Our Destiny

Suddenly I heard footsteps, Emm, whos there? Someone was walking toward me, but I couldnt see his face.

Wait, wait.

He reached out his hands to touch my face, my cheeks. Strangely, I didnt avoid his touch. He lifted my chin and kissed my forehead. I felt a warm feeling of being loved and it was overwhelming that I cried.

He said, I love you very much. It was a soft and gentle voice. Who was he? Why was I crying?

Next, I felt as if I was falling into a dark pit and I screamed! I opened my eyes, it was only a dream.

Gosh, I have been having this dream for quite some time now. What was it trying to tell me? I pulled over my blanket and got up from my bed.

The morning sun was shining brightly from the window, and I have to use my hand to shade the glaring sunlight.

Who am I? I am Rachel, an ordinary twenty-two years old Malaysian woman. I grew up in the city of Miri located in the state of Sarawak, East Malaysia.

My only relative was my granny who raised me totally on her own. Grandpa passed away when their daughter was in her teen. She was my biological mother.

Granny was a vegetable vendor at a local wet market and granny would only sell vegetables from her own garden.

We lived in a wooden house with a small garden comprising a quarter of an acre. This house was bought by my grandparents when they were young, it was a simple single-storey house built in the middle of the land.

It was situated on top of a hill facing the seaside. It was a beautiful place, and the beautiful natural scenery would greet me every day.

However, I was verbally bullied almost every day by neighbourhood kids. They would call me The kid with no parents or Abandoned kid.

Whenever I was called such names, I held my breath and walked briskly or ran away before my tears rolled down my cheeks.

Granny told me that my mom sent me to her when I was one day old and she never came back for me.

Granny and I waited for her for the first five years but then, we gave up accepting the fact that I was The kid without parents.

However, Granny never gave up on me. She gave me all her love. Our small plot of land was our little haven.

I was the happiest when I was at home, gardening, harvesting, feeding, and rearing domestic livestock, cooking, baking, painting the beautiful scenery around our land, and many beautiful experiences.

As I reached my teenage years, Grannys health was failing. She was in her early 70s then, but she was still working hard in the garden and at the stall.

I tried my best to help whenever I could while doing my best in my studies. Even though I was bullied every day, I was a top student in my school.

Granny motivated me to do well in all my public examinations.

However, Granny collapsed on the last day of my examination. I came home to see her on the ground, and sook help from neighbours to send her to the hospital.

However, she passed away peacefully one week later. Many came to pay their last respect, and the funeral charges were borne by my kind teachers and headmaster.

After the funeral, a teacher recommended me a clerical job at Rectitude Development in Kuala Lumpur. Sadness was overwhelming but I made up my mind to accept the offer.

I rented our house and land to our neighbour, who promised to keep our place tidy as well as to keep our belongings in my grannys room so that I would have room to stay whenever I come back in the future.

I was only seventeen years old when I left my hometown in East Malaysia, right after completing my secondary school education.

I started everything from scratch, learned as much as I could even take up administrative courses to improve myself.

Five years went by, and I have become one of the city folks in Kuala Lumpur. I have gotten familiar with and accepted the culture in Kuala Lumpur.

I have completed a diploma in business administration. I have been promoted as an Assistant Human Resource (HR) and Administrative Manager at Rectitude Development during my fourth year.

I like the friendly and family environment and challenges, therefore, I didnt have the thought of working in another company.

Then, I met Geoffrey in one of my project dealings. Geoffrey was an employee of an associate company that has business dealings with Rectitude Development.

We met a few times for meetings, and we exchanged contact numbers due to work. Then, he would call me about the projects, then followed by an invitation for tea or a meal.

Initially, I declined with excuses of workload and part-time courses. He was persistent, and finally, I gave in when he invited me to his birthday party.

Thought that since it was a party, there would be many people there. However, when I arrived at the restaurant, I was shocked to see that he has only booked a table for two.

That was the start of our friendship which led to more than the typical friendship. That was during my second year of working in Kuala Lumpur.

Sadly, only six months into our love relationship, he began to travel a lot and the time for both of us is getting lesser.

My sixth sense told me that he was using travelling as an excuse to distance himself. However, I trusted him and never doubted him to do any stupid things behind me.

Then, Shirley and John who were two of my good friends broke the news to me after what they heard from Geoffreys colleagues after a project meeting.

They said that Geoffrey has been dating a new female colleague for the last two months, and of course, these colleagues of Geoffrey knew about my relationship to Geoffrey.

They were wondering whether both of us have broken up.

Both Shirley and John queried me in unison, Did you two break up? Who dumped who?

I was shocked and dumbfounded.

At that moment, they realized that I knew nothing. There was silence for a moment.

Shirley : I am sorry.

John : That idiotic Geoff.

I didnt even know where I got the strength to calm down and picked up my handphone to call Geoffrey.

We met at the cafe nearby within half an hour.

Alright, what is it? I have only fifteen minutes because I need to rush back to get my report done by this afternoon. Otherwise, we can meet tonight. Geoffrey was smiling as he sat down.

I was gazing coldly at him, and he tried to avoid my eye contact.

Since you have such a short time frame for me, I will go straight to the point. Are you falling in love with a new colleague in your office? I was told that you have been dating her for the last two months. Whereas you told me that you need to travel during the last two months which I believe was a lie, only an excuse to distance yourself from me. Am I right?

Astonished, Geoffrey was dumbfounded, and his facial expression showed that I was right!

He went silent, then he opened his mouth and stammered,

Rachel, I can explain that. It is just a fling, I was just attracted to her temporarily. I will talk to her and break off with her as soon as I get back to the office. Rachel, you know that I love you, no one else. Please believe me, please give me a chance.

Fling? Temporary attraction? Geoffrey, I am not a sixteen-year-old girl! I grunted while I sneered and laughed at him.

My temper was rising, I have never been so angry before.

How many temporary attractions are you going to have before you are really settled for me? Who do you think I am? Geoffrey, you dont understand what is real love? It is about respect! You dont respect me, and the worse thing is that your actions showed that you dont respect our love. If you really love me, respect me and respect our love; you will never even think of such stupid fling and temporary attractions.

I paused to calm myself and vented more at him,

Thats it! Since you dont have the guts to tell me of your temporary attractions, I have to hear it from a third party. Let me tell you my decision now. Lets break off!

Geoffrey continued to plead with me to give him another chance, I stood up and walked out.

He was chasing me and pleading with me. I couldnt stand it and turn around.

Get lost Geoffrey, go to your temporary fling now!! Get out of my life!

As I walked out, tears came rolling down my cheeks. I tried to stop it, I kept wiping my tears, and it just wont stop.

I have no idea where I got the strength to say those words to him and to break off with him because he was my first love.

It was my anger that gave me strength.

The following days became weeks then turned to years.

Initially, it was tough for me to forget Geoffrey, I buried myself in works and studies. I told myself over and over again to move on.

I began to join hiking activities to keep myself healthy and boost my stamina, of course, the real reason was to keep my mind clear of him and to move on positively.

Since Granny passed away, I never went back to my hometown. I knew that our house on our land was there waiting for me but I couldnt bring myself home because of the memories.

It would be too painful for me.

Times passed, and it was my fifth year working at Rectitude Development.

Since I have been hurt badly by Geoffrey, I refused to think of any such relationship. My focus was only on work, and I wanted to learn as much as I can.

Life was getting busier for me, however, I have been having a recurring dreams. At times, I would have the same dream consecutively for three nights, then it stopped for a week or two.

Then, it would come back again for a few nights. It has been going on for the last one year plus.

In my dream, there was a man who would walk up to me and touch my face. He would say that he loved me but I couldnt see his face.

I would feel loved and melancholy at the same time. I would wake up in the morning sobbing at times, it was confusing because why would I cry over a dream.

It was seven oclock, I hurriedly took my shower and dressed up for work.

My daily routine is to leave my apartment around 7:20 am by bus, and reach my office building by 8:00 am.

Then, I stop to buy my usual breakfast at the cafe below my office and finished off my breakfast within fifteen minutes as I have to clock in at least five minutes before 8:30 am.

Today was a usual Wednesday, like any other working day. I got on the bus and found a seat.

Suddenly, I remembered the same weird dream. It always started with beautiful scenery. A wide field with wildflowers.

A wooden ancient Chinese house in the middle of the field, and a small vegetable garden surrounding the house. It gave me the same sense of love, warmth, and family.

Funny, I will usually forget about a dream once I wake up, but why was I able to remember this dream, but I couldnt see the mans face.

Nah! Its only a dream, I shook my head trying to blush it off as a silly dream.

After clocking in the office, I quickly walked to my workstation. I began to immerse myself in my work and totally forgot about the dream.

I browsed through the tasks that needed completion today, and schedule out my time frame for each task.

I heaved a sigh, knowing that these tasks would drag me till midnight as well as many nights to come.

New joint-venture projects have been acquired by Rectitude Development recently, one mall to be built on a four-acre land in Kuala Lumpur, a three-block condominium in Johor Bahru, and medium-cost walked-up apartments in Pahang.

Rachel and her team in the Administrative Department are compiling all the data and documents into Development Planning Proposal, and many other proposals.

Each has its own dateline which was one week after another. Rachel has only given the instructions one week ago, and her team has started to work long hours for a week plus now.

Luckily, they could rest on Saturday as they only work five-day weeks.

I was in deep thoughts when I switched on my laptop. A short meeting today with my team to follow up, monitor, and update on the progress of work by each individual member of the team.

Just as all my team members arrived, I began to greet everyone,

Good morning.

All smiles and everyone was in good mood. I spoke,

We will have a briefing in ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, our briefing commenced and I started to draw out the list of tasks that has to be completed today and in the days to come.

The Standard of performance was being explained clearly to them. Each has their opinion and feedback.

The briefing ended in twenty minutes with each task being clearly delegated and what was expected from their work.

After the briefing, I sat down at my desk and began to focus on my work.

I began to download data collected from the operation department on past projects for costings, construction records, and so forth to be used as a project report as well as guidelines for the upcoming three projects.

Once downloaded, a compilation of all the data begins before drafting out the report format.