Durian

writing competition cont'd (click here for part 1)




Durian is known as the king of fruits.  Now imagine a gilgamesh
durian.  or the pharaoh durian.  the empire of the sun (shaped as a
durian).  half god- half fruit.  cuz that's how my family treats it. 
No matter what time of day or night, no matter how full, no matter what
illness, we pay hommage to the pungent god of fruits by sacrificing our
waistline @ the dempsey durian truck.

ANY DAY OF THE WEEK - 4pm singapore time.  sitting in the
air-conditioned living room @ cuscaden residences far away from the
equatorial sun, watching re-runs of taiwanese variety shows when the
phone rings.  my aunt picks up. 

"hi, who's this? Ohhh, ahh...ok...u sure it's good? expensive? i don't
want if too expensive...ok....ok"

[click]

she turns to face us "hey, that was the durian guy.  he says he's got
great durian.  u want to go?"
"u sure it's good?" my dad giggles"
"i dont know...check?"
"i'm full, i don't want to eat it...."
"me too...im full too...but he said it's good"

they joke in hokkien for a good 5 minutes...run the bathroom 3x
respectively....joke around some more in hokkien.  then....

"OK..LETS GO"

you readers need to understand that this durian truck stop guy is
literally located in poshest of parking lot zipcodes, where ferrari's suntan next to organic supermarkets, wine bars, antique dealers and upscale cuisine.  and to top it all off this is not one of those high tech
lunch trucks you see at the long island railroad with stainless coffee
makers, microwaves, ovens and fridges built into the truck.  this is a
shoddy mini truck, with mini tires, and wooden railing holding up the
spiky fruits in the back.  the durian man walks around in a raggedy
tshirt, shorts and flip flops, chin held high and shoulders swung back
with the swagger of a gangster, pocket knife in hand ready to make
triangular cuts in the durian for tasters to see...

my dad with my aunt and my uncle sidestep up to the guy and greet him
like old friends.  lots of cackling btwn the 4, talking absolute
nonsense before mr durian whips out the blade and slices open the first
fruit.  as the golden yellow flesh is exposed, as the bile-esque smell
oozes out, the four of them pull up stools and exclaim "AHHH"....they
inhale 3 durians and shell out over 100 sgd for the title of having
terrible breath for the next day and a half.  but what do they care,
they've probably eaten it AGAIN before then.