Time Bomb

Mom, Bridget, Mona and Arif came to the office this morning. They arrived shortly before half past ten. When they arrived, I was in a nearby pharmacy to get something for my runny nose. I rushed back to the office and found them waiting at the reception lobby. Then I brought them to a coffee shop, since they hadn't had breakfast.

At the coffee shop, they started briefing me about the latest news surrounding the Koh family. I'm such a disappointing member of my family because I'm always the last to know about what's been going on, you see. It's not that I don't care about my siblings, but I reckon that it's less stressful to know as little as possible. With my own family, work etc, I've got enough stressful matters to worry about. Mom has been here less than a week, and she's more informed of current affairs than me. But that shouldn't be a big surprise, as she's gifted with her investigative attitude. I bet by the end of this week, she'd be a good source of information on whatever you want to know about our family.

Anyway, mom was telling me that dad had seen a doctor recently. I don't know if mom actually interviewed the doctor herself, but apparently dad's heart is now working at an approximate 28% only—whatever that means. According to mom again, a healthy human heart should ideally perform at around 88%, although it's not exactly abnormal if it performs a little less than that. I'm not sure if that number 8 was because of feng shui which mom just made up herself, or actually unmodified info from the doctor. All these info within only a few days of her arrival, mind you!

If mom's info is to be relied upon, and if I understood her correctly, dad's life is now in grave danger. He is said to be like a walking time bomb. But of course not the kind of a walking time bomb in the nature of the supporters of Osama Bin Ladin. Rather, his heart can fail anytime with fatal consequences!

I've kinda lost track of how long ago was dad's quadruple bypass (heart) surgery, but if I'm not mistaken, it must have been about 3 years ago. Or was it 4 years ago? Of course with his ongoing smoking habit (which he thought we know nothing of), practically no control of his diet against hardly any physical exercise, and unchecked blood sugar level—he's a diabetic, you see—it's quite an achievement that his heart can last this long anyway.

I heard this lately dad has been quite worried of what's to become of his 4 young kids, 3 of whom are already in school, whereas the youngest one will also start schooling soon. I think the mere fact that dad is worried about the well being of his children is quite a miracle in itself. After all, he's been telling everyone all these years that they will survive somehow; that algae can even grow on bare rocks! Actually, he has a point, and what he said about the algae is right! I'm sure he is very pleased with himself now.

Tick-tock-tick-tock...