the last time I heard

If you once had a best friend but lost contact over the years, wouldn't you be elated when you hear from him/her again? Wouldn't you want to get hold of each other for a catch up session?

I had a best friend once, we hung out together often. Something changed, and we drifted apart.

The last time I hung out with him - probably somewhere in Orchard in early 2004
and we never hung out ever again.

The last time I walked with him - between 12 - 1am Christmas 2004, we happened to meet at the train station and he walked me to my block.

The last time we talked face to face - met by chance at Somerset station Feb 2005/6, while I was topping up my card and got all jittery with my words.

The last time I heard from him - Weekend of the F1 race on 28 Sep '08, around 5pm. While waiting to enter the F1 gate at Millenia Walk, I received a call from an unknown number with +66 prefix. I picked up the call to hear his voice. It was strange, yet familiar. He introduced himself and asked if I remembered him. Taken by surprise, I was rather monotonous in my reply. He told me he got into a bike accident and was in trouble in Thailand and needed some help, though he couldn't talk for long. He lost his passport and needed me to wire some cash over.

I know. This sounds like a hoax right?

But I decided to say yes first, though I mentioned I couldn't lend him much. I copied down him mobile number as well as POSB savings number. He also said that he was AWOL from the army due to this trouble, as he couldn't come home in time. So I asked if he needed help in informing the army. He said he had settled that. I asked him to take care and I put down the phone, bewildered.

One one hand, that was my friend that I missed so much and I couldn't believe that I just heard from him. One the other hand, I couldn't decide if that strange, yet familiar voice was that believable. I was also worried that he might be injured, kidnapped or was in other trouble. This matter continued to bother for the entire evening in-between performance breaks and dinner break. I don't know if it was because I was falling sick, but I actually lost appetite that night.

I thought and thought, and considered and considered, made a few calls. I decided that the person who called was really him and I would transfer the money over. Even if he didn't return it, I would have helped a friend. So I did, thanks to the clever management which decided to have makeshift ATMs at the F1 sites, I managed to transfer a sum to him.

Tried calling him back at the Thailand number and mobile, but to no avail. After I went home that night, my worries about him kept me awake. I msged him at 2am and he finally replied to say he lost his ATM card. I decided not to bother him anymore with smses as I figured he must be in much dilemma then.

The next few days I tried calling, just to check if he managed to come home.

He came home on Wednesday and I was elated to see him online that night. He explained that he managed to recover his passport after paying off the bike damages with his ipod and mobile phone. And then he called his mom reluctantly to arrange for a ticket home. He told me he was trying to catch me on MSN the entire day so that we could meet, but I didn't go online. I asked if we could meet the next day. He agreed and said he would call late in the afternoon to confirm. I was so darn excited, I couldn't stop thinking about it though I was supposed to studying for my exams.

So instead of studying seriously, I waited, and waited. and waited. He didn't call.

I went online, he wasn't there

I haven't heard from him since

I wonder why