Flying Burger (3 page)

Evon was also with this group of friends. She did not have a boyfriend at the moment and kept asking many questions about Chen Wei.

"Does Chen Wei have a girlfriend, huh, huh?" she asked Elaine. She looked and sounded desperate enough.

"I heard Diana is his girlfriend. Don't they look like a couple?"

"Are you sure or not?" Evon displayed a look of dismay.

"Well, I only heard about it from someone."

"You must have heard wrongly," Evon sounded very sure.

"Does he have a brother?" Evon asked unexpectedly. She was not one who gave up easily.

"That I'm not sure."

"He looks just like my pop idol, so handsome," Evon said softly.

By this time, Chen Wei and Diana had finished singing their song. A thunderous applause followed. Diana did a curtsy and left the stage. Roger announced the next song title.

"Chen Wei will sing the next song. This is an old time favourite, 'Together in Electric Dreams'."

A guitarist came onto the stage. He began to strum his electric guitar several times, testing it. It worked fine.

Silence.

"This is one of my mum's favourite song. Mum, this is for you," Chen Wei said.

Mrs. Chen, who sat in the middle of the audience clapped her hands loud and long for her son. The background music slowly flooded in through the giant speakers on both sides of the mini-stage. The guitarist began to strum his electric guitar in tandem with the background music. The two pieces blended perfectly. Chen Wei's clear masculine voice filled the air. "I only knew you for a while...I never saw your smile..." He began singing. The whole hall listened in silence. Everyone picked up the dancing rhythm and felt the urge to get up and dance. When he reached the high-note, "We'll always be together..however far it seems..We'll always be together..together in electric dreams," there was absolute silence. When he finished singing this song, the applause from the audience was resounding. Chen Wei waved his hands, bowed to the audience and was about to exit the stage, when someone yelled for more. It came from the back of the audience. It was Evon! Another "more!" came from the right side of the audience. Shortly after, someone from the left side shouted "more!" too. Many screams were heard once again. The crowd was electrified!

Watching her son performing on stage, Mrs. Chen followed his every movement closely. Her eyes lit up when Chen Wei sang "Together in Electric Dreams." He reminded her of her husband who was away on an oversea business trip. Her breath caught suddenly in her throat. She missed her husband badly.

"Thank you. I will sing the next song 'First Love', by Paran. This is for all of you out there," Chen Wei nodded to the guitarist who gave him the thumbs-up signal.

The music came on. Chen Wei began to sing, "I believe in you..ooo..yea...Hello I believe you...." This was a contemporary hit song. When he was about to finish singing the first stanza, he pointed at the audience with his left hand, and then suddenly pointed the microphone on his right hand at them when he finished singing the first stanza. The audience carried on singing the second stanza! It was perfect coordination. When he started to sing the third stanza, "...say that I love you," the whole hall echoed him, "...love you.." and sang along with him. Suddenly, a small group of audience sang, "..love you..," adding a ripple-effect to this song. Many clapped and tapped their feet in harmony with the song's tempo.

Chen Wei hopped around on stage with the spot-light close at his heels. His mother's eyes never left him. Chen Wei held the microphone close to his mouth, stretched out his left hand, closed his eyes and reached for the high-note "..yea...so sweet..." He sang his heart out. Many young hearts stopped beating for one minute. Chen Wei exuded youthful charisma. The whole hall was jubilant. When the song ended, Chen Wei smiled and waved to the audience. The applause was resounding. A female fan ran up to the stage holding a bouquet of red roses. She was overly excited and slipped. Chen Wei caught her in his arms and helped her up. She gave her roses to Chen Wei.

"Thank you," he said.

Before he knew what happened, this female fan hugged him tight. She left the stage shortly after.

"Isn't that Evon on the stage? When did she sneak out to buy those roses?" Pointing her finger at Evon, Grace asked her friends.

"I'd like to know the answers too," Vivian said.

"She's fast," Elaine said.

Chen Wei once again thanked the audience before exiting the stage holding his bouquet of red roses.

Roger addressed the crowd. He was all smiles.

“Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Now, I must make an announcement. Our department will be organising a space excursion next week. To be eligible for this space excursion, you need to sign up for our Spaceship Course next year and to answer a simple quiz. The forms are on the third level in this building.” Before Roger barely finished his last sentence, a mass exodus of female students from the exhibition sector occurred and more screams followed. The screams could be traced to the third floor of the same building. Mr. Arumugam was at the third level, inside the Administration Office. Looking at the huge, young crowd fighting for the Spaceship Course application forms, Mr. Arumugam nearly shed tears of joy. The vice-principal, who stood next to Mr. Arumugam, patted him on the shoulder. He gave Mr. Arumugam his look of approval, something so rare that it was like having found a needle in a haystack.

Later in the evening, at the fresh food section of the shopping mall, Mrs. Andersen was pushing her cart along loaded with groceries. She met Mrs. Lin who was coming in the opposite direction also pushing a fully loaded cart.

“What a surprise to see you here, Mrs. Andersen,” Mrs. Lin waved her hand.

“Why yes, how do you do?”

“I’m fine. My husband is also here, he’s at the wine section looking for his favourite red wine.”

“I see.”

“You wouldn’t, by any chance, know what is the ultra-warp speed, would you?” Mrs. Lin spoke in a hush tone, at the same time, leaning closer to Mrs. Andersen.

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Andersen did not hear properly what was said.

“Why, you see, Nikita wants to go for this space excursion. To do that, she has to answer a quiz. One of the questions is on ultra-warp speed. I thought you might have some ideas,” Mrs. Lin said.

“I’m sorry, but I do not have the slightest clue what is this ultra-warp speed that you are talking about. I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

“It’s all right, I guess others may not know the answer too. Thanks, anyway. You have a very good complexion. May I ask what is your secret formula?” Mrs. Lin paid compliments to the mature lady.

“Why, thank you. I’m using a special avocado face-mask formula. My friend gave it to me,” Mrs. Andersen felt exhilarated.

“Avocado, I see. Thank you. I have to get going now, my husband will be worried if he doesn’t see me. Good bye.” Mrs. Lin took note of the ingredient for she intended to try that later.

“Good bye.” Mrs. Andersen echoed.

After arriving home from shopping, Mr. Lin was helping his wife to prepare dinner in the kitchen.

“'Amigos para siempre', that is so sweet. I knew this singer is a nice guy,” Mrs. Lin muttered to herself.

“What amigos, what nice guy?” Mr. Lin overheard his wife and was a bit anxious and a teeny weeny bit jealous.

“Your darling Nikita saw a dashing guy singing in the academy this morning. He sang this song, ‘Amigos Para Siempre’,” his wife said.

“I see.” He was relieved to hear his wife’s explanation, else he would get really jealous, such was his love for his beautiful wife. They had been happily married for more than twenty years and their love for each other seemed to get better with each passing day, month and year. It just got better and better. No turning back.

“Not only that, she also wants to find out the ultra-warp speed. What in the world is that?” Mrs. Lin asked.

“Oh, my darling Nikita wants to be an astronaut, huh?! Mmmm…, ultra-warp speed. Never heard of that one. I will try to find out. Even if she wants the stars in the heaven, I will pluck it for my darling Nikita!”

“What if I also want the stars? Will you pluck them for me too?” His wife asked.

“Of course, my sweetheart! There are so many stars in heaven. We won’t run out of stars, will we? Let me hug you, my sweetheart.” He made the gesture to pounce on his wife, but she got away in time.

“Not now, honey. Nikita is inside her room. What if she sees us?”

“All right, but promise me you won’t get jealous again, otherwise, I will hug you until you see stars.” His wife smiled so sweetly at him that he was sure she was seeing stars at this moment. He chuckled to himself, for he felt so happy that he had married such an adorable wife. She never failed to bring him new experiences every day, even a mundane affair could turn into a romance in her presence.

The following day, Mr. Lin went to Metametica Space Academy to meet up with Mr. Arumugam, the Spaceship Department Manager. He had made an appointment with Mr. Arumugam at nine o’ clock in the morning. Mr. Lin walked along the corridor on the fifth floor and finally found Mr. Arumugam’s office. He knocked on the office door. Mr. Arumugam opened the door and welcomed him in.

“Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Mr. Lin, Nikita’s dad,” Mr. Lin introduced himself and extended his right hand.

“Nice to meet you. I'm Mr. Arumugam, the Manager of Spaceship Department,” he shook hands with Mr. Lin.

Mr. Lin entered the office and sat down on the brown sofa beside the office table. A small coffee table was next to the sofa. Mr. Arumugam phoned the office attendant to prepare two cups of coffee. When the two gentlemen were seated comfortably, they began their conversation.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Lin?” Mr. Arumugam asked.

“I am here to find out what is the ultra-warp speed. You know, there is this question in one of the quizzes.”

After a prolonged conversation, Mr. Lin could not get the answer that he wanted.

At this moment, the office attendant walked in with two cups of steaming hot coffee. She put these two cups on the coffee table and left the room.

“Like I said before, there are five levels in ultra-warp speed, each level representing one technological breakthrough. We are currently at the third level. Have I answered your question?” Feeling a bit exasperated at having to explain science to a layman, Mr. Arumugam went on further to make his point clear by using five books on the coffee table to represent the five levels of ultra-warp speed. He kept pointing to the third book, indicating that this was the current level of ultra-warp speed attainable by existing terrestrial star-ships.

 “I know what you mean by the third level. But, what exactly is the third level? You know, things like how many light years. That kind of thing, you know,” Mr. Lin kept making small, circular motions with his right hand, as if he was scooping imaginary ice-cream.

“Oh…, I see what you mean. I’m afraid I can’t tell you the answer as this would be unfair to the other students. I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, thanks a lot for your time,” Mr. Lin was visibly disappointed. He wanted very much for Nikita to go on this space excursion. He got up from the sofa, shook hands with Mr. Arumugam once again and left the office. He was comtemplating the next thing to do to help his daughter find out what is the ultra-warp speed. Ultra or no ultra, he was going to find out the answer, he made up his mind.

Nikita was in her bedroom, sitting next to her laptop computer. She was busy searching the internet for answers to her quiz questions. She had completed three of the five questions listed on the question paper. She looked at the fourth question. “Compute one divided by zero?”

“Mmm…, this was not taught in mathematics class. What could it be?” She thought to herself. She searched in one of the mathematics websites and finally found a clue. One mathematics professor concluded this question could be computed and went on to put forward his theory. However, another mathematics professor argued it could not be calculated. He too put forth his counter-argument.

“One person say can compute, the other person say cannot compute, now what?” Nikita thought to herself. Suddenly she had an idea. She took out a coin from her purse. She would let the coin decide. “Head for professor one, tail for professor two,” she decided. She threw the coin into the air and let it drop. She caught it in her hand. It was a tail. “That was easy.” She was happy with herself for having solved such a complex mathematics problem. She was attempting the last question before Melissa phoned her on the internet. These days, phone calls could be made over the internet easily. 4G telephone technology had enabled the caller’s three-dimensional miniature image to be transmitted over the internet and projected exactly one metre away from the receiver end.

“Have you finished answering all the quiz questions?” Melissa smiled mysteriously.

“Nope. I have one last question to go. What is this ultra-warp speed?” Nikita searched frantically in all the websites that were listed on her laptop computer, beginning from the top. It was a long list of websites.

“Tomorrow is the dead-line for the quiz , I have all the answers except the last question. Do you have any idea what is the ultra-warp speed? Help!” Nikita was getting impatient.

“I think it is a super, super warp speed able to travel from one end of the universe to the other end using state-of-the-art, star-ship engine propulsion technology,” Melissa was very pleased with her answer.

“Why didn’t I think of that? You’re a genius!” Nikita praised her.

“Of course I’m a genius, don’t you know that? I’ll be offended if you don’t know this simple fact.”

Both girls giggled helplessly.

Two days later, a large crowd of students were waiting outside the Spaceship Department. They were waiting impatiently for the results of the astronomy quiz to be revealed. Everybody was dying to go for this space excursion. A clerk walked out of the administration office and pasted the name list of the winners on the notice-board. The students selected were Chen Wei, Nikita Lin Hui, Melissa Devi Arumugam, Samuel Kim Tae Yung and Antonio Ingenieros.