Text Messages From Hell

Text Messages From Hell

Someone sent me a barrage of sms text messages on the eve of Merdeka Day. His (I still do not know whether the person was a he or she, but let’s for the sake of convenience, assume the person was a he) first text message was a simple wish of Hari Merdeka, followed by a question as to when my wedding was going to take place. I did not have his number saved in my handphone’s phone book, so I did not know who the message was from. I replied his message saying thank you, and asking who he was. I was surprised when he sounded hostile in his reply, to the extent of using such words as ‘pergi blah’ and ‘mampus’. He was ticked off and could not believe that I did not have his number in my phone. Furthermore, he vented his anger that he didn’t get an invitation to my wedding.

I was caught unawares by his reply. I thought if this person was someone I was in regular contact with, I first of all would surely have had his number in my phone. And secondly, chances are I would have also invited him to my wedding. As I’d mentioned in my earlier entry, I’ve had to go through the unenviable task of filtering my guest list for my reception, and I have done so by inviting all those who are in close contacts with me among friends and workmates, those whom I’d have to deal with everyday. So when this guy started swearing because he wasn’t invited, my mind started to run a list of people I might have accidentally missed out. Up to this point, no name have come to my mind yet.

Messages from him kept coming until midnight, even after I’d stopped replying to him. And even after all that, he still did not tell me who he was. I had apologised to him if I had left him out by mistake, but apparently he was undeterred. In the last of his text messages, he accuses me of being ‘damn selfish’ and cruel, and he told me to just wait for the day when the ‘tables are turned’. What does that mean? Have I committed an unforgiveable crime? It seems to me the person might have a feeling of vengeance for me that goes beyond the issue of this wedding invitation. And perhaps this was his best way of letting it out on me. Why else then did he choose to stay anonymous the whole time?

I know how it feels when a friend of yours celebrate a big day, and leaves you out from his invitation. I have a friend whom I’ve known from my studying days, whom I meet almost every week playing futsal and getting together before he was married. You can say, we have the same circle of friends. I did not get his invitation, even after I had accidentally joked with him the WEEKEND BEFORE his wedding about not getting his invitation yet. Yet I still wasn’t invited. But did I go out on a swearing and conscience barrage on this guy? For all I know, he might have had the same constraint as I do now, and had had to keep a straight face whenever his uninvited friends asked him about his wedding.

I know how bad it feels. Believe me, it feels just as bad, if not worse, not being able to invite everyone you know to your most special day and not getting invited to an equivalent event of someone you know. All you can do is hope that people will understand. It seems that you can't please everyone.