Chair (published by NWW)

published in a longer piece titled Recusant, by New World Writing, July 2020

Chap standing behind in the passage at Al Wadi unnerved somewhat. Immediately behind standing there and not budging. Two minutes, five minutes and more. Indian or Bangla. (Turned out the latter). A member of a local Islamic community might have been listening to radicalized muftis in a number of locations across the globe, from any number of sources. Taking a head on the street like that—perhaps an accomplice filming from the corner—would make a large statement of protest and revenge for all his people had been enduring.… Pretended to be watching the EPL on the screen, at that distance. The Indians were less entranced by that particular game.… Surprised and hesitating at the offer of a seat…. Ah. Well, OK then. Thank you, sir. Many of the construction sites and industrial quarters had closed down early for NY, the engineers and managers needing some respite. (In fact two days off and then the weekend in the present instance.) Endless replays on the screen last few days unseen by this fan. Big Centre-Back Ivanovic for the blue team the dill penalized for handball, hanging his head, teammate half-heartedly protesting. The kicker stuttering in his approach, but in the end ramming past the hapless goalie and running into the corner with a celebratory sign to the delighted supporters. It had been played, played and played again on the screen at Al Wadi the last number of nights when there was no new sporting action for replacement. Stiff shit big Branislav, you screwed up! A classic Serb looking a lot like neighbor Rade back in Melbourne, up-scale lump here in this case.… Ya, of course. Taking a seat as a non-customer made a chap nervous, naturally. Foreign worker using the facilities, soaking up the comfort and entertainment. Ninety cent tea converting to Bangladeshi taka was a pretty penny.… A few minutes previous while still on his feet the man had noticed the photograph of his co-religionist refugees catching rainwater in their hands at their make-shift camp in Myanmar that was carried by the Straits Times in a photo survey of the year past. After commiserating with the Bengali it was more or less possible to put the man at some kind of ease.

Geylang Serai, Singapore Dec 2015