He called her “Baby.’
Caught off guard, I was trying not to stare. How should one behaves when someone calls you something like that and mean it? I was curious. I just need to know.
The three little children apparently was used to that and knew that the father was not referring to them. Mallakh was reading a magazine propped on her lap, Maimoona was chasing the littlest and latest addition to the family whose name escaped my mind and laughing histerically when they bumped to each other.
The wonderful world of children.
I was a peaceful bystander. I tried not to participate in the laughter but children make you smile inside out. There is nothing wrong with smiling once a while and listening to them was a good excuse. I was practically beaming idiotically.
He called her the same name, again. I can’t read her expression. She was engulfed in black. Black layered clothes adorn her body and a part of her face. She sounded happy. I can’t understand the conversation which was carried in Urdhu. They’re seemed like a happy family. I was waiting for the return pet name. What would she call The Love of Her Life? Will it be ‘Baby’ too?
I admit I was stalking them just to make sure if the pet name is the same or at least suitable.
My parents don’t own pet names. My Mother calls my Father the same thing we call him and vice versa so I don’t quite get this as it was not incorporated in my life. I heard my friends call their Other Half ‘Sayang’ which means Dear or literally Love. In Spanish there are a lot of pet names that I’ve heard a thousand times that I immuned to it already. One thing to call you silly lovey-dovey names and another thing altogether when you really mean it. I have been called silly names when there is a need for printing something complicated, money borrowing, price haggling in Malay, last minute company to a place that is not in the map late at night or invitations for something that I would regret saying yes in the first place.
That is when I am to them ‘The Love of My Life’, ‘Dear’, ‘My Life’, ‘Little Girl’, ‘Darling’, ‘My Second Wife’, ‘My Lady’, etc.
I don’t think I would like a pet name because listening to it makes me squirm in my shoes. However it would be nice to know a word that is meant for you and you only. The simplicity of the word lost its meaning when it’s directed to you as it’s not a mere word anymore. It’s a combination of reverberating emotions, good memories and happy thoughts all churned up and out the word : Sayang.
That one will make me weak in the knees.
[bisa] 