BSC. Bangsar Shopping Centre.
"There's nothing to do there!" my brother had argued, when it was announced we'd be having dinner with our relatives there.
It wasn't exactly the kind of place where anyone would go to for adventures. The most exciting thing about it that we knew then was that Jun Ian's friend's mum had a restaurant there which sold fried mars bars and many other insanely fattening foods. Li Sha's mum's restaurant. It's aptly named
Stuff Your Face. It's actually pretty popular. You can Google it, and you'll see many good reviews.
Anyways, I'm sure you all know that, as kids, we don't really have much of a say about where the CNY reunion dinners are usually held. Many of us would rather have a simple dinner at McDonald's, or a good western at Chillies, rather than sit through hours of 8-course meals at some boring old Chinese restaurant.
So, obviously, our places were already booked at the Grand Imperial, or the Garden Imperial, whatever the place is called. We met up with the father's side of the family at the restaurant(I ran into Justin, too, who was going to the same restaurant for his own reunion dinner), and ate our dinner without much incident.
Well,
there were several funny incidents during dinner, but that's not what today's story is about. Therefore, we shall pick up the storyline starting from...
After dinner, the kids above 12 years of age decided we'd had had enough of sitting around listening to the kids below 12's many
vocally challenged renditions of Bad Romance.
So,
me,
Jamin,
Jun Ian,
Jun Kit and
Nicole went out to explore the newly(maybe not that new, but we'd never been ever since it was) renovated BSC.
"Hey, isn't there a skating-rink or something here?"
"Oh, yeah, I think it's on the highest floor. Let's go check that out."
We went up the escalators to the highest floor, but we found that
the place was relatively dark and secluded, because the whole area was off-duty for CNY.
The area was shaped more or less like a square, and in the center was a large glass-walled box where people could rollerskate. A couple of small cafes and shops surrounded the rink, but all were closed. There was not a soul in sight.
On the far side of the room from the escalators where we'd come up, there was the
Jungle Gym. You know, the kind of place like Twinkies, or Kids' Sports, or Battleship Galactica in 1 Utama. It was a marvelous place to have all to ourselves, even in the dark.
"Whoa, the whole place is OURS!"
"Yesss! This is so awesome!"
"I'm surprised that they don't have shutters installed to keep people from coming in, though. Anyone could just come in and steal that."
There was a computer and a set of gadgets sitting on the registration counter of the skating rink.
"Oh well. It's our duty to make full use of this place, then."
"Amen. Let's go over to the Jungle Gym!"
"Wait, guys. I'm not so sure about this. This is exactly how a typical horror movie would begin."
"True, so we should put on a good show for our viewers."
We ran over to the other side of the room, where it was much darker, such that we couldn't see the full course of the Jungle Gym. A fence ran along the side of the Jungle Gym, to prevent people from entering without permission. Stuffed wild animals and fake plants were placed all along the fence, and inside the course.
Just so you know, in the dark, knowing that the animals aren't real isn't good enough. Your heart can pound pretty darn fast if you suddenly notice the glinting eyes of a stuffed lion staring at you through the darkness.
It doesn't help that we were all trying to scare each other, too.
All the while we were exploring the place, we kept up the Scary Movie commentary, visualizing and talking about what would happen if we WERE actually in a horror movie. We never actually dared to climb over the fencing to go in, because, well, in the light of the events, it would be more than a little reckless to try entering a pitch-black adventure course.
I was peering into the course over the wooden fence, when I suddenly saw something which would not be out of place in a horror film.
"Whoa! Look at that hanging boxing bag. It's still swinging from side to side."
"Shitt. About this time in the movie, we'd all be staring at the bag when suddenly something hidden in the shadows runs across the course."
"Yeah. Then we would be scared shitless."
Actually, we were. Perhaps not scared shitless, but there was more than enough excitement going on for us to feel a little more than just nervous.
"We should SO climb over the fence and run the full course."
"It would be an amazing story to tell our friends."
"No way! Don't even think about it. The place is totally dark. Don't. And, there are probably CCTV's that would catch us on video."
"Alright, alright. It looks pretty nasty from here, anyway."
And so, we left the Jungle Gym area, and started examining the rollerskating-rink. Beside it, there was a counter where people could rent roller skates to wear into the rink.
We pushed past the hinged gate and went to the inside of the counter.
"These people should really lock this place up. Look at that beautiful monitor. And CPU."
"Hey, these cupboards aren't even locked! We can just take the rollerskates and go."
"Or, we could simply borrow the skates, and go for a ride inside the skating-rink."
"But the rink is locked, isn't it?"
"Hmm. Is it?"
It wasn't. We lifted the lock on the door, and pushed it open.
"NO. WAY. It's a sign! We HAVE to get in there and skate a little."
"It WOULD be really fun. But."
My sister pointed at the ceiling. Our hearts sank. There, in perfect view of all of us, was a black, hemisphere-shaped CCTV.
"Damn. We'd better go, in case the guards are coming.""I still find it really weird that nobody bothered to lock up this place."We turned back, and started to go down the escalator.
"Erm, guys. Look inside that shop." We peered in through the glass walls of the clothes shop beside the escalator. Seated with their backs facing us and holding hands, there were two people on a bench inside. One was a woman, and the other was a man, dressed in a guard's uniform.
"OH MY GOD! HAHAHHAHAAHAHA!"
"So that's why there's no one guarding the place!"
"Ahahahahha! The guard on duty is busy in there with his date!"
"That really explains things! Haha!"
We were already on our way down the escalator, so we didn't mind that we were making a whole lot of noise. The guard probably wouldn't mind, seeing as he was so busy.
* * *
We walked around downstairs for a bit, but...
"Damn. I wish we'd entered the Jungle Gym."
"And that we'd skated in the skating-rink."
"That would be the kind of thing that epic stories are made of."
"Yeah. Now, what can we tell our friends? 'Oh, it was so cool. The entire place was ours, but we didn't have the guts to try anything.' "
"This sucks. 20 years from now, we'll be looking back at our lives, wishing that we'd had the guts to do this."
We stopped walking, suddenly. Without realizing, we'd walked an entire circle of the mall, and we were back at the escalators leading up to the skating-rink. Then, we knew what we had to do.
We sprinted up the escalators two stairs at a time, determined to make the night as epic as we could. We were so full of confidence, that-
"There's a guard there."
"Whaat?"
And so there was. At the top of the escalators, there was a guard sitting by the information counter. We walked right up to the guard, nodding politely in his direction. However, we didn't stop, and he didn't seem to mind.
We walked right on past the guard, in the direction of the Jungle Gym.
"AARGH. Now what?"
"Damnn. I really wanted to do this thing. I've GOT to be able to tell my grandchildren that I had the guts to do this."
"Erm. Riight."
We stood around for a while,occasionally stealing glances at the guard to make sure he wasn't going to arrest us. We started talking about things like How I Met Your Mother and Neil Patrick Harris, then took our seats by the reception counter of the Jungle Gym. Suddenly,
"Hey. The guard's gone!"
"Are you serious?"
We got up and looked towards the information counter. He was really gone. What luck.
"That's it. No more hesitating."
My brother promptly ran towards the registration counter which guarded the entrance to the Jungle Gym. We watched, as he vaulted over the counter with ease and ran straight into the adventure course.
"Ah, to hell with this."
"Agreed."
Jun Kit ran first. He jumped over the counter and went in after my brother, with me following close behind.
Inside the adventure course-thingy, it was really dark. There was just enough light for us to avoid banging into the walls on the side. We ran on the soft floors of the Jungle Gym, pushing past boxing-bags and climbing up padded platforms and scaffoldings. We ran on pure adrenaline.
We were actually having fun in there. I've always loved climbing around places like these when I was younger, and now, it was the same. However, we eventually reached a part where it was pitch black, and we couldn't see a single thing.
"Shit shit shit."
"Wait." Jun Kit brought out his handphone, and pressed a few buttons. A small light came on. It wasn't much, but it was just enough for us to keep going.
When we'd run the full course of the Jungle Gym, we made our way back to the entrance. We vaulted over the counter again, and stood there panting, then we all broke out in laughter. Both the girls hadn't gone, but they seemed happy for us. We'd triumphed, and the rush of adrenaline was still pumping in our bodies. The excitement felt really good.
Not done yet, though. We moved out of the Jungle Gym area, and pushed past the hinged gates of the skating-rink registration counter again. Kit pulled out a pair of skates from inside the cupboard.
"Pooh! These stink real bad."
It was true. The skates smelled as if they were drenched in too much of the "class after sports practice" fragrance perfume.
Nonetheless, he pulled them on and pushed open the glass doors to the skating-rink. CLICK. The doors opened, and he whooped in delight as he skated a full circle of the rink.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes! This feels good!"
"Yeah! Kit, pass me the skates."
He took them off and handed them to me. I pulled on the rollerblades, and clambered over the bump at the door of the skating-rink. I nearly fell. It has been many, many years, since I'd last rollerskated. I made it around the whole rink without falling, though. Then I passed the skates to my brother.
He quickly put them on and pushed-off into the skating-rink. We all felt so reckless, and happily cheered him on, until
"Erm, Ian? I think you'd better get out quickly."
"What? Why?"
"There's a janitor over there."
Whump. In his haste to turn back, my brother fell and landed hard on his butt.
"Ouch!"
"You know what, Ian? Don't worry about it."
"Why?"
"The janitor turned and went down another passage."
"Great."
He came back after a while, and we all chattered excitedly. We rarely ever felt such a rush of excitement.
"Eww. My hands smell from those skates."*sniff sniff*
We strutted over to the bathroom, and washed our hands, making a lot of noise about how awesome we felt.
The doors of three cubicles in the bathroom were closed. For some reason, Kit had a strange urge to check under the doors. And so he did.
"Oh crap. Pssst! Come on!"
He quickly beckoned us out of the bathroom.
"What?"
"There's someone inside that cubicle!"
"WHAT!?"
"Go on, check! Look under the door!"
My brother and I went back into the bathroom, and we squatted down to look under the door. Sure enough, there were two shiny black pairs of leather shoes inside, connected to a pair of black formal pants.
"Oh, shit, it's the guard."We bolted out the door, where Kit and the girls were waiting for us.
"I think we'd better run.""Good idea."And so we ran. Down the escalator, around the corner, down the corridor, into the lift. Then of course, we had to get stuck in the lift.
It was one heck of a great night. Seriously.
Jun Shern out.
*Static*
