Flashback

Little JT. walked, lost in the sights and sounds of the carnival.
Conscious that she was walking further from her parents and her older brother.
"Never mind, mummy and daddy will be here. I'll be nearby," she thought to herself.

"Hello little girl, you want to try?" a stall attendant handed out a little scoop and indicated to the containers of adorable goldfishes and guppies.

She eagerly took the offered scoop and squatted next to the containers, looking for the cutest fish.

In went her scoop, but no matter how fast she tried to catch the fish, they always swam elusively away from her.

The stall attendant laughed, "You'll kill my fish chasing them like that."

Taking the scoop from JT, he whisked a little guppy into an awaiting plastic bag filled with water.

"Here you go," he gave the bag to K, "free lah, no need to pay."

JT. beamed and peered at the little guppy in the bag. "Why so small?" she asked the attendant.

"Wah, you want big one huh? No lar, you little girl should get little fish. See this one? So cute. Baby, like you."

She peered hard again at the fish.

"Okay," she beamed at the attendant and he handed her the bag.

"Careful huh... don't drop. What must you say?"

"Thn'k que" she mumbled shyly.

She walked quickly to find her parents, all the while careful not the shake the bag. But for some reason they were no longer at the place she left them.

Alarmed, she starting looking around. Her parents were lost! She had lost her parents!

The sky was becoming grey and she felt the first drop of rain falling on her hand.

Panic seized her and her eyes welled up with tears. "Mummy?" she tried calling out tentatively.

Suddenly an angry voice called her, "JT! Where you go? Mummy and Daddy want to go off already." Her brother grabbed her wrist and pulled her off.

Filled with relief and then impending doom at the thought of her parents being angry with her, little JT started to sob and later progressed onto full force wailing.

Her brother groaned in exsperation. Now mummy and daddy were going to blame him for her crying. Everytime also like that. Argh.