4174. SHORT STORY. Thank God.

SHORT STORY - THANK GOD.

“Every morning, God will open the Book to see if my name is there,” the tanned slim silvery haired  jogger said. “My name wasn’t there today, thank God!”.

“I am 80,” he continued. “I may be gone anytime, so I jog and run everyday to be able to live longer!".

He had two heart ❤️ stents and a bad left knee, but he believed the more steps he took daily, the longer he would live. He looked lean and mean, definitely much fitter than me.
A full bloom of silver hair glittered above his dark brown tan face. He had a slight bulging biceps indicating he carried weight to prevent sarcopenia of his muscles. 

This man lived every minute as if it was his last.
 

He had a white bandage around his left wrist. The whiteness contrasted with his sun-tanned arm was very outstanding, drawing my attention to the 'injured' wrist.

We were strangers but he stopped me as I was carrying a tripod and a big camera 🎥 during my evening walk before I went to Hong Kong on 5 September 2023.

"I was a trained photographer in my younger days," he said. "I had given the photos away or had lost them."

He was an acquaintance like other men who passed me during my photography walks in Singapore. Some would stop me to discuss photography, but we don’t usually exchange phone numbers.

One elderly China National in Toa Payoh had stopped me some months ago. He shared with me his bird 🦅 photography experience in Beijing. "I would put a piece of meat to attract the eagle," he had regular bird photography trips with his friends in China before he and his wife came to Singapore to help take care of the grandchild. "I know it is not allowed in Singapore to use bait to get better photos".

He said it was fated that we met and if destiny calls, we would meet again. Hence he didn't want to exchange phone numbers.

Back to this lean and mean ex-photographer, I didn’t ask him about his bandaged wrist as I was trying to take some photos before the sun set.

“Do you know why I bandaged my wrist? “ he asked.  “Many people asked how I had injured my wrist as they were concerned. Aged people do fall and fracture their legs 🦵 or hands.”

I really had to catch the remaining light of the setting sun and look for 🐜 bugs, butterflies and birds. Hence I did not ask him even if I wanted to.

The lean and mean man lifted his injured wrist. The bandage was wrapped firmly but looked strange as if he had a tumor underneath the bandage.

Without waiting for my reply, he said, “I have two watches under the bandage to clock the number of steps I do daily!”

This is the second man whom I know who wanted to benefit more than his share, from the National Steps Challenge system whereby 5,000 steps walked per day would be rewarded with points that could be exchanged for NTUC or related vouchers.

The first man had two watches on two wrists as he walks in his apartment with his wife’s watch and his. He did not exercise outdoors as he was worried about Covid-19 viral infections.

"The NSC watch is not accurate," he told me. "I had different number of steps counted during the same exercise! What do you expect for free watches?"

This man had the watches of his wife and son. He had 3 watches to count the number of steps.
He needed to bandage the two watches. "Are the 3 watches accurate in counting the number of steps?" I asked him. "More or less, they are accurate," he said and we parted to do our exercises without exchanging phone numbers.

Thank God, the 'Book' did not have his name for that day.