No Regain!

I lost my camera.

This time, this is a real loss, with no regain...

The trip to Jurong East Library with "my boys and girls" went out better than I had supposed. I registered in the National Library Board and ruefully saw the money being deducted from my POSB account. "It is more than worthwhile! A game disc will cost more than $60!"my junior comforted me. After ruminating I found his words bore some sense: one cannot cling to the notion that money concerns most. There are many more things that deserve our foremost attention, like relationship, emotions, and memories.

Memories. And I lost a "camera" of memories today.

Immersing in the supreme content and bliss after visiting the JE Library with my juniors, I offered to bring them to the Science Centre, which was a mere 8 minutes' walk. Guided by the road signs, we felt that we were each other's safety nets. We chatted jovially all the way until three big words "Singapore Science Centre" greeted our eyes. We bought the most economic kind of tickets and got into the various atria and ventricles of the giant gallery.

Peeping throught the holes...standing in front of an amazing picture...imagining a life in the fish bowl...tricks on the eyes...

We roamed in the Optic Zone until our eyes could not see straight, and all the while I was holding my precious camera, trying to capture some snapshots for my adorable juniors. My sister reprimanded me for taking too many photos instead of paying attention to the physical principles. I had never thought that if I abided by her "rule" and "principle", my camera would not have been taken and I would have been spared of all those predicaments.

Laughing in front of a column of light...reading carefully in the Magnetic Zone..."oohing and aahing" as mysteries of science unfolded in front of us...

I lost track of my footprints, lost track of the time, lost track of my "sense". All I could feel was happiness, tremendous happiness.

Then I stepped into the Discovery Zone...

In the Eco Garden, I played a bridge with one of "my girls". The bricks of the bridge were of the same colour as my camera, which paved the road for my later lament. We failed many times in building the bridge before I decided to really put my heart in it. Then for a slip of mind, I took off the camera from my wrist and began to build the bridge.

It was done. Without a second thought, I joined one of "my boys" to play with the shadows.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BOOM!" the shadow appeared and we uttered a subsued scream.

After the BOOM! I involuntorily slipped my hand into my bag in search of the camera to photo the shadow. And I felt my heart skipped a beat--the camera disappeared!

I immediately went to the Bridge but it was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey! There is another shadow!" the junior called me. I played the shadow perfunctorily again out of politeness and felt really surrounded by an immense shadow.

A Thai man was building the Bridge now and my camera was inside someone's bag, I surmise.

My first thought was to report. But by the time I went out of the Eco Garden, the lightning show was in progress in the main atrium. Everywhere was darkness except the explosive sound of the eletronized air particles dancing around, making ominous screams and dazzling sparks. I felt hopeless, scared as a sense of foreboding began to creep in. Pushing on person after another, I squeezed out of the Atrium, ignoring the lightning show, feeling better out of the concealment of the dark.

My voice quavered with emotion as I reported to the assistant. He must find me amusing, foolish, and reckless at the same time. I rushed through the form and dived into the Eco Garden again, passing throught the applausing crowd.

Still, It was nowhere to be seen.

Remorse was of no use, there was no way to repent for this loss.

I made a phone call home, and as they suggested, enjoyed the rest part of my tour.

Those unretrievable memories, I will try to get them again...