Mengantuk

There was a time when two straight days of  sleeping after 3 am is nothing. I could still function normally. Nowadays, two days of sleeping late would need at least a week of extra sleep for me to recover else I’d be nothing but a zombie. Upright but not functioning. Not fit company for man or beast. Last time it happened I had a blank spot in my memory. One minute I was drafting something on my laptop then the next thing I knew, I was driving to Shah Alam court. I could not recall what happened in between the two. Today almost turned out the same way.

Last night I was catching up with work that somehow stretched out until the wee hours. Last night was the second consecutive day of going home terribly late. Thankfully I had a friend over to keep me company while we both work on our respective files. Slowly, in between tea, dinner and supper we chipped away at tasks which at first seemed mountainous. Somewhere in the middle a universe has its balance restored, souls were saved from eternal damnation and things were struck off a to-do list. 

Being engrossed with work I forgot until around 2 am that I had court matter this morning. A very light bankruptcy matter. We had to amend our Request for the issuance of Bankruptcy Notice because of a small defect. The funny thing is, the Bankruptcy Notice was issued anyway by the court. So in the interest of keeping things shipshape we filed an amendment application for the Request for the issuance of Bankruptcy Notice. I was sleepy, so sleepy that it was a miracle I arrived in court at all. I registered my attendance at the kiosk but did not look for a seat for me to wait. I dare not sit down for fear of falling asleep and missing my turn when my case number is called in that mechanical voice. It was that bad. I went to the men’s room to splash some water on my face. That kept me alert for a few minutes. So I paced to and fro hoping that by constantly moving I can keep sleep at bay. It worked. 

The thing about pacing around the room of got me thinking of how some things never change. The carpeting that was around since I was a pupil and still comfortingly ugly. The seating and the same faces (ok, some of them) I’ve seen seated upon them. Well the metal benches were fairly new. I think. The same with the kiosk where you key in your attendance. I could not remember how it was before the kiosks were around save one particular period between before the kiosks came into the picture and the old system where it was free for all, utter chaos where you had to write your name on the list pasted outside the respective rooms, line up to wait for your turn in accordance to some order agreed upon by all. Sometimes lawyers would find a way to cut the queue with whatever excuse, genuine or otherwise. Usually, I would skip the lining up altogether and come in at a time I judge to be not too late to be invite reprimand and yet not too early to have me stuck in a long queue like the rest of the debt recovery lawyers. If I get paid for every minute I spent on waiting, I would have had my own yacht by now.

Then my case number was called, which was surprising. It was not a long wait and it cut short my reverie. 

The cute Penolong Kanan Pendaftar looked like she could use a few more hours of sleep. As for myself, I can almost feel my rational brain leaking out of me as I sank into that soft seat. Sleep. Blessed long sleep. I could use one right about then. I felt a yawn coming. A big one. Yawns are contagious. You can tell who is looking at you in a crowded place by faking a yawn. If someone else is yawning immediately after you, chances are he or she is looking at you for whatever reason. But I must not yawn, not in front of the PKP. So I made that face where you are trying hard to suppress a yawn but to hell with it lets just yawn but discreetly and without opening your mouth. Then I saw the PKP doing the same but in a more ladylike manner. Like I said, contagious. 

-Uhh Dengan izin Puan, I began to cut short any other collective displays of sleep deprivation. I explained the reason for me being before her, the defect and the application made to remedy the potential defect only to have the PKP stare at me unblinking. A few seconds passes before she asked: JD (Judgment Debtor) hadir tak?

-Uhh, saya cuba panggil Puan I said unthinking as I rose and walked to the door intending to call out the JD’s name as was the custom  before remembering there was no need to do so. I turned and sat right back down. The PKP looked at me, puzzled and sleepy.

-Puan, kami sedari kekhilafan di dalam Permintaan untuk Mengeluarkan Notis Kebankrapan sebelum sebarang cubaan serahan kertas kausa dibuat kepada JD. Saya tidak rasa JD akan hadir pada pagi ini.

-Jadi Puan, saya dengan rendah diri memohon untuk kebenaran diberikan bagi kami membuat pindaan bagi kekhilafan yang berlaku. 

-Uhh, counsel, you have to make a formal application and not oral application like this.

It was my turn then to stare unblinking at the PKP. Man, she really needs more than a few hours of sleep. She needs it more than I do. 

-Puan,kami telah memfailkan permohonan untuk meminda yang mana telah ditetapkan untuk pendengaran pada pagi ini.

-Ah, I see. Sebentar ya counsel, said the PKP no doubt trying to mentally slap her cheeks to keep herself awake and concentrate on the matter at hand. If she was embarrassed she gave no sign of it. She spent some time, I think, scrolling through the cause papers filed. I kept my gaze down afterwards, pretending to writing things on my court minute, trying to suppress a smile at the minor confusion. It happens, even to the best of us when we lack sleep. 

Cause papers in order, I thanked the PKP and left the room and let out a big yawn. To hell with the lawyers waiting for their turn. They all look like they could use an hour or more of sleep. 

Don’t we all?

I didn’t check if there were any follow up yawns coming from the thinning crowd. I was going to get me some sleep. A good, long sleep.