I remember that time, we were living at the teacher's flat in Sekolah Alam Shah; then, still in Cheras. Ayah came back from work, it was evening naturally. And he said "Ayah ada kereta baru, let's go for a ride!" something along that line. Well, just to make it clear, technically it's a company car but who's complaining right? So off we went; him, Mak, Hadi, Haida and me- my siblings and I particularly, were practically racing down the stairs. The car was parked directly where we can see it from the hallway leading to the roofed carpark. I remember Haida exclaiming "Yeayyy! yeayyyy!" a couple of time. I was at the frontmost, smiling or rather, unsuccessfully trying to hide my smile with Ayah walking by my side. I don't know how or from where the idea came into being but for me then, displaying emotions is not cool.Poor child -_-". Anyway, I was more introverted then than I am now so that probably explains it.
And So, there it was. The Car. A Peugeot! Peugeot! Can you believe it?? Oh well OK. Of course I didn't know a thing about cars or brands but up until then, the cars we are used to were crummy Proton Saga/Waja the likes of them and our mother's battered, second-hand red BMW; the kind where you have to lift up the front seat to get to the back seat and the seats...Well,the seats are a story in itself if you get what I mean.
Now this new car- White, shiny, sleek and obviously foreign-made, sitting so proud on the carpark. And we're not talking about some crummy asian-made car here (please try to remember that I was 6 or 7), this is legit mat salleh's car with an unpronounceable name to boot.
So yeah, for the life of me, I can't recall where it was that we took a ride to. On top of that, after this particular car there were loads of other cars that came and went as replacements which of course can't remember when or what. But this particular moment, I remember with clarity. Probably because of Haida's uninhibited "Yeayys", and although I didn't register it then, in retrospect,-and I'm also saying this at the risk of making me sound overly romantic and idealistic-I'm pretty sure it was also because of Ayah's proud beaming smile at the sight of his wife and children being so impressed and genuinely happy. In short, that moment had a happy cheerful atmosphere about it and what it all boils down to is,that is the kind of stuff reminiscence tend to be made up off. Don't it?
