White towel
Gosh, I thought. I must have left the face towel somewhere on the Abwork Bench (Short form Abdominal work bench), no wonder I felt something was missing from my hand on my way here, felt like I should have carrying something but obviously I didn’t realize it until now. So it was the towel! I made a motionless nod. I stared blank at the locker for while, thinking of what should I do; I had already taken off my red Nike shoes and socks, locker door half opened and my laptop was inside. Nobody knew the laptop was inside; it rested peaceful while I went for work out. Ah just forget about it I thought. It is just a towel, if I’m lucky that the towel counter never find out, I will get through without any hassle. So, I took out a new stock of underwear and headed into the showering room.
I’m going to look for it later, the towel. I thought. Somebody must have been using the Abwork Bench and they probably just toss it aside, on the red carpet floor maybe? seeing nobody come to claim the towel. The shower room didn’t have a shower but just a pipe opening for water to rush out, I had seen these last few weeks, I was using the same shower room then. The same shower room with the toiletries container half spoilt (Body and hair shampoo, and hair conditional). I squeezed the hair shampoo out from the container, rubbed it a few times on my palms before applied it to my hair. Then I thought, crap, it doesn’t give enough bubble to drench all my hair, so I squeezed some more out, but this time I didn’t rub it on my palm. I gave my hair a thorough wash over. My hair was short, so not much of an effort needed.
The water flowed out from the pipe opening in a pre-defined tempo, first it come out strong, then it weaken, it maintains weak, then it become strong again, and maintain strong before it repeats all over again from the first step. By this tempo algorithm thingy, they don’t need a big water supply line to all the shower rooms, given at the same time all the shower rooms are occupied. A simpler explanation is that, while your shower experiences weak water pressure, there will be other occupied shower rooms that experiences strong water pressure, then they will take turn, and vice versa.
I washed every inch of my body under the expected water tempo. Towel I thought, the smell is getting different nowadays; I guess they have changed the laundry company? It smells like hot iron, I imagined that the ironing machine for the towel must have some stain on it, stain as a result of burnt fabric that is failed to be removed, it stuck there forever. As long as the laundry company’s service contract is secured, the smell stays.
So what if I can’t find the towel when I get there, near the Abwork Bench? Should I just grab anyone’s towel and say it’s mine before I get down? What if I grab that person’s towel then only I find my own towel lies on the floor near the Abwork bench, then what should I do? Now this towel reminded me of the huge temple that my friends and I went for a visit. It was a beautiful temple, thousands of light and lantern as decoration, we saw the statue of Buddha, we walked pass countless god and goddess’ statues, we came across wishing lantern – where you write down your wish and hook it under a lantern, pond of lotuses, and we took funny photos together…
Why did I think about temple visit? It has nothing to do with towel. Oh no, it has got some relation. I read the story from some where; if you see people don’t wear shoes before going into a temple (you normally take off your shoes when you step into temple, you leave your shoes at the entrance), you have to be careful, because he might be looking for a pair of suitable size shoes to go home. So this guy chooses a pair of shoes he likes and walks away happily. End of story about the first guy with naked legs. Now the first victim comes out from the temple and finds out his shoes are missing. Frustrated but what can he do? He chooses a pair of shoes and walks away. Although not that happy but at least he is satisfied. The second victim comes out and also surprises that he loses his shoes and then he does the same thing again. This goes on and on until the last person, he goes home without a pair shoes. So it does have connection with my towel story.
So how did this towel story ended?
I walked out from shower room; I found no extra towel left by anyone by accident. So I’m left with only one option; just go ahead and look for my towel near the Abwork bench, if nothing found, just pretend as normal when I approach the towel counter.
In the end nothing happened, nothing could have happened since the beginning, at least not dramatic scene. I returned to them one out of two towels. They either don’t realize or too lazy to be disturbed. I walked out from the gymnasium as if nothing happened. I took my time walking out from the place, like I had all the time in the world.
My inspiration hit me. I went to buy two books from Haruki Murakami – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
***
During the shower, somehow the towel story reminded me of the time when I was in primary school. I stole five bucks from my mum’s wallet that she kept in her drawer. She never realized it, until one day I told her about that. I felt guilty. But she just smiled, and gave me another five bucks.
I’m going to look for it later, the towel. I thought. Somebody must have been using the Abwork Bench and they probably just toss it aside, on the red carpet floor maybe? seeing nobody come to claim the towel. The shower room didn’t have a shower but just a pipe opening for water to rush out, I had seen these last few weeks, I was using the same shower room then. The same shower room with the toiletries container half spoilt (Body and hair shampoo, and hair conditional). I squeezed the hair shampoo out from the container, rubbed it a few times on my palms before applied it to my hair. Then I thought, crap, it doesn’t give enough bubble to drench all my hair, so I squeezed some more out, but this time I didn’t rub it on my palm. I gave my hair a thorough wash over. My hair was short, so not much of an effort needed.
The water flowed out from the pipe opening in a pre-defined tempo, first it come out strong, then it weaken, it maintains weak, then it become strong again, and maintain strong before it repeats all over again from the first step. By this tempo algorithm thingy, they don’t need a big water supply line to all the shower rooms, given at the same time all the shower rooms are occupied. A simpler explanation is that, while your shower experiences weak water pressure, there will be other occupied shower rooms that experiences strong water pressure, then they will take turn, and vice versa.
I washed every inch of my body under the expected water tempo. Towel I thought, the smell is getting different nowadays; I guess they have changed the laundry company? It smells like hot iron, I imagined that the ironing machine for the towel must have some stain on it, stain as a result of burnt fabric that is failed to be removed, it stuck there forever. As long as the laundry company’s service contract is secured, the smell stays.
So what if I can’t find the towel when I get there, near the Abwork Bench? Should I just grab anyone’s towel and say it’s mine before I get down? What if I grab that person’s towel then only I find my own towel lies on the floor near the Abwork bench, then what should I do? Now this towel reminded me of the huge temple that my friends and I went for a visit. It was a beautiful temple, thousands of light and lantern as decoration, we saw the statue of Buddha, we walked pass countless god and goddess’ statues, we came across wishing lantern – where you write down your wish and hook it under a lantern, pond of lotuses, and we took funny photos together…
Why did I think about temple visit? It has nothing to do with towel. Oh no, it has got some relation. I read the story from some where; if you see people don’t wear shoes before going into a temple (you normally take off your shoes when you step into temple, you leave your shoes at the entrance), you have to be careful, because he might be looking for a pair of suitable size shoes to go home. So this guy chooses a pair of shoes he likes and walks away happily. End of story about the first guy with naked legs. Now the first victim comes out from the temple and finds out his shoes are missing. Frustrated but what can he do? He chooses a pair of shoes and walks away. Although not that happy but at least he is satisfied. The second victim comes out and also surprises that he loses his shoes and then he does the same thing again. This goes on and on until the last person, he goes home without a pair shoes. So it does have connection with my towel story.
So how did this towel story ended?
I walked out from shower room; I found no extra towel left by anyone by accident. So I’m left with only one option; just go ahead and look for my towel near the Abwork bench, if nothing found, just pretend as normal when I approach the towel counter.
In the end nothing happened, nothing could have happened since the beginning, at least not dramatic scene. I returned to them one out of two towels. They either don’t realize or too lazy to be disturbed. I walked out from the gymnasium as if nothing happened. I took my time walking out from the place, like I had all the time in the world.
My inspiration hit me. I went to buy two books from Haruki Murakami – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
***
During the shower, somehow the towel story reminded me of the time when I was in primary school. I stole five bucks from my mum’s wallet that she kept in her drawer. She never realized it, until one day I told her about that. I felt guilty. But she just smiled, and gave me another five bucks.
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