Just a piece of metal

Some one year ago, I found that I was in love.



With this!







Somehow only the red version seems to be omninescent (can't spell this word) but the Topaz Gold one unavailable.



After some futile searching, Jealous June announced to me excitedly that she found the phone, sold at $485, at a mobile shop at Bedok, second hand!



I excitedly bought the phone.



Woah, diamonds! So pretty =)



*





Today, I went out with my brother and Wong the Lawyer. The former to see a doctor for his fever (and zits - man he is growing), and the latter to book my basic theory test with(what good is my SLK without a license to drive it?) and shop after that.



My brother, who is 11 this year and a gameboy advance addict, accompanied me to Bukit Batok Driving Centre after seeing the doctor.



Later on, Wong and I decided to go to City Hall to shop, and it is a little silly to ask Clinton to tag along with us as he would be so sian with us/we cannot crack dirty jokes/he is having a fever.



(digressing, yes my brother is called Clinton. And yes, his name is chosen before Bill Clinton's embarrassing affair. And yes, I am very glad I am not called Monica, for it would seem like I am incestuous with my bro. And yes, if I were called Monica and my surname is Cheng it would have the double effect of sounding like Mo ni ca Cheng, hokkien for touching one's bum. And yes, I am pretty glad that my bro is not called Peter and our surnames are not Pan either. KNN)



So I told Clinton to take one of my phones with him (I have two phone lines) so that at least if he is lost I can still contact him. We left him at Jurong East to take a bus home.



I gave him the T500, shown above.



Predictably, the silly git lost it. He dropped it on the bus seat because he was sleeping and predictably, the phone fell out of his pocket.



My mum called me as I was shopping with an innocent Wong.



"Girl, di di dropped your phone on the bus leh. I already called the bus interchange to try to get it back."



"WHAT?!"



"HOW CAN HE DO THAT?!"



Eekean jumped.



I proceeded to give my bro a call to holler at him.



"WHY DID YOU DROP THE PHONE??! How can you do that? So careless!"



"No, because I sleep then when I wake up it is gone ... "



"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK IN THAT TONE TO ME?! Like it is not your fault now is it? Whose fault is it that it disappeared?"



"Mine."



"THEN? Why you speak in that indignant tone?!"



"I feel and discover that the phone is gone then I tried to run back and chase the bus," he mumbled. "But then when I run I got a stitch and it was very painful so I fell down."



Heh. I didn't know what to say. And I cannot just stop hollering like that because it is very out of style so I continued to yell at him (anyway I had to vent my anger on someone) although I felt quite bad that he fell down.



"I don't care what happened after you lose it, you shouldn't have left it on the bus in the first place!"



*awkward silence*



"So what you gonna do about it?"



"I will pay you with my bank's angpow money."



"Yeah, like you got enough money to pay! You think money can buy back the same phone?"



*awkward silence*



"HIYAH NEVER MIND LAH!"



*kup phone on bro*





************





My mum messaged me on my singtel line later on.



"I will pay $300 for your phone please don't be angry with him anymore."









This one little sentence had a tidal effect on me.



Untangling the emotions, this is possibly what I felt:



1) Injustice at being made to sound like I AM THE EVIL GUY HERE and my brother is the victim.

2) Huge pang of jealousy for my mum's protectiveness over him as if he were still a fragile kid.

3) Guilt for my brother's misery (the parts caused by my yelling anyway).





Wong supplied, "Hiyah, then what do you expect her to do?"



True enough.



******************





Later on after asking my mum how come she make it sound like he did nothing wrong and I am the one making him miserable instead of him me, she said he thoroughly deserved the scolding (I felt slightly better) but she also ...



1) Saw that he was sobbing when she reached home ...





and the super kua zhang (exaggerated):





2) Was digging his piggy bank for cash to buy a new phone for me.





**************





I feel so guilty I almost died.



It became clear lah. I was stupid, I was. The phone is just a piece of metal, and my brother is flesh and blood.



No point getting him all upset over a silly phone. I'll apologize to him tomorrow. All the medicine made him sleep by the time I reached home.





Meanwhile, any suggestions on what phone to get??? Seems like all the phones are so ugly nowadays. No, no 7610. Too expensive. Anything else?