I’d like to talk about Evelyn Chang Sui-Oi. I know she’s watching me from behind the clouds as she had promised. When she was active in preaching Christianity to me when we were quite young, we had our differences. I told her if we ever remained friends, she would have to stop her preaching. She said she would feel bad if she went to heaven and I went to hell when we departed from this earth, so I asked her to pray for me every night so someday I would be able to join her. Unfortunately up to this day, I have not been converted, although Minister Vivian and her Minister hubby did try in their last visit to swing me around when they were in Hong Kong.
But I want to write about how Evelyn and I became friends. I don’t know if you folks remember that our Munsang College worked on a rather strange system. When one entered the school, one was put in D or E class and one had to prove one’s ability if he/she wanted to move up the rank, that is, be put in an A class. I was still in P6D and Vivian was already promoted to a better class P6A, so I sort of lost a dear friend. One day when I was hanging out in the corridor, a smart looking girl came over and solicited a conversation. She was pleasant to talk to and seemed genuinely interested in me. After knowing she’s from P6A, I wondered what the hell she saw in me. Some days later she asked to borrow textbooks. I thought she was only using that as a pretence to talk and that she had the books herself. That is how Evelyn and I became friends. She said she liked the Beatles and I invited her over to my home to listen to their records. She screamed and yelled like teenagers we saw in Britain.
In secondary school, I was finally put in F1A as I came first in P6 so could study with the ‘better ones’. Evelyn was put sitting in the second row but that didn’t diminish our friendship. Instead, we followed our most naughty ways and were partners in many mischievous endeavours that involved quite a number of classmates in the same class. I still remember those pranks but know perfectly well to keep my mouth shut here. Folks who were in the same class as remembered are Alex Yu, Vincent Lam, David Lui, Richard Hui, Carmen Chan…. Do provide your bits of memories here if you happen to read this.
Other than listening to the Beatles, we also played ouiji board many times to see whom we would be married to. Evelyn once got to be told her future beau would be a Japanese. Of course that turned out to be untrue as she was never married, but she didn’t devour any tiny bits about her love life even when we met late in 1989. She might have met a Japanese as boyfriend, we could only guess.
Over the years Evelyn remained mysterious as to how she could enjoy so much freedom waltzing in and out of my home at different hours. Most girls at that time were very much on a leash as mothers were petrified as to what might happen to young girls out on the streets. I took the school bus to and from school up to graduation.
One thing for sure we never studied or did homework together. We never even discussed schoolwork. It’s like we were two girls from different schools. That made it so refreshing. Most female classmates only talked about how frightened they were with such and such a test or how unprepared they were before tests or exams.
Going through some stuff months ago, I found a black and white photo I took of Evelyn at a picnic with year unknown. She had what you called hot pants on with long white socks pulled up to her knees. Only Evelyn could pull off an outfit like that. Her hair was pulled behind in a ponytail. It was indeed a timeless portrait of someone so dear to my heart.
When we were studying in North America, she in Texas and I in Montreal and Ottawa, there were talks of meeting but nothing materialised. We kept up correspondences and in 1989 she finally visited Hong Kong. She stayed with us (I was married already). Already she had changed from being a banker to a realtor and she was managing some properties for her Hong Kong clients like collecting rents. She talked about having a gun and how it was necessary to carry one and be ready to shoot to kill if danger came up while she was showing properties to the undesirables. We went back to Munsang for Alumni Day. I still had a picture we took together with Uncle Kwai (Leung Wing-kwai took photos of all kids in September). He still remembered us. I wonder how he’s doing now.
If it hadn’t been for Evelyn and her nudging, I would not have considered going to Cupertino for the reunion. But what we couldn’t anticipate was her sudden onslaught of, what is the medical term now, swelling of the ligaments in the bone that causes much pain to the joints. She was in pain when she showed up that summer, yet she managed to squeeze out a welcoming smile. I was a bit put off by her not making a room reservation and we had to make do with me and Julie sleeping on one bed to let her have a bed on her own. It was very insensitive of me to think like that at the time of my dear friend’s discomfort.
I missed Evelyn’s call when she heard of my father’s departure. Sadly when I found out later she had called and tried to get her on the phone, it was just her voice on the recording. She was no longer available to answer personally. Her illness, prognosis, her pain, her thoughts on life and death became just information given to me by a mutual friend from Texas.
I know Evelyn would not be able to counter or affirm anything I put up here, but I feel damn good spilling it all out on a dreary day like today. There is no doubt in my mind we would meet again.
