Half a cup of coffee

I was having a cup of coffee this morning at the marketplace: the same stall that my old aunt had patronised regularly before she passed away six months ago. Day in and day out, nothing much has changed at this stall except that the price for a cuppa has since gone up from RM1 to RM1.10.

While I was mulling over this - the sad fact that inflation has been eating steadily into my savings and meagre income - I started to smile to myself.

It was about my aunt, you see. She had a knack of making friends with almost everybody. Why, only about two or three weeks back, I was having a late breakfast at a coffee shop in Chai Leng Park when the proprietress, whom I had not met for more than 10 years, suddenly came up to me and inquired after my aunt. I'm surprised that people still remember her so well.

Anyhow, back to my cuppa at the Kampong Baharu market in Bukit Mertajam this morning. While reflecting on the bubbles in my coffee and watching a guy at the next table pouring his cup of brew into the saucer to cool it down, I remembered that my aunt could get away with ordering half a cup of coffee from this particular stall owner.

And that was not all. I've seen her ordering half a plate of fried economic beehoon from the marketplace as well. Of course, she got charged at only half the price too. Wonders never cease whilst my aunt was alive...