do a good deed". sigh. the failings of slow-wittedness.

when i caught the bus 2 stops later, he wasn't there! turns out he was only taking the bus for one stop. i started looking around for a guy in a yellow shirt (the 2 stops are only about 100m apart as this was an interchange bus stop). couldn't really see him. only then did i take out the medication and found out his name was Mr Tan C H. i then called the clinic and asked the receptionist to ask him to call me. wistfulness no.4: i should have realised he was making a bus transfer and just started shouting out his name in the interchange. i even contemplated it before i called the clinic, but thought it'd be useless! i'm not making a very good detective at all. not doing justice at all to harlan coben, jeffrey deaver, robert crais, myron bolitar, lincoln rhyme, and elvis cole (these are some of my favourite authors and characters in crime novels).

so Mr Tan finally called me back and told me he was already on another bus towards kallang. i then asked for his address which turned out to be very near the bus stop i saw him drop the stuff at first (see wistfulness no. 2). so i travelled back to where i came from. when i finally handed off the stuff to his wife, she was rather grateful. i said, "no problem. 没问题!" wistfulness no.5: i wish i had invited her to church or something.