You called on the way to the hospital. Your sister had suffered a stroke the night before.
"I was up till 2 am last night," you said.
"How is she?" I asked.
"Not too good, but doctors have not confirmed anything," you whispered.
"Should I go? Are you okay?" I asked.
"No, don't come. I'm fine."
We:
I woke up with a string of red, itchy lumps down the back of my left hand, wrist and forearm. I don't know what could have possibly caused them and you don't remember seeing them the night before.
"Bedbugs!" you cried out over the phone some days later. "The bed is infested with bedbugs! I got up in the middle of the night to spray Baygon on the mattress."
"Baygon? Is there a special spray for bedbugs?"
"Baygon works. But there is a special spray, probabaly similar to the medicine to get rid of ticks in dogs."
The next weekend I realised you had removed the bedsheets and we would have to sleep directly on top of the mattress. There was a hint of insecticide in the air from the Baygon but it was bearable. Armed with a pair of tweezers and a can of Baygon, we examined the edges of the mattress and divan for any signs of the pest. I found a number which you quickly caught with your tweezer and squashed in a piece of tissue paper.
"There were quite a number on the right side of the bed," you said, matter-of-factly.
"My side?" My first response was to feel guilty that I might have been the medium that had introduced the bedbugs.
"Hey wait a minute," I retorted, after a while. "Do bedbugs avoid the light? Your side is nearer to the window so obviously they will want to hide on my side cause it's darker."
"Perhaps," you said.
Why is a HDB car park so full on a Friday night? Don't the residents go out?
"Haven't seen a new bruise the whole week," you announced as you finally backed into the only available parking slot.
"You sound disappointed."
Later at home, I could see that the old bruise on your right tricep has started to heal. The centre of the bruise has regained the usual healthy skin colour leaving a swirling ring of purple.
I am worried.
You woke up with 2 bruises the size of fifty cent coins, one on each arm. You don't remember what could have possibly caused them and I don't remember seeing them the night before.
You said, "I know someone who had such mysterious bruises before. It could be caused by some blood-related disease."
"Is it serious?"
"Fatal," you said.
"You should see a doctor tomorrow."
You said, "Let's wait and see if more of such bruises crop up."
