In Grade 6 I was in charged of the corridor notice board. My teacher advisor told me to visit an exibition down town and write a report to be pinned on the board.
What could I do? I dared not venture into the big bad city alone. The deadline drew nearer and I was getting depressed. My good friend advised me to look out for the newspaper coverage and adapt from there. Out came my rescuer, an unlikely person who was from the fringe of my group. She volunteered to accompanied me there and back. We will call her Kimberly here.
We visited the exibition and I took notes for the report. On the way back, she pulled me into a road that led to the police station. I was puzzled. There was a tea stall under a tree next to the police gate. We sat down and she ordered a glass of milk tea. When the boy delivered the tea, she talked to him in rapid fire Malay. She helped her mom in the wet market and was fluent in market Malay. The boy related what she said to the owner of the stall. The latter hurried and said a few reassuring words.
A group of policemen came sat down. The owner served them and must have said something to them. They turned and stared at the suspicious character that my friend detected and we changed route to avoid him. One hefty police stood up and walked towards the thin, shifty looking guy. The latter ran out of sight. A pair of jovial policemen walked us to the nearest bus stop. We hopped up the very next bus that was heading to the station.
Today Kimberly owned a factory and a showroom dealing with automobile fittings. It was abundantly clear that at age 12 she was a most resourceful person.
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