Chapter Five. Why?
Most immigrants, at the end of the day, after the work pass, would always ask themselves their own opinion of Singapore after a few months of stay here. Would they want to stay or return back to their country, where things were much better? If they stayed, would they want to take up citizenship or become permanent residences? All these questions would start appearing from nowhere and it was time for them to consider. ‘Why’ would play an important part in this chapter.
After a few months together, Michelle’s and Mike’s relationship grew even more by the day. From just an employer and an employee, Michelle and Mike’s developed into friends before starting a great relationship. They both had slowly understood why they were having weird feelings for each other. They finally understood that they cared for each other and loved each other as they spent each and everyday under the same roof. Under the same roof, they got to know each other better, regardless of their lifestyles or hobby. There was no secret between them since the two-room flat was too small to hide secrets anyway.
They both lived like a real husband and wife. As the house was seriously too small, there was nothing much to clean and therefore, Michelle would normally get the rest of the day to herself since there was nothing to do. Moreover, Mike was not strict about things such as cleanliness and also did not want to tire nor bore her beloved Michelle in the house. Michelle, on the other side, felt that she should do what she could to serve Mike as she was paid for it and she also had a special feeling for him, she would always start training sewing skills. Then, she would in turn use these skills to mend at the shirts and jeans that Mike wore which were easily torn due to this size and his rough characteristic, something she was very clear of after a long time spent with him.
After that, it would usually be dinner time and she would start cooking dinner so as to await for the return of Mike. She acted like she was a real official wife already, just that she did not know it herself. As for Mike, he was unknowingly fit into the role of a husband. Everyday, he would punctually go for his boxing trainings as per instructions from his agent and he would train very hard after knowing that being complacent did not help at all. Also, the finals of the competition was coming the next day and he needed to be hundred and one percent sure so that he could win the competition easily. It was his own inspiration and not only that, he had promised Michelle to win it for her to see. This seemed fine on the surface but actually, it just showed how much Mike himself cared about Michelle and how serious he took her words for.
Mike put on his gloves and he scanned the crowd below the ring for Michelle. It was the day of the competition and here they were now, at the finals as he prepared for the match that would start in no time. He still could not find Michelle but it was time to start the match as the bell was struck. Focusing on the opponent in front of him, he used Michelle’s words as motivation as he got ready to get into action. Coming out with the most gruesome look he could ever come out with, he glared at the 6 feet tall and fit ‘monster’ in front of him.
Mike and his opponent went in circles and circles around the ring as they fought ‘psychologically’ for about one minutes before Mike made his first move. With the speed of light, he shoved one punch at the opponent which was unblockable and the opponent fell a few steps back. That hit was fast but forceful and it looked as if it could take the opponent out already as the ‘monster’ took a good thirty seconds of jerk on his head before he regained his balance and the round was once again started by the referee.
This time round, things started to speed up as the first round was ending in no time and punches were spammed from both sides. Despite so, both sides were more vigilant then as none of the punches got the target. It was time for the change of plan. Without giving the enemy any time to react, Mike quickly changed tactic and used his legs instead. The thought was fast and the execution was even faster. Once again, the opponent got another direct hit on his stomach this time round. This forced him to cough some saliva out of his bloody mouth as he fell to the ground, groaning in pain. His looked like he was easily overpowered by Mike.
Whining for about one minute, he finally once again stood up but this time round, he was slouching towards his front. It was obvious that he was injured and his weakness was very obvious. Seeing this, the referee wasted no time and started the game, with so much time already wasted. This was the last few bell ever heard for this match. Before the echo of the bell was gone, Mike had already made use of his advantage and grabbed the right hand of his opponent, restricting his movements, and carried on to rain torrents of abuse onto his opponent’s stomach. He gave it continuous punches before letting go of him. The opponent once again struggled to balance but Mike did not give him chance to. Ending the match, Mike raised his right hand high and gained enough momentums as his fist flew down the air till it had contact with the opponent’s face. “crkk” could be heard coming from the bones of the opponent as he dropped down to the ground, unconscious.
It was pretty obvious the match had ended with Mike wining the competition for the first time. At the same time, he had broken a world record of being the fastest boxer to end the competition. In the whole competition, he had actually only fought for about one hour in total, normally eliminating the opponent ,regardless of size or shape, in less than one round of the match. He was legend. Every reporter at the scene rushed up to the ring and wanted to interview him. However, he had no time for them as he could wait no longer to share the joy of winning with Michelle, the first person who came to his mind. With his giant-like size, he was one head above other and he was able to see clearly. It was not long before he came to notice the familiar face squeezing in the crowd towards him with joy. He had never seen her so happy before. Without hesitation, he pushed everyone off the way, desperate to hug Michelle. It was as if he had not seen her for ages. After much effort, they finally got to each other as Mike hugged Michelle tight. It was the best way to express his feelings.
Later that day at night, with the conference and all the other things over, Mike finally got a time to sit together in his warm sofa with Michelle by his side. It was like any days but this time round, they were not very happy as they had things to worry about. With the competitions over and Michelle’s contract as a maid over, both their visas in Singapore were expiring and this meant that both of them needed to be separated. This was something that neither of them wanted to see happening. It was only a few hours ago when they just knew their real feelings about each other but now, they had to be separated. There was no solution to this problem unless they both changed their work permit to permanent residence or change their citizenship to Singaporean. However, this was not any easy decision. It was as if to leave their second parents, their family to go and call another guy ‘father’ and friends. They had spent more than half of their life in America and Philippines respectively and their feeling for their own country is unbreakable. However, the newly formed ‘couple’ also did not want to break up either.
For the next few days, Mike and Michelle kept thinking of the problem until they finally came up with a solution. After all, Mike and Michelle regarded their love for each other more important than their love for their country as they both decided to take up permanent residency in Singapore. They could have moved to either America or Philippines, either of the country that one of them belonged to but things would be harder. Both of them already had been in Singapore for almost half a month and already got used to here regardless of the humidity or how the system works here. This was also the place where they did great things such as finding their first love, and for Mike’s case, getting his biggest salary and winning his first ever medal. Living in this place full of happy memories might be a better choice and that was the choice they made.
The following day, Mike and Michelle went to sign up for permanent residence citizenships.
As love was developed for Mike and Michelle, the ‘friendship’ between Jia Tan and Anwar also developed. It was more like a mother and son relationship as Jia Tan had always longed to have a child to care for and Anwar had always longed to have a mother. Things would go well for these two people as they did not mind being ‘godmother and son’. Hence, without needing anyone’s consent, they unknowingly became god mother and son. They started to spend more times together. Everyday, for Chinese lesson, even though Anwar could not learn it with other friends, Jia Tan decided to teach him during that period since she felt that he had the passion of learning Chinese and should learn one more language to be competitive in this current world.
As a result, Jia Tan became Anwar’s private tutor and taught him Chinese using her good Chinese standards since she was a Chinese from China herself. Both of them had much fun during the lessons and they bonded at the same time. Other than this, Jia Tan also tried to show her love for Anwar as a godmother by treating him meals whenever she saw that Anwar had ran out of allowance since her unreasonable aunt did not really like her very much and only gave him a miserable fifty dollars per week, barely enough to let him eat a good breakfast. Seeing Anwar going hungry let Jia Tan feel very bad and therefore, she was always there to treat Anwar whenever he was hungry and she had no regrets doing so.
These actions also made Anwar treat Jia Tan as a mother even more. It had been a very long time since someone treated him so nice and he yearned this feeling. Not only by the actions of giving, they also showed their affection for each other by celebrating their birthdays. Often, Jia Tan would invite Anwar to her house as she treated her to a very sumptuous dinner with her husband. Both of them liked Anwar very much as he was a very polite and caring boy. He did everything like a gentleman and never once made them mad before. He was like a perfect kid.
Their relationships improved over the months as Jia Tan and her husband eventually intended to adopt him as their son and take him back to China one day. With this decision in mind, Jia Tan took the chance to ask when she was giving Anwar a treat once again during recess. When she first brought up this topic, Anwar looked forward to the matter. However after a while, he realized a problem with this move. If he was to be adopted, it would mean that he would have to go to China and live with Jia Tan and her family there after his Junior college studies which would end in about a years’ time. Leaving Singapore or Malaysia was something he had never thought of.
Though his parents were already dead, he never dreamt of leaving them too far away from him. In Singapore, whenever he missed them, he could take a train and look for them at the cemetery. But if he was to go China, it would not be so easy to ‘look for’ his parents if he really missed them. That was not his only concern. Going to China would mean another new culture to adapt to and this was a hard thing for him. Singapore, being quite similar to Malaysia in some ways, was already very hard to adapt for him already, let alone China. Furthermore, he would definitely face a language barrier if he was to go for China even though he had already mastered basic chinese from Jia Tan since he had heard that Chinese people in China not only talked Chinese but also some other dialects which he might not be able to understand. He might face trouble living there.
With so many problems and more to arise if he were to go deeper, Anwar believed he could not go to China even though he had hoped to be adopted by Jia Tan and her husband. He tried to ask if Jia Tan could adopt him in Singapore but it was trouble for Jia Tan if this was the case as Jia Tan’s husband new job was not so profitable and still very unstable since he lost the first one. They might not be capable to take care of Anwar if they were to live in Singapore. This problem was very confusing, being not good for both sides. It was only after a long discussion which took around a good two hours, when both Jia Tan and Anwar came out with a not-so-good but still acceptable decision which was to wait for another one year after Anwar’s education to see if Singapore’s economy could become better and Jia Tan’s husband could find a better job or get a pay rise in order to feed both Anwar and Jia Tan.
Since Jia Tan and Anwar had time to wait, they could slowly solve the problem and this was also applicable to Rohan. Though he had no special feelings for anyone in Singapore that would make him stay after his work permits ended, he still decided to stay here. It was partially because of the money he could make here and also the friendships he had built with a few people in this small little country. After the hospital incident, Rohan had ‘grown up’ and knew the importance of making friends. He stopped working like a workaholic and took out some time to socialize.
He stopped working overtime like a mad cow and went for pub or gym instead to have relax and also to keep himself fit and healthy. At the same time, he made friends which he thought was suitable and had a bigger social circle. He started to receive messages almost everyday from those friendly Singaporeans and would daily message him to ask about how life was. Though it might seem stupid to ask the same question over and over a few times everyday, it showed the care and the concern this particular person have for Rohan and this made Rohan life more lively also since he would not always be facing tons and tons of proposal and machineries.
As a result, Rohan had decided to take up a citizenship since everything was much smoother here than as compared to India. He had already attained high position in his company he was working and made friends with many people here. He had even bought a house here and things might not be the same if he was to go back to India. In India, he might once again face the competition in finding a job and success is not very simple either. In India, technology was also not very advanced, which might make him uncomfortable since he was already in this advanced country for so long and adapted to life with technologies such as better lifts in almost every building, reducing the need to climb up buildings like what he always did in India. Therefore, he had come up with the decision of making Singapore as his new home and inviting his parents over to live with him after his bungalow had completed construction. Overall, things would never be the same again if he were to return to India.
All in all, this chapter concludes the difficult decisions that each of these five characters had to make after all they went through. Some of them decided to continue their luxurious life here while others had problems with life here and needed to go back to their home country for a better future. Everyone had a reason and rights to stay or to go and no one have the ability to hold them back. The only thing Singapore could do was just to do its best and develop, so as to attract more people to come and work, or even better- stay permanently.
