The first explosive blooms illuminating the sky above the Marina Bay Sands resort told Alvin Koh that 2019 had given way to 2020. He gazed upon the myriad of colours as they faded into nothingness and the next fiery flowers in the routine took their place. The floor to ceiling windows gave him a front-row view of the performance of ethereal lights, which had become a tradition in Singapore. He wondered what his grandfather would have thought of the show. The old man would probably have dismissed it as a waste of money. He had always been frugal, a habit developed while he lived in poverty as a migrant worker who had come to Singapore to seek a fortune that had been denied him in China. Then again, fireworks shared a common origin with his grandfather, although it was unlikely the old man would have seen anything like the show presently before Alvin.
A single tear made its way from the corner of Alvin’s left eye, running a downwards path across his cheek before dangling precariously off the side of his square jaw. Alvin hated the singular path his memories took every time he thought about his family. From grandfather to father. The father who had been outlived by his own father. The heartbreaker who had his heart broken in return.
As the booming explosions died down outside the windows and the last dregs of the rainbow flowers conveyed their final well wishes for the New Year, Alvin found himself wishing he had been able to say his goodbyes properly. He wanted to curse his father for condemning him unknowingly.
His heart had been broken twice in the last twenty-four hours and it was all his father’s fault.
A sense of self control which he had been developed since he was a child prevented Alvin from laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of it all. If only he had exercised the same restraint the day before. Could it have given him a Happy New Year? Or would fate have found a new way to catch up with him eventually?
The future had arrived, but not for Alvin. He was a victim of the past.
…to be continued
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