Translate

24 September 2006

Name Series Part 7 - Christopher II

Toby is actually Topper in my earlier Lorbert Series.

If you have been following my Lorbert Series, you would have been aware that Toby was supposedly meant to be one of the episodes but was pulled down at the last minute. Back then, I just felt that it was not appropriate to write about it at that time.

Well, the time to bare it all has finally arrived and perhaps now is the right time to pick up where I left off earlier and finally tell the story of the Sweet Barracuda.

Sweet Barracuda's real name is Sandra and Toby got to know her through GF 2.0, whom the 2 ladies were very good friends. So Toby liked Sandra but problem is, Sandra like another guy (let's call him G). To make matters even more complicated, G is after another girl (A). People have love triangles but Toby had to choose to start his first ever love affair with a quadrilateral. Yes, Toby was a late bloomer as far as BGR is concerned.

It was tough for Toby for he was totally inexperienced and to add salt to wound, a very very very nice guy. As you would agree, girls like bad boys and nice guys end up trampled like a doormat. Yes, Toby was a virgin doormat.

Toby was shy and given that Sandra was pursuing other interest, he could only pined for her from afar. His strategy was to be that steadfastly strong nice guy and just wait. Hopefully, his enduring patience would make her see his feelings for her one day.

Funnily, it was the same for Sandra who was pining from afar as G finally got together with A. Now G was one kind of a player and was ironically attracting the girls like moths to an open flame. By the time, G got tired of A and dumped her, Sandra came right in after.

If you were a cat and there was a fish jumping into in your mouth on its own, what would you do? Eat it, of course. Well, Sandra was that proverbial fish and G, unfortunately was that proverbial cat.

So it was blissful for the new couple and certainly heart-wrenching for Toby. Yet, the goodness of Toby's heart felt that as long as Sandra was happy, he should be happy for her as well.

Now true to G's style of operation, the flavour of the month didn't last very long and Sandra soon found herself dumped. She became depressed and Toby being the true gentleman (to a fault) refused to take advantage of the situation. Instead, he provided the shoulder to cry on without asking for anything in return. Sandra's depression became more serious that we had imagined as she was admitted to hospital one day for severe anorexia and had to undergo psychiatric counseling. Her studies were badly affected and she had to repeat her freshman year as a result of missing her final examinations.

Toby's heart ached silently at the sight of Sandra's fading health but nonetheless continued to be that strength of pillar staying by her side as a "friend".

Sandra eventually got better and just when Toby felt that it was time to finally make the move. Tragedy struck. Sandra and G got back together. G, at that time, just ended a relationship with another girl (B) and Sandra decided that she would reenact the Cat and the Fish scenario. (WTF??)

Toby this time really geh tio to see Sandra slipped away from his arms so easily. After all that he had given, it still came to nought.

It was really tough on Toby for all the dating experience that I accumulated over the years, Toby caught up to speed in just 6 months. Anyway, Toby figured out the emotional mess that he got himself into and decided to finally throw in the towel. While the quest had been abandoned, Toby nevertheless still carry a small torch of hope, hidden in the deep corner of his heart.

We fast forward to 1995 when the semester was over and I was serving my internship at Shittybank. It was the final day of my internship and we all decided to party at Barracuda (Marina South) to celebrate after work. Towards the end of the evening, we found Sandra slumped over the patio table on the upper alfresco deck. It was a pitiful sight as Sandra was half passed out drunk, puking her guts out and sobbing her eye sockets away at the same time.

G dumped her a second time.

I can imagine the heart ache that Toby had felt that night as he pulled me aside and said,

Toby: Jay, can you help me send her home?

Looking at Toby's eyes, I already knew what he was going to ask even before he opened his mouth. I'd never say no to a brother. We cut the party short and carried her to my car with the plastic bags and the paper napkins.

I put the two of them in the back seat with Sandra's head on his lap snoozing and sobbing intermittently. As I got into the driver's seat, I look at Toby through the rear view mirror. The excruciating heartache could be seen from his pair of bespectacled eyes.

He heart pained her.
I heart pained him. 

It was a uneventful drive before we reached her block in Ang Mo Kio. He sent her up before getting back into the car.

The journey back to Toby's place was a quiet one. Neither of us spoke. It was as if our conversation had already call it a night before us.

We learned that Sandra was ok the next morning and Toby got a call from her to thank him. He spent the next few minutes offering some words of comfort and that was the last time we heard from her.

We did run into Sandra in school from time to time after that incident but things were permanently changed after that night.



Dear Toby,

I am not sure if you would ever get the chance to read this. It would really be awkward for I am writing about somebody who would be reading about it. While I am not sure if everything is absolutely accurate but this is merely my recollection to the best of my memory.

I apologise if airing your laundry will upset you. But still this is part of my memory and my life. I need to archive this. As a show of respect, this is under password protection, which I don't even know if I would ever give you the password.

You are a good person and Adelyn is lucky to have you. Frankly, I think it's Sandra's loss not to realise what a wonder and decent person you are. Pity.


- Voxeros

1. akk left...
Monday, 25 September 2006 5:32 pm
what was it abt Sandra that Toby liked so much?


2. JayWalk left...
Monday, 25 September 2006 6:26 pm :: 
Akk: This type of thing hor, hard to explain lah. Like means like lor.


3. xcake left...
Tuesday, 3 October 2006 1:02 pm :: http://xcake.blogspot.com
He's nice but he was trampled. I don't understand why he took so long to decide to make a move on her if he liked her so much. :( Hopefully the girl learned her lesson too. G is such a jerk!!!


4. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 3 October 2006 9:53 pm ::
xcake: G may be a jerk but girls seemed attracted to him for some strange reason. This type of thing takes 2 hands to clap.

No comments: