The Hyundai Matrix that has been serving my family well since 2004 suddenly went up in a blaze yesterday evening.
The good news is that nobody got hurt, and we were able to retrieve all our belongings. The damage is most likely repairable as the engine was miraculously unscathed, apart from minor burns. For that, I’m very grateful to God for watching over us. But I figure we won’t ever wanna get into that car again.
Apparently, I sounded calm over the phone according to friends whom I spoke with when the incident happened. I was even able to joke about it over dinner at Simpang. Like how there would be a literal ‘BOOMZ’ if the car actually exploded, and how I planned to jump into the longkang (drain) a’ la WWII trenches to avoid flying shrapnel.
I’m still very much shaken. Somewhat traumatised, to put it more harshly. For one, I can’t get the image of the rapidly spreading flames melting car parts onto the road, engulfing the car bonnet, and the smell of smoke while we were still in the car out of my mind. I shudder to think that my dad actually wanted to continue driving the car out of traffic, and what would have happened if any our seatbelts malfunctioned and we couldn’t get out in time. Shit could happen.
I think I was damn hysterical and dropped a million f-bombs on the mechanic who serviced our car on the morning before the incident occured. The car was fine before he touched it, but we won’t know the cause until the Civil Defence report is out. For now, I just think it’s bloody unlucky that this has to happen before Chinese New Year and my dad has to cope with the insurance matters together with the heavy workload at the office.
Not to forget, it’s pretty darn upsetting to watch something that belonged to you for so long, being destroyed in front of your eyes.
