This short piece was written during a creative writing class. Typed out and edited at home.
A childhood memory.
Dedicated to my cousin.
I used to have a lot of fun at cousin’s house. Some afternoons, my elder brother and I would walk over to his terrace house just a few houses away. We happily played together, at least once a week. I especially enjoyed playing TV-games. Our favourite game was “Street Fighter” and we loved challenging each other. Sometimes, we would also play with his “Power Ranger” action toys and sometimes we would watch cartoons. I loved going over as we didn’t have a TV-game, or as many toys as he had. His mother would often interrupt our gaming sessions and call us for tea break. We always drank Ribena and I loved it as we never had Ribena back home. Some days, cousin would come over to our house instead and we would play computer games. He always enjoyed himself very much since his family didn’t have a computer.
He was the only cousin I played with. We were not very close with my father’s side relatives and only met during the Chinese New Year. My mother, a Singaporean, has few relatives in Kuching. Every Chinese New Year, my father would go to cousin’s house and gamble with his cousin’s. Us kids would watch and play. As it approached midnight, we would often play firecrackers to welcome the New Year.
It all came to an end one year. Us cousins got into a fight, and being the smallest, I was the victim. Seeing me cry, my overprotective mother forbade us to go to cousin’s house. Since then, we rarely went over to play. Slowly, over time, we drifted apart. A few years later, cousin moved away to a new house and we met only during Chinese New Year or during clan gatherings. Although much time has passed, and we are all grown up now, I’m am thankful for the fun times I had at cousin’s house. It was one of the few times where I played with other children.
