Part 8 - Lighthouse Bungalow

"Actually Matt left for Australia and was here in Perth for a long time. He was a chef and was working in some of Perth best restaurants." I explained to Nina.

"Really?" Nina asked, very curious.

"Yeah, but that was a long time ago. He eventually made his way to Langkawi. He always had a dream and he had saved enough to retire in Langkawi and fulfill that dream." I said.

"And all that time Jasmine and Matt never met?" Nina asked.

"That's right but Matt was a tortured soul Nina. He never forgot the one love of his life. Everyday he regretted leaving and he loved her everyday of those twenty years they were apart. He remembered what he considered to be the best part of his life as vividly as if it was yesterday. All the while he was trying to forget the mistakes that he had made and move on but he just could not. It was always there at the back of his mind, thinking of all the things that could have been" I said.

"Twenty years?!!", she exclaimed.

"So Langkawi was recent? Is he still there now?", she asked excitedly.

"Yes it is recent but he is an old man now Nina" I said to her, calming her down somewhat.

"Matt left for Langkawi five years ago and ventured on his life long dream"

"Oh, tell me about it cause I was there about that time!" Nina said excitedly.

And so I started to tell her a story about an island.

The ocean was like a blanket of blue velvet covering a sea of white sand that didn't quite fit, like a size too small. The edges formed the beach he was standing on, watching the blue sky with not a cloud in sight. The sun was slightly behind him and its rays reflected off the water like millions of diamonds washing up to shore. It was a beautiful day to be alive. The breeze was slight, just enough for it to be refreshing. The coconut trees scattered along the beach were waving to the horizon and whispering to me of something I don't quite understand. Chinese whispers almost.

Thoughts of the way things were and the way it was overwhelmed him immediately like a blood rush. A sight so calming, he never knew, could bring about such memories. Memories he has chosen to forget but were never quite forgotten. Things said that were never quite understood. Feelings conveyed that were not returned in kind. In short, a nightmare of memories he would give anything to forget. You might think him foolish to be having these sorts of memories in his head but in every persons life there will always be one memory that just stays with you forever. It hounds you, always lingering at the back of your mind. Every so often it pops its ugly head out, be it a song, a scent of perfume or a long forgotten place.

A couple of oil tankers are moving at such a snails pace that it looks like it just anchored there for the day. As he turns to walk back to the colonial structure behind him, he thinks of why life is such that it keeps reminding us of the things we find so difficult to forget. To struggle with such emotions for such a long time is hard on the soul. It makes us hard and cold inside with not a care for the feelings of others because the soul gives up trying to accommodate others when the soul itself is struggling to heal. He hears the honking, and the car pulling up. Ganesan is back, he says to himself.

The structure he is walking toward is an old bungalow that was just left to ruins when he first laid eyes on it. The island of Langkawi had always been his favourite holiday destination as a teenager and so when the decision was made to retire from the stresses of a commercial kitchen and move to the island he was as excited as kid at a birthday party. He found a real estate agent through a friend that was still living on the mainland, Kedah. The agent was a stout Malay man by the name of Hassan. A jovial man in his late forties that spoke enough English for them to enjoy each others company throughout the land hunting expedition. Hassan took him to some remote areas of the island that could potentially offer Matt a decent retirement home. I searched for weeks but nothing seemed to appeal to him until Hassan called on the morning he was suppose to head back to the mainland. In fact he called at four thirty in the morning.

Hassan dragged Matt out of bed and into his four wheel drive, a big smile on his face and very excited at the prospect of finally getting him what he wanted.

"I think I found what you want, Matt", he said as they turned into a dirt road off the main drag.

"Hassan, this better be good, it's bloody five in the morning! Don't you sleep?" he said to Hassan, still not fully awake.

"A friend call me last night on my hand phone but I didn't receive his message until this morning, battery died. So when I got the message I terus call you. Trust me Matt, you will fall in love with it." Hassan said with a big, big smile on his face.