Dee’s Space

I was asked at an interview once whom my superhero was. I took the question seriously, as people do, at interviews. I said Jesus Christ. I didn’t get the job.

Anyway, this is an ode to the unlikely superheroes that we find in our lives all the time. If only we’d ask, or take time to notice.

KEL has a theory that lizards, our eternal nemesis, a shared enemy of hers and mine, find moments when we’re at our lowest and weakest, and then attack us with their sheer presence.

Whoozy theory but I have to credit her foresight.

Last Friday, after spending the evening at the hospital with the husband who needed an op on his knee, I took a lesser known route through Tyersall Road where houses are big but people do not afford lights on the long and windy roads outside their insanely huge abodes. It was so dark the only light came from my headlights. I could hear the insects outside ; the stereo was turned off in order that I could hear the GPS.

I suddenly worried about the oddest occurences, like whom I could call if a tyre burst. Would I pull over if I had to or would I keep driving nonetheless till I saw the main road where there will be some sign of life? This is the stuff horror flicks are made of! Just so you know, the people who made the list of people I could and WOULD call if car failed me, were:

Cynthia TAN Sing Fern

Erene TAN Wai Leng

Lovell HO

ErJie

Since the husband’s in crutches, I guess he could not save me, even if I was very close to the Glenegles Hospital. I also didn’t think to call KEL because she would (1) need me to tell her where I am which would require me to get out of car. WAY TOO RISKY

(2) may never find me and she’d call the police.

Anyway, I digress. Tires stayed intact and the car got me home without a glitch, which was good, because my phone, had so little battery left, it was on SOS the entire time. i.e. NO radio signal.

Point of this post, I came home and after getting naked in the tub, I find, staring back at me, a pair of curiously unflinching eyes of a lizard. It looked like it layed in waiting, as if to prance at me if I moved.

Usually, this was Ken’s thing. But he’s not here tonight. And I hadn’t mastered the art of seeing lizards as pets. They were still, my greatest fear.

I stepped out of the tub, wraped a towel around hastily and called for Remy. I was embarrassed at my state of undress and also the silliness of my request.

“Are you afraid of lizards”, I asked, wimpily.

She looked at me, smiled and said, “Where”.

With that, she took said creature in hand, yes, in hand, even spoke gently to it…”it’s harmless…” she sang… as she ushered the creature into a plastic bag to be placed somewhere else, where it could not terrorise me.

My Superhero.

And all the could-have-been superheroes of my life. I realize you guys would be the same people I’d call on, if life ever made me afraid again.

I am glad I have my list. Start compiling one today… you never know when you’d need one.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Family, Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.