Although I left the university for about two months already, the sleep-late-wake-up-late lifestyle of a university student kinda stuck with me. Thanks to the online activity and late night shows on tv, I never fail to wake up later than 8.30 am every single day. Sometimes I went to the extent of waking up at 10 am if my sleep was interrupted earlier.
Besides waking up late, I never miss my afternoon nap.
That was why, yesterday, during my afternoon nap in the living room, I could hear my mother and grandma gossiping about me in Melanau. [I don't know why, but this is my parents' and grandmother's habit. They speak in Melanau among themselves but when they speak to us (the children), they switched to Hokkien.]
"How can she still feel sleepy when she woke up so late?" Mom wondered aloud. "I woke up a lot earlier, went to work, yet did not take a nap."
"She slept very late last night," Grandma responded. "Not just last night, every night. Don't know what she was doing so late at night."
Grandma's bedroom is located at downstairs, so she knew how late I stayed awake every night though she was asleep. Grandma had a habit to wake up in the middle of the night to visit the toilet, and everytime she wakes up, she would see me still wide awake at the living room, sitting in front of my laptop, busy online.(Ahem)
"Not a good habit at all," Mom and Grandma both agreed about my negative habit.
"Makel angai tan," Mom added, which means 'very lazy' in Melanau.
Because I was too sleepy that time, I had no energy to be defensive or to justify my sleep late habit. So I just let it go.
That very night, which was last night, as usual, I carried on with my sleep late habit. I was still wide awake at 11 pm something. I never sleep earlier than 12 am, so 11 pm was kinda early for me, but for my parents and grandmother, it is considered late. Very late.
As usual, my Grandma woke up in the middle of her sleep, but instead of walking to the toilet, she walked towards me and asked me to read the name of the pills that she brought to me.
"What pills are these?" She asked me while showing me the pack of yellow coloured pills.
There were no indications on the pills' package so I told grandma I didn't know what type of pills they were. Then she walked back into her bedroom.
A few seconds later, I heard a LOUD CRASH, it sounded like the table fan was falling.
I quickly ran into her bedroom, saw her collapsed on the table, thus causing the table fan to fall off the table.
"Ah Ma, what happened?" I was so shocked, the question was almost a whisper. She was conscious, but then, she was very weak. She could not stand up.
I was so panic.
While I put both my hands to support both her arms, suddenly she was kinda... unconscious.
"Ah Ma?" My panicmeter was rising.I shook her shoulders but she wasn't responding.
"AH MA! PAPA! MAMA!" I was shouting from downstairs but my efforts was in vain. So instead of calling my parents, I resorted to calling Ah Ma again and again.
After calling Ah Ma a few times, she was conscious again. PHEW~
"I'm having stomach ache. I think it must be because of the pineapple. I wanted to find the medicine, but couldn't find it. Very painful," she said weakly. Although those were not comforting words, I was relieved because Ah Ma was finally conscious. I asked Ah Ma to rest on her bed while I ran off to my parents' bedroom, asking them for assistance to find the right medicine for Grandma.
Finally, Ah Ma ate her medicine, she was feeling better, and I slept with her that night.
This afternoon, I had my nap again, as usual, but quite unusual, nobody gossip/scolded me anymore. Maybe, they realized, this sleep late lifestyle is not that negative after all. At least, I could function like a night security guard... Err.. Not that I want this thing to happen twice *touch wood*. Just a precaution.
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