Samantha, Linda, Diane, Juli, Willie, Andre, Ling, Christopher are some of the names i came across when I was working as a waiter at United Square. So that was 2 years ago, the names remain in my mind. Pictures were taken then just to remind myself how they looked like many years later. Life was pretty slow, an epidemic called SARS strike the town then, my workplace was near a hospital called Tan Tock Seng hospital which happened to house qurantined SARS personnel. The restaurants were pretty empty then. We were told to wash our hands frequently. Customers were scarce, talking time plenty. So every shift, I talked to the above mentioned names. Gossip, which food was bad on the menu, life, generic stuff, life in general. OK.

Besides washing hands, the next thing i was concerned about is getting to know these people. Improving relationships with them, dig about their past, squeeze out some scandals. I drank a lot of water since it was free and it was good for the skin. It was also to quench my thirst for all the talking i did. There will be people who don't talk much like Linda. She's not really into talking. She's more into getting the job done. She was the longest servant of the restaurant and she was paid 2 dollars more than us per hour. She got this piercing on her nose that really distracted me a lot and she rode a motorcycle. A biker girl, nicer name. Cool.

The epidemic extended my working hours by making time pass slower, it was also the time when Linda and I started talking much more. She will tell me her enemies, politics within the restaurant, other stories of other colleagues, her life. She was one year older than me but she looked years ahead of her age. She started working part-time when she was 14 and never stopped ever since. She did not stay with her parents and there was animosity between herself and her father. She never took allowance from her family, the part-time jobs paid for her studies in Poly. She paid for her petrol and her motorcycle. She paid for her rental where she stays. She was probably the most independent person i ever knew at her age. She was pretty much a very simple girl trying to make ends meet at such a young age.

Years after I will hear the news from my good friend, Dewei, that she was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Then i will recall, days before I enter NS, i went to that resaturant one last time. Linda was working and gave me a discounted meal of 30%. She was doing the cashier. That was probably the last time i saw her.
I knew her for a mere short 3 months. We were probably just aquiantances. But I just felt that uneasiness in my heart. She probably didn't get to reconcile with her dad. She dreamt about studying in a university by her own means.
She was such a survivor. A survivor in life. But not a survivor of fate.

I will walk along the streets near United Square again. Back to the restaurant. I will probably recollect something from there.