Houston - Hitchhike A Stranger

Hubby went off to work, and I’ve decided to go out alone, again. I planned to do last minute shopping and get few things for friends back home. Since I knew how to use the hotel shuttle, I’ve decided to ask them to send and fetch me from the Memorial City.

I saw the same driver as yesterday, which drove me to the mall. I hopped onto the hotel van and asked him to send me there. Once we reached the mall, I asked him,

“Can you pick me up at 6.00pm?”

“I’m sorry, you have to call the hotel.”

HUH??? Camne lak ni???

“But I thought we can arrange the pick up time as what my colleague’s did yesterday…” I told him on what hubby’s colleague did. Aku dah gelabah.

“No, you have to call the hotel.”

ARGH!!!

I walked off. I started to think how am I going to go back to the hotel…how, how, how. My phone doesn’t roaming. Same goes to hubby’s. And I don’t know how to use the payphone.Put aside all thoughts, let’s shopping first!

I had Prawn Teriyaki again today at Oishi Kitchen. This time, the sauce was different than last night. Hmm…what went wrong with my order…then I noticed, I ordered for hot sauce. Cis!Then I headed to the souvenir shop, Texas Treasure. Today, I didn’t spoke at all to the stupid lady. I grabbed what I want and paid. I guess, the other lady had been infected as well, where she was contemplating when giving me the new Texas bull that I wanted to buy for lil Myra. What’s wrong with these people!

I started to think of again, how to go back…

I asked the lady over the information counter,

“Hi, any payphone here in this mall?”

“Owh ya, you can find it at the food court area.”

“Thanks.” And I walked off.

I saw 2 payphones located before the toilet area. Wow, they got couch at the toilet waiting area? Nice. Ok, back to the payphone.

I tried to dial, locally and internationally. Both failed me. I’ve waited for the dialing tone, there was an auto-message asking me to put in coins and dial the number. But it wasn’t going through.

I hang up and approached one Mexican boy who worked at the nearby food court. I asked him how to use the payphone and what he answered was, put in coins and dial. ITU, AKU PUN TAU! SENGAL!

I went back to the payphone and there was a Turkish lady, who also tried to make a phone call. She told me that she couldn’t get through the line and asked me how to use it. DING DONGGGGG! I WOULDN’T BE HERE AGAIN IF I KNOW HOW TO USE IT. Argh! Camne niiii?

I turned around and saw one big fat blonde lady sat on the bench. She was using a handphone! Hmmmm…

“Excuse me, could you please help me to call this number using that payphone? I’ve tried so many times, but cannot get through…” I asked for help with sad and lost kitty face.

“Owh, sure.” She stood up and walked to the payphone. She advised me step by step, but still failed to hear any dialing tone or what not.

We both walked to the bench and sat. I told her that the hotel should just pick me up at 6.00pm like what hubby’s colleague did but the driver refused to do so. She felt me…and suddenly she said,

“Ok, I am waiting for my nephew to pick me up, he is on his way now and will be arriving in a minute. I think we can give you a ride back to the hotel.”

AKU TERNGANGA. Teruja tapi takut tapi nak nangis pun ada tapi pompuan ni baik. Nampak sinar cahaya dimatanya ketika itu.

She called her nephew and told her nephew that someone needs a help and need a ride back to the hotel. (Sounds like a lost puppy kan?) I can hear that her nephew at first asked so many questions but agreed at last.

I introduced my name and so did she. Her name was Linda and she worked at McD. Few minutes later, her nephew came with 4x4 black jeep. We walked out and she asked me to sit at the front seat, while she hopped onto the back seat. How nice kan?

On the way, her nephew, Rico, whom I thought was unfriendly by the phone, was the other way around. He understood what had happened to me and advised me to give a feedback to the hotel. I told him I will do so.

He asked me whether I’m a local or not (d’uhhh) and I told him that I’m from Malaysia. Both remained silent when they heard that country.

“I know Philippine coz my uncle stays there and married a Philippine’s woman.”

“Malaysia is on the left side of Philippine. Next to Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.” I described.

“Ooooooo…” still figuring out I guess.

“Have you been to Philippine?” Not asking have they been to Malaysia.

“Neahhh…haven’t got chance to go out from the states…” hmm, not so money-making citizen kot.

“Ah, there…” I showed them the hotel.

Rico made a turn and dropped me at the back gate. I hopped off and so did Linda.

Mata dah bergenang.

“Thank you so much Linda…I don’t know what will happen to me if you didn’t help me…” I hugged her.

“Don’t say that…I’m sure you would help me too if I were at your place…you make sure give a feedback to the hotel coz they shouldn’t be doing this to you…”

Mata masih bergenang.

We waved to each other and I went up. I opened the room door and saw hubby in his robe, looking at me like nothing special.

“AYANGGGGGGG! U TAU TAK I BALIK DENGAN STRANGER! I TATAU NAK BUAT APA, I TAK BLEH CALL HOTEL, I TAK BLEH CALL U, DRIVER TU TANAK PICK UP, SUH CALL HOTEL TAPI TAK DAPAT-DAPAT! BLABLABLA…” I shouted non-stop at the speed of 110kmph.

I sat down and told him everything. And I didn’t see any sympathy from him. Ah forgot, hubby is feeling-less and expression-less.

He just asked me out for last minute window shopping at Katy Mills.Zzzzzz…ok, let’s do some shopping.

Katy Mills was quite far and close early. We just gave ourselves a try and luckily, we managed to arrive there early. We parked the car and went in through entrance 6. (Yeah, there were many entrances and you have to remember which one you went into. Mills means big!) See, they even have a parking space for mommy-to-be!I was quite uncontrollable when I saw those outlets. Levi’s were super cheap! Nine West, Ralph Lauren, GAP, Guess, JC, you name it. There were lots of outlets for kids too.But there was one outlet that caught my eyes…Off Broadway Shoes.“YA ALLAHHHHHHHH! BESARNYE KEDAI NIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

Sumpah besar ok. You can’t hardly see who was at the back, not even who was at the both sides of the shop. The shoes were arranged by sizes and brands.

“STEVE MADDENNNNNNNNNNN!!!!” I nearly fainted.“58USD??? GILE APE!!!” cheap sale still not cheap lah. Sigh…bila la nak dapat kasut ni…I walked out restlessly.

I didn’t manage to buy anything there coz I WAS BUSY LOOKING FOR hubby! Mana tah hilang! Nine West 15usd pun tak sempat nak cekau! Murah tahap gaban longgok-longgok!

“Next time, jalan sendri-sendri, then janji je kul bape kat mana-mana. Senang! Ni nak kena cari you sana-sini, kata kat kedai kasut! Semua kedai I cari takde!” I bebel kat hubby.

“Tengok! U siap beli baju lagi! I tak dapat apa!” I continued nagging while looking towards "cabut dan menang" BMW in front of hubby. Gile best!Today was not a lucky day for me.We went out and looked for a place to have our dinner. We refuel the gas at one of the station and saw one sheriff's car...and sang, "I shot the sheriffffff...." haha!We chose IHop again, as it was the easiest place to get cheap and fast food. Tilapia with broccoli again, we ate. Texas food isn’t healthy. And I will be like this below nigger if I stay here longer.Yeah, lost of the day. Skit kan?