Kenneth and I passed the MRT gantry of Hougang Station. Sometimes the gantry would not let you pass if it feels unhappy, but luckily for us, today was not the day. We saw a poor woman wearing heels in the distance, struggling to free herself from a hidden ninja trap. I have never worn heels in my life, but I would expect the worse thing that can happen to you while wearing them is to get them stuck in a little hole. Is that worse than breaking your heels? That is something that I would never find out. But whatever the case, she had them stuck. Being the kind soul that I am, I suggested to Kenneth that we should go and offer her some help. As a result, we stood there looking at her and planning our approach. Carefully. We did not want to appear like untactful people since we were wearing our school uniform.

So there we were, standing there looking at her in her plight. We pondered carefully, silently thinking through every word that would come out of our mouths, as the other commuters just walked past the whole thing. It was as if the two of us were locked in time and space, along with her.

In all this time, my mind was formulating the perfect approach. "Madam, may we offer you some assistance?" Wait no, that would make us look like sales assistants. Perhaps we can just cut the crap and go straight to the obvious solution. "You know, you should try taking your heels off first." Hmmm, that is about as rude as it can get. No, rapport is the key. I have to make her feel like we are not there to make fun of her, since she is in a vulnerable position. "Yo missy, you know, that happened to me once..." Bleah. I really do not think she would have bought that. Maybe I have to let her know that we recognise that she is in a bad position. "Hey, looks like you are stuck." Nah, she will take offence to that.

Finally, I looked at Kenneth. I have no idea if he was going through the same thought process as me, but we both agreed that we should just walk pass her as if we did not see a thing. After staring at her for about half a minute. We should have just ignored her from the start, it would have reflected so much better on us than standing there to observe her situation as if she was some exhibit. Oh well, what is done is done. We were genuinely trying to summon enough sense and courage to help, one step further than what the other commuters could offer.

Z is for zest. Zest has the potential to be contagious, but only if the zesty person is really energetic to the extent that he keeps colliding into the people around him. By the conservation of energy, everyone around him will feel energetic too. Sadly, this is an emotion that comes with something new and fresh. On top of that, only people who are not apathetic to everything around them can ever hope of experiencing zest.