Was in JB. Work calls and headed for Tioman. Put up a couple of night in Tioman and completed the shoot. Begin the journey from Mersing back to KL. Filled up gas in Shell station and begin hitting the road. It was a nice drive. Nice road. Trunk road edging by the East Coast in this peninsular. The road was smooth and unspoilt. Traffic was light. It was a good pace I was going at. A slow traffic in front. I edge out to the opposite lane. Downshift to 3rd. Release the clutch and half throttle down. 100KM off Mersing – it snapped.
The apex seal that is. The rear rotor it seems. She shakes violently on low RPM. Nothing below 2500. Nothing beyond 3200. 5th gear. I needed to call for help. Perhaps the mechanic. Perhaps the tow truck. I’m 350km away from home. Anyways, i just need to call someone and drive her as close as I am to home; as possible.
No. I dropped my phone into the sea yesterday. Is rendered useless already. The phone is on the passenger seat. I can reach it. But it won’t turn on. Is fucked. I’m fucked. “Fuck. Wrong time to kill the engine, Blossom….wrong time.” I said. 3000rpm on a cripple engine. Single rotor pushing through the trunk road. I’m doing 90km per hour. If I make it back home, it’ll be a bout 5 hours. Time is 1-ish. I’ll make it before sunset if luck is on me. Luck? Soaked my phone into the sea. Blown engine. Luck? Luck is on me? Fuck!
5-ish pm. Karak Highway. My fuel is running extremely low. I’ve not once switch off the engine. I don’t know if I should stop and refuel. Oh yeah, once a rotor stop functioning, the consumption of fuel gets higher on a crippled rotary. That’s normal. No point getting into such technical if it doesn’t add horsepower. No I won’t get into the gas station because I don’t want her to backfire in the gas station and make my way to the headlines the next day. There will be enough fuel for me to get to a rest area. Make a phone call from the public booth. The road ahead is windy. Is hilly. The famous dangerous Karak Highway. Also because of its rumor of being a bloody haunted highway.
Then she backfires. She chatters hard like she chokes herself. There’s no fuel feeding into the chamber. She stalls. She glides in silent. I pushed the hazard light button in. Glide into the emergency lane. Damn. This is as far as she could go now.
I sat on the barrier of by the road side, took out a stick of cigarette and light it up. Took a deep breathe and laughed to myself. 100km more and I’ll get home. She did well. “Now it’s up to me to get us back home”, I said to myself. Down the road there’s a toll booth. I can get some help there. Perhaps.
When i get home, it was 11pm. The next day, I got a new cellphone from Digital Mall.
This was July 2008. Fall will come.
