Carol Trademark 2008

The Most Familiar Stranger

Betty and I, the two school animals, lived like twins. We were born at the same hospital and only had five hours between each other. Two typical Libras. Neither of us could bear any second without friends. We were like each other’s shadow appearing together everywhere – at classroom, canteen and toilet.

She had grizzled hair on her head as if she was wearing a hairpiece. This had two benefits. She could be easily stood out in people; also, in her own words, ‘it is perfectly indicating I’m my Dad’s own daughter’. Betty always carried so many plastic bags on her way to school, like a housewife who had just finished her weekend shopping from New World. She said she had too much to carry – a full set of stationery, each subject’s heavy thick textbook and even a little knife. ‘What’s that for?’ I chuckled. ‘Self-defence’. She glanced at me. Libra often thinks too much.

We hang out in the street gazing at guys. ‘I won’t have a boyfriend because I can’t leave you alone’. She promised. ‘You’re my best best best…friend’. That’s what she had written down on my birthday card. I thanked her for not turning me into a loner at school. Having had her, my world was no longer blank.

However, at the end of my intermediate school life, in the summer when sunlight would stab your eyes like a sharp sword at noon, our friendship was forced to face a cruel Secondary School Entrance Examination. This evil turned friends into competitors every year. But we’ll be an exception. Although I knew Betty wanted the most famous high school so much.

Then our togetherness broke little by little. She no longer told me her strange jokes and pointed out how bovine my reaction was. I had to go home alone because she needed to go straight to her personal tutor’s home every day after school, like a committed Christian attending her compulsory church services. The conversation between us turned like a routine, brief and mechanical. ‘I want a rest. And I would like to hang up now. You’re not my…opponent’, she hesitantly spat the last word. Betty’s voice was soft like sponge. But I could still feel the something rigid underneath. I didn’t know where we went wrong. And that was our last call.

The days following were like a long nightmare. She worked so hard as if she was an unemotional puppet being controlled by the strings, till the exam result awakened her like a bomb. She didn’t even get a B, but I got an A, to everyone’s surprise.

Anyway, I looked forward to seeing Betty turning back to my lovely closest friend. But the news about her kept flooding into my ears. “She couldn’t accept her bad result because she’s done so much during the time.” “She determined to get an A in the University Entrance exam three years later.” “She’s decided to study Year 11 course over the holiday.”… Finally I knew where we went wrong. I was her opponent and she was a loser in front of me. I annoyed her; because I got a better result but had studied less. Before I thought our friendship was hard like stone. But when faced competition and future, it was weaker than the glass.

Then at the last school assembly, I saw a familiar stranger. Betty’s hair was dyed totally black. A small pretty handbag took place of those plastic bags she used to carry. More importantly, I saw a shy tall guy filling up the place next to her, where used to be me. It’s unnecessary to guess their relationship.

They passed me and drowned in other ordinary people. I don’t think I can recognise this girl as easily as before in the future. Not just because of her changed hair.