A week passed and Hidayah was still unconscious. Even though she has passed the critical moment on the first night, but it doesn't seem to get any better. It's like time is frozen for her.
The investigation on the accident also seemed to be at a standstill. Both Leo and Uncle Jonathan had been working together but it is almost like there was no perpetrator but was purely an accident. Except, the remote-control chip that they found proved otherwise.
"Sir, Mr Chua and Miss Gonzales have arrived. Do you want me to bring them in?" Hidayat opened his eyes and looked towards his desk phone. Annabelle's voice had disturbed his badly needed short break.
"Let them in, Annabelle. Please get us hot drinks too. Thank you."
Erika and Daniel walked into his room while Hidayat pinched his nose bridge to release some tension and headache. Hidayat had started to feel overwhelmed by the corporation's workload plus the restaurant's management on top of the disappointing investigation. Even the charity event was postponed to a later date. God, I really cannot imagine how Hiddy can manage the company on her own at a young age! He stood up from his seat and walked towards the lounge area in his room.
The 3 of them sat on the 1-seater Benjamin Classical Vintage Leather sofas that circled the coffee table. "I am missing my sister a lot, today…" Hidayat smiled while he rested on the sofa with both of his hands behind his head.
"Me too… If she was here, by now, I would have dragged her out for Starbucks," Erika grinned while looking down and clamping her hands together. Daniel was sitting there silently with his head down too. "What did the doctor say? Is she getting better?"
"To be honest, the doctors are confused as to why she is still not waking up even though her body is already healing. The psychologist believes that it's more of a psychological problem instead of a physical problem. It's like she doesn't want to wake up or rather, I quote Uncle Jing Guo's word 'she's in limbo or Bardo and we need to call her back'."
"Really? I can't believe your da bó is so superstitious" Daniel retort.
"I know right! Can you believe that a Major General from the army would say such things?"
Knock knock knock
"Enter" Annabelle opened the door and pushed the bronze bar cart filled with steaming hot drinks in Vintage Russian Lomonosov USSR "Cobalt Net" tea set. After setting the teacups and a plate of macarons on the coffee table, she left the group of friends alone.
"What's da bó?" Erika asked insouciantly. These guys, keep using terms she does not understand. "That's Chinese for???"
Both guys laughed at Erika's confused face. "Yeah… it means, 'eldest uncle' from the father's side." Daniel explained. Erika, an intelligent woman who can speak Spanish, Italian, French, German and Malay, on top of Tagalog; can never seem to understand Chinese no matter how much they tried to teach her or how much she tried to learn.
"Why do I have a feeling that you guys have different terms for each uncle, aunts, cousins of dad and mom side and so on?" Hidayat howled at Erika's question. This made her mad at the two guys sitting in front on her. "Jesus! Why is Chinese so freaking difficult? How do you guys memorise all your words and terms? You have like 4 or more intonations or pronunciation for most of the words!" Erika growled in frustration.
Daniel and Hidayat roared louder as they laugh at their friend. They usually have a difficult time to tease this woman. Yet, her incapacitation with the particular language never seems to hinder their chance to make this woman pissed offhandedly.