005

"What in the world is this?"

Nisa pretended to smile at Sarah's question. "Fried fish?"

After letting out a long sigh, Sarah sat down on the chair at the dining table, looking at what seemed like charcoal in the plate on the table. She was supposed to have lunch with her there at Nisa's house, and go shopping with her afterwards. Apparently Nisa's attempt to cook did not go well, although she tried her best so as to make the best impression on Sarah at her own house.

"This is carbonised fish, I'd say," Sarah looked at the fish in the plate. She did not know what to say much next, to comment on Nisa's cooking without hurting her feelings.

Nisa sat along with her at the table, feeling very disappointed with herself. "Ouch. Charcoaled fish..." She looked guiltily at Sarah for not being able to provide her with a good enough meal for lunch like she intended to. She had always known how bad of a cook she had been even since before she left for Britain from her home country, Malaysia. There were many chances for her to learn and improve her cooking skills but she never seemed to make use of them well, at least not often enough. "Honestly... it had never been this bad before. So, sorry."

Chuckling, Sarah looked at Nisa and said, "Relax. This is nothing really..." She glanced at the fish for a moment. "...at least you tried." She smiled.

"Sarah... it's black and it's hard, like stone!" It seemed like Nisa felt so dissatisfied with what she just did, slowly losing her mood and starting to feel upset.

"Owh, come on, other people have done other worse stuff than this. You just forgot to take the fish out in time." She got up to approach her friend, seeing that she was starting to feel down. "I remember my sister once put a whole pack of salt into a small pan to make soup."

Hmm.. that's nothing compared to mine.. I.. think...

Suddenly, Sarah pulled her arm, dragging her from the chair and off to the living room. "Let's go eat out!"

"Aaa!! Hey, hey, chotto matte.. um, I mean, wait now, WAIT!"

Looking back, Sarah stopped moving. "Huh?"

"Wait up, let me clean up." Nisa returned to the kitchen where her small dining table was. She looked at the only plate that was on it and stared at it long enough as if feeling sympathetic of the fish to throw it away. That feeling made her amused somehow. She held the plate with her right hand, putting it on her left palm - right in front of her face - as if she was going to talk to it, a deep talk somewhat.

"Sorry I fried ya till ya got charcoaled, so solid, so hard that now I had to throw you away. I really didn't mean it, ya know-"

Now what are you doing talking to a non-living fish?

She lowered the plate, held it with her hand and continued looking at it. "I'm just talking now, there's nothing wrong with that."

Oookaay, pal, take the plate away and get rid of the fish. Clean up fast.

Sighing, she did so - by throwing the fish out into the garbage bin at the kitchen and washing the plate right after that. "Sorry dude."

"Stop talking to the fish already!"

Raising her eyebrows, she looked at the back door of her kitchen, not seeing Sarah there, not the vision of Kelly like previously, but a vision of herself.

"Ow-kay, the fish is out of sight, there's nothing wrong with talking to it. I'm still sane and I will always be. Just a little bit strange," she said to her envisioned self, as if trying to argue with her.

"No," Imaginary Nisa replied, having a serious, mother-like look on her face. "You don't talk to fish that you were gonna throw away, missy." She crossed her arms over her chest. "You should stop doing such things. You may simply think they're weird, but looking at the circumstances, you may eventually go nuts someday!"

Nuts? Nisa frowned. "Now that's what's nuts. Talking to you here alone is already nuts. You don't need to advise me on such things. You're the one driving me crazy!"

Imaginary Nisa nodded her head a few times, looking down on the floor. "I realise that. But I'm trying to stop you from doing even crazier things, as sometimes you just don't know what you're doing. I am you, you and me are one. I am a necessity."

Here it goes... again.

"You are me, I am you, whatever. Sometimes you're not even helping me when I really feel at lost anyway. How would your existence really make things any better?"

The chair by the dining table suddenly moved, creating a sound that interrupted Nisa out of her world again. There stood Sarah by the chair, who was looking at her with a puzzled look, with so much curiosities in her mind of seeing Nisa talking all by herself. By the way she was talking, she could be kind of upset, but Sarah could not figure out why it seemed like she was talking to the back door. "You... talking to the... door?"

Erk. She saw me talking, yet again.

"Ha..ha.." Nisa muttered out loud, grinning all the way as she tried to find an explanation of what she was doing. "Baka... yeahh... got so bored I talked to the door!" She began walking faster.

"Hah? Why, you do that quite a lot, don't you? That's really not good..."

Nisa held on Sarah's shoulders to turn her around. "Forget that. Off to eat, I'm starving!"

"Hey, hey, or was that you practising to talk to me, maybe? My existence doesn't make your life any better?" Sarah said, as she was being pushed over by Nisa toward the living room out of the kitchen.

"HEY! Don't you dare say that!" She gave a light punch to Sarah at her back, getting uncomfortable at such words being told to her. "You're my friend! Your existence is very important to me!"

"Ok-ok-ok, I get it, I was joking, don't hit me, don't push me!!" Sarah started yelling out, sounding almost startled by Nisa. This amused Nisa even more, of which she ended up laughing at, quite loudly indeed. She stopped pushing her from the back right before they reached the main door of the house. "You are da bomb, Sarah!" She grinned, hugging Sarah from her back. "I love you!"

"... okay.." Sarah felt weird, but she appreciated it nonetheless. "Thanks, can we go now?" She smiled, shaking her head as she was going to open the door.

"Yeah, definitely." They both went out of the small house that Nisa shared with her other three classmates, ready to get their lunch after a near-disastrous attempt of Nisa trying to cook.

I'm still all-good. Nisa kept her smile upon her face, putting her right arm around Sarah's shoulders after exiting her house.