Sup3rnality

It's a small world after all, It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all
It's a small small world.
There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone...

I couldn't help but have that song playing in my head over and over like a bad aftertaste. But it is, after all, a small world. It's happened time and time again. Like that time when a school friend was telling me about this guy who is supposedly so fine, and how I just had to check him out; and upon stalking him, I find out he's my cousin, and I didn't know it. And that time, after talking about 'Alfred' to Fidzy for ages; I overhear she and her aunt talking about an Aunty Wan and her sons Ferman and Fahrol...I had to tell Fidzy; Fahrol is the Alfred I've been telling her about. As it turns out, Fidzy and Alfred and Ferman go way back; way before I ever got to know them. Oh, and then there was when my mom found out the girl I was best friends with when I was 8 is the daughter of her ex-lecturer...

Yeah, I know...this is the part where I should stop.

I've had many of these small world after all episodes. Too many to count. Sometimes they are just the little things; sometimes they're big. But it just goes to show that the things we have in common are not so far and wide in between. Just because your skin is fair, and mine is reddish; or your eyes are round and mine is slightly sepet; it would make me any different a person. We would find out that we are all connected to each other (I say this at the risk of having another Disney song stuck in my mind i.e. Colours of the Wind).

There are times, as it turns out, we have more in common than we ever did know; and sometimes, it runs even deeper than that.

My latest encounter of this annoying-theme-song-for-a-ride-in-Disneyland kind occured on Friday last week.

This connection involves my family+my Shah Alam neighbours (babysitters+surrogate grandma+surrogate aunts/uncles+bestfriends/siblings+an old flame). Yes, my relationship with my neighbour's family is multi-layered. But to make it short, I think them as family; as I am to them. As Idzaid said, I am like the long lost niece (who stole our food--as you would add, Idz). They after all, were first the siblings I didn't have at that time and lifelong friends, then my babysitters, which then became like my family, and then there was the case of boy-next-door and girl-next-door :p

I know, it's complicated.
There's no use in trying to understand the connections.

Anyway...

I have been thinking that the last of my housemates that I finally got to meet looked mighty familiar. Not just the way she looks. But her laugh and her name; it just got those bells in my head ringing. I thought about it for a while; only then recalling vaguely that she looked very much like the my babysitter's aka nenek's (cos she's my surrogate grandma) granddaughter who used to come over and play with the toys I'd use to bring. Since her house was one of the terrace houses in the row at the back of my house and neighbour's house, I saw her often. She usually would be there with her younger sister, and we'd play for hours.

That was like, 10 years ago. Or, I think more. Cos I must have been around 8 at that time. So, maybe 13 years at most. But I last remember seeing her when I was about 10 or so... But either way, that was over a decade. So many changes happen in a decade.

But she looked like that girl... It's been a while, but she does. But I wasn't sure. And so I decided to ask her abit, about where she's from and find out if she ever stayed in Shah Alam. She said 'yes', and yes, she lived in Section 8... Hmmm...I'm getting warmer. Oh, where in Section 8, I asked? Somewhere in the row of houses at the back, atop the hill... Did you have a grandma living nearby? (Giving me a weird look) Yes, she lived just below the hill with my aunts... Are your aunts Maksu and Cik Pidah...? HOW DO YOU KNOW? Don't you remember me...? Hazlin...Hazlin...Hazlin?!! That Hazlin!

Yeah, that Hazlin.

She tells me I look different. Well, yeah. I know I have changed alot from that girl I used to be at the age of 8... No more the crazy long hair, or the odd clothes or the toys, or the awkward Bahasa or the National Geographics I carried around, or the cats, or the gadgets, or whatever else... Yeah, I'm different. Still different. But now a different brand of different.

So bloody hell, I've been living for a month with the girl I used to share my toys with at my babysitter's, the girl who is my babysitter's granddaughter/niece, and my ex's cousin... And I know her family; and so she knows mine... Argh!

It's a bloody small world!

Me, it's somewhat nice to know that I am living in a housemate who is a familiar face; nevermind the fact that I don't know the person she is now... But I gues it'll be fine. I just hope it won't be more of a curse than a blessing.

So yeah, it's small world after all.

Yippee.

Love, Hazlin~