:: The In-Betweens ::
It's amazing how kids (in this case,those who are robbed of their well-deserved childhood) can grow so comfortable with people so effortlessly. Perhaps its just what they went through previously, and having given an opportunity for people to shower them a little attention, they won't think twice about grabbing it.

My cousin adopted a pair of twins, both girls, aged six. On top of that, there's another girl aged 5, a lovely 3-year old boy, and an older 10-year old. After a trip to the playground, they ran into my aunt's place, and I admit, I was a little uncomfortable...cos I was used to having familiar kids around that I could just grab and tease and play with.

They stood in a straight line, waiting for their turns to kiss my hand. Amazingly, one of the twins sat right beside me, and locked her hand in my arm. And then came the 5 year-old who sat right on my lap and whispered, -

"What is your name?"

And that's all it takes. I spent the rest of my visit there listening to their stories, and one of them got me stitches laughing at just about everything she has to say. Its just heartbreaking to try understand what such lovely children has to go through before they were brought here. One of them told me that the reason why she couldn't talk to her real mother was because she's away, she'll be overseas for a long time.... and it breaks my heart to know they actually really believed it.

Sitting there makes me feel selfish. Cos earlier on I had sulked over my dad taking over the dvd player to watch his war movies.

I told Im all about them this morning. (One of them had actually, by accident, called him from my phone, and they had a conversation... ) His reaction?

"Can I borrow them for a day?" Haha.

I have a clear picture of all of them in my mind. Some things they said are still lingering...

"Oh, my school's Bukit Batok Butersh Skosh." It's Butter Scotch..that's her class.:)