MEL, AND THE WALKMAN

Sometime in eighty-three.

Mel: Ron.

Mahtr: Ron Isi.

Darhd: Perfect.

Ron: (…)

-

Side A

The Walkman, he sang about a child who wants to be there yet not exactly, there.

Said if he is invisible, of all the wonders he can bring,

The child, not The Walkman, dear.

of all the goodness he shall whisper through—not from the wind nor a shake of that apple tree.

He shall grant wishes, none too absurd and nothing imaginable that is all too unattainable.

Beware not for him to be thought of a ghost nor a creepy voyeur

watching over your every step and making sure the toast fell butter up.

Yeah but no.

A fallen angel, a hopeless romantic.

If he had wings, he said, they got to be retractable and automatic.

-

Mark, yet undead and walking towards Ron Isi. A yellow-tip Marlboro slacked between his lips. The same sad eyes and his stuck up nod.

Why is he always around the corner?

Mark: I was thinking. Maybe you can make pictures of the family.

Ron: Pictures?

Mark: Family portraits. And drawings right here.

He lifted his shirt and pointed to the side of his ribcage down the side of his torso.

Ron: But, but my drawings are not accurate. Not straight. Not for tattoos. Not good for that.

Mark: I was gonna pay Zull 600 dollars to do it. You know Zull?

Zull? Amelyn's boyfriend who does not know Mark, does he?

The winter sun shone through the gaps of the wooden blinds. Chains of crystals patterned the grim English carpet. The room was dim and sure was busy on the road behind. The patterns faded in and faded out, yellow on brown, as the clouds shifted. Ron was going to be late for a scheduled meeting. She did not care much about it. Too late anyway. Lit and darken, as a child fooled around with the switch of the table lamp, as an adult did unable to go to sleep.

An unburned cigarette waiting to be relit. She felt strange on her head. On the top-left. Was it the scotch or the accidental bump on Cuz's head while they were in the car. It hurt and it did not. What is another word other than strange but strange. Unbalanced head, it was. The sound of the flame lit as the roller turned and held down by the thumb of the writing hand. Pptz sshrr, vvyhhss. Inhaled. Ashes fell like an undramatic London snow. The heat felt between the stained fingers and the lips as the tobacco burnt on the end of the filter. The smoke in the air, into the eyes, onto the light rays slipped through the gaps. The fumes remained as traces on the walls. The ashtray filled with pencil shavings, orange peels? yes, ex-filter tips plastic holders, smoked cigarettes and filthy ashes. The screensaver on the computer came on. Three lighters sat there, with too many other things on this cheesy dining table, multi-tasked as a work desk. Dirty dishes, drawing pens, color pencils, stained coasters, books, maps, trash, materials useful and useless, and more things unlisted. The room dimmed again and chills were felt on her naked legs. The pain was lightweight, not niggling. Still okay.

Another cigarette rolled on her lips.

I am embarrassed of her procrastination.

A cup of tea, not exactly the English way. An hour late alright, postponed anyway.

This was supposed to be about Mel and The Walkman.

Go away Mark. Stop haunting me already.

Ron found a spot up the slope on the fence and lock her bike up on the elevated ledge. Considered Mark's request—probably not. They left the room and went downstairs. The first bar passed was not ready to serve, they went to the shop next door. Orozco's pool table sat above the conventional. They sat around it but were too many suddenly. 4PM—she wrote on the back of her hand. I'M STILL ALIVE—printed on her oversized green jumper. Out of it and out of the stripy boy shorts, she'd a gold Casio digital on, not yet ready to go. Not yet ready for Mel. Already too many buses had stopped for boarding and departing. Move on.

Time flies so quickly, soon I will be—dead, anyway.

The room dimmed again. The stench remained on everything in her possession. It is disgusting. Someone whispered. There's a man lurking on the corner of her toilet tile. The spiders left. No longer there. Spring is soon to arrive and an hour back to the future. Stubbed out the filthy cigarette and the paper creased against the glass ashtray. Two sips of tea and 4 miles to ride. Is Ron's ready for Mel?

Mykr made it all so simple, like it was so easy, so easy to tell a story. He had it in him. His words, his voice, his posture. It's his character and it's clearly written all over his drawings. But where is Mel and The Walkman?

It'd been two weeks. Time goes by as time went by.

I don't know where to start, really. The guest room? The gallery? The bookshop? The walkman? The buddy burgers? The ER? The fish 'n' chips? Or the red jeep?

"Let me help you with this," a strange man said.

It was Mel's gallery, Ron remembered. A good day out, the street could be seen through the glass panels that were stretched from the ground to the ceiling and both ends of the gallery walls. On Sixth Avenue, it sat on the corner of the cross-junction. It was rather quiet out, almost a ghost town on contrary to the perfect weather. The gallery was busy, not too many people but too many canvases leaned against the walls of hung paintings. Ron was in an awkward and uncomfortable position, juggling the unpacked oversized drawings she'd brought for Mel who was not there then, and lost she was, a stranger gave her a hand.

Point is, Mel is family and Ron supposed she could pull all the strings she could ever find now that she did not know what to do with her life. Besides Mel'd always been supportive and encouraging. In fact while Ron was growing up, both of them had and needed each other. Mel is an Aunt and almost a friend.

Oh, because Bhraf has a gawdmahtr, Ron thought she'd like to have one too.

Bhraf has Aunt Ann, Ron has Aunt Mel. It was perfect and (just) fair, in sort of such a sense.

I guess.

Ron had a medical history of constant nosebleed (Epistaxis). Heatiness, Mahtr insisted; although the doctor said something about some tissue too thin, something about the nasal bones. Also, as on eMedicineHealth.com, it was recorded to occur more in Winter months and in dry, cold climates—strange for Ron, growing up on a humid tropical island. So often, then, it became natural, it was—normal. She would sit on the glazed ceramic tiled steps, the width of 2 regular doors, leading between the lounge and the dining room of Nana's, Ron would lower her chin down, when she was told otherwise, and watch her blood dripping on the double-ply paper napkin. Open out, she unraveled the beauty of those patterned stains, bright red blots, not exactly Pollock's, more of an organic geometry. Epistaxis is common in children aged 2 to 10 years and apparently for reasons unknown, they commonly occur in the morning hours. Like I said, it was a regular routine for Ron till that one fine night (not considered morning since it was midnightish) it got dramatic and frightening (as quoted from the first line of the description on eMedicineHealth.com). Her nose, with a mind of its own, could not stop leaking red. The smell of the blood and the taste of it… just like the taste and the smell of—blood. How can I describe it. Mental, the English would say. That night, the entire family was a bundle of nerves.

Was Bhraf worried as Mahtr and all of them were?

Okay, that's not exactly the point.

Anyway, too much blood lost = no good; Ron had to be taken to the hospital. They were on their way to Alexandra Hospital, which was 3 miles away. Ron laid on Mel's lap thinking she was going die, only because she was affected by everyone's anxiety in Pop's S-class (W116). Darhd was driving, Mahtr on the front next to him, and there was Mel and gawddarhd-to-be Ed.

Mel: You are going to be okay.

Ron: (…)

She remembered being comforted, as sheets of tissue paper were stuffed up her nostrils. A boxer in a ring took a hit on his nose and fell in slow-motion, face smacked down against the hard hollow ground. The bell rang and the spectators raised as they cheered for the good man won. Arrived at the ER and the bleeding stopped while waiting, too long. Doctor said it was—normal. No worries. No prescription. Ron could not remember when was the last time she had a nosebleed.

It was amusing, rather.

Mel: I am hungry.

Ron: Already?

From behind the tall blue counter, they sat, Ron popped out of the second-hand bookshop which was on the top level,with 2 golden coins; she ran down the single escalators of this gloomy aged Plaza, out of it then down again to BurgerKing in the basement.

Ron: 1 buddy burger, to go please.

In ninety-one, Mel was pregnant for the first time and Ron would spend her after-school hours accompanying her as a runner. Hourly food cravings and constant headaches, Ron was right beside her aunt: snack hunting, sharing it and finishing them; hand her over the ointment, painkillers and provide massage sessions; and everything else to make her feel better. Acting cashier, stamping due-dates on the book-slips, handling change and packing them in the bags. It was enjoyable as a child playing a working adult. Apart from that, Ron loved the attention she received from the owner of the shop next door who was also a charming television star. As Mel expanded her chain of second-hand bookshops over the years, Ron helped out with the artistic direction for her growing business. Ron'd always admired Mel's and Ed's partnership in business and in love. They had humble beginnings, as a florist she was and him, a lab technician, before their entrepreneurship flourished with ups and downs. On Teachers' Day during her pre-school, Ron would be praised by her teachers as she presented them with flowers Mel had selectively picked for her giveaways. And Ed, in his bright red Jeep Islander, would bring them the ever-so-tasty fish 'n' chips from the canteen of the technical institute he worked at, of those afternoons Ron would hang out with Mel and Ed's newborn, Nyck. In sort of a guest room, on the ground floor of Nana's bungalow, that was where Ron spent most of her sleep-overs. Not the biggest nor the smallest room ever been, a bunk bed set perpendicular to a single bed of wooden made frames under the likely grilled window with horizontal white vinyl blinds, a drawer cabinet doubled as a dressing table with a temporary sheet of mirror reclined against the wall, a 3-door beech finished wardrobe arranged behind the door next to the bunk bed, covered on speckled grey floor paper and bakelite light switches installed. A piece of batik hung from the ceiling with an attached coil spring—it was a baby cradle suspended in the middle of the room. The blinds drawn down, the room was dark and chilly with the cold air conditioner lowered in temperature. Ron gently shook the cradle up and down to coax Nyck to sleep as they got ready for a collective afternoon nap. The Walkman sang a lullaby, R for Ron and L for Mel. The PLAY button reset as the spools stopped turning...

Ron climbed over the drain on Darhd's D.I.Y. bridge, passed Black's grave, through the rusty gate in the backyard and ran back into that room from an unexpected safari. Captivated by its bizarre setting, she'd wanted to photographed it—the dusty land and the rainbow that fell behind the migrating parade. She rummaged through the boxes on the upper bunk bed but could not find her camera anywhere.

Ron: Did you see it?

Mel: (…)

Side B

Fast forward to the track after. Likely 5 to 6 by either ways, altogether forgotten.

The words printed on the pages of this book were once learned, now forgotten.

The Walkman rowed the boat, as the little one sat,

forehead pressed on the passenger seat window.

"What's on your mind?" he inquired.

"Nothing," Ron replied.

Incredible.