I've become the butt of a rather embarrassing incident . . .

Okay, so here it goes. In camp, I normally tuck in very early, to ensure that I get sufficient rest to feel refreshed for the long day ahead. Tonight, I'm in bed by 9:00pm, and I doze off perhaps within fifteen minutes or so. I cover my entire body, including the head, with the blanket, as the bunk is still fully lit. Lights-out is only at ten-thirty.

It takes a while before one has been fully transported to dreamland in deep sleep. I am in the stage of semi-consciousness. I hear many voices entering the bunk, and someone calling my name. Am I dreaming or what? I don't know whether to respond or not; I'm too tired to open my mouth and project some sound anyway.

Somebody pulls the blanket away from my head*. It is Sergeant Wen Hao. He plants the cell phone beside my ear. I wonder how I ever said "hello" into the microphone.

"Hello, August, what is your full name?"

"Lum Hoi Ying August," I recite, half-dazed.

"Again?"

"Lum Hoi Ying August," I repeat obediently.

Suddenly it dawns upon me that I know not of the identity of the caller. "Hello, who is this?"

(As I write this it all seems so stupid.)

"Sergeant Goh."

"Orh . . . Sergeant Goh . . . Lum Hoi Ying August," I drawled.

"How do you spell?"

"H-O-I space Y-I-N-G. August is the same spelling as the month August."

"A-U-G-U-S-T?"

"Yes . . ."

"Okay. Thanks."

End of conversation.

* * *

Next day, at lunch, I overhear Sergeant Wen Hao recounting the event to other people in the platoon. I walk over. He catches sight of me: "Aiyah, you should spell it [my name] out for him, you keep going 'Lum Hoi Ying, Lum Hoi Ying", how do people know how to spell?"

Anyway Sergeant Wen Hao has taken to calling me "Hoi Ying" since then.



*According to BH, Sergeant Wen Hao initially thought that I had deliberately ignored him, and that I was talking on my mobile phone under the blankets when he came into the bunk.