The floor beneath my ass

FB post @ Jan 24

I sat on the cement floor in the first bedroom to cool down. This was my bedroom for all of my high school years in Taiping, all to myself after my sister left home to work in the city. In this humble single story house in Taman Air Kuning, only one room in the entire house was tiled - the living room. My dad is not a fancy nor a fussy guy. Even back then, in my clueless tender age, I knew this was not the best looking flooring. But I never minded it, we didn’t have no air-con through all the years - this cool cement floor has accompanied and provided me a cooling place to read on hot days. 

I have vivid memories of my idyllic school holiday afternoons and where I spent countless hours on this less than attractive bedroom floor, reading many copies of old Readers’ Digest, and other books. With curtains drawn and the floor fan, I could lie here for hours without leaving the room; traveling to faraway places in the pages I feast my eyes on. Those innocent years, stresses of life were of a different kind. Never will I be that again. 

On this very floor was the first time ever I place a pair of earphones in my ears, listening to my sister’s copy of Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable album. 

Today, after an hour or two of air-con in the living room (my dad installed two units of AC in this house two years ago) watching Netflix on my phone, I took a shower and returned to my old room and decided to read a bit. I sat on this floor again to cool down, with a novel...and got transported back in time to my childhood. But this girl who enjoys reading on the cool floor is now much older and her soul bartered with less innocent stresses of life. 

We don’t know for how long more we will keep this old little house here. Now there’s talks of moving the old folks to the city where my sister and I live. But before any of the major changes to come into form, it’s lovely to be cooling my hot ass on this ugly but adorable floor, reading a book.