Childhood by Peh Jia Yun (17)

I, Peh Jia Yun, was born on 16th of August, in 1992, two weeks later that the predicted date (I am mad to stay in there for so long). Since I was my parents' first child, it was natural that my parents and relatives were exhilarated the moment they received the news that I was born. My mother told me that my uncles and aunties were prepared with cameras the moment she entered the house with me. There was indeed a lot of photo-taking going on in the house on that day: I found a lot of photos that was taken when I was a baby (I hardly take any photos nowadays, because I hate taking photos). My brother was not given much attention though. I suppose my uncles and aunties were probably sick of babies by then. Anyway, my brother was a total replica of me when he was a baby, so there wasn't much purpose in taking photos of him, is there?

I lived with my paternal grandparents when I was young. I grew up with my male cousins who are much, much older than me. However, the only thing I like about them is their bedroom. I loved to ransack their bedrooms, because you can always find out what they are hiding under their pillows, ha! My sole purpose is to find toys to play with of course, although there were hardly any toys in their rooms. I always managed to find things that were not much of a use to me. Besides exploring the house, I spent my spare time doing my three main hobbies: Talking, playing "pretend" games and watching the television. Reading is not one of them because the only books I have is a collection of soppy fairy tales which I got from one of my aunties on my birthday. I got a lot of those yucky, furry soft toys from my other uncles and aunties too. I would never dream of touching them when I was young, yuck!

You might not believe it, but I loved to talk when I was a toddler. It was probably due to the fact that my limbs are not as well-developed as my mouth, so I start to use this fully-developed part of my body on everyone from day to night. Yes, I talk to everyone. Including strangers I never met. Maybe it was because of this that I tend to be quieter in the later part of my life. When I am a bit older, I also spent mine time playing “pretend” games with my beloved cousin, Hui Yan, who was one year older than me. I always hated it when she took the role of being my mother and I have to act as her son. Yes, not daughter but son. This is probably due to the fact that I behaved more like a boy than a girl (You would too if you happen to grow up with boys!) During our pretend games, we would go to the “market”, which happens to be the living room. There, I changed into the role of being the fishmonger while she tries to bargain with me, over the price of the “fish”. After a long argument, she “bought” the fish and left the market with her “son”, who happens to be the fishmonger several minutes ago. I loved to watch the television too. I remembered that there was one year when my mother moved to my maternal grandparent’s house with me because she was sick of my paternal grandparents. My maternal grandparents loved me because I am what they called “obedient”. They only need to put me in front of the TV, and I will sit there quietly all day, staring at the screen. It was a much easier task to look after me than my rowdy little male cousins. Somehow, all my aunties, on the maternal or paternal side, are great at producing male descendants for their family, so much so that my father was a bit disappointed on learning that his first-born is a girl. Maybe that is why they insist that my hair has to be short like a boy’s, until I was nine years old, when I started to complain.

My parents moved out of my paternal grandparents’ house when I was six years old. We moved into a new HDB flat in Seng Kang. There, I attended Seng Kang Primary School. When school was about to start, my mother took me to the hairdresser who ruin my hair. I went into her shop as a girl and came out looking like a boy. I admit that my features were plain, if not ugly, but my new hairdo changed my appearances totally: I looked like a boy!

I vividly remembered the time when I went to the canteen to buy food during recess, and the
canteen vendor said to me, “Ah boy, what do you want?” I was rather peeved even though I thought that it was amusing. This continued for several days until she saw that I was wearing a skirt. She went, “What? You are a girl?” leaving me totally embarrassed. One of the thing that annoyed me most of all during my primary school days was my surname. My surname is “bai” in Chinese, meaning white. However, it changed into “Peh”, because I am of Hokkien origin. I used to be extremely irritated when my teachers called my full name. I am even more annoyed when my classmates thought that my surname is “pei” in Chinese. The sound of my surname in Hokkien irks me.

Life in primary school was quite relaxing and boring, which is to say that we follow the same routine every day. I found myself having the chance to read more books and immerse myself in the literary world. My brother joined me in school when I was Primary Five. He took after me in many ways. He is quiet in class, does not enjoy company and hates the sun.

Time flew. I say, “Childhood?” and someone replied-----“It is long gone.”