Roundabout
It was a dark night. The roal I was travelling on was dimly lit, brightened up only by the light reflecting from the full moon. I was driving towards a roundabout in Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim Road, to send a passenger who wanted to go back to Tuas. It was three a.m. in the evening. There were not many vehicles going on the same road. I could only see a motorcyclist riding in front of my taxi, another car and a truck travelling a few hundred metres behind me.
The motorcyclist ahead of me was turning into the roundabout. The it happened. Out from nowhere, from the other side of the roundabout, a minibus shot out into it.
The motorcyclist was hit by the speeding minibus. There was no screeching sound. I knew that the minibus driver did not even make any effort to jam-break. Without any thought, he ran over the motorcyclist. From where I was, I saw that he turned his head back for a while and then the bus sped off faster. The minibus driver had fled the crime scene immediately.
I stopped the taxi immediately, for I knew I had to help the motorcyclist. I ran towards the motorcyclist who was lying sprawled on the road. I stopped short and stood there by his body. It was a gruesome sight. What was left of his body was a bloody mess, with his intestines and body parts spilled out on the road.
I was the only vehicle that was near enough to see what had happened. Sadly, I was not fast enough and could not remember the minibus vehicle number. Even my passenger was too shock to note anything down.
It was a traumatic experience, to see someone die so horribly before your very eyes. I then made the necessary calls and reported to the police whatever little I knew. I will never be able to forget the terrifying scene.
I had to pass by the road seven days later, after dropping off a passenger nearby. Again, it was late into the night. As I approached the roundabout, I thought I saw a motorbike parked at the side. I was not sure and had to strain my eyes in the darkness. It was a motorbike parked at the roundabout and I could barely see too a man clad in the dark shirt and pants. He had a helmet on, so I thought he must be the rider. He seemed to be looking around for something, ignoring my vehicle which was approaching the roundabout.
I drove into the roundabout and avoided him. I stopped my taxi slightly ahead, wind the window down and put my head out.
“Hey! It’s very dangerous to park here without switching your hazard lights!” I yelled at the guy.
Strangely, he ignored me, as he continued his search on the road.
“Hey, you hear me or not?” I shouted again.
Still the rider ignored me.
“You want to die or what?” I was pissed mad by then.
Then I saw the rider looked up from where he was standing. I saw him staring straight at me. He was just standing there, in the middle of the road refusing to budge.
My taxi too was stopped quite to the centre of the road. I quickly drove my taxi around the roundabout and stopped about 30 metres behind his bike and parked it near the road curb. I switched on the hazard lights, got out of my taxi and walked towards the rider.
I walked nearer to him. The rider by this time had turned his body around to face me. He was still looking at me. However, just a few metres before I reached him. He turned his body away and continued searching.
“Can I help you or not?” I asked.
I got no reply.
“What are you looking for, young man?”
There was no reply.
“Oi, you deaf or what? Cannot hear what I ask you, is it?”
Still no answer, but this time he turned his head and glanced at me once.
The rider was quite a big-bodied guy so I dared not touch him and demand what he was doing in the middle of the road.
I was afraid of his safety. I knew then that I could not let the motorcyclist search on the road like this without keeping a watch for him. The accident that happened seven days ago was vivid in my mind. And I would not want another one to occur. The way he walked into the middle of the road without even checking for traffic was totally reckless. The rider was not about to give up his search.
In the end, I decided to stand a little further up the road, keeping a lookout for incoming traffic. Luckily, there were not many vehicles on that road so it was easier for me to signal to them to drive slower. I was busy looking out for the traffic that I did not realise the rider had stop searching and probably found what he was looking for. When I turned around, I saw that he standing right beside my taxi, near the driver door.
“Oi, oi what are you doing there?” I shouted from where I was standing. I was worried. The first thought was that he was going to steal something from my taxi. “Oi, oi, wait!”
I ran towards my taxi. Being an old man, I was quite slow. By the time I reached my taxi, the rider had already walked away to his motorbike.
I looked into my taxi to see if anything was missing. Nothing was missing except that I found my taxi record book was on my seat. It was opened. I looked up my taxi to find the rider but he was no longer in sight.
“Strange. How come I did not hear the sound of his bike.” I thought to myself.
The air had turned chill by now. There were no motorists around and suddenly the thought of being alone there was spooky. I quickly drove away.
The incident was still in my mind. I decided to take a rest and drove to a coffeeshop in Jurong East where I know I could find the other taxi drivers.
“Eh Teck, over here!” My friend Ah Leong called out the moment he saw me.
I waved back at him and smiled and sat down on an empty seat at his table. Two other taxi drivers were also there.
“Wah… you look so tired Teck. Let be belanja you tea. Your usual huh, tea less milk.” After a while, the other two taxi drivers left to continue their work.
Ah Leong knew me well. Ah Leong knew that something was not right so he began to ask how was my day. I told him how it was and finally, I could not resist bringing up the topic about the motorcyclist I had met earlier.
“What Teck, you saw another motorcyclist at the same spot looking for something?” Ah Leong asked to confirm what I just told him.
“Ya, looking for something never mind, but that boy don’t know how to say thank you. You know or not, he even went to my taxi and I don’t know what he did.”
“Anything missing or not?”
“No lah, nothing… but my record book was on my seat. I know I did not leave it there. Must be that boy. He must have taken the record book from the compartment and dropped it on the seat when I shouted at him. Don’t know why lah.”
Ah Leong was silent for a while.
“Teck, did you check the record book or not?” Ah Leong broke the silence.
“Huh, no, what for?”
“You have it here with you?”
“Ya.”
“Just check it lor.” Ah Leong urged me. I took the record book out of my pocket and looked through the contents.
I was shocked. On the page after my last entry that I made in the afternooe, I saw a large scribbled of a vehicle number. Knowing that it belonged to a huge transport vehicle with the number plate starting with XY, I showed the number to Ah Leong.
Both of us stared at each other. From the expression in his eyes, I knew that the same thought was in our minds.
“Hello? Ah Leong!”
“Hello? Ah Teck is it?” Ah Leong answered his handphone.
“Ah Leong, ah, yes it is me.”
“Wah you sound so happy? Strike lottery huh?”
“Wah you so smart. Of course lah.”
“Congratulations! How much you win? Big or small?”
“Big, very big.” I laughed a little and continued, “One hundred thousand dollars.”
“One hundred thousand dollars!” Ah Leong was surprised. “Wah, very good for you, Teck. I’m very happy for you.”
“Eh, for you good also. Thank you my friend. See me at the coffeeshop, okay?”
“Okay, no problem. What number you buy, Teck, you win so big?”
“You know that truck number that the motorcyclist wrote on my record book. I gave the police the bus number that day before we went home. The police just caught the minibus driver that hit the motorcyclist two days ago. I struck first prize for fifty dollars yesterday.”