Friend

He rode his motorcycle into the dim zinc-roofed shed and turned off the ignition. Cradling his red-coloured helmet under one arm, he walked into the fluorescent-lit college lobby. He looked like any other young university student on campus. Fresh-faced earnestness framed with thick glasses, clad in a floppy grey T-shirt and baggy shorts. He had just returned from a late night supper at the KL Gate burger stall with his girlfriend. After dropping her off at First College, he headed back to Sixth College. He had planned to play his computer game for about half-an-hour before turning in for the night.

 'Beep beep'

 He looked at the flashing light on his Samsung Galaxy. An in-coming text. He deftly flicked at the screen and the following message popped up - 'Hv u written ur part of the elective report? Nd to print tonite n submit tmr. Ruben.'

He ran his fingers through his short spiky black hair and gasped slightly. He had forgotten about the assignment which was due the next morning. He jogged swiftly up the staircase and kicked aside a few stray slippers on the way to his room, dodging soapy droplets dripping from the laundry slung from the metal piping overhead.

Sliding his helmet under his rickety wooden bed and throwing his bunch of keys on the mattress, he flipped open his laptop and double-clicked on the folder marked 'Elective Phase III'. The mouse hovered over the Word Document marked 'Elective Report' and his right index finger tapped twice swiftly on the mouse button. He drummed the fingers of his other hand on the formica top impatiently.

He sat down on the flimsy green plastic chair, his feet cool on the slippery tiled floor. He watched in disbelief as a dialog box appeared and proclaimed 'The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.' He swore at the computer and double-clicked again. Same message.

He looked at the glowing numbers on his phone. 00.05 AM. Half the college would be asleep by now. He winced as he tried to figure out what had gone wrong. He had been working on the report with Ruben and the other teammates in the computer lab earlier in the afternoon when he realized that he had forgotten to bring his USB drive and sent the file to himself via e-mail instead. Having replaced the original draft on his hard disk with the downloaded version, he now had no point of reference. No way to retrieve his original draft, not even to rewrite his newly-edited part of the report. Not unless...

He quickly unlocked his door and slipped on his flip-flops, USB drive in hand. He knocked on the wooden door of the room two doors away.

Nothing. Then, a groan.

"Ming Chee, it's me, Jason."

"What? I have gone to bed," came a muffled reply from within.

"Can I get the elective report file off you? Mine has been corrupted, I can't open the file."

"Oh man, do you know what time it is now? Sleeping edi. Tomorrow lah, you come look for me tomorrow," Ming Chee said groggily. He buried his face in his soft, warm pillow and hoped that Jason would go away.

"Please, Ming. Ruben needs to compile and pass it up by tomorrow. He'll kill me if I don't sort this out tonight. Please," Jason said.

"Hmph."

"Please lah."

The door creaked open, letting a sliver of light pool onto the floor. Ming Chee held out an oblong-shaped blue USB drive.

"OK...OK, take this. Return to me tomorrow then. Good night, Jason," he mumbled.

"Thanks! Thank you so much, Ming. Owe you one, bro."

Jason rushed back to his room and plugged Ming Chee's USB drive into his own machine. Then he put on his headphones and went to work.

[Image copyright of Gerald Chong Art www.gerartchong.com]