Chapter 2: Now you don't

I gave a start when he mentioned Jay Chou; had he read my mind or something? That he had somehow picked up on my subliminal request to hear him perform something other than those same old Top 40 hits? And what Jay song had they been trying out?

But more importantly:
What the hell had just happened to me earlier on in that underpass?
Where was Mr Pink Hoodie with the cute left-cheek dimple and left upper eyelid mole??
Had my tired body but overactive mind conjured the whole surreal scenario out because of a deep-seated desire to hear Mr Chou's music all the time? Was it all an hallucination? Was my fandomania getting out of hand finally? What???

I must have looked a right idiot standing there as all these thoughts raced through in a split second because the busker waved his hand in front of my face, saying,

"Hello? Miss? Are you with me? Maybe you should go to the hospital for a checkup or a scan. You did knock your head against the ground quite hard, you know."
I shook my head slightly, reassured him (again) that I was feeling all right and asked him:"So which song of Jay's were you guys trying out? You sing in Chinese, too?"
He grinned and replied:
"The one he wrote for that movie about some golden flower. We've been thinking about doing something different from our usual pop songs and one of our friends suggested him as his songs are very popular in Singapore. And yes, we wanted to try a Chinese song too."

 The song in question, is of course, Ju Hua Tai aka Chrysanthemum Flower Bed from The Curse Of The Golden Flower, that lavish and ostentatious movie which starred Chow Yuen Fatt, Gong Li and Jay himself. It was not one of my favourite Jay movies but the song was the one I had 'heard' and 'seen' my phantom pianist playing just now!
This was really getting beyond weird!

 I walked over to the Filipina lady, who was dressed in a pink pantsuit and said;
"Hi there! Care to play the Jay song you were trying out?"

She grinned and started on the melodius intro of Ju Hua Tai but the song sounded somewhat mechanical and wooden in her hands, unfortunately. Nowhere near the ethereal tunes I had heard earlier on and definitely without any of the complex chords and variations which had so enthralled me.

Her partner chimed in with the verses and crooned along quite in tune and with almost all the words pronounced correctly!  It was strange to hear this quintessentially Chinese song being sung by a Filipino but this performance surely said something about how universal Jay's music could be!

I let them finish the song, thanked them and fished out ten dollars to put on their guitar case . Some other passersby had also stopped to listen, (which was somewhat unusual in Singapore!) and a few of them also dropped some coins and notes to add to the burgeoning collection.  This was certainly not bad, by Singapore standards.

Gosh, I guess I was not the only one who had been dying to hear some Jay Chou music, even if it was not the best of quality!

I then walked away slowly to the nearby shopping centre where I had parked my car, deep in thought about all that had just happened.