A girl sleeps soundly in her bed unaware of his hand reaching out towards her. He pulls her blanket over her shoulders, tucking her into bed. She was already a teenager, a young adult to be, even so, he does this every night without fail. She continues to sleep as he watches over her.
She stirs in her bed, feeling a presence near her, she slowly opens her eyes, but he was already gone. The “Happy Birthday” card remained unmoved on her study table.
Scene01
Timidly, Cammy, walks to her new school alone. She is a freshman at Singapore Polytechnic, so it was a totally new surrounding as compared to her Secondary School. She was no longer just a teenager, she was already becoming a young adult learning to be independent.
As she walks under the sheltered walkway, a black pickup speeds pass her on the empty road. It startled her, stirring up her past before her. A hand rests on her shoulders to calm her and she relaxes. Curious, she turns to see who the kind soul is, but she sees no one.
Scene02
Continuing her pace, she walks to the door of her classroom and she reluctantly opens the door of her class for the first lesson. As she enters, she noticed there were already other students there. They all turned to stare at her.
“They are also just like you, don’t worry so much. You will do just fine.”
A familiar voice ringed through her head, she has definitely heard this voice before, however it was a little different, and it sounded a lot mature. Instinctively, she turned around and sees no one there again.
As she turned her head back, she sees a girl approaching her.
“Hey. I am Tyla. What’s yours?”
“Cammy.”
“Cool! Want to join us? The more people the merrier!”
“Thanks,” feeling not as anxious as before, she smiled.
Hidden by the shadows, in the corner of the room where a man stood, unnoticed by the students in the class. His face showed a relieved smile.
Scene03
Orientation starts as the seniors came into the classroom to demonstrate to the freshman on how to use the Black Board which is the school’s intranet. Time passed by quickly, and lunch time came.
Tyla opened the door for Cammy and the class girls as they walk along the corridor to the food courts to have their meals. Cammy sees a man walked past her.
“Kor? (it means brother in a dialect slang)” Cammy choked on her words.
“What?! Cammy you have an elder brother? Is he good-looking?!” Tyla exclaimed.
“Yea,” she answered subconsciously.
“You must bring his photo one day to show us!”
Scene04
Back at home, she placed her bag at the end of her bed. She lies down on her bed in a daze, as she stares at her room ceiling. She hears Tyla voice going through her mind,
“What?! Cammy you have an older brother? Is he good-looking?!”
“Yea, Tyla. I had an older brother, but…he’s long gone…trying to protect me.” Cammy choked on her words as tears roll down her cheeks.
Her memory of the tragic past flashes before her, as she experiences the car accident her brother was in. All because of her, he died. Six years ago, because of her…
Scene05
“Ah! My keychain-,“ young Cammy stretches out her hand and tries in vain to reach out for her keychain that she dropped in the middle of the road.
“No
“Kor! My keychain.”
“Its too dangerous, we will get another one ok?”
“I don’t want. You gave me that keychain for my birthday this year. How can I just leave it there?” Being naïve, young Cammy dashes across the road to pick up the keychain.
“
As she got hold of it and was ready to get to the other side of the road where Shawn was waiting, a black pickup was speeding towards her. An anxious Shawn saw it and tried to warn his sister but to no avail.
“
“Huh? What’s kor trying to say?” She looked up to him clueless.
With no time to spare, Shawn runs as fast as he can to get Cammy out of the pickup’s way. He managed to get there in time, he pushes her over to one side of the road, causing the keychain to drop. He picked it up, and tried to move away from the pickup’s course, but it was too late.
The driver braked as hard as he could, but it was too late. Shawn was sent flying in the air and Cammy could only watch and screamed in horror. “Kor-!!!”
Cammy ran to her brother’s side, “Kor-,“ eyes filled with tears at the sight of her seriously injured brother. He tried to lift his clasped hand towards her, opening up his palm for her, revealing the keychain. Cammy took it from his hand, all teary-eyed and his brother’s hand dropped to his side with a dull thud.
Young and not knowing what to do, with the driver beside her, she yelled sorry to her brother and willed for him to stop the pretence.
Scene06
She grabbed a nearby pillow and hugged it for comfort but it didn’t help to stop her tears from falling. A knock on the door interrupted her chain of thoughts, “Cammy darling, are you crying?” her mum asked, voice filled with concern. Cammy tried to wipe away her tears, “Nope mummy, I am fine.” She tried to sound like how she normally is.
She sits up, leaning against the wall. Wondering to herself, “sometimes I wonder. Does kor truly exist? Mum and Dad doesn’t talk about him anymore. Was it just a figment of my imagination?”
As she ponders, her hand felt something hard, something which was of much value to her. The keychain. Faint bloodstains still could be seen on it. She remembered how hard her brother clasped onto the keychain for her. She couldn’t take it anymore and started to burst into tears, she caught sight of the “Happy Birthday” card she made for her brother who would be turning 20 this year.
She held up the card and the keychain, tears still flowing down. Hugging herself, knees tucked in, she repeatedly muttered under her breath, “sorry”. She then felt a presence hugging her, trying to comfort her. A surge of warmth coming over her, it was very soothing. “Hey, Cam.” He said in a gentle tone with a reassuring smile on his face.
“This voice, it’s the voice I heard in class.” She thought, not knowing what to make out of it.
Cammy lifts up her head to see her brother wiping the tear from her face with his hand. She was filled with mixed feelings, one of shock and happiness. She grabs him and hugged him like she never did before.
“He does exist, kor does exist-” she continues to cry, ignoring the fact whether her brother is alive or dead. He was there, in front of her, it was more then she could ask for.
“Kor don’t leave me again. I am sorry.” Cammy pleaded.
“Come on
